In Flanders Fields was published anonymously in Punch.
Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian Army, whom a great aunt of mine served with, wrote In Flanders Fields.
The Bulgarians broke through Anglo French lines at Kosturino.
British troops burned an African village that had been supplying the Germans at the Siege of Mora.
Last edition:
Fawzi al-Qawuqji lead an assault on French security installations in the city of Hama, Syria.
Fawzi al-Qawuqji had started his military career as an Ottoman officer, and then under King Faisal. He thereafter served in the Syrian Legion for the French, before deserting in the Great Syrian Revolt. He served the Saudis after that, and then the Palestinian Cause against the British in the 1930s. He was wounded in the Palestinian uprising and ultimately took refuge in Germany, where he joined the German Army, ending up a prisoner of war of the Soviets. Released in 1947, he made his way back to the Middle East and was appointed the Arab League field commander of the Arab Liberation Army (ALA) in the 1948 Palestine War. His forces ultimately lost control of territory that was to have been Palestinian. He retired to Syria thereafter and died in 1977.
Al-Qawuqui is one of those rare military refigures who had a track record of serving in uniformly losing causes and who not only survived them, but inexplicably continued to receive further commands.
The Soviet Union gave up on restricting the alcohol content of beverages.
Ty Cobb, who was normally a centerfielder, pitched against the St. Louis Browns for one inning. The Browns had George Sisler first baseman pitch for two innings against the Tigers. Non pitchers in the pitching role would not happen again for another 92 years.
The Finnish torpedo boat S2 sank in a storm with the loss of all 53 hands.
Last edition:
A hurricane made landfall in Louisiana, killing 279 people. The destruction of the storm would not be surpassed for fifty years.
The Germans recaptured lost ground in the Second Battle of Champagne resulting in a French suspension of their campaign.
6,000 or more Ottoman troops were dispatched to break Armenian resistance at Urfa, Turkey.
Last edition:
French forces took the Druze city of As-Suwayda.
Life magazine noted the increase in automobiles.
Last edition:
Kim Il Sung arrived at Port Wonsan and began to organize the Communist Party of Korea.
Kim was born into a Presbyterian family. He fled to Manchuria in 1920 after being involved in anti Japanese activities. He was in his mid teens at the time and then attended military schools. It was while he was in China that he became interested in Communism. He was a figure in the Chinese Communist Army during the pre World War Two Chinese Civil War and then again during World War Two, crossing into the Soviet Union in 1940. He then joined the Red Army. The Soviets chose Kim in order to have a Communist figure to introduce into Korea even though he was poorly educated and by 1940 his Korean was very poor. His early life is not very well known.
British and French troops complete the suppression of the Việt Minh in Saigon.
New Zealand ratified the UN Charter.
William Joyce was sentenced to death.
The British announced that Indian would shortly be granted home rule.
Shirley temple married Sgt. John Agar, a fellow actor. She was 17 years old. Agar was 25.
The marriage wouldn't last.
Agar had a real drinking problem, although he amazingly lived to age 81. Apparently he's associated with B science fiction movies, but I always associate him with John Ford westerns. He also appeared in The Sands of Iwo Jima. He met Shirley Temple in 1943 when he escorted her to a Hollywood party. She would only have been 15 years old at the time.
.png)
Last edition:
The 1945–1946 War in Southern Vietnam began with the arrival of Major General Douglas Gracey in command if Indian troops. He arrived to take the Japanese surrendered but immediately apprised the situation as being nearly out of control.
One of his first acts was to arm liberated French POWs. His Indian Forces and the rearmed French soon evicted the Việt Minh from Saigon.
One of the really astounding elements of this is that the British not only won the Malayan Emergency, but arguably won their own portion of the Vietnam War.
The Japanese surrendered at Rangoon, save for their commander who would not surrender until October. The Japanese 18th Army surrendered in New Guinea.
