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War-Time
Florida: Timeline
1939
September 1
World War
II begins as German troops invade Poland.
November 3
“Cash and
Carry” amendment for U. S. Neutrality Laws passed.
November
18
The Jacksonville-based Air
Base Authority contributes the funds necessary to construct Camp Blanding.
December
19
The German freighter
Auraca arrives at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale to find refuge in a
neutral port from the HMS Orion.
1940
April –
June
Denmark, Norway, the
Netherlands, Luxemburg, Belgium, and France fall to the Germans.
July
Air war: the Battle of
Britain begins in the skies over Great Britain.
August
Floridian Guy Allen
organizes the Florida Motorcycle Corps from a group of civilian motorcycle
enthusiasts in Tampa for the purposes of home defense.
August
20
Senator Claude Pepper is
hung in effigy by the Congress of American Mothers for his support of the draft
and aid to the Allies.
August 27
U.S.
Congress institutes the first peacetime draft.
September 2
U.S.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull and British ambassador Lord Lothian agree to
exchange U.S. destroyers for bases in the British West Indies and Bermuda.
September 7
The Blitz
begins in Britain.
November 5
Franklin D.
Roosevelt is elected President for his third term.
November
25
31st Infantry
Division, the “Dixie Division,” is activated, with National Guard units from
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
1941
March 11
Signing of
U.S. Lend-Lease Act.
April 1
The German freighter
Auraca, docked at Port Everglades, is seized as a belligerent vessel and the
crew held at the Coast Guard station in Fort Lauderdale.
May 25
Guy Allen’s Motorcycle
Corps joins the Florida Defense Force.
June
British RAF cadets begin
flight training at Lodwick School of Aeronautics in Lakeland, Florida. The
Germans invade Russia.
October 31
A German
U-boat sinks the USS Reuben James.
December
1
The Civil Air Patrol (CAP)
is formed.
December 7
Japanese
forces attack the U.S. bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
1942
February
19
A U-boat sinks the S.S.
Pan Massachusetts 40 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral; there are 18
survivors.
March
Colonel James Doolittle
and his raiders train at Eglin AAF in Florida for their B-25 bombing raid on
Tokyo, which they conduct on April 18.
March 8
- May 18
The Civil Air Patrol
activates patrols up to 60 miles from the Florida coast.
March 30
The Civil Air patrol
establishes a base at Morrison Field, West Palm Beach; they will later move to
Lantana.
April 9
German submarine U-123
sinks the S.S. Gulfamerica near Jacksonville in full view of the people
on shore.
April 18
James
Doolittle leads his raid of B-25 bombers on Tokyo.
May
U-boats sink the Mexican
tankers Portero del Llano and Faja de Osa off the Florida coast,
leading to a Mexican declaration of war against Germany.
May 4
A German U-boat torpedoes
the Eclipse, a British tanker, in sight of Fort Lauderdale; the
Eclipse is towed into Port Everglades.
May 5
The American tanker
S.S. Java Arrow is torpedoed off the coast of Fort Lauderdale and towed into
Port Everglades; the Civil Air patrol also locates the S.S. Delisle,
S.S. Amazone, and S.S. Halsey, which fell victim to German attack;
later, CAP planes begin carrying bombs.
May 14
The WAAC
(Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps) is created (the WAAC will become the WAC in
September 1943).
June 3 –
6
Battle of Midway, a
significant U. S. Navy victory in the Pacific.
June 17
U-584 lands four German spies
(“The Florida Four”) at Ponte Vedra, Florida, where they hide explosives; they
were soon arrested by the FBI in New York and Chicago and were sentenced to
death and executed.
July 8
Construction begins for
the Army amphibious training center at Carabelle, Florida.
July 18
A U.S. Navy blimp, K-74,
is shot down by small arms fire from a U-boat south of Miami; the crew is
rescued.
July 25
The Coast Guard authorizes
organized beach patrols of the Florida coast; later, canine and mounted patrols
will be utilized.
July
30
Congress
establishes the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) under the
Naval Reserve Act.
August 7
U. S. Marines storm
Guadalcanal.
September
The CAP stages a mock air
raid on Tampa to test its preparedness.
September 10
The first troops arrive at
Camp Carabelle, Florida, soon to become Camp Gordon Johnston.
September 24
The first German POWs
arrive at Camp Blanding.
November 8
Operation
Torch: U. S. forces invade North Africa.
November 23
The Women’s
Reserve of the U.S. Coast Guard (SPARS) is created.
1943
February
The Marine Corps Women’s
Reserve is started.
April
The federal government
transports 3,000 laborers from the Bahamas to Florida to aid with the harvest.
July
The WAFS and the WFTD are
incorporated into the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
July 10
- August 17
Operation Husky: Allied
forces invade Sicily.
September 3
Italy surrenders; fighting
continues in Italy against German troops.
November
15
German POW labor strike at
Camp Blanding directed against the camp commander’s “no work, no eat” policy.
December
22
German POW reaction
against German prisoners with anti-Nazi sympathies sparks a riot at Camp
Blanding.
1944
January
6
The Chairman of the War
Manpower Commission calls for the establishment of seven auxiliary POW camps in
Florida to provide agricultural and industrial labor and in February the
Clewiston post is founded.
January
22
Allied forces land at
Anzio, Italy.
Spring
The Army begins a secret
program to reeducate POWs through the efforts of the Assistant Executive
Officers of POW Camps.
March 1
300 tourists board one
train in Miami, beginning a mass exodus of “snowbirds” stranded by gas rationing
at the end of the 1943-1944 tourist season.
March 12
The 31st
Infantry Division leaves Hampton Roads, Virginia, for the Pacific Theatre of
Operations, arriving at Oro Bay, New Guinea, on April 24.
June 5
Rome falls
to 5th U. S. Army.
June 6
Fortress
Europe is breached as Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy.
October
Tension between soldiers
from Camp Gordon-Johnston and Dale Mabry AAF erupts in race riots in Frenchtown,
leading to confrontations with military and Tallahassee law enforcement
personnel.
October
19
A severe hurricane makes
landfall north of Venice, Florida, and moves across the state, doing an
estimated $ 113 million worth of damage.
November 7
Franklin D. Roosevelt is
elected President for his fourth term.
December 16
The German Army launches
its offensive in the Ardennes, beginning the Battle of the Bulge.
1945
February
Congressman Robert Sikes
of Florida, on the House Committee on Military Affairs, leads a Congressional
investigation of charges that the Army is “coddling” German POWs.
February 19
The Marine landings on Iwo
Jima begin.
April 12
President
Franklin D. Roosevelt dies; he is succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.
April 29
Adolph
Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide in Berlin.
May 7
Unconditional surrender of all German forces at Rheims.
May 8
V-E Day is
celebrated.
June 10
POWs at Camp Blanding
collect and donate $ 411 to the German Red Cross for the relief of victims of
the Third Reich.
August 6
The atomic
bomb is dropped on Hiroshima and one follows on Nagasaki on August 9.
August 15
World War II
ends as Japan surrenders.
September 2
Japanese
officials sign surrender papers on the USS Missouri, making this the
official V-J Day
1946
May 1
All German POWs have left Camp Blanding
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