Wednesday, April 26, 1944. Pyrrihic Kidnapping.

Example of wartime propaganda aimed at the Japanese.

In a mission months in the making, members of the SOE and Cretan resistance kidnapped Heinrich Kreipe.

Originally directed at Gen. Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller as a reprisal for actions committed under his orders, Kreipe had succeeded him by the time the SOE team arrived.  Kreipe's kidnapping would cause Müller to return and order mass reprisals, something that had not occurred under Kreipe.

In short, it was a pointless action and poorly thought out, with ultimately tragic results.

Kreipe would be reunited with his kidnappers in a 1972 Greek television program.

In New Guinea, American beachheads at Tanahmerah Bay and Humboldt Bay were linked up.  Australian forces took Alexishafen.

The Yoshida Maru No. 1 was sunk by the USS Jack resulting in the loss of 2,669 men.

The U-488 was sunk off of Cape Verde by the U.S. Navy.

The I-180 was sunk off of Chirikof Island by the USS Gilmore.

The Royal Navy, in an effort to attack the Tirpitz which failed due to weather, found a coastal convoy instead and sunk three ships  in it.

The POW camp in Hoopeston, Illinois, received its first prisoners.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, April 25, 1944. The Blood for Goods deal extended, Air disaster at Montreal, the death of George Herriman.

1940s, 1944, 1944 at the Movies, Brazil, Commandos, Munich Germany, New Guinea, Personalities, Prisoners of War, Royal Air Force, Special Boat Service, Switzerland, United States Air Force, World War Two

Wednesday, June 16, 1943. Noor Inayat Khan inserted in France.

Subhas Chandra Bose met with Hideki Tojo, who promised to help India secure independence from the United Kingdom.

On the same day, Noor Inayat Khan, born in Moscow to an Indian father and American mother., was deposited by light aircraft in France as an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE).  She'd serve as a radio operator under the code name Madeline.

The SOE, which was heavily penetrated by German intelligence, would ultimately capture her and execute her in September 1944.

Her father was a Sufi mystic, which heavily influenced her outlook.  Raised in London and Paris, she was a poet before the war.

The Japanese raided Guadalcanal by air.

"Japanese Air Raid on Guadalcanal, June 16, 1943. USS LST-340 burning after she was hit by an enemy bomb. She was run ashore off Lunga Point after the hit, and her fires were extinguished after considerably damaging her and her cargo. Note trucks burning on deck. This photograph was taken by TSGT. H.S. Bolser, fifteen minutes after she was hit."

Probably referring to the same event depicted above, Sarah Sundon notes:

Today in World War II History—June 16, 1943: Japanese suffer their biggest aerial defeat over the Solomon Islands, losing 96 of 120 aircraft to antiaircraft fire and to Allied fighter pilots .

Charlie Chaplin married Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill.  The father disowned the daughter as a result.  It was Chaplin's fourth and final marriage.

Oona O'Neill in 1943.

She was barely 18 years old at the time of the marriage, Chaplin having a track record for young women.