Every person is filled with stories, and for Tex Meachem, the roar of a propeller is one that tells hers.
The 93-year-old woman lives in John Knox Village in Pompano Beach and her home shows hints of her past: a teddy bear dressed as a pilot, old photographs of her in a jump suit. While men were shipped overseas to fight in World War II, the women held down the fort back home. Meachem was one of a handful of women who pioneered the skies as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs. Just last year, she was still able to fly a plane.
I believe this is a first for the AH Weekly Update insofar as this is the first review of a non-fiction alternate history book. Now, you may think: aren't those terms mutually exclusive by sheer definition? Yes, they usually are. However, Wood's book combines both traits as he first briefly analyzes various fields that influenced and guided Japanese strategy and plans during WWII, only to summarize counterfactual approaches which could have helped the Imperial Japanese forces in his final chapter.
It is of import to notice that all the counterfactual possibilities presented by Wood share one commonality, which is that they were choices that were actually recognized and advocated by ranking members of the Japanese military. They are, as such, not products of the author's mind and 20/20 hindsight.
Going chapter by chapter, Wood takes a look at Japan's preparations, at the reasons commonly attributed to the nation losing the war and what could have been changed, going from the preventable losses inlicted on its merchant marine, the mishandling of its potent submarine force, the naval leadership's fetish with wishing for a decisive battle and avoiding it at the same time (the Japanese plan for the Battle of Midway is such an example), the shortcomings of its air force and the mishandling of the war by the Japanese army.
Now, each of the factors Wood addresses are significant enough to warrant at least one book of their own. The internal fractures not only between the Army and Navy High Command, but between leading figures within each branch of the armed forces, already on their own deserve a thorough "What if?" treatment.
For example, did you know that Admiral Yamamoto actually threatened that he and the whole Navy staff resign if his plan to attack Pearl Harbor was not adopted? Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, his superior, had favored an attack against the Malaya and Indonesia that would potentially have kept the USA out of the war a bit longer. Most other professional militaries would have called the bluff and sacked such an insubordinate subordinate. But Japan's command structure was so fractured, mired in political infighting, and fragile that this type of behavior became endemic.
Wood's book is not without problems, of which many can be directly connected to the book's short length. Each chapter is, at best, 15 pages long.
I will cite from a very good review on Amazon to specify them:
His critique of Japan's war effort fails to distinguish between strategic mistakes and defeat in battle. When the Japanese lose while pressing their initiative, they are guilty of systematic over-extension; when they lose on the defensive, they are guilty of conceding the fight to the enemy's terms. They are criticized simultaneously for failing to stick to their game plan and for failing to adapt to new situations. Apparently the Japanese can neither have their cake nor eat it.
Likewise, readers must go without a precise definition of the defeat in war that Japan is trying to avoid. Is any negotiated settlement that prevents occupation of the home islands better than a "defeat"? Wood seems content to see Japan lose all its conquests and all its continental holdings, avoid invasion, and call it a draw.
This brings me to the two decisive questions: is the book worth your while, and is it worth your money?
On the former point, the answer is a clear and endorsing "Yes". Yes, it is. It provides ample sources for its points and covers lots of ground, albeit in rather brief epsidoes. If there was nothing else, it'd still serve as a good introductory read for all those interested in the problems (and chances!) of the Japanese military in the Pacific Campaign 1941-45.
The latter, sadly, is a "No". "Japanese Military Strategy in the Pacific War: Was Defeat Inevitable", discounting the chapter and final bibliographies, covers barely 115 pages worth of text and sells for more than $25 on Amazon at the moment. That is not a favorable ratio for the content that is provided, especially since Wood could easily have made his chapters twice as long. He certainly had enough material to work with for that.
As such, I can recommend "Japanese Military Strategy in the Pacific War: Was Defeat Inevitable" as a book you ought to get from your local library, or if you find it massively discounted from an online retailer. Spend the full price only if you're desperate.
Over the years, especially in writing for the general public, as opposed to my professional peers, I have been struck repeatedly by the frequency with which certain conclusions or even entire classes of conclusions elicit not merely skepticism, but angry denunciation. Again and again, I have been called a fool, a traitor, or an America-hater because of my commentaries on history and public affairs. Although I take no pleasure in these denunciations, I find myself not so much depressed by them as curious about them. I wonder why people react as they do, especially when my commentary rests—as I hope it generally does—on well-documented facts and correct logic.
I surely do not consider myself immune to errors, of course. But if my facts are incorrect, the critic has an obligation to say why my facts are incorrect and to state, or at least to point toward, the correct facts. If my logic has run off the rails, the critic has an obligation to state how I fell into fallacious reasoning. More often than not, however, the critic resorts immediately to name-calling and to wild characterizations of my statements and my person. Thus, I have often been called a socialist, a Marxist, a conservative, an apologist for corporations or the rich, a (modern left) liberal, or something else that by no stretch of the imagination properly describes me or my intellectual or ideological position.
