Video: Sept. 18, 1942 (at 6:14)

(Friday, September 18, 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, part of the Eastern Front of World War II) — Wilhelm Hoffman, a soldier in the 267th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division of the German 6th Army who chronicled the Battle of Stalingrad in his journal, wrote today:

“Fighting is going on inside the elevator. The Russians inside are condemned men. The battalion commander says, ‘The commissars have ordered those men to die in the elevator.’ If all the buildings of Stalingrad are defended like this, then none of our soldiers will get back to Germany.”

Video: Sept. 16, 1942 (at 5:59)

(Wednesday, September 16, 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, part of the Eastern Front of World War II) — Wilhelm Hoffman, a soldier in the 267th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division of the German 6th Army who chronicled the Battle of Stalingrad in his journal, wrote today:

Our battalion, plus tanks, is attacking the [grain] elevator, from which smoke is pouring – the grain in it is burning, the Russians seem to have set it light themselves. Barbarism . . . The elevator is occupied not by men, but by devils that no flames or bullets can destroy . . .

Video: 'USS WASP (CV-7) sinking movies'

(Tuesday, September 15, 1942, at about 2:44 p.m. local time, during World War II) — The aircraft carrier USS Wasp was torpedoed today by a Japanese submarine some 170 miles southeast of San Cristobal Island. The U.S. Navy ended up sinking the badly damaged aircraft carrier.

Video: Sept. 11, 1942 (at 4:03)

(Friday, September 11, 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, part of the Eastern Front of World War II) — Wilhelm Hoffman, a soldier in the 267th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division of the German 6th Army who chronicled the Battle of Stalingrad in his journal, wrote today:

Our battalion is fighting in the suburbs of Stalingrad. We can already see the Volga; firing is going on all the time. Wherever you look is fire and flames . . . Russian cannon and machine-guns are firing out of the burning city. Fanatics . . .

Video: 'Fred Korematsu - PROTEST'

(Tuesday, September 8, 1942, during World War II) — U.S. District Court Judge Martin I. Welsh, ruling from Sacramento, California, on a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Fred Korematsu, upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.

Video: Germans bomb Stalingrad (at 8:59)

(Sunday, August 23, 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, part of the Eastern Front of World War II) — The Germans launched the Battle of Stalingrad today with a massive strategic bombing that caused a firestorm, killing thousands and turning Stalingrad into a vast landscape of rubble and burnt ruins. Continue reading Germans launch Battle of Stalingrad with massive bombing 70 years ago today (1942) →

Video: Germans reach Volga River (at 5:29)

(Sunday, August 23, 1942, during Case Blue, the German summer offensive of 1942, part of the Eastern Front of World War II) — The spearhead of Germany’s Sixth Army reached the Volga River just north of Stalingrad in the Soviet Union today.

Video: Dieppe Raid (at 1:58)

(Wednesday, August 19, 1942, 5 a.m. local time, part of the North West Europe Campaign of World War II) — An Allied force of 7,000 men today carried out a large daytime raid against German positions at the French seaport of Dieppe, suffering more than 50 percent casualties. Continue reading Allies launch disasterous raid on Dieppe 70 years ago this hour (1942) →

Video: 'Churchill and Stalin in Moscow August 1942'

(Wednesday, August 12, 1942, part of the Eastern Front of World War II) — British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Moscow today and met with Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in the Kremlin, informing him that there would be no D-Day in 1942. But he did say that the British and the Americans were preparing for a “very great operation” in 1943. Stalin reportedly looked “very glum.”