fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
The Explosion That Changed Lives:
By: Madhura Awasthi
Tags: Nuclear, Bombing, History, World War II, Hiroshima And Nagasaki

The Explosion That Changed Lives:

Two cities of Japan ‘Hiroshima’ and ‘Nagasaki’ got bombed in 1945 during the second world by a nuclear explosion; around 1,29,000–2,26,000 people got killed during the explosion.

The spine-chilling photograph of the ruins

Now let’s answer some questions that might be popping in your mind:

What is World War 2?

World War 2 went on from 1939 to 1945 when Germany was in Hitler’s rule. This was the biggest war in history; it killed around 85 million people that is about 3% of the 1940’s population. The war involved a large number of people, countries, money etc. The war happened because Germany under the rule of Hitler had planned to invade Poland, which had military support from powerful countries like Britain and France. About two days after Hitler invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The countries that fought with Poland were China, France, Britain, the United States etc. The countries that fought with Germany were Italy and Japan. The major battles that happened in world war 2 were-

Battle of Kursk, July to August 1943

Battle of Berlin , April to May 1945

, April to May 1945 Battle of Moscow, October 1941 to January 1942

Second Battle of Kharkov, May 1942

Battle of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941

Battle of France, May to June 1940.

Battle of Britain, July to October 1940

Battle of Midway, June 1942

After World War 2, the nazi army collapsed.

What is a nuclear explosion?

A nuclear explosion happens due to sudden release of energy at high speed. The people experienced large area skin burns, damaged eardrums, respiratory illnesses, brown- coloured vomit, sudden death etc. A nuclear explosion also has many long term effects on human bodies which were experienced by the people who came in contact with the radiation.

When did it happen?

Hiroshima got bombed on 6th august 1945 at 8:15 am. Nagasaki got bombed on 9th august 1945.

Why did it happen?

In the year 1940, the United States of America started working on an atomic weapon for which they conducted a test in a desert in New Mexico in July 1945. Harry.S.Truman the President of The United States of America in the year 1945 told his people that invading Japan can give huge losses to our army so he ordered everyone to use the new weapon quickly to end the war.

What were the after-effects?

Various studies were conducted in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to find out the after-effects of the gruesome bombing. The common things that were discovered were:-

a large number of cancer patients, children getting genetic diseases, people having a shorter life span, losing loved ones caused mental illness, radiation caused purple spots on the body.

A newborn recipient of human cruelty

Last Thoughts

Reading about all this made me think how unfortunate it is that someone sitting on the forefront in a government office can easily decide the fate of millions of people in another country for years to come. Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings can never be forgotten.
My Happiness At An Online Author Event
By: Susan Hanniford Crowley
Tags: Books, Romance Novels, Romania, World War II, Vampires

Between the pandemic closing author in-person events and my age and health putting me at high-risk, I love the online author events. It would be lovely if you stopped by.

It’s party time at The Romance Studio. Come, have fun, and enter my contest! The winner gets a signed copy of The Vampire with a Blanket of Stars. https://www.trsparties.com/a-contest-and-interview-with-vampire-prince-razvan-of-romania-part-2/

I love writing the posts and telling a lot about the character that is beyond the book in many ways. Many authors have tons of story background and scenes that don’t make it into the book. I particularly love interviewing my main characters to find out what is different about them.

In this case, I’m interviewing Vampire Prince Răzvan of Romania and sharing excerpts. So come have fun with us!

All the best for your happiness during this holiday season! Wishing you joy!

Susan Hanniford Crowley
Bravery is not the absence of fear.
By: Maria Rattray
Tags: War Crimes, Survival, World War II, Bravery, Heroes

Bravery is not the absence of fear. It’s the acceptance that fear must be set aside and replaced by something that is so much more important.

Imagine that you are a doctor, in the midst of pursuing a career you’ve planned and studied for over many years, and then war breaks out. Not exactly something you planned for, nor something you can even escape.

It’s World War II

You are an Italian doctor and as such, at the forefront of some sickening realities as you go about your daily work in the Fatebenefratelli Hospital, an ancient building tucked safely away on a tiny island that sits amidst Rome’s Tiber River, and fortuitously, (as it later turned out), close to a Jewish Ghetto.

German troops are occupying your country, seeking out, and rounding up Italian Jews, and transporting them to concentration camps, where most of them will meet their death.

To read the rest of this article, please click on the link below.
İkinci Dünya Savaşı’nın Dönüm Noktası: 1941 Yılı
By: B. Caner Şafak
Tags: Nazis, Pearl Harbor, World War II, Soviet Union, USA

Mülkiye. Jack of all trades, master of none.
Hedy Lamarr, Actress, Film Producer & Inventor
By: Rachel L
Tags: Technology, History, World War II, Film, STEM

Hedy Lamarr, Actress, Film Producer & Inventor

Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was born on November 9, 1914, in Vienna, Austria and later took the name Hedy Lamarr. At the age of four, Lamarr was tutored privately and became a proficient pianist, dancer, and multilinguist by the tender age of ten. Already, her life and education foreshadowed her future accomplishments. At sixteen, she was admitted into Max Reinhardt’s Berlin-based dramatic school, escaping Austria as Adolf Hitler took hold of the country. A year later, she starred in the motion picture Geld auf der Strasse (Money on the Street). Then, she went on to debut in one of her most popular films, the Czech movie Extase (Ecstasy).