The Chinese Communist prevailed in the Battle of Dazhongji while the Wudi Campaign (无棣战役) began.
British military authorities publish a Gestapo "death list" of 2300 British and Allied notables, including Churchill and the leaders of the French, Polish and Czechoslovak governments in exile.
Spain abolished the Falangist salute.
Last edition:
French and German troops withdrew from the Ruhr.
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was organized by A. Philip Randolph, Milton Webster, and C. L. Dellums.
The Spanish Navy leveled Al Hoceima, Morocco.
Last edition:
John Henry "Harry" Selby, legendary African big game hunter, was born in South Africa. After a lifetime as a ph, he died in Botswana, at age 92 in 2018.
Selby was part of the post World War Two generation of professional hunters in Africa, who are more associated with guiding than market hunting. He obtained his professional license in 1945.
The Battle of al-Kafr saw the Druze shoot down a French military aircraft and ambush a column of French soldiers, killing 111 out of 174 members.
Last edition:
Druze rebels captured the French Army garrison at Salkhad.
The Druze have been in the news recently given a conflict between the Druze, who tend to be allied to Israel, and Bedouins.
Nobody ever wanted the French in Syria, excepting of course, the French.
Italy and Yugoslavia signed the Treaty of Nettuno. The treaty allowed Italians to emigrate to Dalmatia, and was opposed by the Croatian Peasant Party, causing Yugoslavia to take three years to ratify it.
Boise City, Oklahoma, was incorporated.
Last edition:
Facing a lack of ammunition, Aremenial militiamen engaged Ottoman troops hand to hand.
They lost, and the Ottomans entered the fort and killed the women and children inside.
The HMS Lightning struck a mine in the Thames Estuary of England and sank. The German submarine SM UC-2 struck a mine in the North Sea and sank.
French commander Henri Gouraud was wounded at Gallipoli and replaced by his divisional commander, Maurice Bailloud.
A telegram was sent to the Secretary of State from El Paso.
Collector Cobb to the Secretary of State.
[Telegram.]
El Paso, June 30, 1915.
Trial Huerta and others postponed until July 12. When Huerta left Federal building there was repetition of scene of June 27; he was given an ovation by his partisans who are assembled in El Paso.
Cobb.
Last edition:
Today in World War II History—June 3, 1940 & 1945: 80 Years Ago—June 3, 1945: French troops leave Damascus, escorted by the British. US Marines land on Iheya Shima in the Ryukyu Islands northwest of Okinawa.
Last edition
Churchill informed de Gaulle that British forces had been instructed to intervene in the Levant in order to end the fighting and the threat it posed to Allied supply lines to the Pacific. The British soon arranged a ceasefire but British intervention would bring the UK and France to the point of war.
Odilo Globocnik, age 41, Austrian Nazi committed suicide after being captured by the British.
On Okinawa, the Japanese pulled out of Shuri.
Japanese resistance ended on Negros in the Philippines.
Last edition.
The forced expulsion of ethnic Germans from Brno began.
The French Army took control of the parliament building in Damascus while French aircraft bombed other parts of the city.
On Okinawa US forces reached Shuri and the southeast edge of Naha.
Last edition:
85% of Yokohama was destroyed in a B-29 raid.
The second Sandakan Death March begins in which the Japanese guards commence a force march of Allied POWs in Borneo.
The French Army shelled Damascus and Hama.
Last edition:
The USS Drexler was sunk in a kamikaze attack. 100 Japanese aircraft were shot down on the same day, bringing to an end the Japanese air offensive.
William Joyce, "Lord Haw Haw", was arrested by the British in Flensburg.
Queen Wilhelmina returned to the Netherlands.
The Royal Navy stopped the convoy system in the Atlantic, Arctic and Indian Oceans.
Admiral Halsey, commanding US 3rd Fleet, took command of American naval forces operating against targets in Japan.
French forces and Syrians engaged in combat against each other.
John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival was born.
It was Memorial Day.
Last edition:
