Showing posts with label 1941. Show all posts

Sunday, February 21, 2021

On this day in 1941 Nobel laurate and medical scientist, the Canadian Frederick Banting, died in an airplane crash. He was the co discoverer of insulin.

He was, in a way, a victim of the Second World War in that he was serving in the Canadian Army at the time, and was a passenger on a Lockheed Hudson that developed mechanical trouble. The bomber was being ferried to the UK but went down in Newfoundland.

It was the last day of the Swansea Blitz, that event in which the Germans bombarded that city for three nights.

It was strategically ineffective. Swansea had significant military targets, including oil facilities, but they were not damages in the three day raid.

More on both of these events can be read about here:

Today in World War II History—February 21, 1941

The British disembarked 1300 men on Malta.

21 February 1941: Reinforcements for Malta – 1300 Troops Disembark

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Lex Anteinternet: February 10, 1941. Threats from the sky.

Lex Anteinternet: February 10, 1941. Threats from the sky.:

February 10, 1941. Threats from the sky.

Short Stirlings, bombed Rotterdam, their first combat use. The four engine bomber first flew in 1939.

The British, on this day, engaged in their first airborne commando type raid, dropping paratroopers in Calabria, Italy, to destroy on aqueduct. I learned that here:

Today in World War II History—February 10, 1941

All 35 paratroopers were captured.

The operation was called Operation Colossus.

The men of the unit had all been drawn from No. 2 Commando of the Special Air Service and were in fact commandos, so they were not a conventional paratrooper unit.