Former WWII pilot flew Nazi leader to captivity

NewsOK: Former WWII pilot flew Nazi leader to captivity
MISSOULA, Mont. — Capt. Bo Foster had an extraordinary mission: Fly Nazi leader Hermann Goering to the 7th Army’s headquarters for interrogation.

It was May 9, 1945, the day after World War II ended in Europe. Goering, Foster and officers from the Army’s 36th Infantry Division gathered on an airstrip outside Kitzbuhel, Austria, to transport the war prisoner back to Germany in a two-man reconnaissance plane.



Mayhew “Bo” Foster Brigadier General, Montana National Guard

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Former WWII pilot flew Nazi leader to captivity
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In Nuremberg, Hermann Goering was found guilty of war crimes. Sentenced to hang, he committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule.
“They wanted to get him back where he could be debriefed,” Foster said. “He just acted as though it was a nice, friendly trip.”

Mayhew “Bo” Foster, now 99 and living in a Missoula nursing home, recently recounted his rare encounter with one of the most wanted Nazi leaders. Foster later became brigadier general of the Montana National Guard and was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his World War II service, but it was this mission that stood out as the highlight of his military career.

Goering, 52, had surrendered to the U.S. Army’s 36th Infantry Division the day before, and was now being delivered to Foster for transport.

Foster, then 33, said he didn’t fear getting shot down or Goering trying to wrest control of the aircraft away from him.

The main problem, Foster said, was getting the two of them off the ground. Goering weighed 300-plus pounds, and the nimble, lightweight Piper L4 that Foster piloted in his artillery spotting missions wouldn’t support both him and Goering.

They’d have to upgrade to an L5, a slightly larger aircraft Foster hadn’t flown in years.

Goering settled into the back seat, and when the seat belt wouldn’t stretch across his belly, he held the strap in his hand, looked at Foster and said, “Das goot!” — that’s good.

The two men spent the 55-minute flight from Kitzbuhel to Augsburg, Germany, conversing in a mix of German and English.

“He acted as though he was going on a sightseeing tour, or really as though I was going on a sightseeing tour and he was showing me where he grew up,” Foster said.

He described Goering as sharp, friendly and witty, even cracking a joke when Foster asked him when Germany began manufacturing jets.

“Too late,” Goering replied.

There was just a single jeep at the airstrip to meet the arriving flight. Foster rode with Goering to the gates of the 7th Army Headquarters and formally turned him over to the intelligence officer without ceremony.

Sixty-five years later, Foster is trim, sharp and carries himself as a former military officer.

He still reflects on his rare insight into the Nazi leadership, and he recognizes that the experience had shifted his perceptions of the enemy. It allowed him to see the human side of those he had only known as caricatures.

Californians honor World War II internment defier

Mercury News: Californians honor World War II internment defier
SAN FRANCISCO—Californians are observing the first official statewide day set aside to honor Fred Korematsu, who fought the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans.
State lawmakers last year voted unanimously to designate Jan. 30 as Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution.

The measure encourages Californians to recognize the importance of preserving civil liberties.

Korematsu was arrested in Oakland in 1942 after refusing to enter an internment camp.

His case led the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans was legal. The high court ruled against him in 1944.

A San Francisco federal court judge formally vacated Korematsu's conviction 40 years later. President Bill Clinton presented him with the Medal of Freedom in 1998. Korematsu died in 2005.

Holocaust museum seeks stories of local WWII veterans

Ultimate West U Beta: Holocaust museum seeks stories of local WWII veterans
Houston, Texas -- As part of a new exhibit titled "Ours to Fight For: American Jews in the Second World War,” Holocaust Museum Houston is inviting veterans and their families and friends to share stories and photos of Jewish veterans who served during World War II.

It was once widely believed that Jewish people did not serve in the military in World War II. The exhibition, which opens July 15, commemorates the role of Jewish military members who served on and off the battlefield during World War II.

The exhibit continues through Dec. 31 in Holocaust Museum Houston's Mincberg Gallery in the Morgan Family Center at 5401 Caroline St., in Houston's Museum District.

“Ours to Fight For,” which was created by the Museum of Jewish Heritage – "A Living Memorial to the Holocaust" in New York City, is based on video testimony gathered from more than 400 oral histories with Jewish servicemen and women. Their words are illustrated through historic film footage, videotaped interviews and hundreds of photographs and objects.

As part of the exhibition, Holocaust Museum Houston is seeking photos and one-page descriptions of local Jewish veterans and their service during World War II.

For more information about submitting entries, contact the Changing Exhibits Department at Holocaust Museum Houston at 713-942-8000, ext. 400, or by e-mail to exhibits@hmh.org by April 29.

A free preview reception, open to the public, will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on July 14. Advance registration is required. To register online, visit www.hmh.org/registerevent.aspx. For more information, call 713-942-8000 or e-mail exhibits@hmh.org.

1940 Chronology: 30 January, 1940

In a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast, celebrating the 7th anniversary of his Chancellorship, Hitler declsares that the first phase of the war has been completed with the destruction of Poland. The second phase might perhaps start with a "war of bombs" such as Churchill showed himself so impatient for three days before.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

1940 Chronology: 29 January 1940

Finland: Secret negotiations had been taking place in Stockholm on the initiative of the Russians to try to reach a diplomatic solution to the conflict. As a result of these talks, the USSR sends the Swedish government a note saying: "The Soviet Union has no object in principle to a possible agreement with the Ryti government" (the legitimate government of Finland.) This declaration opens the way to peace, since the USSR is implicity saying that it is ready to renounce support of Kuusinen's puppet government.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

1940 Chronology: 27 January 1940

Hitler orders preparations for the campaign against Norway and Denmark to convince. The Allies are also "eyeing" Norway.

