Eighty Years Ago: Asia Pacific, May 15 – 21, 1941

May 15, 1941: Battleship USS Washington is commissioned

May 16, 1941: US Naval officer and Japanese linguist Joseph Rochefort is assigned to head Station Hypo, a unit of code breakers in Hawaii

May 17, 1941: United States Army Air Force announces it has placed an order for 250 B-29 bombers

May 18, 1941: China says its army has retaken the city of Zaoyang, Hubei province, in severe fighting with Japanese foe

May 19, 1941: Leading Chinese communist Zhou Enlai denies Japanese report of rift with nationalist Chinese

May 20, 1941: Japan says it is defeating enemy forces in northern China with ‘Blitzkrieg’ tactics

May 21, 1941: American pilot flying civilian transport plane for China National Aviation Corp. narrowly escapes being shot down by Japanese fighters

Categories: War

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