Certain topics are virtually guaranteed to elicit such reactions. When I write about the welfare state and especially about government programs ostensibly aimed at helping the least-well-off members of society, I confidently expect that critics will assail me as a fascist or as an ivory-tower dweller who has no understanding of how poor people really live and no compassion for them. When I write about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in relation to U.S. economic warfare in 1939-41, I invariably attract angry personal abuse from people of delicate nationalistic sensibilities, from those chronically on the look-out for traitors, and from those who cannot imagine that the nation’s leaders, in general, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in particular, might have deliberately provoked a Japanese attack or refrained from warning U.S. commanders in Hawaii that an attack was coming.
When people are offended or otherwise greatly displeased by historical analysis, they often employ the term “historical revisionism” as a synonym for falsified, distorted, or doctored accounts that fly in the face of what they, their history teachers, and perhaps even the most respected university historians believe to have been the case.
Another entry in our "WWII Memories" series. Today: the wartime experiences of Mr. Don Washer. Thank you, sir!
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Six months after Pearl Harbor, I turned 17 and I tried to join the Navy. They just laughed at me because I was too small and low weight. I was 4-foot 10-inches and only weighed 105 pounds. My parents had allowed me to try and get in and there were not surprised that I was rejected.
I had a friend whose father was a Navy doctor over in N.Y.C. He arranged for me to get another physical and sure enough I was accepted and 2 weeks later was on my way to boot camp at Newport, R.I.
Boot camp only lasted 3 weeks and it was tough for me because I only wore a size 5½ shoes; it took a week before I received them so I had to use my civilian shoes until then. Near the end of boot camp, I was invited to join the Bugle Chore as I had learned to play the bugle when I went to scout camp four years before. After I returned from boot leave, I was assigned to the Bugle Squad. It lasted only 4 more months as the Enlisted Man’s Training Center was made an Officer’s Training Center and they wanted a full band. So, we were transferred to various ships and locations.
Video after the break. An amazing account about the experiences of Mr. Vittitow, especially the service to the community he has done after he returned home from war.
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World War II Veteran Benny Vittitow remembers the war like it was yesterday. The 88-year-old veteran is this week's KCBD "Hometown Hero" for his years of service fighting for our country.
"It was difficult to know that your only duty was to kill or be killed," said Benny looking back on his days as an infantryman in France.
Growing up in Plano, TX he was drafted right after high school in 1930, but after the war he made Lubbock his home for more than 65 years.
Benny Vittitow
"When he talks about his service you can see that it touched his heart. It brings tears to his eyes when he talks about serving his country," said Paul Lively, Focal Pointe Fellowship pastor. As Benny sat there with his hat adorned with bronze stars, a purple heart, and several other medals he reminisced about WWII.
"We would lose two to three men a day," he said. "We had one new guy who stepped on a bouncing Betty bomb. He decided to he would take the bomb in his body and save us. He fell down on top of the bomb…He gave his life for us. I could sit here and list them all day – all the soldiers who did the same thing."
Continuing my coverage of the input offered to the New Bern Sun Journal by veterans of WWII.
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We were awakened about 5 a.m., had a quick breakfast and rode to the Dijon airfield in the back of 6 x 6 trucks. It was cold but we were wearing our winter flying gear so it was bearable. As we entered the briefing room our eyes focused on the large maps in the front of the room where we saw that the mission would be to Scheinfurt. We all knew that 60 B-17s were recently lost in one day. The target was a railroad marshaling yard that had heavy flak and fighter coverage. Seventy-two B-26 aircraft in six flights of 12 consisted of two to three ship V’s; each tucked closely behind the other. When we approached the target we were to drop back into a line of 12 flights for the bomb run.
The whole assembly took about 30 minutes of circling before going on course for the target. Flying formation while turning and maneuvering makes it very difficult to stay on target. The bombardier in the lead ship of each flight then took over to guide the formation to the target and they dropped their bombs when they saw the lead plane drop their bombs. We usually approached targets on random courses but the straight path taken on this mission made it easier for the flak gunners to line us up quickly.
While maintaining my position I could see the flak opening up ahead of me off to the left and the next flight was off to the right. They then hit the fourth flight right on target and opened up with a full barrage. The fifth and sixth flights disappeared into a black cloud that was right in our path. A burst between the left engine and fuselage was a little high so most of the shrapnel went just above us. I learned later from our crew chief that shrapnel had pierced the intake manifold of the left engine but I had no indication of damage as we turned toward home. We were surprised that we only lost two aircraft on the bomb run because the flak was so intense. Some chutes were seen but I didn’t get a count.