In a speech to the Chamber of Commerce in Manchester, Churchill says he is puzzled and worried about the "phoney war", and wonders why Britain has not yet been bombed.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

1940 Chonology: 26 January 1940

It is stated in London that of 734,883 children evacuated since the start of the war, 316,192 had returned to their homes by 8 January.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

1940 Chronology: 20 January, 1940

In a broadcast from London, Winston Churchill speaks of the Allied Superiority at sea over the Kriegsmarine.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Kilroy Was Here, edited by Charles Osgood

Kilroy Was Here: The Best American Humor from World War II, edited by Charles Osgood
Hyperion, 2001
184 pages, a few illustrations scattered throughout
Library: 940.53 KIL

Description
War is hell, but it can also be hilarious. And in no war was this more true than in World War II. While there is nothing remotely funny about the war itself, it's clear that some of the hardship endured in that conflict was made more bearable by generous doses of humor.

Now, Emmy-award winning television journalist Charles Osgood has collected an assortment of classic stories and comic tales that buoyed the spirits of Americans who served on land, at sea, and in the air. The title of the collection, Kilroy Was Here, refers to the ubiquitous piece of graffiti that US servicemen scrawled in bizarre and unlikely places.

The majority of the pieces were created during the war itself: a dictionary of military slang, poignant cartoons by Bill Mauldin, Marion Hargrove's riotously funny descriptions of army life. The topics range from the wretched food to rivalry between the service branches, from boot camp bullies to R n R. The book also inbcludes comic anecdotes from celebrities such as Bob Hope, Buddy Hackett and the Andrews Sisters, and an insightful and moving introductory essay by Osgood.

A womderful compilation of historically significant writing, this treasury of wit and humor is also a tribute to all who served and an inspiring celebration of America's indomitable spirit.

Table of Contents
Introduction by Charles Osgood
1. A Dictionary of American Military Slang, 1941-1944
2. Boot CAmp
3. Shipping Out, REady or Not
4. In the Field, Seas and Skies
5. Mess and Other GRub
6. R&R
7. Army vs Navy vs Marines vs Air Force...
8. Accidental Insubordination and Other Miscellaneous Occurrences in the Line of Duty
9. Enemies and Friends
10. Celebrities
11. Looking Ahead

Birds From Hell, by Wilbur H. Morrison

Birds From Hell: History of the B-29, by Wilbur H. Morrison
Hellgate Press, 2001
Oversize, 271 pages, plus 18 pages of b&w photos, bibliography. No index.
Library: 940.54 MOR

Description
The B-29 Superfortress. It was powered by four Wright R-3350-23 Duplex CYclone eighteen cylinder, air-cooled radial engines, each with two turbosuperchargers, capable of delivering 2200 horsepower at takeoff. It could reach an altitude of 20,000 feet in 38 minutes, a top speed of 375 mph at 30,000 feet, with a maximum range of 3,250 miles when carrying 5,000 pounds of bombs. It had pressurized cabins, 15,000 feet of wiring, remote control armaments, the largest propellers ever installed on a production airplane, and a price tag that eventually reached $1 million per plane.

The B-29 Superfortress was developed in 1940 as an eventual replacement for the B-17 and B-24. THe first one built made its maiden flight on September 21, 1942. In 1943, the decision was made to base the long-range bomber solely in the Pacific Theater where it was particularly suited for the lng over-water flights necessary to attack the Japanese homeland from bases in China, Saipan, Guam and Tinian.

As many as 1,000 Superfortresses as a time bombed Tokyo, destroying large parts of the city. Finally, on August 6, 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, the B-29 Bockscar dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Shortly thereafter, Japan surrendered.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface

Part I - The Superfortress is born
Introduction
1. Hangar Queens
2. A B-29 program in shambles
3. The Battle of Kansas

Part II - CBI Operations
4. All alone over enemy territory
5. "Tonight we bomb Japan!"
6. Armold Fires Wolfe
7. LeMay Assumes Command
8. Pin-Point Bombing
9. "Pisspoor bananas! Chickenshit coconuts!"
10. The Hellbirds Lament
11. Incendiary Attack devastates Tokyo.

Part III-Tinian
12. Medal of Honor
13. A Proud Beginning
14. "When is this war going to be over?"
15. Tick, tick, tick
16. "My God!"
17. "The War is Over
18. Mission Accomplished

Epilogue
Bibliography




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This blog is updated every Monday and Thursday

1940 Chronology: 16 January, 1940

Hitler definitelty defers his offensive in the west until the spring.

The French decide to raise two more armoured divisions.

The Allies begin to prepare for armed intervention in the Scandinavian peninsula.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

15 Jan, 2011, Spain requests warrant for alleged Nazi war criminal

CNN: Spain requests warrant for alleged Nazi war criminal
Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish court is requesting an arrest warrant for alleged Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk.

In a ruling dated January 7 but released Friday, Spanish Judge Ismael Moreno Chamarro said Demjanjuk is accused of being "an accomplice to the crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity."

The indictment said more than 150 Spaniards were imprisoned at the Flossenburg concentration camp, where Demjanjuk allegedly was a guard. Sixty of them died, according to evidence cited in the judge's ruling.

The ruling orders that a European arrest warrant be issued for Demjanjuk, who is currently on trial in Germany on charges of being an accessory to thousands of murders during World War II. He was extradited there from the United States in 2009.

Demjanjuk lost a U.S. Supreme Court case against his deportation. His lawyers had asked the high court to consider their claims that he was too ill and frail to be sent overseas. They also raised human rights and other legal issues.

In the German trial, his defense attorney there has argued that the court was imposing a "moral and judicial double standard."

The retired auto worker from Cleveland, Ohio -- a native Ukrainian -- was a prisoner of war during the conflict, and would have been killed had he not done what the Nazis ordered, the defense team argued in 2009.

The Munich state prosecutor brought the charges against Demjanjuk for his alleged role at the Sobibor death camp in Poland, where the Nazis and their accessories killed at least 167,000 people, according to the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Relatives of victims have joined the prosecution's case in Germany.

The accusations against Demjanjuk date to the late 1970s, when the U.S. Justice Department accused him of being a Nazi guard known as "Ivan the Terrible." His U.S. citizenship was revoked in 1981, and he was extradited to Israel in 1986.

Demjanjuk was convicted in an Israeli court in 1988 and sentenced to death, but that conviction was overturned in 1993 amid evidence that someone else was "Ivan the Terrible."

A federal court restored Demjanjuk's citizenship, ruling the government withheld evidence supporting his case.

But his citizenship was revoked again in 2002 after a federal judge ruled his 1952 entry into the United States was illegal because he hid his past as a Nazi guard.

14 Jan, 2011: German vintner discovers World War Two wine cache

Reuters: German vintner discovers World War Two wine cache
Andreas Neymeyer discovered 500 bottles under a cellar staircase while clearing out a burned-out building on his 38 hectare (94 acre) vineyard in southern Germany shortly before Christmas.

"It was my uncle's idea," Neymeyer told Reuters. "I was preparing the building to be torn down and he knew that wine had been hidden sometime before the end of World War II.

"It was springtime 1945 and the French were about to invade. My family wanted to secure some wine if there was any looting by troops."

It was not the first reserve of wine that Neymeyer has found on the vineyard, which produces some 350,000 bottles of wine each year.

"The wine is still drinkable; in fact some is quite good," the fifth generation vintner said. "The dark conditions were ideal for storage."

Some of the bottles were not from the vineyard but were sweet wines thought to be from Spain or Greece. Brandy, schnapps and sacramental wine was also found in the collection.

Neymeyer plans to rebottle the wine and put it up for auction when the new building is ready to open next year.

15 Jan, 2011, La. World War II vet given delayed honor

Eyewitness News, KLFY: La. World War II vet given delayed honor
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - An 88-year-old World War II veteran in Baton Rouge is now a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.

Lionel Abshire's family tells The Advocate that he sleeps a lot these days and rarely talks. But Abshire - who grew up speaking Cajun French - perked up as French consul general Olivier (oh-LEE-vee-ay) Brochenin (BROHSH-nehn) spoke in French and English.

The consul is based in New Orleans, and went to Abshire's house because a bad fall earlier this year has confined the veteran to a wheelchair.

Abshire failed his first Army physical, but was later accepted. He landed in France four days after D-Day. His other awards include two bronze stars.


Information from: The Advocate, http://www.2theadvocate.com

1940 Chronology: 15 January, 1940

Belgium refuses to give permission for French and British troops to cross Belgian territory.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Stella, by Peter Wyden

Stella: One Woman's True Tale of Evil Betrayal, and Survival in Hitler's Germany, by Peter Wyden
Simon & Schuster, 1992
339 pages, plus 16 pages of b&w photos, list of interviewees, Notes on Sources, Bibliography, index
Library: 940.5315 WYD

Description
In all literature there has never been another book like this-haunting, deeply personal, a document as exciting as a spy novel, a non-fiction, real-life Sophie's Choice.

Stella Goldschlag was blond, beautiful, and seductive. So blond, in fact, that strangers in Berlin in 1935 might have wondered whether she belonged in the Goldschmidt School-a school for Jewish children, founded shortly after the Nazis had removed all "non-Aryan" children from GErman schools.

It was there that Peter Wyden first met Stella. Wyden's family managed to escape to America before the outbreak of the war. Stella's didn't.

When Wyden returned to Germany in 1945 as part of the conquering United States Army, he discovered that Stella had not only survived the Holocaust that had claimed so many of his family and friends, but had become notorious as a "catcher" for the Gestapo, hunting down hidden Jews in wartime Berlin, a collaborator in Hitler's "Final Solution".

The facts were hard to believe, but their truth was borne out by dozens of Jews who had survived this woman's duplicity. What, then, had caused this transformation? What had happened to turn this fondly remembered classmate into a tool of the Gestapo, hunting out the few Jews who had managed to escape the dreaded clutches of the Nazi murderers?

These questions haunted Wyden for decades, finally compelling him to travel back into his past and into the history of so many of his friends who had died during the war. This book is the result of that journey, a trip that carries the reader into Stella's tortured past (she is alive today, and spoke freely with Wyden)through her three murder trials and the trauma inherited by her illegitimate daughter, a nurse in Israel, who rejects all contact with her mother.

It is a nightmare world of hunted Jews, extravagant villains, incredible heroes, and unimaginable evil,a world in which survival was all that mattered...to Stella most of all.

Table of Contents
Book One: Growing up with Hitler
1. The Memory
2. Stella
3. Berlin Boys
4. school for Refugees
5. Exit
6. 1938: The Year the End Began
7. The Third Fire

Book Two: The Great Divide: Getting Out or GEtting Stranded
8. 1939: Trying to Escape
9. Last Stopover to Freedom
10. On the Brink
11. "Everything is being surrounded by the SS"
12. "To the Bath"
13. Life as a U-boat

Book Three: Living with the Gestapo
14. The Decision: Making the Deal with the Devil
15. First Blood
16. The Keeper and the Catcher
17. The Catcher and the Lover
18. The Hertha Triangle
19. The Heino Triangle
20. Final Days

Book Four: Aftermath
21. Stella Again
22. The Trial
23. Stella's Daughter
24. Working for Eichman
25. "Dear Stella..."
26. Judgment
27. Mother's Shadow

Book Five: Overcoming
28. 1988: Year of Endings
29. "You See, Hitler Didn't Win"
The Interviewees
Notes on Sources
Select Bibliography
Index


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This blog updated on Mondays and Fridays

1940 Chronology: 13 January 1940

Hitler puts off the attack on the Western Front to 20 January because of unfavorable weather conditions.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

The Flying Guns, by Clarence E. Dickson

The Flying Guns: A Cockpit Record of a Naval Pilot from Pearl Harbor Through Midway, by Clarence E. Dickinson in collaboration with Boyden Sparkes. Phoito research by Thomas F. Mahar Jr.
Zenger Publishing Co, Inc. 1942
196 pages 17 pgs of b& w photos, no index

Description
This thrilling narrative is about the experiences of a Navy pilot who literally flew right into World War II in the Pacific at its very beginning.

Lieutenant Dickinson was with a squadron of planes which was on its way to Pear Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. As they approached the island of Oahu, they got caught up in a swarm of attacking Japanese planes. The author, flying a Dauntless dive bomber, was shot down, parachuted to safety, and after amazing difficulties, managed to reach Pearl Harbor while the Japanese attack was still going on.

His description of the fighting and the conditions at Pearl on that fateful day provide one of the few first-person narratives of the "day that will live in infamy."

But Pearl Harbor was only the first of the battles in which the author took part. A few days later, he became the first American to sink a Japanese submarine. Then, flying off the aircraft carrier Enterprise (the Big 'E'), he took part in some of the first American offensive moves in the war, namely the attacks on the Marshall Islands, Marcus Island and Wake Island, under the command of Admiral Halsey.

All of this action is described in great detail, with the authenticity one gets from a narrative by a person who actually participated in the strikes.

Then in June 1942, the author, much decorated by now, took part in one of the most important and decisive battles in history-the Battle of Midway. He not only took part , but actually helped sink the Japanese carrier Kaga by planting his bombs on her deck. Again, the author provides one of the few first-person accounts of this historic battle.

Because of the author's on-the-scene description of these critical military battles, this book is important. It provides an unparalleled picture of the war in the Pacific. But beyond this, there is no more exciting personal narrative of World War II in the annals of naval aviation literature.

Table of Contents
The chapters are not given separate titles.


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This blog updated on Mondays and Fridays

1940 Chronology: 10 January 1940

Hitler tells the commanders of the three services (Hermann Goering of the Airforce, Erich Raeder of the Navy and Walther von Brauchitsch of the Army) that he has decided to attack the Western Froont on 17 January.

A German aircraft carrying Major Reinberger and Major Hoenmans makes a forced landing near Mechelen-sur-Meuse, a Belgian agricultural town not far from the GErman frontier. The two officers are carrying secret documents for the commander of Army Group B, dealing with the plans for the attack on the Western Front. The authorities in Brussels are thus alerted to Hitler's intentions to attack their country and the Netherlands, which will be in the middle of the German thrust westward.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

The Third Reich: Afrikakorps, edited by Time Life

The Third Reich: Afrikakorps, edited by Time Life Books
Time-Life, 1990
Series of books about the The Third Reich
Oversize, 185 pages, acknowledgments, picture credits, bibliography, index
Library: 940.5343 AFR

Contents:
1. Bailing out a beleagureed ally
2. Slugfest in a sea of sand
3. Target: Tobruk
4. Days of Decision at El Alamein

Essays:
The forging of a desert legend
The long reach of the lethal SS
A Miserable place to fight a war
"The dead are the lucky ones"

Acknowledgments
Picture Credits
Bibliography
Index



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This blog updated on Mondays and Thursdays

Shooting The Russian War, by Margaret Bourke-White

Shooting The Russian War, by Margaret Bourke-White
Simon and Schuster, 1942
287 pages plus photos, glossary, Appendix (types of cameras)
Library: 940.53 B774

Description
Spurred by a premonition of history about to be made, and armed with 600 pounds of photographic equipment, Margaret Bourke-White, one of America's leading photographers, arrived in Moscow in May, 1941.

When the Germans attacked, two months later, the Soviet government issued a proclamation that anyone found with a camera would be shot on sight. After a two week siege of officialdom, Margaret Bourke-White was awarded a photographer's "passport" -the only one given to a non-Russian, and from then on the shutters of her five cameras clicked unceasingly. Her book, illustrated with almost a hundred of her best shots, records the ordeal of the Russian people as seen through the eyes and expert camera lens of an adventurous and charming young American woman.