Her blooming career was hindered when she married Fritz Mandl in 1933. Mandl tried to end her stardom by preventing her from appearing on stage and on screen, as well as attempting to destroy all existing copies of Ecstasy. After escaping from Mandl’s sadistic grasp, Lamarr went on to star in various movies, such as the romantic drama Algiers (1938), H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), Tortilla Flat (1942), White Cargo (1942), and Samson and Delilah (1949). Despite her struggles, she was still rising to stardom.

Unbeknownst to her, she was about to pioneer technology that would serve as the foundation for today’s WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems. This began when Lamarr started dating Howard Hughes, who provided equipment and assisted her inventions during the minor breaks they had in between her shoots in Hollywood. With his help, she was able to design a wing for Hughes’ planes by incorporating inspiration from nature itself: fins from the fastest fish and wings from the swiftest bird. In attestment to her latest discoveries, she once remarked, “Improving things comes naturally to me.”

Lamarr continued to demonstrate her skills when she met George Antheil, an avant-garde composer and inventor, at a party. They discussed their qualms about the impending World War II and formulated a new communication system that would direct torpedoes (a type of submarine) to their targets during the war. Their invention introduced a mechanism known as “frequency hopping.” Occurring within radio waves, this mechanism enabled both the transmitter and receiver to be fitted to new frequencies, reducing signal blockage. Torpedoes could now find their specific target without restriction.

Although the military did not support the system, Lamarr and Antheil still received U.S. Patent №2,292,387 in August 1942. However, Lamarr did not receive monetary credit for the patent, as it expired. She was later recognized for her abilities when she was awarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1960) and admitted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2014) on her hundredth birthday. Almost two decades after her death on January 19, 2000, Alexandra Dean directed the documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, portraying Hedy Lamarr’s life and legacy, as she continues to inspire women interested in STEAM and invention.

References
The Eugene Smith’s Experiment. When the Perspective Changes Everything.
By: Gianluca De Dominici
Tags: Experiment, Eugenesmith, World War II, Arizona, Photography

The Eugene Smith’s Experiment. When the Perspective Changes Everything.

Great. You photographed me while i drink this bottle, and now you will go to bring this photo to everyone to show what your teacher drinks during the lesson. But you don’t ask me what’s in the bottle. There is sidro. And you are a very bad reporters.

Eugene Smith amazes, regardless of the context in which you place him. We know him for his wonderful reportage taken during the World War II conflict but he was also an excellent photography teacher at Arizona University. His students remember perfectly the eccentric methods used by him to explain the art of photography. This phrase is a little part of one of many experiments made by him on a normal scholastic day.

The EXPERIMENT

Every day his students bring their cameras to the lesson. They can take a photo of everything that they want at any time: for Eugene, this is a sacred rule, over that a great incentive to increase the sensibility vision.

So, one day, he decided to get a bottle by his house and to change the label to confuse their ideas. Inside was sidro, but the color remembered the whisky. With this apparent deception, he makes them believe he is drinking an alcoholic beverage during the lesson. He simulates it perfectly, like an actor: he hides the bottle under the desk and he drinks sometimes a sip, trying to not be seen by them. He seems embarrassed to do this action in front of his students.

After a few hours, students perceive that something is wrong but, instead of asking him what’s in the bottle, they took their cameras and started to take photos. They believed that they immortalized a singular moment, the proof of the crime committed by their professor. But they were wrong!

Dr. Ceriani Going from House to Hospital, 1948 ©W. Eugene Smith

With this experiment, Eugene Smith showed them the ambiguous power of photography: an art which can explain how the events going if you have the honesty to say the verity. But also an art, that in the hands of dishonest, can become a mass destruction weapon.

An incorrect interpretation of fact can mystify the reality of events, carrying the people to think of having a hardened alcoholic in front of you, instead of a prankster who loves jokes.

Photographer has the obligation to know the events, to know what’s the subject of his photography. Eugene Smith knows our gullibility, our level of susceptibility in front of a photo. We ever believe that they are true, the only possible truth, regardless of the matter of the images.

Photography has an important role in our society and photographers are the witnesses of human actions. So, when we are taking a photo, we must think about the consequences, to the value of our role. Eugene Smith said this with a simple method: direct, without frills or misunderstandings. Now it’s up to us to carry on his verb.
Thank you for bringing this perspective of the Great War to us.
By: Patrick O Hearn
Tags: Austria, Fascism, Hitler, World War II, Mussolini

Thank you for bringing this perspective of the Great War to us. I had no clear understanding of the Austrian annexation; I never knew Austria elected a fascist government. I wonder how Austrians, then and now, feel about their President’s decision not to resist German occupation? It would most likely have been a futile effort, but as a point of national pride, there’s the other side to be made as well.

