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Archive for December, 2008

Review of VALKYRIE

29 Dec

Review of VALKYRIE – 12/12/08

United Artists latest feature film, VALKYRIE, starring Tom Cruise, is a vivid drama based on a true story. This film gives an up close and personal view of the conspiracy to assassinate one of history’s most evil dictators, Adolf Hitler.

Known for his intense action films like Top Gun and the Mission Impossible trilogy, Tom Cruise brings his intensity to Valkyrie as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. Wounded in North Africa in May 1943 during World War II, von Stauffenberg returns to Germany a crippled man with a changed view of the war and of the German Nazi leadership.

Approached by a group of conspirators against Hitler and his regime, von Stauffenberg is called upon to use his status as a war hero to get close to Hitler and facilitate the assassination. The short action sequences help to drive home the impact of the task they are undertaking. The plot becomes so complex it includes overthrowing the state police (SS) and hijacking the Berlin reserve army forces all at the same time the explosive goes off, presumably killing Hitler on 20 July 1944. The complexity of the plan is well played out in the film as are the interpersonal relationships. The conspirators in the German Resistance know their actions mean certain death if they are caught, but are resolved to make that sacrifice to stop the atrocities being committed.

The film itself is shot very up-close and personal with the actors. Most of the film is focused to within 3ft which helps to bring out the personal intensity, but also hinders the scenes surroundings. This detracts somewhat from allowing the audience to feel included in the film. The scenes were well played, but l would have liked to see a more developed background to the plot. The movie assumes the audience already knows a decent amount of the historical background, but it should have been included for future generations. I feel that omission is what detracts mainly from this film being of great historical value.

Overall I found this film to be a great portrayal of real events and for the most part historically accurate. The alliteration to Valkyrie in 3 different ways (the definition of Odin’s handmaidens who conducted the souls of the slain “Hitler” to Valhalla, Hitler’s Operation Valkyrie, and Richard Wagner’s The Ride of the Valkyries musical score), was woven nicely to help cement the title. From the start Valkyrie well shows the indoctrination the German military was subjected to, focused on winning their loyalty for one man, not for the German people as a whole. Alternately, it certainly helped to recover the sacrifices made by the German Resistance during World War II to fight against tyranny, which many people over look today. This film is an example of their voice saying “We are all not like him.”

- Steven Terjeson
World War II History

View the trailer and featurette on our Valkyrie review page.

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Posted in Country - Germany, Europe Theater, Media, News

 

Mountbattens Christmas 1943

26 Dec

For this years Christmas story, here is an excerpt from The Lord Louis Mountbatten’s personal diary from Christmas Day (25 DEC 1943) in Delhi, India.

Christmas Day
On the afternoon of Christmas Day the State Agent and all the State servants and our own servants presented us with the customary Christmas gifts or ‘dollis’.

The Scene was very like the feast in Chu Chin Chow. At least twelve magnificent trays were carried in filled with every form of fruit and flower, and nuts and fish, including one fierce looking 40lb fish.

Two live turkeys were also carried in. One of them immediately made a mess on the carpet, so we put them on to the marble floor, which successfully anchored them, as they were too frightened that they would skid if they moved. Meanwhile consternation reigned while sufficiently low-caste sweeper was sought who could remove the mess. Lady Linlithgow told me that when she first arrived out here at the Viceroy’s House she had a pet dog that made a mess in her boudoir. Although they had 270 servants it took so long to find a man of sufficiently low caste to be able to clean up the mess that she had done so herself before they found him.

Taken from:
Mountbatten, The Lord Louis. Personal Diary of Admiral The Lord Louis Mountbatten. Edited by Philip Ziegler. London: Collins, 1988.

 
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Posted in Asian Theater, Facts, Ground

 

World War II History for December 19

19 Dec

Today in WW II History

World War II History for December 19

1941 - Adolf Hitler assumed the position of commander in chief of the German army.

The German offensive against Moscow was proving to be a disaster. A perimeter had been established by the Soviets 200 miles from the city-and the Germans couldn’t break through. The harsh winter weather-with temperatures often dropping to 31 degrees below zero-had virtually frozen German tanks in their tracks. Soviet General Georgi Zhukov had unleashed a ferocious counteroffensive of infantry, tanks, and planes that had forced the flailing Germans into retreat. In short, the Germans were being beaten for the first time in the war, and the toll to their collective psyche was great. “The myth of the invincibility of the German army was broken,” German General Franz Halder would write later.

But Hitler refused to accept this notion. He began removing officers from their command. General Fedor von Bock, who had been suffering severe stomach pains and who on December 1 had complained to Halder that he was no longer able to “operate” with his debilitated troops, was replaced by General Hans von Kluge, whose own 4th Army had been pushed into permanent retreat from Moscow. General Karl von Runstedt was relieved of the southern armies because he had retreated from Rostov. Hitler clearly did not believe in giving back captured territory, so in the biggest shake-up of all, he declared himself commander in chief of the army. He would train it “in a National Socialist way”-that is, by personal fiat. He would compose the strategies and the officers would dance to his tune.