During the fiercest bombings of Moscow she hid under her bed until the air-raid wardens passed, and then went out on the balcony of her hotel room and and photographed the incredible fireworks that made the skies over the Kremlin look like a Hollywood dream of Fourth of July. On her trip to the front, over muddy roads the consistency of Camembert cheese, she was bombed in broad daylight. Later, when one of the enemy planes was downed, Margaret Bourke-White photographed and spoke with the Germans who had bombed her.

But this book is not all grim war. Its main concern is the temper of the Russian people: the earnest lady firemen "liquidating" incendiary bombs; Russia's favorite movie actress in her country house; high-school girls pelting an operatic tenor with flowers-like ant American fanclub; the Patriarch of the Old Orthodox Church describing over the tea table his greatest adventure-a trip to Brooklyn in 1894.

It is an account of a strange country where escalators move with terrifying speed, where elevators only go up; where the citizens are amaze to hear that Republicans as well as Democrats are allowed to take photographs in the White House; and where soldiers fight like crusaders with a unified people behind them.

In spite of an error in state etiquette, Margaret Bourke-White climaxed her trip by accomplishing the impossible: she received permission to make a candid portrait of Stalin. Her description of the technique of photographing a dictator is one of the many high spots of the book.

Shooting the Russian War is an exciting, sincere, and often humorous account by an American woman photographing the scenes in and around the greatest battle in the history of the world.

Table of Contents
Introduction: The White Nights of Moscow
1. Halfway Around the World
2. The Three Graces of China
3. Lanchow-the Gobi-Hami-Moscow
4. The Last Days of Peace
5. Way Down South in Georgia
6. The First Days of War
7. The Half-Ton Bomb
8. Daily Schedule
9. Moscow Air Raid
10. Microphones and a Boudoir Check
11. God in Russia
12. The Soviet Way
13. The Beginning of a Legend
14. I Photograph Stalin
15. We Go to the Front
16. Star Shells and Vodka on the Edge of No Man's Land
17. Death and Life on the Battlefields
18. White Nights in the Arctic
Glossary
Appendix

1940 Chronology: 8 January, 1940

Finland: The Russian 44th Assault Division is annihilated by ther Finns under General Siilasuvo in the area of Suomossalmi. The Finns capture 35 tanks, 50 guns, 25 anti-tank guns and 250 trucks.

In Britain, further food rationing - of bacon, butter and sugar - begins.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

The World War: 1939-1945: The Cartoonist's VIsion, edited by Roy Douglas

The World War: 1939-1945: The Cartoonist's Vision, written and cartoons edited by Roy Douglas
Routledge, 1990
300 pages, no index. Lots of editorial cartoons.
Library: 940.53 DOU

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The road to war
2. The arrival of war
3. Scandinavia and the Baltic
4. The Battle of France
5. Aftermath
6. Autumn 1940
7. The Neutrals
8. The Soviet Union, 1939-41
9. Atlantic Partnership, 1939-41
10. Japan, 1939-41
11. The Far East, 1941-2
12. The GEram war in 1942
13. War and th echanging world
14. North Africa and France, 1942-3
15. The war in 1943
16. Inter-allied problems, 1943
17. Western Europe, 1944
18. Eastern Europe, 1944
19. Yalta
20. The end of the war in Europe
21. Inter-allied relations 1945
22. British wartime politics
23. The end of the Far Eastern war
24. The remaining problems

Description:
In a new approach to the history of the Second World War, Roy Douglas portrays the events through cartoons, explaining what message they were meant to convey to the contemporary reader and revealing the radically different perceptions of different countries as to where the most crucial issues of the war lay.

Cartoons from various combatant nations are drawn together to show that, though the traditions and practice of cartooning differed, cartoons were seen everywhere as a more open, less constrained form of political expression. Nevertheless, cartoonists from all countries were at risk of falling foul of their governments. No cartoonist in Stalin's USSR would have dared deviate one hairsbreadth from what he knew, or belied, the official line to be. Even in Britain, cartoonists had to be circumspect; Churchill was at one time meditating a ban on the Daily Mirror, largely because of a cartton which offended him. And the essential ambiguity of American foreign policy is wonderfully reflected in the cartoons, both those by Americans and those reflecting foreign perceptions of US actions.

Roy Douglas discusses how the war looked from a wide variety of angles and how cartoonists understood the part which their own cartoons and those of others - allies, enemies and neutrals - were playing in the course of events.

There is an overall narrative detailing the main outlines of the war, and each image is located in the context of events. Douglas gives new insights into contemporary perspectives of the war, highlighting the importance of the cartoonists and the media. His book will appeal to a wide readership, from history scholars to students andd general readers.


0415030498

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This blog is updated every Monday and Thursday

1940 Chronology: 7 January 1940

Finland: General Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko takes command of the Russian forces.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Christmas on the Home Front, by Mike Brown

Christmas on the Home Front, by Mike Brown
Sutton Publishing, 2004
187 pages plus bibliography and index, illustrations and a few photos scattered throughout
Library: 940.53 BRO

An excellent book, not only for someone interested in WWII from a historical standpoint, but also for fiction authors doing research. Highly recommended.

Description
The outbreak of war in 1939 saw the disappearance of many traditional British celebrations. Guy Fawkes' Night went immediately - gunpowder production was needed for the war effort and bonfires contravened the blackout. Summer holidays became a thing of the past and Easter all but disappeared as chocolate - and even real eggs - went 'on the ration.' In spite of this the nation remained determined to celebrate Christmas as a time of family and community; a time when war could be set aside; if only for a day.