Another tough mission involved an attack by the ME262 jets that, at that time, were not known to exist. I was flying No. 2 in the high flight where I could see the low flight as well as my leader. Suddenly, with no warning, I saw what I thought was bursts of flak moving through the low flight hitting a couple of them and flight seemed to be heading right toward us and just before it would have started to hit us, it quit. I discovered later that it was not flak but was the 40 millimeter cannon on the ME262. We lost five ships on this mission and no chutes were seen but some could have come out after we passed them.
Every once in a while my googling lands some very 'special' stories in my lap. Not necessarily bad, but obviously slanted into one direction. If it's coming from a public broadcaster, that's all the more jarring. As such, I wish I could have started my recognition of my Russian readership with something more uplifting and recognizing of the great sacrifices their country and forefathers made in WW2. The way it is, I'm left with nitpicking instead.
The Battle of Moscow marked a turning point in the course of the Second World War.
True enough.
The Nazi army sustained irreparable damage.
Wrong. Stalingrad and the 6th Army, that was irreparable because it was total loss. This? Not so much.
Never had it suffered such losses before, in Western Europe or on the Eastern front.
Hardly a groundbreaking observation. Of course a campaign across half a continent and taking half a year incurs greater losses by far than three limited campaigns between 5 and 6 weeks with ample time to regroup between them.
A number of top Nazi generals said after the Battle of Moscow that a defeat of the Soviet Union was beyond their means and the military conflict had to be settled through negotiations.
Enraged Hitler sacked many of his generals following the battle, which put an end to a string of spectacular Nazi victories in Europe. The advance of the Nazis came to an abrupt halt and the Nazi army had to turn back.
Uhm, cause and effect. The advance of the Wehrmacht came to a halt because of the counterattack (and because of way overstretched supply lines). Several army commanders argued for a withdrawal, Hitler argued against it, which ultimately seems to have saved the front, but planted the idea in Hitler's head that every counterattack could be dealt with simply by denying the option of even a tactical retreat. Also, as far as my knowledge goes, Hitler sacked Guderian, von Brauchitsch, and others because of their opposition to his "Hold the line" orders while the operations were still going on.
During their counteroffensive on December 5th and 6th the Soviet troops commanded by General Georgy Zhukov liberated more than 11,000 towns and villages. The Nazis lost about 500,000 men, 1,300 tanks, 2,500 guns and over 15,000 vehicles and other pieces of military hardware.
Yeah, about that. You see, that's a bit of a blatant lie. Even the high end estimates for the whole Battle of Moscow, that is, until early January 1942, place German casualties between 248,000 and 400,000. And that includes the battle to reach Moscow, which began already on November 1st, 1941. That's a wee bit different from claiming the counteroffensive on two days cost the Germans half a million men!
By the way, do you know the similarly high-end casualty estimate for the Red Army for the same phase of operations? It's 1,280,000. Yeah, almost 1.3 million killed, wounded or missing. For a front the Germans would ultimately be able to hold on to for the better part of the next year. That tidbit of info is kinda missing.
Objective reporting looks different. I just don't see why you guys need resort to such cheap tactics. You fought a damn good war; you were tenacious and intelligent. Operation Bagration pretty much makes that obvious to even the deaf and blind!
I've gone through the Blogger statistics for The War Blog and realized that I get a sizeable amount of visitors from Russia! In light of that fact I'll try to feature topics related to Russia (the USSR) and WW2 more often. Thanks for your interest, guys, I appreciate it. And yes: Добро пожаловать!
Today I've got some very nice takes of a Panzerjäger Tiger Ausf. B, better known as the Jagdtiger. Hardly maneuverable and prone to mechanical failures, the Jagdtiger was introduced during the last months of the war, receiving only a small production run. Its thick armor and powerful 127mm (!!) gun made it nearly impossible to survive a frontal assault against the "moving pillbox". Just look at how huge that thing was!
The third installment of the little series originally published in the New Bern Sun Journal. Today's account is by Mr. Jim Glatthaar.
I have nothing to boast of because what was requested of me. Why I am still here … God only knows.
I went into the Navy in 1944 and was in boot camp for about 10 weeks. Previous to that, I had never been away from home overnight. I wasn’t sure of what kind of man I was, but was eager to find out. Even in boot, I always volunteered for everything. Sometimes it was carting large rocks to another place with a wheelbarrow then carting them back. There were other stupid things that I volunteered for too and I was called “Captain Midnight” by the members of my company because I was always on 12 to 4 a.m. watch for giving the master-at-arms a hard time.
