Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Below, events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American film and stage actor.
Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins. He made his Hollywood debut in 1935, and his career gained momentum after his Academy Award-nominated performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, a 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about an Oklahoma family who moved west during the Dust Bowl. Throughout six decades in Hollywood, Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in such classics as The Ox-Bow Incident, Mister Roberts and 12 Angry Men. Later, Fonda moved both toward darker epics as Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and lighter roles in family comedies like Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball.
Fonda was the patriarch of a family of famous actors, including daughter Jane Fonda, son Peter Fonda, granddaughter Bridget Fonda, and grandson Troy Garity. His family and close friends called him "Hank". In 1999, he was named the sixth-Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.
Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was an English-born American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.
Laughton was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the son of Robert Laughton and his wife Elizabeth (née Conlon), Yorkshire hotel keepers. His mother was a devout Roman Catholic of Irish descent. He attended Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit school, in Lancashire. He served during World War I (in which he was gassed) first with the 2/1st Battalion of the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Regiment and later with the 7th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment.
THE EXECUTION ENDS, ANOTHER ONE LINES UP
WE WAIT IN SILENCE ON THE MISTED HILLS
WE RAISE OUR BARRELS, AND THE STORY HERE BEGINS
THEY TOOK OUR MEN, BUT LET’S JUST SEE WHO WINS
IT WAS A NIGHT WHICH SEEMED TO LAST FOREVERMORE
WITH SPLINTERED BONES AND BLEEDINGS WE ARE APPROACHED
OUR RANGE
A BULLET WITH MY NAME THEN SHOT ME TO THE GROUND
I SAW TWO FEET IN FRONT OF ME, RED CROSS ON HIS ARM
MERCENARY:
“UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE NOW, STAND UP
RAISE YOUR HEAD, CHARGE YOUR WEAPON INTO WAR
NEVER GIVE IN TO THE ENEMY
KEEP YOUR MIND SET ON YOUR SANITY
UNLESS YOU WANT A SHALLOW GRAVE, FIND YOU STRENGTH
PICK UP YOUR BULLETS. ON YOUR FEET. BETTER RUN
WE NEVER GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT, NEVER WILL
BE A SOLDIER. THAT’S AN ORDER, NOW GO!”
WITH AMMO IN OUR GUNS AND GRENADE IN OUR HANDS
WE LIT THE NIGHT WITH FLAMES SO HIGH. WE FOUGHT OUR WAY
COMBINING STRATEGY WITH A HUNGER FOR THE KILL
WE MADE IT THROUGH THE BARRIERS. FIRE IN OUR WILL
PILES OF BODIES AS FAR AS THE EYE COULD SEE
A SMELL OF DEATH COMBINES WITH BURNING GASOLINE
IT IS A VISION I SHALL BEAR INTO MY GRAVE
I’D RATHER TAKE A STAB OR TWO AND HAVE THEM SAVED
WITH ALL THE HATRED IN THIS WORLD, WE SHALL AVENGE
THE TWISTED BODIES WHO CANNOT SEEK THEIR REVENGE
WE TRIED TO SAVE THEM, (BUT) NOW THE PLAN IS LAID TO
WASTE
GOT TO FIND THEM, HUNT THEM DOWN
WE CAUGHT THEM ONE BY ONE. NO MERCY COULD PROTECT
THE AIM WAS KILL AND KILL AGAIN TILL NOTHING LEFT
FOR EVERY DROP OF BLOOD THAT FELL UNTO THE EARTH
SHALL JUSTIFY OUR HISTORY FROM HERE INTO ETERNITY
STILL TO THIS DAY I CAN STILL HEAR THEM SCREAM
EVERY NIGHT THEY COME TO ME TO SET THEM FREE
THE STENCH OF BURNING FLESH IN EVERY BREATH I TAKE
HOW I WISH I COULD GO BACK AGAIN…
PILES OF BODIES AS FAR AS THE EYE COULD SEE
A SMELL OF DEATH COMBINES WITH BURNING GASOLINE
IT IS A VISION I SHALL BEAR INTO MY GRAVE
I’D RATHER TAKE A STAB OR TWO AND HAVE THEM SAVED
WITH ALL THE HATRED IN THIS WORLD, WE SHALL AVENGE
THE TWISTED BODIES WHO CANNOT SEEK THEIR REVENGE
WE TRIED TO SAVE THEM, (BUT) NOW THE PLAN IS LAID TO
WASTE
It was night, when the ship pulled ashoreTo collect, the
comrades of war
When a man, my old man's old man
Spied a dame, that lit up his heart with a bang
And that night, that night
That moon, shone about as bright as it could shine
Those stars, climbed about as high as they could climb
They knew, something strange was going on
When the man, who was Stan,
saw the dame, by the name, of Joan
But her face, was soon lost in the crowd
Morning came, and that chance was drowned
At his post, he moped then leapt when he saw
She'd be there, to share the whole of the war
And that night, that night
That moon, shone about as bright as it could shine
Those stars, climbed about as high as they could climb
They knew, something strange was going on
When the man, who was Stan,
met the dame, by the name, of Joan
In a frame, on a shelf, in the lounge
They look old, black and white, buttoned down
You forget, that they lived, and they ripped, and they