“Hitler takes command of the German army,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6648 (accessed Dec 19, 2008).

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Posted in Country - Germany, Europe Theater, Today

 

Stilwell’s March

16 Dec

Stilwell’s March from Burma


General Joseph Stilwell in Burma with Gen. Frank Merrill

One of the greatest feats achieved by an American soldier was General Joseph Stillwell’s 140-mile march from Burma, which began May 1 [1942] and terminated in Imphal, Assam, on May 20 [1942]. From the time the heroic band left Wunthe until they reached the Chinwin River, they were out of communication with the world. In the spring of 1942 the Allies took what the General called a “hell of a beating” in Burma, which they lost to the Japanese. Stillwell, who was chief of staff to Generalissimo Chaing Kai-shek, prophesied Burma could and would be retaken from the Japanese. (Veterans of Foreign Wars 1951, p. 25)

Works Cited
Veterans of Foreign Wars. Pictorial History of World War II. Veterans’ Historical Book Service, Inc., 1951.

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Posted in Asian Theater, Ground, Media

 

World War II History for December 15

15 Dec

Today in WW II History

World War II History for December 15

1944 - A single-engine plane carrying U.S. Army Major Glenn Miller disappeared in thick fog over the English Channel while en route to Paris. The true fate of the plane and its passengers has never been determined.

1944 - American forces invaded Mindoro Island in the Philippines.

1945 - MacArthur orders end of Shinto as Japanese state religion

On this day, General Douglas MacArthur, in his capacity as Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in the Pacific, brings an end to Shintoism as Japan’s established religion. The Shinto system included the belief that the emperor, in this case Hirohito, was divine.

On September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, MacArthur signed the instrument of Japanese surrender on behalf of the victorious Allies. Before the economic and political reforms the Allies devised for Japan’s future could be enacted, however, the country had to be demilitarized. Step one in the plan to reform Japan entailed the demobilization of Japan’s armed forces, and the return of all troops from abroad. Japan had had a long history of its foreign policy being dominated by the military, as evidenced by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoye’s failed attempts to reform his government and being virtually pushed out of power by career army officer Hideki Tojo.

Step two was the dismantling of Shintoism as the Japanese national religion. Allied powers believed that serious democratic reforms, and a constitutional form of government, could not be put into place as long as the Japanese people looked to an emperor as their ultimate authority. Hirohito was forced to renounce his divine status, and his powers were severely limited–he was reduced to little more than a figurehead. And not merely religion, but even compulsory courses on ethics–the power to influence the Japanese population’s traditional religious and moral duties–were wrenched from state control as part of a larger decentralization of all power.

“MacArthur orders end of Shinto as Japanese state religion,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6644 (accessed Dec 15, 2008).

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Posted in Asian Theater, Europe Theater, Pacific Theater, Sea, Today

 

World War II History for December 11

11 Dec

Today in WW II History

World War II History for December 11

1937 - The Fascist Council in Rome, withdrew Italy from the League of Nations.

1941 - Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The U.S in turn declared war on the two countries.

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Posted in Europe Theater, Facts, Today

 

World War II History for December 10

10 Dec

Today in WW II History

World War II History for December 10

1941 - Japan invaded the Philippines.

1941 - The Royal Naval battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Battle of Malaya.

 
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Posted in Asian Theater, Country - Japan, Pacific Theater, Sea, Today

 

World War II History for December 6

06 Dec

Today in WW II History

World War II History for December 6

1941 - U.S. President Roosevelt sent a telegram to Japanese Emperor Hirohito that requested intervention “to prevent further death and destruction in the world.” Intelligence reports had convinced Roosevelt that the Japanese fleet was headed for Thailand.

President Roosevelt-convinced on the basis of intelligence reports that the Japanese fleet is headed for Thailand, not the United States-telegrams Emperor Hirohito with the request that “for the sake of humanity,” the emperor intervene “to prevent further death and destruction in the world.”

The Royal Australian Air Force had sighted Japanese escorts, cruisers, and destroyers on patrol near the Malayan coast, south of Cape Cambodia. An Aussie pilot managed to radio that it looked as if the Japanese warships were headed for Thailand-just before he was shot down by the Japanese. Back in England, Prime Minister Churchill called a meeting of his chiefs of staff to discuss the crisis. While reports were coming in describing Thailand as the Japanese destination, they began to question whether it could have been a diversion. British intelligence had intercepted the Japanese code “Raffles,” a warning to the Japanese fleet to be on alert-but for what?

Britain was already preparing Operation Matador, the launching of their 11th Indian Division into Thailand to meet the presumed Japanese invasion force. But at the last minute, Air Marshall Brooke-Popham received word not to cross the Thai border for fear that it would provoke a Japanese attack if, in fact, the warship movement was merely a bluff.