When we left boot camp, we were given a choice of ships, an aircraft carrier or a cargo ship. I saw too many guys “goofing off” on carriers, so I chose the cargo ship. The cargo ship, the USS Hydrus AKA28, was being commissioned the end of the week I left boot. The aircraft carrier, the USS Antietam had the keel laid that week also.
We loaded supplies, etc., aboard the Hydrus and set sail. Most of the crew got seasick between Virginia and the Canal. We got to Pearl and loaded only cargo nets and set sail for the Solomon Islands. We traveled alone and about, I guess three days out of the Solomons.
It's stories like this that bring a little tear to my eye. Good you were there for these men, Madame Chiwy.
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Congolese-born Augusta Chiwy, now 93, received the Civilian Award for Humanitarian Service medal from U.S. Ambassador Howard Gutman at a ceremony in the military museum in Brussels.
“She helped, she helped, and she helped,” Gutman said at the ceremony. He said the long delay in presenting the award was because it was assumed that Chiwy had been killed when a bomb destroyed her hospital.
The Battle of the Bulge was a ferocious encounter in the final stages of World War II. In desperation, Adolf Hitler ordered a massive attack on allied forces in the Ardennes, in southern Belgium. More than 80,000 American soldiers were killed, captured or wounded.
Chiwy had volunteered to assist in an aid station in the town of Bastogne, where wounded and dying U.S. soldiers in their thousands were being treated by a single doctor in December 1944 and January 1945. Chiwy braved the gunfire, helping whoever she could, and saving the lives of hundreds of American GIs.
The Nazis hoped the surprise attack would reach the sea at the Belgian port of Antwerp and cut off the advancing allied armies. Bastogne, a market town that was also a critical road junction, was quickly besieged.
The U.S. troops – led by paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division – found themselves surrounded. But they resisted fiercely, and the key crossroads was never taken. In the ensuing siege, Bastogne was heavily shelled and quickly reduced to ruins. Another Belgian nurse – Chiwy’s friend Renee Lemaire – was killed along with about 30 patients when a bomb penetrated a cellar where she was tending to the wounded.
Mrs. Chiwy, receiving the medal.
Gutman said the diminutive Chiwy combed battlefields during the battle, often coming under enemy fire, to collect the wounded in the deep snow.
“What I did was very normal,” Chiwy said during the ceremony. “I would have done it for anyone. We are all children of God.”
But Col. J.P. McGee, who commands a brigade of the 101st Airborne Division based in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, said that to the wounded soldiers Chiwy was “a goddess.”
“Men lived and families were reunited due to your efforts,” he said.
McGee said the army’s doctor in Bastogne, John Prior, had joked that the German snipers couldn’t hit Chiwy because she was so tiny. But Chiwy, who moved to Belgium from the colony of Congo before the war, responded that they were just bad shots.
Historian Alexander Omhof, who has dealt extensively with the history of the allied advance, also praised Chiwy’s deeds during the month-long battle.
Chiwy then received a letter of appreciation from Gen. David Petraeus, himself a former commander of the 101st Airborne.
After the battle, Chiwy slipped into obscurity, working as a hospital nurse treating spinal injuries. She married a Belgian soldier and had two children.
She was finally located several years ago by a British author and historian, Martin King, who had heard stories about a black nurse at Bastogne. Chiwy was knighted by the Belgian king in June.
One more from the New Bern Sun Journal, a small treasure trove. Thank you, Mr. Gould!
I think my experience in that war, which really was a war, is a little bit unique. My father, a career submarine sailor, was attacked by the Japanese on the first day of the war at Cavite in the Philippines, where his boat had recently arrived from Pearl Harbor. Both places were simultaneously bombed and strafed on Dec. 7. Various speculations exist to this day on whether the Japanese sneak attack was actually unexpected. It has never been a mystery in my family.
Early in November 1941 my father telephoned my mother and I in California to tell us we were going to go to war with Japan and that his boat was leaving Pearl Harbor for an as-yet undeclared destination. He said they were ridding the boat of all unnecessary gear to make room for equipment more suited to wartime patrols and that he was sending all of his valued personal property, including his ring, home. He explained his statement that we were going to war with Japan by describing an incident that had recently taken place while his sub was patrolling on the surface off of Wake Island. He said another sub had fired a couple torpedoes at them and that they had tracked the attacker for several days before giving up the effort to return the favor. I don’t know how they knew it was Japanese, or why it had tried to sink them, but from subsequent events it turned out to be an accurate conclusion.