Drawing upon personal recollections, contemporary Mass Observation reports, newspaper articles, advertisements and personal and archive photographs, Mike Brown looks at each wartime Christmas on the British Home Front, from 1939 to 1944. He explores how people celebrated Christmas despite the problems of shortages, rationing, the blackout, Luftwaffe raids and the absence of family members who had been called up or evacuated.

What was the weather like? What was on the wireless? What were the popular records and sheet music of the time? What films were showing at the cinema? What about the pantomimes, shows and concerts, parties, decorations and trees. Gifts and food are discussed with a look at the presents available, and in vogue. As shortages really took hold, the various make-do-and-mend solutions are described, and insights are gained into how people adapted food recipes to cope.

Life in Britain changed dramatically as the war progressed, the annual celebration of Christmas provides fascinating yearly 'snapshots' illuminating the changes over six years of conflict.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. 1939: The First Wartime Christmas
Christmas Among the Evacuees
2. 1940: The Second Christmas
The Christmas Raids
3. 1941: The Third Christmas
Christmas in the Countryside
4. 1942: The Fourth Christmas
Christmas Weddings
1943: The Fifth Christmas
Parties
1944: The Last Wartime Christmas
Postscript
Bibliography
Index

Photos
3 unidentified girls and 1 unidentified boy, January 1940 evacuees at Hastings
King George VI, dressed in Naval Uniform, making Christmas broadcast
Ambrose (but not his orchestra)
Christmas 1939 in Eastbourne, lots of unidentified evacuee children
Unidentified people in a London tube
Ethel and Doris Waters ("Gert and Daisy")
Unidentified man and woman in canteen in St. John's Wood tube station
4 unidentified children sleeping on bunks in tube station, with a Christmas tree
3 women, 1 man, unidentified Underground staff decoration tree
Billy Cotton (but not his band)
Two unidentified men playing soccer, December 1941. Charlton Athletic v Stoke
Unidentified woman in Needlewoman & Needlecraft ad
Betti Thomson and her husband Frank, Christmas 1943
The Crazy Gang in advert: Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen, Jimmy Nervo, Teddy Knox, Charlie Naughton and Jimmy Gold
Two unidentified female Air Raid Wardens and 8 unidentified children showing off their Christmas present of apples
Unidentified civilians, and two women in the Kings Cross Canteen
Unidentified American soldiers and Red Cross Nurses, and British children (all girls) opening presents

1940 Chronology: 5 January 1940

Russia signs a commercial treaty with Bulgaria. This is one step in a policy of growing penetration in the Balkans.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

1940 Chronology: 4 January 1940

Hermann Goering takes full control of GErman war industries.

Bibliography
World War II Magazine's WWII Day-By-Day Desk Diary

Soldier From the War Returning, by Thomas Childers

Soldier From the Ear Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming From World War II, by Thomas Childers
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009
294 pages, plus 8 pages of B&W photos, Acknowledgments, Selected Primary Sources, Notes, Index
Library: 940.53 CHI

Description
One of our most enduring national myths involves the men and women who fought in World War II, the so-called Good War. The Greatest Generation, we're told, fought heroically, then returned to America happy, healthy, and well-adjusted. They married in droves, ramped up the economy, drank their cocktails, and quickly and cheerfully went about the business of rebuilding their lives.

In this shocking and hauntingly beautiful book, the historian Thomas Childers shatters that myth. He interweaves the intimate story of three families - including his own - with a decade's worth of research to paint a dramatically different picture of the war's aftermath.

Drawing on government documents, interviews, oral histories, and diaries, he reveals the true cost of the Second World War. In 1946, ten thousand veterans a month were diagnosed with psychoneurotic disorder (now known as PTSD). Alcoholism, homelessness, and unemployment were rampant, leading to domestic violence, abuse, and a skyrocketing divorce rate.

Many veterans bounced back, but their struggle has been lost in a wave of nostalgia that threatens to undermine a new generation of returning soldiers.

Novelistic in its telling and impeccably researched, Childer's book is a stark reminder that the price of war is unimaginably high. The consequences are human, not just political, and the toll can stretch across generations.

Table of Contents
Part I: "When This Bloody War is Over"
1. Anticipation
2. Shock
3. Anxiety

Part II: "Soldiers from the War Returning"
4. As if Nothing Had Ever Happened
5. Open Wounds
6. "It's Been a Long, Long Time"

Part III: Echoes of War
7. "The War's Over, Soldier"
8. Aftershocks
9. Picking up the Pieces

Author's Note
Acknowledgments
Selected Primary Sources
Notes
Index

The three soldiers profiled:
Michael Gold
Tom Childers [author's father]
Willis Allen

Photos
Michael as an air cadet, 1942
Michael in training in Texas, 1942
Michael on his first trip to London, Dec 1943
MIchael's mug shots at Dulag Luft, Jan 1944
MIchael after his liberation in 1945
Michael and Linda Gold today
Mildred and Tom during their courtship, 1940
Tom in London, 1943
Mildred and Tom on his return, Aug 1945
Mildred, Tom and baby 1947
Mildred, Tom and son at Fort Benning 1950
Tom, Mildred, unidentified man and 2 unidentified women in Boca Raton, 1970
Willis in Naples, 1944
Jusy and Willis (now legless) in front of Atlantic City apartment, July 1946
Willis, Grace, with Eileen and Ed Fannon, 1946
Willis Grace, Willis' brother Alvin and his wife, 1951
Willis, and children Gary and Judy, 1949
Willis, Grace, Gary and Judy 1956

Front Page History of the World Wars, edited by Arto DeMirjian, Jr. and Eve Nelson

Front Page History of the World Wars, edited by Arto DeMirjian, Jr. and Eve Nelson
Arno Press, 1976
316 pages
Library: 940.3 FRO

CAVE CANEM: pg 254 is out of order. It is the page for May 3, 1945, and is placed in among the 1944 pages.

