Dieppe, German-Occupied France • August 19, 1942 Ever since the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) had launched its surprise Blitzkrieg on the Soviet Union in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa) the Allies had been sensitive to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s increasingly desperate appeals to Western leaders to open a “second front now” in Northwestern Europe. British Prime Minister…
Vienna, Austria • March 25, 1941 On this date in 1941 in Vienna, the government of Yugoslav regent Prince Paul signed a protocol of adherence to the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Tripartite Pact, thereby setting the stage for a complex guerrilla war against Germans, Italians, and their Yugoslav allies, and within the Yugoslav resistance forces themselves. Not 2 days…
Berlin, Germany • October 15, 1939 On this date in 1939 Adm. Wilhelm Canaris, head of the German Abwehr (military intelligence), directed Capt. Theodor von Hippel to raise a commando unit that would become known by year’s end as the Brandenburgers. The name derived from the unit’s training site, Brandenburg on the Havel, roughly 54 miles/87 km…