The following is wartime and POW account taken from the New Bern Sun Journal. I'm republishing it in its entirity because it is my belief that we need to hold tight to personal accounts like the one of Mr. Leech presented below. The generation who fought the war - be it soldiers of the Allies, the Axis, or the USSR - is getting fewer and fewer in numbers with every passing day. Both my own grandfathers have already perished, the first one five years ago, the second only last month. Soon, there will be no eyewitnesses left. We should preserve their experiences as good as we can. Thank you for your account, Mr. Leech.
WWII: A former POW tells his World War II story
I have a 43-page record of my days in the military, but I’m sure you are not looking for anything like that, so I will try to condense it into a few pages.
During the winter of 1942 I volunteered for the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program. I was called up in March of 1943 and sent to the Nashville Classification Center. I requested Navigation School and was sent to Monroe, La. for pre-flight Navigation School. During the summer of 1943 we were sent to Aerial Gunnery School at Ft. Meyers, Fla. We then returned to Monroe for Advanced Navigation School. I was commissioned a second lieutenant in January 1944. We were sent to Drew Field in Tampa, Fla. for crew training. After the original crew was “broken up,” I was assigned to another crew and very shortly afterwards we left to fly across the North Atlantic Ocean to England. We were assigned to the 100th Bomb Group, known as “The bloody Hundredth” due to the high losses this group had incurred.
Bletchley Park's continuing battle to restore the condition of its historical buildings has received a welcome boost this week, thanks to Google. The work done on the estate during WWII was crucial in breaking the German Enigma codes.
It would be wonderful if other donors follow Google’s example to help preserve our computing heritage. We could then proceed as soon as possible with restoration of the profoundly historically significant code breaking huts.
The tech giant has donated £550,000 to help the former site of WWII code breaking restore the huts where such great work took place. This donation builds on the £4.6 million in Heritage Lottery Fund monies awarded to Bletchley Park in October. The lottery funding was awarded on condition the park matched the figure.
With the money, in addition to restoring the state of the buildings, Bletchley Park is hoping to transform itself into a heritage and education centre, that will both encourage future generations as well as serving as a reminder of what previous generations achieved during wartime code-breaking efforts.
"We are tremendously grateful to Google for bringing us considerably closer to achieving our development aims. We have received other generous contributions towards the project but this is the largest single element of the partnership funding and absolutely vital in potentially getting the project underway much sooner than might otherwise have been the case," said Simon Greenish, CEO of the Bletchley Park Trust.
"It would be wonderful if other donors follow Google’s example to help preserve our computing heritage. We could then proceed as soon as possible with restoration of the profoundly historically significant code breaking huts."
This is not the first time Google has shown its support for Bletchley Park. Earlier this year, the tech giant tried to raise awareness of the need for funding to restore the park's buildings to their former glory.
"The Bletchley Park Trust has been doing great work to honour Alan Turing and the code breakers who helped shorten the second world war and to educate the next generation about the history of modern computing," said Peter Barron, Google's director of external relations. "We are delighted to make this charitable donation to help support the next phase of this important project."
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I think this is great news. It's very important for our understanding of history and WWII in particular that these sites are preserved for future generations.
Right now I've got my nose deep in the War Diaries 1939-1945 of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke. I'm not sure if I'll provide a review once I'm through since it's not a topical or structured tome but, well, a diary. So far, however, it has been incredibly insightful, especially on the state of affairs in Great Britain in 1940-1941, and more so, on Winston Churchill. Lord Alanbrooke worked closely with the prime minister for the duration of the war, and while the information we are able to gather from Alanbrooke's massive tome doesn't make Churchill a less intriguing character, it certainly does scratch off the paintjob on Winston's by now near mythical status. Both for reading and writing about Great Britain in WW2 this book appears to be indispensable so far.
Amazon's description:
For most of the Second World War, General Sir Alan Brooke (1883-1963), later Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, was Britain's Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) and Winston Churchill's principal military adviser, and antagonist, in the inner councils of war. He is commonly considered the greatest CIGS in the history of the British Army. His diaries--published here for the first time in complete and unexpurgated form--are one of the most important and the most controversial military diaries of the modern era. The last great chronicle of the Second World War, they provide a riveting blow-by-blow account of how the war was waged and eventually won--including the controversies over the Second Front and the desperate search for a strategy, the Allied bomber offensive, the Italian campaign, the D-day landings, the race for Berlin, the divisions of Yalta, and the postwar settlement.