This book does not have every single front page of the New York Times during the war years of WWI and WWII, nor does it explain why the pages chosen were chosen. About half the book is devoted to WWI front pages, the rest to WWII front pags.

In addition to these front pages (which need to be read by young eyes, or with a magnifying glass - the book is oversize but the print is still pretty teeny tiny) there are some blown up photos of various events. These photos come from other sources, archives, etc.

WWI Photos
Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his consort Duchess of Hohenberg (in paper)
unidentified massed Russian soldiers w with artillery
Unidentified Russian reservists on wat to war with families
Czar Nicholas II of Russia
Emperor Franz Josef of Austria
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Ambassador Bakmeteff and the Russian War Mission (16 unidentified men)
Unidentified Belgian soldiers
Unidentified German soldiers with 420-mm howitzer
Unidentified German infantry
Late Pope Pius X (in paper)
Unidentified Allied soldiers in Belgium
unidentified Belgian peasants (old woman, young child)
3 unidentified members of British gun crew
Antwerp's defenses (in paper)
Belgian soldiers defending approach to Antwerp (behind bundles of wood)
unidentified Turkish soldiers marching through Constantinople
Unidentified Polish infantry in East Prussia
Unidentified Russia prisoners of war and German captors
Lost Lusitania (in paper)
Torpedoed White Star Liner Arabic (in paper)
9 unidentified French infantry
Map of Western battlefront (in paper)
Italian-American liner Ancona torpedoed (in paper)
Western battle front (in paper)
Persia torpedoed, inset of Robert McNeely (in paper)
Verdun and outlying forts assailed by Germans (in paper)
unidentified German soldiers carrying munitions
Earl Kitchener of Khartoum (in paper)
unidentified Austrian officers captured by Russians
Officers and crew (unidentifiable) of U53
Late Emperor Franz Joseph (in paper)
David Lloyd George (in paper)
"Barred Zones" and "Safety Zones" oulined in Germany's note (in paper)
Czar Nicholas II, Alexis, Grand Duke Michael, Michael Rodiannko
SS Illinois sinking
Arthur J. Balfour and Joseph H. Cheate (in paper)
Maj GEn John J. Persghing , unidentified officer, unidentified soldiers
Unidentified American soldiers of the Honor guard, in France
3 identified German prisoners
unidentified but recognizable British soldiers among others, not identified or recognizable
Unidentified Italian artillerymen
President Wilson and 7 unidentified members of the War Council of the American Red Cross
Alvey Augustus Adee, 2nd Assistant secretary of state
Herbert C Hoover, Food Commissioner for the war
Torpedoed transport Tuscania (in paper)
France's 22 inch gun, largest in the world (in paper)
Transport Covington sunk by U-boat (in paper)
USS Covington sinking
Dr. Edward A Rumely (in paper)
San Diego, sunk off Long Island (in paper)
Unidentified US MPs marching German prisoners through France
Unidentified French troops in shell hole
Kaiser Wilhelm and unidentified staff officers
Unidentified German POWs acting as litter-bearers
Marshal Foch and 8 unidentified soldiers posed in front of train
Unidentified American soldiers hoisting flag in Etrage Mense
Unidentified dead German machine gunner
Big Four: Vittorio Emmanuel Orlando of Italy. Lloyd George of England, Georges Clemenceau of France, Woodrow Wilson of US
President Wilson leaving peace conference

