Soldier-boys, those boy soldiersSoldier-boys, those boy soldiers
“Hitler made his last public appearance, decorating children who had distinguished themselves in combat.” – Robert Goralski, “March 20, 1945,” World War II Almanac: 1931-1945
Category: The Second World War
They weren’t manned by robotsThey weren’t manned by robots
“The last surviving ship of a 21-vessel Japanese convoy was sunk off Singapore. The tanker Sarawak Maru ended up like the others, picked off one-by-one over a ten-week period as the convoy attempted to bring supplies from Japan to forces in southeast Asia. Some were sunk in daylight attacks by carrier planes and in nighttime attacks by submarines in the China seas; others were hit by mines strewn along their path in the Singapore Strait; eventually all were lost.” – Robert Goralski, “March 19, 1945,” World War II Almanac: 1931-1945
Not their war, thank youNot their war, thank you
“The first Canadian draftees to be sent abroad sailed for Europe from Halifax. Except for service in Kiska, conscripts had not been sent abroad. Of the 60,000 men in this category, many seemed intent on not going into combat areas. Prior to this first overseas departure, 7,800 had gone absent without leave and 6,300 were still absent at sailing time. As some boarded the ships, they dropped their rifles into the water from the gangplank.” – Robert Goralski, “January 3, 1945,” World War II Almanac: 1931-1945
In the shadow of the kamikazeIn the shadow of the kamikaze
“A mighty typhoon about 500 miles east of the Philippines inflicted heavy losses and damage on the U.S. Third Fleet. Three destroyers capsized and 769 lives were lost. Severe damage was suffered by eight [aircraft] carriers, a light cruiser, seven destroyers, and a variety of auxiliaries. Nearly 150 planes were lost off carrier decks or damaged beyond repair. Nature thus inflicted greater losses on the U.S. Navy than they were to suffer in any single battle in the Pacific war.” – Robert Goralski, “December 17-18, 1944,” World War II Almanac: 1931-1945
It’s not just who you know, it’s also when and where you know themIt’s not just who you know, it’s also when and where you know them
“U.S.S. PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, was sunk after it was rammed by a Japanese destroyer in Blackett Strait in the Solomons. Eleven of the 13 crewmen survived and a week later were returned to their base and Rendova after harrowing and heroic efforts to elude the Japanese. (The official report on PT-109‘s loss was cowritten by the flotilla’s intelligence officer, Lieutenant (j.g.) Byron R. White, a 1962 appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court by President John F. Kennedy.) – Robert Goralski, “August 2, 1943,” World War II Almanac: 1931-1945
DE-678DE-678
“The American destroyer escort Harmon was launched. It was the first U.S. Navy ship ever named for a black, Leonard Roy Harmon, a mess attendant killed while saving a shipmate’s life during the fight for Guadalcanal. He received the Navy Cross posthumously. The ship was christened by his mother.” – Robert Goralski, “July 25, 1943,” World War II Almanac: 1931-1945
Simple statement of historical factSimple statement of historical fact
“All contractors involved in the production of U.S. war materials were barred from practicing racial discrimination.” – Robert Goralski, “May 27, 1943,” World War II Almanac: 1931-1945
Prescient ladPrescient lad
“Germany’s military overthrow was not an undeserved catastrophe, but a well-merited punishment which was in the nature of an eternal retribution. This defeat was more than deserved by us.” – Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (trans. Murphy)
Pin a tail on that donkeyPin a tail on that donkey
“As some historians have contended, [British Prime Minister] Chamberlain in the end saw himself as a practical businessman willing to deal with the world as it was, engage in hardheaded negotiation with others, and strike a mutually beneficial bargain on the assumption that all parties would honor their parts of the deal. Like the vast majority of his countrymen, he had vivid and terrible memories of the [First] World War and felt revulsion at the thought of a new generation dying on the killing fields of Western Europe. In both instances, he was a liberal—a man of humane sentiments and reasoned intellect. The Realpolitik he tried to practice was itself largely a creation of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment in reaction to previous catastrophic wars of religion; it thought of states and their leaders as rational actors seeking to maximize advantage but pursuing limited aims. Chamberlain expressed the most important weakness of his superficially tough-minded realism when he declared his determination to deal with the grievances of adversaries through the application of ‘our common sense, our common humanity” in seeking the solution to outstanding problems. Realpolitik in the age of Hitler and Stalin required an understanding of the darker angels of human nature. Businessman in background, Unitarian in religious training, liberal politician in vocation, Chamberlain had scant conception of the phenomenon of evil.” – Alonzo L. Hamby, For the Survival of Democracy