Beginning in September 1939, the diaries were written up each night in the strictest secrecy and against all regulations. Alanbrooke's mask of command was legendary but these diaries tell us what he really saw and felt: moments of triumph and exhilaration, but also frustration, depression, betrayal, and doubt. They expose the gulf between the military and the politicians of the War Cabinet, and how often military strategy was misguided and nearly derailed by political prejudices. They also reveal the incredible strain on Alanbrooke of the Allied conferences in Washington, Moscow, Casablanca, Quebec, and Tehran, as he tried after intense and exhausting argument (not least with Churchill) to match Allied strategy with the reality of British military power and the fragility of the British Empire. These diaries demonstrate the true depth of Alanbrooke's rage and despair at Churchill's failure to grasp overall strategy. This was particularly acute in the winter of 1943-44 when Churchill, fueled by medicine and alcohol, no longer seemed master of himself.
Although the First World War technically took place in the same century, World War II was undoubtedly the war of the 20th Century. Unlike the earlier conflict, which was a culmination of events deeply rooted in the 19th Century, WWII fully reflected the technological, political, and cultural trends of the century in which it took place. One of the most telling examples of this was the propaganda. The ministers, commissars, and admen who governments relied on to sell their war employed every modern technique they could to convince often skeptical populations that the carnage and destruction that filled their streets and newspapers was just, under control, and absolutely necessary.
And while they increasingly turned to modern technological mediums like radio and television to transmit their messages, it was the propaganda poster that was the most effective tool of governments to inform, seduce, and cajole their populations. Now, they are potent, and often beautiful, artifacts of the last time the entire globe attempted to tear itself apart.
Here are ten of the best World War II propaganda posters.
No. 10: "I Want You For U.S. Army"
Perhaps one of the most recognizable propaganda posters of any time, “I Want You for U.S. Army” was actually commissioned for WWI. Based on an equally iconic British recruiting poster, this indelible image was so effective that it was also extensively used in the Second World War.
Even to our 21st Century media-savvy eyes, it isn’t hard to see why so many young men heeded its call. The stern, paternal face of the national icon Uncle Sam seems to be staring right into your soul, no matter which way you look at the poster. The appeal to honor and duty, not to mention the slightly sinister undertone, was enough to convince countless men to willingly sign up for a tour in Hell.
If that isn’t an effective piece of propaganda, what is?
No. 9: "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!" (bloody Toptenz doesn't even get the Umlaut right...)
While America used a fictional figure clad in the colors of the flag, much of Germany’s propaganda featured the very real, very living Adolf Hitler. Hitler didn’t invent fascism or the cult of personality that fueled it, but he certainly perfected it. Not a particularly attractive man even by the standards of his day and nowhere near the Aryan ideal he so often extolled, Hitler nevertheless sold the German public his image over and over again as the unequivocal symbol of all their hopes and ambitions. A classic example of this is “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer!”
FÜhrer, fer Christ's sake. If you're too lazy to ASCII-code the Umlaut, use "ue" for the Ü. Jeesh!
Its simple message- ‘one people, one empire, one leader’ in English, was used throughout lands conquered by the Germans to inspire allegiance and fierce pride in the ethnic Germans who resided there. Unlike Uncle Sam’s penetrating gaze, Hitler here is looking off to the side, to a future where every German is master of every land. A powerful image. And an incredibly effective one.
Frequent reader Kate drew my interest to this article. Thanks, Kate!
We no longer rely on the Pony Express to bring us the news. Nor do we have to huddle around the stationmaster at the train depot while he keys in an interrupted message about a gang of desperadoes that’s headed your way. With today’s internet, there aren’t many places left on the planet where virtually instantaneous communication, audio and/or video, are not attainable. This, naturally, has changed how battles are won and how wars are fought. No longer can great numbers of troops be moved far, before being detected and reported on by an opponent. News speed isn’t the only thing about war that the internet has affected. Below are some direct and indirect effects that the internet has had, both on military and civilian personnel.
Instantaneous – It took more than a month for news of the Boston Tea Party to reach London. Today we can send and receive news worldwide faster than we can brew a cup of tea.
Civilians – Often, the only coverage or first coverage of many international incidents and events comes via cell phone communications. News teams may not have arrived, or the action may occur in areas banned to the world press.
Military Operation Communication – Internet gadgetry and programming allow coordinated planning where more information is disseminated instantly to all areas within the entire command. Small units will know where their nearest contacts are, and whether they are likely to be “friendly” or not.
It probably would help their credibility a lot if they didn't stage these presentations in what looks like the local school's gym decorated with some preschooler made flags costing about $11 each. Ah, yes, not using something that looks like a bunch of guys had too much time with too much plywood also helps.
In case they really did get their hands on the real thing: kudos to them. I'm sure Russian and Chinese experts are already on their way...
Some of you might be wondering why I haven't commented on Pearl Harbor's 70th anniversary. The reason for that is quite simple: everybody else already has, and I have no pearls of wisdom to add. It's just my term to add a minute of silence to it all.
