Tuesday, March 28, 1944. Another day in the war.

Jewish Welfare Board Seder at Muskogee, Oklahoma, March 28, 1944.

Mexican National Mercy Martinez harvesting carrots in the field in El Centro, Imperial County, California on March 28, 1944.

The British Parliament voted to give female teachers the same pay as men.

The Italian Communist Party declared cooperation with "bourgeois" parties.

The Red Army took Nikolaev.

Fighting carried on in the CBI.

"Infantrymen of the 66th Regt, 2nd Bn, 22nd Chinese Division advancing upon a group of tanks upon which a Jap Magnetic anti tank mine has been set off by remote control ordnance Intelligence purposes.

These tanks had burnt out. They belong to the First Provisional Tank Group and maintenance men of that outfit will salvage the salvageable parts left on these tanks. They met action against the Japs in the area a few miles north of the village of Shadeazup, Northern Burma. This photo demonstrated though, how the Chinese troops had actually fought with the tank group. This tank group is an American trained Chinese outfit, they having received their training at Ramgarh, India from U.S. Army Armoured Corps instructors. These infantrymen are also American trained. 28 March, 1944."

Ships were inspected:

USS Cleveland (CL-55) during a Captain's inspection, March 28, 1944.

Combat runs were made.

Corsairs on a mission over the Solomons.

Stricken B-17 "Whodat/The Dingbat" of the 381st Bomb Group in flight over Reims, France, 28 March 1944. Just hit, she was dropping out of formation with three dead on board.

B-17 going down over France, March 28, 1944.

Training was ongoing.

M4 Shermans at Camp San Luis Obispo, California, March 28, 1944.

Field Mess, Camp Cooke, California, March 28, 1944.

Tank crews with M4 Shermans, Camp Cooke, California, March 28, 1944.

The final game of the 1944 NCAA Men's Division Tournament saw Utah beat Dartmouth.

Commander Richard Wainwright, Jr., winner of the Medal of Honor for action at Vera Cruz in 1914, and recalled to service after having been medically retired in 1921, died in service at Annapolis at age 61.  His Medal of Honor citation reads:

For distinguished conduct in battle, engagements of Vera Cruz, 21 and 22 April 1914. Lt. Wainwright was eminent and conspicuous in command of his battalion; was in the fighting of both days, and exhibited courage and skill in leading his men through action. In seizing the customhouse, he encountered for many hours the heaviest and most pernicious concealed fire of the entire day, but his courage and coolness under trying conditions were marked.

Last prior edition:

Monday, March 27, 1944. Knock Out Dropper.

Tuesday, August 4, 1942. Bracero's

In a move with enormous long term consequences, the Bracero Program was initiated on this day in 1942 with the U.S. execution of the Mexican Farm Labor Act.

Bracero's, a term meaning manual laborers.

The act, designed to relieve wartime labor shortages, particularly in the agricultural sector, allowed controlled, and actually relatively small, numbers of Mexican agricultural workers into the country.  It was designed to make up for wartime shortages, and it accordingly exempted the laborers from conscription, which aliens in the U.S. were otherwise subject to.  It also provided for a basic minimum living wage and housing conditions.

Long term, it helped acclimate the American agricultural section to the concept of migrant labor, which was already there to some extent.  Following the war, the numbers of Americans employed in the type of labor that bracero's occupied decreased greatly and even during the war the program was expanded to include railroad workers, something Hispanic Americans were already employed in to a significant degree.  

It would not be true that the correlation of the shift of the American seasonal agricultural sector to Mexican migrant labor was 100% due to the Bracero program by any means, but it was a factor in it.  Other factors included Americans becoming used to higher wages in other types of jobs due to the Second World War and moving for higher wages, something that also had a permanent impact on the agricultural sector.

The German 4th Panzer Army crossed the Aksay River in the drive on Stalingrad.  Soviet general Yermenko flew to the city in a C-47, where he was met by Commissar Nikita Khrushchev.

The British accused Mahatma Gandi and the Indian National Congress Party of working towards appeasement of the Japanese following a raid on the party's headquarters and seizure of papers there.

Sarah Sundin reports:

Today in World War II History—August 4, 1942: First P-38 aerial combat and victory in the Pacific. Movie premiere of musical Holiday Inn[SS1] , starring Bing Crosby & Fred Astaire.

Holiday Inn is a well known film, but I've never seen it.

She also reports that the first trainload of Belgian Jews arrived at Auschwitz as the European tragedy expanded.

Friday, May 22, 1942 Mexico Declares War on the Axis.

Today in World War II History—May 22, 1942: Mexico declares war on Germany, Japan, and Italy after many ships are lost to German U-boats. United Steel Workers of America is formed.

So notes Sarah Sundin on her blog.

Something little noted by most historians today, the Mexican declaration of war was significant to the United States, as it ended up releasing forces stationed on the border, which included two cavalry regiments from the Texas National Guard.  The US had frankly been concerned about what side of the war Mexico would favor, with the single part state favoring strong central rule and having a wing that favored fascism.  Having said that, the sympathies of the ruling party, the PRI, fell more heavily on the left, and indeed Mexico had teetered on the edge of outright Communism for a time during the 1930s.  A change in leadership in 1940 brought in Manuel Ávila Camacho, the last general to serve as President of Mexico, who was a political moderate.

Camacho took a much more conciliatory view towards relations with the United States than his predecessors since the revolution, even though he had been an officer in revolutionary armies since 1914.  Perhaps ironically, his opponent in the 1940 Mexican election was the retired right wing Mexican officer Juan Andreu Almazán, who traveled to the United States thereafter to seek support from the Roosevelt Administration for an intended revolution against Camacho.  In this context, the US actually did favor Almazán over Camacho.  Almazán's friendship with far right figures in the United States however doomed any support from the US.

In addition to starting the repair of relations with the US, Camacho, who was a practicing Catholic, ended the official PRI suppression of the Catholic Church.

Mexico would play a small role in the war militarily, but strategically its location made a difference to the allies in regard to shipping and control of the seas.  Additionally, the Bracero Program brought Mexican farm laborers in, in a shift in US agricultural practices, that became more or less permanent.

Mexican fighter pilot and maintenance crew of the 201st Fighter Squadron.

In terms of combat units, Mexico contributed a fighter squadron, equipped with US aircraft, in the fight against Japan.  15,000 Mexican nationals joined the American armed forces, something that's rarely noted.

Also on this day, Pan Am initiated the use of corrugated cardboard cartons for cargo, a massive weight saving innovation.

Sparrow Force on Timor ambushes a patrol led by the Japanese "Tiger of Singapore", who was leading the patrol mounted on a white horse.  He was killed.