Video: Rommel reaches El Alamein (at 8:15)

(Tuesday, June 30, 1942, part of Western Desert Campaign of World War II) — Following the Battle of Gazala, Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) Erwin Rommel’s Panzer Army Africa today approached the British at an insignificant railway station at El Alamein, 66 miles from Alexandria, in preparation for the First Battle of El Alamein, which would begin tomorrow.

Video: German offensive begins (at 0:00)

(Sunday, June 28, 1942, part of the Eastern Front of World War II) — Nazi Germany started its strategic summer offensive in southern Russia today against the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue, with Fourth Panzer Army starting its drive towards Voronezh.   Continue reading Germans launch offensive in southern Russia 70 years ago today (1942) →

Video: 'Newsreel about German Saboteurs & Spies in the U.S. during World War II'

(Saturday, June 27, 1942, during Operation Pastorius, part of World War II) — The FBI announced tonight the arrests of eight Nazi saboteurs, highly trained by direction of the German High Command at a special school for sabotage near Berlin, who had been put ashore in Florida and Long Island, New York. Continue reading FBI announces the arrests of eight Nazi saboteurs 70 years ago tonight (1942) →

Video: '1000 Plane Raid June 26 1942'

(Friday, June 26, 1942, part of strategic bombing during World War II) — Some 1,000 British Royal Air Force bombers completed an overnight raid on Bremen, Germany, early this morning, the RAF’s third “thousand bomber raid.” of the war. 572 houses were completely destroyed and 6,108 damaged. 85 people were killed, 497 injured and 2,378 bombed out.

Video: Beaverbrook speaks June 21, 1942 (at 7:01)

(Sunday, June 21, 1942) — A militant call for the immediate opening of a second front, coupled with the claim that the army is now adequately equipped to carry out a continental invasion, was voiced in Birmingham, England, today by Britain’s Lord Beaverbrook.

Video: 'Wartime Nutrition (1943) '

(Saturday, June 13, 1942, during World War II) — U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Office of War Information (OWI) today to consolidate government information services, and appointed radio news commentator Elmer Davis to be its head.

(Friday, June 12, 1942, 6:45 p.m. EWT) — U.S. President D. Roosevelt called on the American people tonight to dig into their attics, cellars, garages and barns for old rubber articles of every description and sell them to 400,000 neighborhood gasoline filling stations for 1 cent a pound between June 15-30 as a contribution to the nation’s all-out effort to defeat the Axis.

Video: Yorktown torpedoed (at 5:11)

(Saturday, June 6, 1942, 10:20 p.m. ET, part of the Pacific Theater of World War II) — The Japanese withdrew today on the third day of The Battle of Midway, but the damaged US carrier Yorktown was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-168. Still, the Yorktown remains afloat. However, a third torpedo from this salvo struck and sank the destroyer USS Hammann, which had been providing auxiliary power to Yorktown. Hammann broke in two with the loss of 80 lives, most due to her own depth charges exploding.