The then Norma Jean Dougherty, as she looked when she appeared in Yank, as an employee of the Radio Plane Company
James Dougherty, then serving in the U.S. Navy, married Norma Jean Baker in Los Angeles, California. He was 21, she was 16. Their marriage prevented her from having to return to an orphanage following the relocation of her foster parents.
The sixteen-year-old had, as her living situation would indicate, a rough start in life. Her parentage was uncertain, although her birth certificate had indicated that it was one Edward Mortenson, her mother's second husband. In any event, Mortenson abandoned her mother when he learned of the pregnancy. She was given up to a family by the last name of Boelender when only twelve days old to be raised until her mother, who had fallen into depression, had recovered enough to resume her role when she was somewhat older. During this period of time, she acquired the last name of Baker. Her mother's depression returned and became worse, and the child was raised in a series of foster homes.
While Dougherty was serving overseas, Baker dropped out of high school and went to work, something typical for service spouses, although the very young age of her marriage was unusual. She was noticed by photographer David Conover while taking photographs for Yank, which we discussed just the other day.
Dougherty did follow Conover's advice, and was quickly offered a modeling job by the Blue Star Agency. A provision of it required that she be unmarried, so she filed for divorce. Her husband was still in the Navy, serving overseas.
And Conover's advice turned out to be good advice, in terms of her aspirations. As a model, her beauty was rapidly noticed, and she was in fact noticed by Hollywood and introduced into acting. In the meantime, she'd changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.
Dougherty dismissed his wife's ambitions upon receiving divorce papers, but there wasn't much he could do about it. He was, effectively, one of thousands of servicemen whose marriages had gone wrong during the war. Effectively, he'd married a high schooler of obvious beauty and then departed from her, understandably, for years.
Probably the only one of the Conover photographs in which Monroe is actually recognizable in regard to her later appearance.
It was a story that repeated itself, but quietly, all over the United States.
Dougherty went on to become a significant figure in the Los Angeles Police Department. He never spoke ill of his first wife, and after her death was of the opinion that she was too gentle of a person to survive in Hollywood.
The Second Washington Conference, a conference between the British headed up by Winston Churchill and the Americans headed by Franklin Roosevelt, convened. Military matters were the topic.
The 1st Ranger Battalion came into existence.
World War Two Ranger shoulder patch. By Zayats - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11400404
The brainchild of cavalryman Lucian Truscott, the Rangers were modeled on the example of British commando forces and supposed to fulfill a similar role. Named after the examples of Rangers, light backwoods infantry of the French and Indian, and Revolutionary Wars, the several battalions of Rangers were formed during World War Two. Most of them were comprised of volunteers, but at least one that was formed in the Pacific was an amalgamation of existing units that had served other purposes, including a disbanded pack artillery unit.
After the war they were disbanded but then reformed during the Korean War. The Army has retained Ranger units since. The British example is similar, in this regard, to the SAS and the SBS.
German Maj. Joachim Reichel went down behind Soviet lines in a crash landing, putting documents pertaining to an upcoming German offensive in Soviet hands. The Germans didn't change them, and the Soviets didn't believe what they captured was genuine.
The Germans executed Alois Eliáš, a former Czech general who was the prim minister of the German puppet state of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, for underground activities. He was in fact working against German interests and had participated in the attempted poisoning of some collaborationist reporters, resulting in the death of one of them.
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