I recently submitted an “extended version” essay on fascism which may interest you or your readers:

Keep on Writing!
Impactful Insights on Propaganda
By: Maren Drake
Tags: Leap 3, Emotions, Film, World War II, Propaganda

I’ve always found it extremely interesting how people are influenced by the content they are presented with. The smallest actions can have so much power. A simple phrase or graphic can influence societies to take extreme actions. This semester in COM416: Propaganda, we focused on different types of propaganda and how all propaganda is designed with a specific intent. There are millions of examples of propaganda in the world, and each one is individually designed to convey a specific message to a target audience in hopes of receiving a desired response. It was an extremely informative semester, and one I thoroughly enjoyed because the content we learned was so interesting and relevant to the world we live in today.

To conclude the semester, I was challenged to determine the five most impactful insights I will be taking away from my propaganda studies. It took a lot of thought and analysis, but I’ve determined that the five most impactful insights I’ve gathered this semester are as follows: the 7 devices used to identify propaganda, how world leaders use propaganda to their benefit, the influence of the government in Hollywood, how emotion influences persuasion, and how to identify when propaganda is harmful. All of these topics I found to be extremely interesting to learn about. In some cases I found the information to be informative, and in other cases surprising. Nonetheless, these topics all made an impact on me and the way I look at propaganda and will look at future propaganda I encounter.

To view the full essay, click here.
The Background of Design in Europe During World War II
By: Grace Dewald
Tags: Design History, World War II, Design

This semester, fall 2020, I took on the challenge of created graphic props for film. Since I didn’t have a real film to work on, I chose the novel All the Light We Cannot See (ATLWCS). The novel takes place in France and Germany before and during World War II. In order to replicated images and objects from this time period, I gathered visual research and information from around the internet, and a few books, in order to ensure I would be making the most accurate props I could. Here is my collection of research on design in Europe (with a focus on France and Germany) during the 1930s and 40s.

Background

The 1930s were rough years for many countries around the globe. Not only was America facing the Great Depression, but many countries in Europe were facing an economic crisis as well. Germany, in particular, was felt a heavy economic blow. After the First World War, the countries that defeated Europe demanded reparations to be paid to them. This caused the country to become incredibly poor, thus creating a breeding ground for anger and resistance against other European countries. Hitler and his party were elected to leadership and, from there, we see the rise of the Nazi regime which would initiate the second World War beginning with an attack on Poland.

Posters

Graphic design and printing were still necessary jobs all around the world. Posters were still a primary method of disseminating information but were in competition with the radio. Lithography was the most popular printing method. The positive portions of an image or text were drawn with a greasy medium directly onto a sheet of metal (often zinc). The metal would then be placed on the cylinder and covered with water. The grease would repel the water leaving the positive image vulnerable to ink. The ink, not able to attach itself to water, would only apply itself to the greasy medium. Now that the image is coated in ink, it can be rolled over a sheet of paper to produce a copy of the image. The average person could own a hand-cranked copying machine called a mimeograph that involved creating wax-paper stencil that could be wrapped around the ink-filled drum of the rotary machine. When a blank sheet of paper is drawn between the rotating drum and a pressure roller, ink is forced through the holes on the stencil onto the paper (we see Madam Manec use this method of copying to make flyers in ATLWCS).
2020 has plenty of infamous days, but none like December 7, 1941.
By: Phil Truman
Tags: Short Read, Pearl Harbor, History, World War II, Japanese

2020 has plenty of infamous days, but none like December 7, 1941.

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” — President Franklin Roosevelt.

I had the privilege in 1998 to meet and talk at length to an old Marine who experienced and survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which thrust our country into World War II. Here is my account of that meeting with this distinguished and incredible American hero.
World War Covid
By: Aaron Wolf
Tags: 2020, Pandemic, World War II, Covid 19, Hope

Aaron Wolf is an award winning actor/director/speaker, activist, and person.
If You Loved JoJo Rabbit, Read the Original Caging Skies
By: Jonas Gomes
Tags: Book Recommendations, World War II, Books, History

Imagine a satire film following an adolescent boy living in a world of war with his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler. Now imagine this film being so successful that it would go on to be nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture. In fact, someone did — long before the film’s conception. The film Jojo Rabbit owes its soaring success to the storyline it bases on, Christine Leunens’s Caging Skies.

If you liked watching the film, I recommend reading the original.

…

In her critically acclaimed novel, Leunens tours audiences of the deteriorating mentality of a young boy radicalized amid a mission, to save Germany and the future of its race. Leunens presents a child’s psychological essence spiral toward Adolf Hitler’s culminated ideal of the superior Aryan race.

The story’s moral tragedy portrays a strange avenue taken toward the terrors of Nazism. Ignited by the Führer’s expansionist tactics, the story commences in 1938 in Vienna, Austria, where a nation is on the verge of annexation under Nazi Germany, known as Anschluss. Caging Skies is narrated by initial adolescent Johannes, a child who grows through the years from a nervous Hitler youth soldier-in-training to a persistent but delusional follower of the newly double-Reich. His parents, who are secretly part of the Resistance, take in fugitive Jewish girl, Elsa, to shelter and feed in their home while neglecting to tell the truth to their indoctrinated Nazi son. Eventually, Johannes uncovers this secret and plans to notify the Gestapo. However, only when he loses his arm and has a deformed face as a result of a bombing incident and loses his parents through their disappearance, does Johannas settle to continue protecting Elsa — a wanted girl that also happens to be a longtime friend of his deceased sister. Through what manifests into their unique love-hate relationship, he falls in love. In conflict, Johannes finds himself in a sadistic battle of morality at war’s end to save himself, and perhaps Elsa as well.

…

Spoiler:

In Caging Skies’s conclusion, Johannes, whose love is rejected by Elsa, lies to her, saying Berlin has been divided into two by the allies. He keeps her hidden for three years until she realizes the truth and suddenly leaves without explanation. The cold sorrow of this story’s end reflects the fallacies of Ethnonationalism[1] — where promotions of extreme racism fueled by the radicalization of national identity paint a possible reality of life full of delusion and despair.

[1] Ethnonationalism — nations made up of a single homogeneous cultural, linguistic group; also known as Ethnic Identity-Creating Nationalism.
How Winston Churchill’s book made World War II difficult for Britain
By: Karthick Nambi
Tags: Books, History, War, World War II, Literature

How Winston Churchill’s book made World War II difficult for Britain

Cover of the book.Source-https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/TheWorldCrisisVol2CoverPage.png

It was the end of World War I. The victors bragged about the techniques they used to win the war.

Some of those secret techniques could be the key to victory in World War II. But due to one man’s revealing book, the cat was out of the bag. Winston S. Churchill and his revelations changed how Germany fought World War II and explains why so many World War II files are still classified.

Encryption:

World War I; or the Great War, was the bloodiest war known to humanity until World War II. The First World War was the first modern war fought across the globe and troop movements caused the rapid spread of the Spanish Flu.

Both sides used new technologies like aircraft, submarines, tanks, poison gas, radio, and automatic weapons in warfare for the first time. One important invention of the era was encryption. Keeping messages secret became a vital activity and encryption an important weapon of war.

Early in the war, the Russians captured the German naval code books from a sunken ship and gave a copy of it to British intelligence. In Britain, the secret intelligence unit that became GCHQ, analyzed the codebook and broke the German encryption. As the British broke the code, they read German secret messages quicker and won the war.

Churchill’s Book:

Winston S. Churchill served as the First Lord of Admiralty (minister of the Navy) early in World War I.

After the war, he wrote a book on his experiences. In this memoir, Churchill explained how the British acquired the codebook and decoded German messages.

The information reached the German High Command in its preparation for World War II. Consequently the Germans employed a much stronger encryption method called Enigma.

The Germans used Enigma initially for more secure communication between banks. Enigma had a series and rotors whose settings changed every day, which made it impossible to crack.

The combination was in billions, and even if broken, the settings would change the next day. The Naval Enigma was much more complicated with cable wires to increase the complexity.

The wizards of Bletchley Park under Alan Turing were able to develop an electromechanical system called BOMB, which was able to decipher German encrypted messages. Churchill remarked that the Bletchley Park team reduced the war by four years.

After World War II, the British government locked up sensitive information regarding many British operations during the war in archives and sealed it for decades. Britain doesn’t want to have its secrets revealed to future enemies as Churchill did.
Their Shoes
By: Luca Shin
Tags: Short Story, Auschwitz, Holocaust, World War II, Written Tales

Mountains of shoes taken from those forced by the Nazis into Auschwitz- Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

I stared in horror at the mountain of shoes, smelling of sweat, dirt and pain. Each shoe a part of an identity, ripped away from thousands unwillingly. Uniformed officers streamed into the concrete building, carrying containers and containers of shoes, jewelry, and clothes. I thought of the memories behind each leather shoe, each diamond ring, each patterned dress. Memories that were stripped from its owners and deemed just another item.

I saw a tiny red shoe, big enough to fit a baby, and felt a pang of sorrow and helplessness. Another happy member of a family, joyful and worriless, oblivious of the pain to follow. Another life gone in the hands of its fellow humans. I thought of the baby, someone with a life to live and thoughts to think, wasted and forgotten. The pile grew in number and the stench of death grew stronger as I thought of all the lives taken that day.

Next to the red shoe I saw a blue and ribboned shoe, and it introduced to me the mother of the family. With her selfless care, she spent all her energy into her precious baby. Until the end, she stayed with her child, protecting him with all the motherly love she had. She longed to give her child a life with hope, a life that was long and prosperous, but she never could. She was another powerless prisoner, who lost everything she cared for.

