Thursday, July 1, 1943. Romania seeks a way out, Cadet Nurse Corps established.

Romanian Foreign Minister Mihai Antonescu met with Benito Mussolini in an effort to secure Mussolini's cooperation for both countries to leave the Axis and exit World War Two.  Mussolini was non-committal.

Romania clearly saw which way the war was going and that the time had come to get out.  It likely figured it couldn't get out on its own, however.

The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps became the Women's Army Corps, reflecting it having achieved permanent status.

On the same day, the Cadet Nurse corps was established.

The organization hoped to relieve wartime and peacetime nursing shortages.

The Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare issued it's An Investigation of Global Policy, with the Yamato Race as Nucleus.  Based on Nazi concepts of racism and Lebensraum, it justified the ongoing attempt at expansion of the Japanese Empire and planned to impose Japanese names, the Japanese language and the Shinto religion on all minorities within the Empire.

President Roosevelt commuted the death sentence of German-born Detroit restaurant owner Max Stephan to life imprisonment.  Scheduled to hang in just seven hours, Stephan had been convicted for harboring a German POW who had escaped captivity in Canada, and even taking the fellow to a tour of Detroit restaurants.

An item about keeping your radio working from this month in 1943, something vitally important as there was no wartime radio production.

Keep Your Radio Working: 1943

Saturday, December 19, 1942. The storm ends.

Today in World War II History—December 19, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Dec. 19, 1942: Free French take Pichon, Tunisia from Germans.

From Sara Sundin's blog.

Today saw the high water mark of Operation Winter Storm, the German effort to relieve Stalingrad.  German troops advanced to a point 30 miles south of Stalingrad, which is not close in military offensive terms.  They could not advance further, and the trapped forces had insufficient fuel to commence an effort to break out.

Saturday, August 29, 1942. The appearance of the Tiger 1.

The Panzerkampfwagen VI, famously known as the Tiger, or in this instance the Tiger I tank, made its battlefield appearance outside of Leningrad.  The Soviets were making a determined effort to relieve the city.

Captured Tiger 1 in U.S. possession.

The Tiger was a feared German weapon, and justifiably so.  Classified as a heavy tank, with much more armor than previous German tanks, and armed with an 88 mm main gun, it can be regarded as one of the first tanks, along with the T34, that pointed the way towards the Main Battle Tank of the post-war period, although that concept was still years away.  Indeed, it might be better able to claim the position of having essentially occupied that role prior to any other tank.

1,347 were made during the war.  Mechanically complicated due to over engineering, it had a high breakdown rate.  It was so feared by the Western Allies that troops routinely reported German tanks to be Tigers, no matter what they actually were.

On the same day the Soviet Air Force bombed Berlin in a nighttime raid using 100 Petlyakov Pe-8, Ilyshin II-4 and Yermolayev Yer 2 bombers.  A small party of Pe-8s bombed Königsberg.

The first class of officers for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps graduated.

The Saturday Evening Post featured P38 Lightenings on its cover.

I failed to note the August 1, 1942, cover, which featured a cover illustration of a Marine in the newly adopted herringbone tweed cotton dungarees. The Marine in question is wearing the Marine's khaki summer shirt underneath his hbt jacket, and it was in fact a jacket.  It was rarely worn that way, however, typically being worn as simply a shirt.  He's also wearing the M1 helmet and carrying a M1903 Springfield, all of which was typical gear at this point in the war and all of which reflected the appearance of the average Marine going into Guadalcanal.

Worth noting, however, is that at this point the hbt uniform was so new the Marines only issued a single set to its men.  Marines landing at Guadalcanal had only one, that is, set of hbt dungarees.

The Red Cross announced that the Japanese had refused the free passage of ships carrying food and medicine to American POWs.