Hang the carrot from the stick, and it worksHang the carrot from the stick, and it works
“Dictators told journalists what to write. Democratic leaders manipulated them, none more successfully than Franklin Roosevelt.” – Alonzo L. Hamby, For the Survival of Democracy
It was near to time for torches and pitchforksIt was near to time for torches and pitchforks
“ ‘We are at the end of our rope,’ Hoover remarked to an aide late on the evening of March 3 [1932]. And so it seemed might also be the country. Here and there in the midwestern farm regions, armed groups effectively prevented foreclosure sales. In Iowa, the Farmers’ Holiday Association sporadically blocked shipments of produce to market. In some cities, laid-off utility workers tapped electric lines to restore power to homes that had failed to pay their bills. There were scattered reports of groups invading supermarkets and appropriating supplies of food without paying.” – Alonzo L. Hamby, For the Survival of Democracy
Better rashness than inertia; better a mistake than hesitationBetter rashness than inertia; better a mistake than hesitation
“A favorable situation will never be exploited if commanders wait for orders. The highest commander and the youngest soldier must always be conscious of the fact that omission and inactivity are worse than resorting to the wrong expedient.” – General Helmuth Karl Bernard von Moltke (as quoted by Trevor N. Dupuy in A Genius for War)
Or any other inappropriate targetOr any other inappropriate target
“The person who has an opportunity to prevent a crime and deliberately fails to do so ends up by being resentful to its victim.” – Gordon A. Craig, Germany 1866-1945
Serf’s up! Grab your waterboards!Serf’s up! Grab your waterboards!
“A country is not only what it does—it is what it puts up with, what it tolerates.” – Kurt Tucholsky (trans. Gordon A. Craig, Germany 1866-1945)
It was not entirely calculatedIt was not entirely calculated
“The origins of the annihilation of the German Jews were much more remote in time than the events of Krystallnacht. They are to be found in popular reactions to the dislocations that accompanied Germany’s belated but headlong rise as an industrial Power in the nineteenth century and in the growth of a virulent form of racist anti-Semitism in the Wilhelmine period, which remained latent until military defeat and economic collapse turned it into a potent rallying-cry for the rightist fanatics and demagogues who led the attack upon the Weimar constitution. The most gifted of these, Adolf Hitler, was also the one most obsessed with hatred and fear of the Jews.” – Gordon A. Craig, Germany 1866-1945
How it was doneHow it was done
“In the muddle of competing agencies that constituted the governmental system of the Third Reich, the SS was the effective instrument of domination. Unfettered by the normal restraints of law and accountable only to its commander, and beyond him the Führer himself, it exercised sovereign control over the lives and liberties of German citizens, arresting and detaining them on any pretext, imprisoning them for long periods for unproved or invented crimes (even after the regime was presumably stable and consolidated, there were never fewer than 10,000 Germans in concentration camps), subjecting them to inhuman physical torments, and murdering them for daring to criticize the realities of National Socialism and the crimes of its leadership. The knowledge of the enormities that the SS perpetrated daily, the knowledge that the camps were always waiting for new inmates, the knowledge that many who entered them were never heard of again was never absent from the minds of German citizens, and the fear that it induced was a potent force in maintaining their obedience to the dictatorship. In the Third Reich, terror was the greatest of political realities.” – Gordon A. Craig, Germany 1866-1945
He’s giving it to you straightHe’s giving it to you straight
“In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.” – Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf (trans. Murphy)
Herding the sheepleHerding the sheeple
“The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away.” – Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf (trans. Manheim)