I saw a large black shoe, now worn and without shine, and pictured the owner that used to wear it. He was the head of a prosperous family, a manager of a bank, working hard and doing no wrong. But in an instant his privileges were taken without mercy, until all he was left with was his body. Money, prominence, identity, life, hope, future; all taken. I saw the pile and tried to remember the forgotten lives in each of the hundreds of shoes.

I saw a worn-out slipper, caked with dust, torn, and ripped. Telling me the stories it kept, and I listened and wondered how another man could use one’s power to render those stories forgotten. The owner had greying hair, sitting on a rocking chair, and calmly listening to her family at the dinner table. She had lived a long and tumultuous life, now with great wisdom, wishing to spend her last years with her family. But the worst event of her life was also her last, spending her last moments helpless, and without hope.

A soldier approached my group, and we knew what was to happen. I spotted my own brown sandal in the pile. I realized that I was an addition to a number once again, just like each of the owners of the shoes I thought about. My hope, thoughts and future were nothing to be anymore. As I lingered on that thought for a moment, I marched along the dusty road, cries of sorrow drowned by the shouts of soldiers.

Luca Shin, 2020

Dedicated to all victims of the Holocaust, both living and deceased.
The Man Who Never Was — Operation Mincemeat in WWII
By: The Archive
Tags: Hitler, The Archives, History, World War II, Youth

The Man Who Never Was — Operation Mincemeat in WWII

During World War 2, British intelligence pulled off one of the most successful deceptions of all time: Operation Mincemeat.

On April 30, 1943, a corpse was found floating off the Southern Spanish coast. The dead body had a briefcase handcuffed to its wrist. Even though Spain was supposed to be a “neutral” country during WWII, the Spanish promptly informed Germany about this discovery.

The Germans quickly acted on this information. They got hold of the body and examined the man and his possessions. The body was identified as Major William Martin of the British Royal Marines. His briefcase contained letters from military authorities to British officers. The letters were about the Allied army’s plans to cross the Mediterranean in order to attack Greece and Sardinia, which were German-controlled territories.

Adolf Hitler, along with the German army, was entirely convinced that the Germans had intercepted crucial plans of the allies. As a result, they doubled the number of troops in Sardinia, and many German divisions were sent to Greece and the Balkans.

The only problem was that the drowned body and the documents were a coup, designed to foil the German Army.

The man was nothing but a Welsh tramp whose body was dressed as a Major in the Royal Marines and given the false identity of William Martin. They gave the man a uniform, theatre tickets, a picture of his girlfriend and other objects to make him appear real. This operation was called Operation Mincemeat.

What made this operation so triumphant?

After a successful North African Campaign, Winston Churchill wanted to attack the Italian island of Sicily, which he called ‘Europe’s soft under-belly’. However, the problem was that the Germans would foresee the attack because Sicily was an obvious target. They needed a diversion, something to throw the Germans off their scent.

There were multiple operations initiated to achieve this — building a fake army in the Eastern Mediterranean, the broadcast of deceptive radio chatter, buying large quantities of Greek maps, etc. All of these helped convince the enemy that the planned attack was in the Balkans.

After the Germans received the fake information, Sicily, the real target, was left lightly defended.

Churchill’s coupe had worked, and in just over a month, the island was captured by the Allies. This ultimately changed the course of the war, tipping it in the Allies’ favour.

Not only did this help Churchill achieve his plan, it also kept the Germans on their feet. Over the course of the war, papers were found revealing future targets of the Allies but Germans never regarded them as true. Everything appeared suspicious: an abandoned craft was confiscated by the Germans.

Operation Mincemeat played an integral role in the Second World War. Without it, the war would have continued for many more years and many more lives would have been lost.

Without The Man Who Never Was, our history would have been different.
COVID versus World War II
By: Intellog Inc.
Tags: Covid 19, Social Media, World War II

COVID versus World War II

It tends to a get a bad rap these days. But we recently challenged ourselves to try and use Twitter for a better and higher purpose than has often been the case recently. In particular, we’re attempting to tackle the thorny issue of the sacrifices we have all been asked to make in the face of the implacable enemy of COVID19.

We started with the idea of how what we are being asked to do compares to the sacrifices made by other generations when faced with similar, global calamaties. World War II was the first thing which came to mind both in terms of its impact and it’s scale. However, to avoid a comparison of the two conflicts — which is comparing two really incomparable events — we chose to focus on the progress of the disasters on a day-by-day basis and the impact to ordinary citizens.

We finally settled on the idea of a Twitter feed called COVID versus World War II which has an incredibly simple premise: what day are we at in relation to when the global pandemic was declared (March 11th, 2020) and what happened in World War II on the same day in relation to the start of conflict (September 1st, 1939). With each tweet — there’s typically only one per day — we provide a link to a newspaper article from that day in World War II — all links furnished by Newspapers.com. That’s it. We don’t try and spin the article in any particular way. We leave the interpretation of these tweets to the reader.