The following is a story that can only be called the result of too much loneliness or too many sheep, or a variation of the two themes abundant in Wales. Welsh author Gerrard Williams claims Hitler and Eva Braun escaped Berlin, had doubles killed and burned, and lived long and peaceful lives in Argentina.
Yes, I talked to the Führer. He made me a sandwhich.
Adolf Hitler escaped WWII bunker and died in Argentina, Welsh author claims
Gerrard Williams spent five years with military historian Simon Dunstan researching Grey Wolf – The Escape of Adolf Hitler. It claims the evil dictator spent 17 years in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina until his death in 1962.
Williams, who studied journalism in Cardiff and worked for the BBC and Sky News, said: “In Argentina, the USA and in London, new evidence to the survival of Adolf Hitler after the Second World War has begun to appear following the book’s publication last month.
“In Argentina, two residents of Rio Negro province have given further details of the arrival of Nazis at the San Ramon Estancia outside San Carlos De Bariloche. Both have spoken of their parents waiting on senior Nazis, including Hitler and his Mistress Eva Braun, at the Nazi-owned property in 1945, and later at a property known as Inalco on Lake Nahuel Hapi.”
Williams, who was born in Swansea and grew up in Coychurch, Bridgend, added: “The most amazing revelations have come from a 78-year-old Argentine currently living in London. This man, who we have interviewed extensively, has described two separate occasions in 1953 and in 1956 when as a young man he waited on Hitler at a private dining room in Buenos Aires at a hotel run by the Argentine Navy in the centre of the capital. His description of the ageing Führer fits very closely with those of other witnesses in Argentina from the time. The witness, who remains in fear of his life, currently wishes to remain anonymous.”
History books say with Berlin’s Reich Chancellery virtually surrounded on April 30, 1945, Hitler shot himself while his new wife Eva Braun bit into a cyanide capsule to evade capture. Their bodies were then burned. But Williams claims Hitler and Braun slipped out of the besieged Führerbunker via a secret tunnel and were replaced by doubles chosen by Martin Bormann. He says they were then whisked by plane to Spain and by submarine to the Argentine coast at Necochea, the body doubles being summarily shot and burned. Williams claims Hitler and Braun later had two daughters and, after a separation in 1953, Braun and the girls lived in the town of Nequen.
He maintains in the early 2000s the women were still alive but that Hitler died on February 13, 1962. Mr Williams also claims a retired American businessman who spent many years in South America, who has only identified himself as “John”, has offered new details of what he says was Hitler’s funeral near Bariloche. He told Grey Wolf authors Williams and Dunstan that a friend of his – a property developer from Patagonia – had been a young policeman in the area at the time and gave him the information but he says the year of the funeral, complete with “lots of German songs”, was 1958. Williams said another witness had told them of seeing Hitler’s wife in Argentina in the 1950s.
The interview forms part of an extensive documentary programme looking at the information presented by Williams and Dunstan due to be aired in February 2012. Williams said: “The publication of Grey Wolf [published by Sterling, priced £16.99] was never going to be the end to this story. All we ever wanted to do was find out the truth about the end of one of the most evil men in history.”
Historian and author Guy Walters however does not accept the claims in Grey Wolf . He said: “The theory that Hitler survived rubbishes decades of research by proper historians. The evidence that Hitler was killed is simply overwhelming.” Mr Walters accepted the authors were right in saying the skull taken from Hitler’s bunker by the Russians was not that of Hitler. He said, however: “There were many in that bunker and it takes a giant leap of the imagination to get from a museum in Russia to him living a life in Argentina.”
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So, Otto Günscher, the burly SS man tasked with making sure Hitler and Eva Braun were dead and burned, supposedly lied. Then, by some force of fate, Hitler and Eva Braun make it onto a plane which miraculously not only escapes Berlin, but flies over occupied Germany and all the way across liberated France to Spain, from where the two spend a few weeks in a submerged sardine can in an ocean crawling with Allied destroyers and destroyer escorts. They build a new life in Argentina, and Hitler, already half-mad and suffering from increasingly worse bouts of Parkinson, sires two children and lives to an old age. And all the evidence comes from "a friend of mine once said" sources. Yeah. Anyway, where's the news? We knew that Hitler was in Argentina all the time!
Three days before the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt was warned in a memo from naval intelligence that Tokyo's military and spy network was focused on Hawaii, a new and eerie reminder of FDR's failure to act on a basket load of tips that war was near.
In the newly revealed 20-page memo from FDR's declassified FBI file, the Office of Naval Intelligence on December 4 warned, "In anticipation of open conflict with this country, Japan is vigorously utilizing every available agency to secure military, naval and commercial information, paying particular attention to the West Coast, the Panama Canal and the Territory of Hawaii."
