Today is the start of a new, incredibly historical month. July has seen its fair share of triumphs and tragedies, which will make all the blog entries this month jam-packed with historical stories. As for today, we'll be talking about the birth of a famous English pilot, as well as the start of a World War Two battle.
In 1903, Amy Johnson (pictured above) was born in Kingston upon Hull, England. After first being introduced to the hobby of flying aircraft, she received her first pilot's license (A Licence No. 1979) in July of 1929. In that same year, Johnson became the very first woman to receive a ground engineer's "C" license. In 1932, she married Jim Mollison, a Scottish pilot who proposed to her after only eight hours of knowing her. The marriage only lasted six years. Some of her accomplishments include: being the first woman to make a solo flight from Britain to Australia (1930), setting records for flying from London to Moscow and from England to Japan (1931), and setting a solo record for flying from London to South Africa (1932). It was in 1940 that Johnson joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, an organization that helped transport the Royal Air Force's aircraft around the country. During her time in the ATA, she rose to First Officer. On January 5th, 1941, during a flight mission for the ATA, Johnson's aircraft went down. There is some controversy surrounding the reason; on story is that she hit bad weather, forcing her to bail out of her plane, while the other is that she was shot down after failing to give the correct identification code to a nearby aircraft. Amy Johnson drowned in the Thames Estuary; her body was never found.
July 1st, 1942 saw the beginning of the Battle of El Alamein. Field Marshall Erwin Rommel had his Afrika Korps in El Alamein, which is 60 miles from Alexandria, Egypt. Hitler was anticipating the addition of Egypt to his growing empire. The Allied troops, after being reinforced by supplies from the US, were ready to make another stand against the Axis forces. British General Claude Auchinleck led troops from New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Britian (British pictured above) in a fight against Rommel's army. Rommel's men were exhausted from their lack of supplies, so Auchinleck's troops quickly brought them to a standstill. Rommel was forced to be back on the defensive, which gave the war a turning point in North Africa.
This picture is of two brothers. It was taken in Washington D.C. in 1940. There is even an address for the location of the picture: 4210-10th Street in North East Washington D.C. The one brother's name was given as Eugene, but there is not a name for the other one. It seems like information on the back of the photograph is primarily about the unknown brother. It says that he was stationed at the United States Naval Magazine of "Bellevue" in D.C. as a commanding officer. Fifty-nine years of age, he was a lieutenant of the United States Navy. The man served until the 15th of July in 1943, when he retired.