Given our locale, we are for the most part linking Canadian newspapers from the period but will occasionally feature articles from US- and UK-based publications. Note that we are not attempting to cover the big, earth-shattering developments of World War II (@RealTimeWWII already does an excellent job along these lines) but rather to find the stories of ordinary citizens being asked — and being willing — to make sacrifices for the greater good.

Beyond that angle, we provide these links without comment with the hope that readers will simply be given pause to think about whatever they’re being asked to do with respect to COVID19 and compare it to what our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents did in the past. We encourage you to reach your own conclusions.

We invite you to follow @COVIDvWorldWar2 and let us know how we did.
The WWII maneuver that achieved nothing and killed 225 men
Tags: History, War, World War II, Operation Cottage, American History

The WWII maneuver that achieved nothing and killed 225 men

Summer of 1943 on Kiska Island, located among the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. A force of Japanese land on the island and storm an American weather station, killing two and capturing eight Navy Officers.

Soon after, 2,000 Japanese troops arrive in Kiska’s harbor. By Spring, the island is acquired by the Japanese forces.

After the Japanese takeover of Kiska, war planners expected a tough fight when trying to take back the island. Plans were made to send in troops from the U.S. 7th Infantry Division, 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division and the 13th Infantry Brigade (Canada), and additionally an elite special forces unit of American and Canadian commandos.

Upon storming the island, a Canadian soldier fired a shot at the American lines, mistaking the Americans for the Japanese. This sparked an exchange of friendly fire, killing twenty eight Americans and four Canadians. More men were lost due to booby traps and mines, killing an additional 171 men.

The worst part was that there were no Japanese remaining on the island. The Japanese had evacuated the island two weeks before, as it was not defensible. Aerial photographs had shown that there was virtually no movement in the harbor and routine activities had diminished. This tragedy could have been prevented through further examination.

The pointless assault of Kiska offers a valuable lesson on the dangers of unverified assumptions and the importance of cognitive analysis in contemporary joint operation planning. — Del C. Kostka

The tragedic operation remains a reminder that decisions in war must be made with the utmost attention.
Glens Falls in 1946 — Finch discontinues news print
By: Maury Thompson
Tags: Newspapers, Depression, History, Manufacturing, World War II

In the early 20th century, the Finch, Pruyn & Co. paper mill in Glens Falls produced newsprint for about 150 newspapers.

Depression era economics and World War II era developments led to diversification, and on Jan. 1, 1946, the company discontinued production of newsprint and undertook a major upgrade of the mill to focus on printing and writing papers.

Even though the mill no longer made newsprint, Finch, Pruyn continued to supply 21 daily newspapers with newsprint, through an arrangement with a Canadian paper company.

A wave of newspaper consolidations and closings after World War I continued in the 1920s and ’30s in conditions similar to the current newspaper industry.

“With the Depression of the early thirties, the newsprint paper, with other commodities, was greatly reduced, and further the industry had been greatly overbuilt in Canada,” The Post-Star reported.

To offset the decline in newsprint sales, Finch, Pruyn began making specialty ground wood paper used as raw stock for manufacturing wall paper.

During World War II, there was a scarcity of traditional paper for book publishing, and publishers, experimenting with the ground wood stock, found it to be satisfactory, opening another new market for Finch, Pruyn.

By 1945, two-thirds of the mill’s production was in wall paper stock and printing papers, and only one-third news print.

Over time, Finch diversified into high grade papers for printing and writing, and other special specialty papers.

The mill, now known as Finch Paper, is still a major employer in Glens Falls.
“REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR” by Steve Savage “King of the Beasts”
By: Steve Savage
Tags: Pearl Harbor, World War II, History

Oh, is the anniversary of Pearl Harbor here already? It comes and goes so quickly and without much fanfare these days. No longer politically correct, you know, to appear patriotic when immersed in a sea of hodge-podge humanity who cannot, nor will not, remember that they are Americans. We mustn’t offend our former enemies who are now our current creditors. Better not fly the Flag at half-mast either. Someone might notice.

“Wouldn’t be prudent.”

The wars our forefathers fought for the very survival of America are no longer celebrated as great victories for liberty and freedom; nor are our heroes glorified for their bravery and courage. The emphasis on World War II history is now on racist internments of Resident Aliens and the segregation of Blacks in our military.

Napoleon said, “History is a set of lies agreed upon.” How true that is. Our educational system is effectively eliminating America’s past. What was once deemed important, is now unimportant; the once relevant is now irrelevant. Fact has become fiction; fiction fact, myth legend, and legend, history.

Our Founding Fathers, if they happen to appear in a textbook that has not been redacted to exclude their mention, are not portrayed as the great men they were, but rather, as slave owners.

Thomas Jefferson is characterized as, not only a slave owner, but also, as the adulterous, incestuous child molester of Sally Hemmings, his slave, and wife’s half-sister.

