A German U-boat (156) sank a British troop ship, the Laconia, a
former Cunard White Star ship, killing more than 1,400
men on September 12, 1942.
The commander of the German sub, Capt. Werner Hartenstein,
realizing that Italians POWs were among the passengers,
strove to aid in their rescue.
SANDY KOZEL
Actor Dustin Hoffman is 89 today.
The Fuhrer assured his people that the Third Reich would last for
a thousand years, but Nazi Germany collapsed just 11 years later.
TIM MAGUIRE
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán is 79 years old today.
On this day in 1944, Nazi Germany launches the V-1 Flying
Bomb, marking the first use of a cruise missile in warfare.
Dubbed "buzz bombs," these pilotless terrors droned
ominously over London, delivering destruction and
dread in equal measure.
The V-1, officially designated Fieseler Fi 103, was developed
by the Luftwaffe at the Peenemünde Army Research Center
in 1942.
It was powered by a pulsejet engine, which produced its
distinctive buzzing sound, and featured a simple guidance
system using a gyroscope, magnetic compass, barometric
altimeter, and a nose-mounted vane anemometer.
A V-1 on display in the Musée de l’Armée, Paris.