The memo, published in the new book December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World went on to say that the Japanese were collecting "detailed technical information" that would be specifically used by its navy. To collect and analyze information, they were building a network of spies through their U.S. embassies and consulates.
Historian and acclaimed Reagan biographer Craig Shirley, author of the just released December 1941, doesn't blame FDR for blowing it, but instead tells Whispers that it "does suggest that there were more pieces to the puzzle" that the administration missed. The 70th anniversary of the attack is next month.
In fact, he compares the missed signals leading up to Japan's attack to 9/11, which government investigations also show that the Clinton and Bush administrations missed clear signals that an attack was coming.
"So many mistakes through so many levels of Washington," said Shirley. "Some things never change."
His book also reveals another blockbuster historical moment: On the night of the Pearl Harbor attack, FDR and his war cabinet considered declaring war on all three Axis Powers—Japan, Germany, Italy—but in the end the president only targeted Japan. At the time, the U.S. was still healing from World War I and isolationism was the word of the day.
Shirley, aided by son Andrew as his chief researcher, takes a new tack in his book about Pearl Harbor. Instead of just writing how it all went down, his book attempts to give readers a feel for how the country felt 70 years ago. He accomplishes that by providing anecdotal information from nearly 2,000 newspapers and magazines.
"The goal here," Shirley writes in the preface, "is to make the reader feel as if they are experiencing the day to day events as they unfolded. Some historians don't like to go into the arduous tasks of going through thousands of newspapers preferring instead to rely on those bits and pieces of news reporting they may glean from other books. I did, and consequently the reader will find stories and information from the month of December 1941 they have never heard before."
The entire town of Koblenz has been placed on red alert after the discovery of British World War II bombs in the city (actually, in the Rhine river). Officials have announced that they are making plans to evacuate about half of the residents in the city so that they can get the explosives out safely. They blew up some other smaller explosives on Saturday.
The evacuation effort.
The German town has a population of more than 100,000. Officials say they will have to move about 45,000 people so that they can get the 1.8-tonne British bomb out of the city (again, the Rhine; point is, it hasn't rained for pretty much the whole November, which means the Rhine is carrying a record low of water, which brings a whole lot of "lost" things back to light). This will be the biggest evacuation in the history of the city. The evacuation will affect homes, hospitals, a prison, hotels and schools. The evacuation will be around a radius of 1.8 kilometers.
Officials say the residents will have to move by 9 am local time on Saturday. The bomb squad will move in at around 3pm and expect to defuse the massive bomb in two hours. The residents will only be allowed back after the bomb has been defused and the area cleared. Britain’s Royal Air Force dropped the bombs during the Second World War. The explosives failed to go off and they were recently discovered in the Rhine River when the water level went down (would have made sense to say that earlier).
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I realize the news are already half a week old, and I can add that, indeed, 45,000 people had to temporarily leave their homes.
Just a short review of what, in my opinion, is an excellent book.
Unpunished is a tale of murder, ambition, corruption, and the redemptive power of love. Leonard Pilcher, a scion of entitlement and privilege, is a congressman, presidential candidate...and a murderer. As an American pilot interned in Sweden during WWII, he kills one of his own crewmen and gets away with it, without suspicion. Two people have witnessed the murder--American airman Joe Gelardi and his secret Swedish lover, Pola Nilsson-MacLeish--but they cannot speak out without paying a devastating price. Tormented by their guilt and separated by a vast ocean after the war, Joe and Pola maintain the silence that haunts them both...until 1960, when Congressman Pilcher's campaign for his party's nomination for president gains momentum. As he dons the guise of war hero, one female reporter, anxious to break into the "boy's club" of TV news, fights to uncover the truth against the far-reaching power of the Pilcher family's wealth, power that can do any wrong it chooses--even kill--and remain unpunished. Just as the nomination seems within Pilcher's grasp, Pola reappears to enlist Joe's help in finally exposing Pilcher for the criminal he really is. As the passion of their wartime romance rekindles, they must struggle to bring Pilcher down before becoming his next victims.
I cannot really add anything of substance to the synopsis of the book without going into spoilers, so let me just say this: William Peter Grasso successfully juggles a large and diverse cast of characters, each of them with their own motives and desires, and each of them fully involved in a plot spanning 16 years. While the plot takes place largely on the ground, there are again several scenes in which Mr. Grasso's expertise in avation gets room to shine. I won't spoil it, just this much: you're going to like it.
As it is, I can wholeheartedly recommend "Unpunished" to everyone who likes thrillers & historical novels (and, if we're pedantic, probably alternate history as well). A well-deserved 5 stars. You can get Unpunished at Amazon for just .99 cents.