Very few stand out of respect for the National Anthem anymore; fewer still salute the Flag — more symbols of racism, I suppose. We celebrate KWAANZA and Hannukah by allowing their religious symbols on municipal property, yet will not hesitate to prosecute anything that even remotely smacks of Christianity.

I really don’t know how we devolved into the divided, Balkanized America we’ve become, but it seems to me that the America we once knew, who “lifted her lamp beside the Golden Door” and cried out: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” is no longer a “Melting Pot,” but, rather, is rapidly becoming a “Rotted Stew.”
Wojtek the Bear — The “Happy Warrior” Who Battled the Nazis
By: Harry Schofield
Tags: Poland, History, World War II, Animals, Military History

When Wojtek was born in 1942, Poland wasn’t in the best shape. After all, it had been invaded three years earlier by Nazi Germany in the event that kicked off the whole war. What is often overlooked, however, is the Soviet invasion that coincided with it — at the start of the war, Hitler and Stalin all but carved up the Polish state for themselves, intent on annexing whatever they could in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. On the Soviet side, thousands of Polish citizens and soldiers were deported to the Union, where they would remain in prisoner-of-war camps.

That was the case until 1941, when Germany unexpectedly backstabbed the Soviet Union and invaded, implementing Operation Barbarossa. As a result, British negotiators were able to persuade the Soviets to permit their Polish prisoners to leave the USSR. Thousands of refugees began to make their way towards Iran. Accompanying them was what was left of the independent Polish army: II Corps, or ‘Anders’ Army’, so-dubbed for its commander, Lieutenant General Władysław Anders.

Anders’ Army arrived at the city of Hamadan in April 1942, where they noticed a young Iranian boy at the train station with a bear cub. One of the refugees, Irena Bokiewicz — great-niece of one of Anders’ generals — was interested in this strange sight and enquired further about the cub. Upon learning that the cub’s mother had been shot by hunters a few days ago, Irena at once persuaded one of the soldiers, Lieutenant Anatol Tarnowiecki, to buy the bear from the boy and let her take care of him for three months. In August, the cub, who the soldiers called Wojtek, was donated to the 22nd Artillery Supply Company, where he would serve throughout the rest of the war.

Wojtek quickly became a close companion to the soldiers. On cold nights, he would sleep alongside them to give them comfort. In the daytime, he would play-wrestle with the troops and copy what they did. In the end, the soldiers would teach him how to salute, how to march with them, how to smoke cigarettes (or, rather, eat them) and how to drink beer — which ended up becoming his favourite beverage. Such was his popularity with the soldiers and refugees that he became an unofficial mascot for the Polish troops.

Anders’ Army eventually arrived in Egypt in July 1943, where they were attached to the British Eighth Army in preparation for the invasion of Italy. However, the Polish soldiers were faced with a problem: British regulations forbade the transportation of pets. They were told that Wojtek wouldn’t be able to come with them. However, some clever thinking led the troops to devise an unorthodox solution to that problem. Wojtek was promptly and swiftly enlisted as a private in II Corps. As he was now a soldier, now there would have to be provisions for his transport and care. Consequently, he was assigned his own caretakers — the soldiers Henryk Zacharewicz and Dymitr Szawlugo.
War and Innovation
By: Dexter Ng
Tags: Innovation, National Defense, Economics, World War II, Statlytics

U.S. federal support for research through funding and establishment of National Defense Research Committee during the World War II directly contributed to a surge in wartime patenting. It has also seen to have propelled the development of innovation hubs that continually fostered post-war discoveries and related employment growth.

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Source: #NBER Working Paper 27375
“A Non-Stop Mystery for Biden to Bring Resolution in Rohingya”
Tags: United States, Joe Biden, Rohingya, World War II, Myanmar

I want to share my stand regarding the reading I had. We’ve been talking about different issues and anticipation with the new Biden administration and it doesn’t stop here. In fact, The new Biden administration will be keen to reassert American leadership across the globe after four years of the US abdicating its position as a world leader. Few problems will be higher on the agenda than the genocide of Rohingya.

Looking at it, One would consider a US president to be the leading voice on the world stage in normal times. But these are not moments that are usual. The US is more divided than it has been at any time since World War II.

But if there will be a tight sanctions system, which would eventually also affect the economic interests of Beijing Belt and Road in Myanmar and will serve to be back on the agenda. Once that comes into effect, the development will become viable for the Rohingya. It’s not going to be quick, and the findings are not a forgotten inference, but this persecuted party still has hope.
“Come and See”: Everything Must Burn
By: James Y. Lee
Tags: Movies, War, Film, Culture, World War II

The film’s primary method of utterly scarring its viewers is through bombarding them with striking and almost hallucinatory imagery, and blends it with unendurable realism by depicting numerous German massacres of Belarusian villages in stark detail. Flyora’s torturous journey seems to age him to an absurd degree in only a handful of hours, and the more the film progresses, overwhelming the viewer’s senses one by one, it’s difficult to not see why that is. There’s not a moment in this film that doesn’t have an incredible intensity unrivaled by its contemporaries; the experience only becomes all the more horrifying and immersive as a result, as if the battlefields and scorched earth truly becomes the audience’s surroundings.