World War II
--10 unidentified Polish officers
--3 unidentified German infantry
--Hitler acts against Poland map (in paper)
--Unidentified German soldiers pausing on way to Warsaw
--Unidentified German troops parading through Warsaw
--New theatre of war is opened map (in paper)
--Nazis swoop on the low countries map (in paper)
--German soldiers in truck and on horseback, moving through Holland
--Winston Churchill
--Neville Chamberlain
--Fires of war leap across the low countries map (in paper)
--Nazi tide laps at Paris as Italy joins war map (in paper)
--Unidentified Italian troops drilling
--Hitler making speech at Reichstag, Hermann Goering, 4 unidentified Nazi onlookers
--Rudolf Hess
--Unidentified German infantry
--Where German armies march on Russia map (in paper)
--Pacific Ocean theatre of war map (in paper)
--President Roosevelt signing declaration of war against Japan (in paper)
--Roosevelt signing declaration of War against Germany, senator Tom Connelly (in paper)
--Lt Gen Tomoyuki Yamashita, Lt GEn Arthur Percival (in paper)
--M'Arthurmen on route to Australia (in paper)
--Price Administrator Lee Henderson (?) and Donald Garden of Canada (in paper)
--Tea after the greatest air raid in history (Brits bombing Cologne) (in paper)
--Field Marshal General Erwin Rommel, Field Marshal Kesselring, unidentified soldiers in Libya
--Rommel and unidentified members of his staff
--Unidentified Russian workers with rifles
--Vyacheslaff M. Molotoff with President Roosevelt (in paper)
--Queen Wilhelmina (in paper)
--Winston Churchill (in paper)
--unidentified German paratroopers attacking Russian stronghold
--Rommel's forces take important port in Libya map (in paper)
--Supreme Court Justice Murphy as soldier (in paper)
--unidentified German soldiers in Stalingrad
--President Roosevelt (in paper)
--Scene of action in Solomons where our cruisers were lost map (in paper)
--American operations in Africa map (in paper)
--President Roosevelt and Churchill at Casablanca Conference, with 6 unidentified officers
--Brig Gen William H Wilbur (in paper)
--Radiation center of American power in the Pacific map (in paper)
--2 bodies, unidentified Japanese soldiers at Guadalcanal
--New United Nations set up in Africa diagram (in paper)
--Lt Gen Omar Bradley, Supreme Commander Dwight D Eisenhower, Third Army's George Patton
--Russian steamrollers continue to crush resistance map (in paper)
--Retreat in Tunisia map (in paper)
--Field Marshall Erwin Rommel
--Roosevelt and Churchill (in paper)
--Allies plant flag on first Mediterranean stepping stone map (in paper)
--United Nations forces move forward in southeast Pacific map (in paper)
--Unidentified civilians in Sicily surrendering their arms (in paper)
--Benito Mussolini and Marshall Pietro Badoglio (in paper)
--Quebec: Roosevelt, Churchill, King of England, Gen Henry H. Arnold, Air Marshal Sir Charles Portal, General Sir Alan Brooks, Admiral Ernest J. King, Field Marshal Sir John Dill, Gen George C Marshall, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound and Admiral William D. Leahy. (in paper)
--Lord Louis Mountbatten (in paper)
--Roosevelt in Ottawa (in paper)
--Across narrow waters to Europe map (in paper)
--US soldiers in London cheer news of Italy's surrender (in paper)
--Opening of new base to the Allies bridges gap in the Atlantic map (in paper)
--Allies continue to advance swiftly in Italy map (in paper)
--Scene of world's most destructive aerial bombardment map (in paper)
--Dead Japanese soldiers in bunker on Tarawa
--Generalissimo Chang Kai-shek, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Mrs. Chang Kai-chek (in paper)
--Marshal Stalin, President Roosevelt and Churchill in Tehran (in paper)
--Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower (in paper)
--Gen Eisenhower with unidentified paratroopers
--Unidentified marine artilleryman on Cape Gloucester
--Marshall Islands (in paper)
--two unidentified Japanese soldiers surrendering
--Germans punch at our lines in Italy map (in paper)
--2 unidentified German women looking at rubble in British sector of Berlin
--Lt Carl G. Bickel, Charles Koenig, Felix W. Rogers, James P. Keane (in paper)
--New Russian breakthrough in south map (in paper)
--Allied ring forged in Bismarck archipelago map (in paper)
--Churchill and Eisenhower reviewing paratroopers (in paper)
--Lt Gen W. D. Morgan, Air Vice Marshall George Baker, Maj Gen AP ? and Lt M. Vrevsky, Maj GEn Lyman ? [paper caption illegible)
--Americans leap frog up the New Guinea coast map (in paper)
--Lt Gen Mark W Clark and unidentified American troops (in paper)
--Unidentified Italian civilians cheering Allies arrival in Rome
--First Allied landing made on shores of western Europe map (in paper)
--Lt Gen Omar Bradley, George C. Marshall, Gen Hap Arnold
--unidentified Navy corpsman
--Stunning blows strike foe in Pacific area map (in paper)
--Unidentified American soldiers near Cherbourg (in paper)
--General von Schlieben And Admiral Hennecke, captured in Cherbourg
--Roosevelt chosen to run for 4th term (in paper)
--Unidentified marines on Guam
--Harry S Truman (in paper)
--Unidentified soldier and Cherbourger
--Lily Pons singing to unidentified Frenchmen (in paper)
--Quebec: Gen George C Marshall, Admiral William Leahy, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Field Marshal Sir John Dill, Maj Gen Hollis, Lt GEn Sir Hastings Imay, Admiral Ernest J. King, Air Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Gen H. Arnold, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham
--General M'Arthur fulfills a gallant vow map(in paper)
--Sea power of land of the rising sun shattered in battle map (in paper)
--Old Glory goes up over Iwo Jima (in paper)
--Unidentified members of Third Army's 89th division
--Japanese fleet remnants battered anew map (in paper)
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt, black border (1882-1945) (in paper)
--unidentified German soldiers surrendering
--First Army soldiers and Russian soldiers greeting each other (in paper)
--Italians and the body of Benito Mussolini (in paper)
--Adolf Hitler portrait (in paper)
--Unidentified German evacuees leaving Rheindahlen(women and children)
--Unidentified Japanese soldier surrenders
--Okinawa conquest expands our attacking radius map (in paper)
--President Truman watches S of State Stettinius signing security pact (in paper)
--Clement R. Attlee, Winston Churchill (in paper)
--The European countries affected by Big Three decisions map (in paper)
--Circle of spearheads around Japan completed map (in paper)
--Unidentified civilians in Times Square (in paper)
--GEneral of the Army Douglas Macarthur (in paper)
--Gen Eisenhower with Marshall Gregory K. Zhukoff
--Truman announces surrender of Japan, Admiral William Leahy, S of State James Byrnes, former S of State Cordell Hull. Maj General Philip Fleming, William N Davis, John W. Snyder, James Forrestal, Fred Vinson, Tom Clark, Lewis Schwellenbach (in paper)
--Amoru Shigemitsu, Gen Douglas Macarthur, General Richard K. Sutherland
--Gen Douglas McArthur, unidentified Japanese and American officers