While there is very little breathing room or levity at all for this film, the tension only constantly exacerbates until it reaches an unbearable breaking point with an unforgettably filmed sequence of a brutal real-life massacre, and almost immediately afterwards transitions to what is quite possibly one of the most electrifying and furiously phrased cinematic statements on the roots of the Holocaust. It’s a statement on the crushingly bleak helplessness of all who fell victim to the unforgivable evils of Nazi Germany, as well as the inhuman, systemic, and utterly monstrous roots of it all.

For a film that seems constantly on the verge of boiling over with its consistently chaotic and deeply upsetting atmosphere, the final minutes of this film and how it simply seems to explode with the force of everything that has been built up so far in a culminating and unforgettable close is not to be missed. It’s an ending that will sear itself into the memories of anyone who has lasted long enough in the film to continue watching it with a still-intact mind.

Aleksei Kravchenko in ‘Come and See’. Photo: Janus Films.

Come and See is, if nothing else, a nightmare perfectly reflected in a cinematic way, and is perhaps the most definitive depiction of the genuinely traumatic impact and devastation that war leaves behind. Once again, few anti-war movies — or for that matter, even the best horror movies — have come close to depicting even a hint of the existential terror it brings to the table. As Ari Aster — writer and director of Hereditary and Midsommar — has chosen to put it:

“As a travelogue of hell, a catalog of horrors, and a single-minded transference of never-to-be-resolved historical traumas, Come and See has not, to my knowledge, been topped. If it ever should be, the result would be unendurable.”
Hitler’s Plan to Kill Churchill Using Exploding Chocolate
By: S Pats
Tags: History, War, World War II, Nonfiction, Society

Hitler’s Plan to Kill Churchill Using Exploding Chocolate

The Nazis are infamous for their murderous schemes and willingness to use any means necessary during World War II. In 1943, the war had turned sour for them. The massive gains they made in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were being chipped away, its navy decimated and the Battle of Britain had inflicted heavy losses on the air force.

With the prospects for a land invasion of the UK gone, the Germans tried a hilariously sneaky trick to sow chaos — killing Winston Churchill with deadly chocolate. Rather than using poisoned chocolate that would be harder to detect, the Nazis decided to use bombs with a thin layer of chocolate.

The bombs looked like a regular chocolate bar and would explode when one of the ends were snapped or pulled off — presumably by a hungry Prime Minister. The plan involved german spies placing the ‘chocolate’ in the dining room of the War Cabinet. The explosive treats were apparently designed to have a blast radius of a few metres, enough to kill everyone in a medium sized room.

You can guess how the plan unfolded. British agents in Germany heard of the scheme and alerted British intelligence. On the fourth of May 1943 Lord Victor Rothschild, an intelligence officer at Britain’s MI5, caught wind of it and wrote a letter to an illustrator called Laurence Fish. It read:

“We have received information that the enemy are using pound slabs of chocolate which are made of steel with a very thin covering of real chocolate.” “Inside there is high explosive and some form of delay mechanism…When you break off a piece of chocolate at one end in the normal way, instead of it falling away, a piece of canvas is revealed stuck into the middle of the piece which has been broken off and a ticking into the middle of the remainder of the slab.”

The letter remained hidden for 66 years, until it was uncovered by Fish’s wife after his death in 2009.

But the Nazis didn’t stop at exploding chocolate, they planned a whole platter of deadly treats. They managed to create explosive versions of:

Tinned plums

Incendiary eggs

Soap

Lunchboxes

Wine bottles

Chewing gum

Vegetables

Sardines…

The list probably goes on but we may never know the full menu.

Perhaps the UK was lucky in facing the Germans, one can only imagine what the French or Italians would have come up with!
Which book to read if you want to be an optimistic person?
Tags: Books, Book Recommendations, World War II, Holocaust, Book Review

Man's search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

"No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same"

Man's search for meaning is written by a holocaust survivor and a professor of neurology and psychiatry so more than the pains of the holocaust it concentrates on how to deal with life in the terrible and how a man can conquer heaviest of sufferings by deciding their attitude towards the given situations.

Viktor has given an account of things that used to happen in the camps where they were kept to labour and how each day was a goal to keep up breathing. You never knew if you would be existing tomorrow.

Through the problems everyone confronted, Viktor has used them to share his interpretation of withstanding and how a purpose in life can take you through the awful a human being can be put to. You alone can choose what shall be your mental and spiritual attitude.

Someone has very aptly said, "Nothing is more powerful than a human being with a purpose"

And this book speaks up the same. Always have something to look up to if you want to make it till the horizon.

Also, in the second part of the book, Viktor has talked about in detail about his work on 'Logotherapy'

Logotherapy addresses in detail about how can one discover meaning in life. And it says,

'Man is even ready to suffer, on the conditions to be sure that his sufferings have a meaning'

This book is a sermon for existence and I highly recommend that you read it.