Meanwhile, 600 miles northwest of Hawaii, Admiral Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese fleet, announced to his men: “The rise or fall of the empire depends upon this battle. Everyone will do his duty with utmost efforts.” Thailand was, in fact, a bluff. Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii was confirmed for Yamamoto as the Japanese target, after the Japanese consul in Hawaii had reported to Tokyo that a significant portion of the U.S. Pacific fleet would be anchored in the harbor-sitting ducks. The following morning, Sunday, December 7, was a good day to begin a raid.

“The son of man has just sent his final message to the son of God,” FDR joked to Eleanor after sending off his telegram to Hirohito, who in the Shinto tradition of Japan was deemed a god. As he enjoyed his stamp collection and chatted with Harry Hopkins, his personal adviser, news reached him of Japan’s formal rejection of America’s 10-point proposals for peace and an end to economic sanctions and the oil embargo placed on the Axis power. “This means war,” the president declared. Hopkins recommended an American first strike. “No, we can’t do that,” Roosevelt countered. “We are a democracy and a peaceful people.”

“Roosevelt to Japanese emperor: “Prevent further death and destruction”,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6635 (accessed Dec 6, 2008).

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Posted in Asian Theater, Country - Japan, Country - USA, North America, Pacific Theater, Today

 

World War II History for December 5

05 Dec

Today in WW II History

World War II History for December 5

1941 – American carrier Lexington heads to Midway

On this day, the Lexington, one of the two largest aircraft carriers employed by the United States during World War II, makes its way across the Pacific in order to carry a squadron of dive bombers to defend Midway Island from an anticipated Japanese attack.

Negotiations between the United States and Japan had been ongoing for months. Japan wanted an end to U.S. economic sanctions. The Americans wanted Japan out of China and Southeast Asia and Japan to repudiate the Tripartite “Axis” Pact with Germany and Italy before those sanctions could be lifted. Neither side was budging. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull were anticipating a Japanese strike as retaliation-they just didn’t know where. The Philippines, Wake Island, Midway Island-all were possibilities. American intelligence reports had sighted the Japanese fleet movement out from Formosa (Taiwan), apparently headed for Indochina.

The U.S. State Department demanded from Japanese envoys explanations for the fleet movement across the South China Sea. The envoys claimed ignorance. Army intelligence reassured the president that, despite fears, Japan was most likely headed for Thailand-not the United States.

The Lexington never made it to Midway Island; when it learned that the Japanese fleet had, in fact, attacked Pearl Harbor, it turned back-never encountering a Japanese warship en route or employing a single aircraft in its defense. By the time it reached Hawaii, it was December 13.

1944 - During World War II, Allied troops took Ravenna, Italy.

1945 - Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle

Video Clip

At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned.

Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, who had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported that his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his position was unknown. The other planes experienced similar instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted to find the location of the lost squadron, but none were successful. After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.

By this time, several land radar stations finally determined that Flight 19 was somewhere north of the Bahamas and east of the Florida coast, and at 7:27 p.m. a search and rescue Mariner aircraft took off with a 13-man crew. Three minutes later, the Mariner aircraft radioed to its home base that its mission was underway. The Mariner was never heard from again. Later, there was a report from a tanker cruising off the coast of Florida of a visible explosion seen at 7:50 p.m.

The disappearance of the 14 men of Flight 19 and the 13 men of the Mariner led to one of the largest air and seas searches to that date, and hundreds of ships and aircraft combed thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and remote locations within the interior of Florida. No trace of the bodies or aircraft was ever found.

Although naval officials maintained that the remains of the six aircraft and 27 men were not found because stormy weather destroyed the evidence, the story of the “Lost Squadron” helped cement the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean where ships and aircraft are said to disappear without a trace. The Bermuda Triangle is said to stretch from the southern U.S. coast across to Bermuda and down to the Atlantic coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo.


“American carrier Lexington heads to Midway,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6401 (accessed Dec 5, 2008).

“Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5575 (accessed Dec 5, 2008).

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Posted in Atlantic Theater, Country - USA, Pacific Theater, Sea, Today

 

World War II History for December 4

04 Dec

Today in WW II History

World War II History for December 4

1942 - U.S. bombers attacked the Italian mainland for the first time during World War II.

1942 - Polish Christians come to the aid of Polish Jews

On this day in Warsaw, a group of Polish Christians put their own lives at risk when they set up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews. The group was led by two women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz.

Since the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Jewish population had been either thrust into ghettos, transported to concentration and labor camps, or murdered. Jewish homes and shops were confiscated and synagogues were burned to the ground. Word about the Jews’ fate finally leaked out in June of 1942, when a Warsaw underground newspaper, the Liberty Brigade, made public the news that tens of thousands of Jews were being gassed at Chelmno, a death camp in Poland-almost seven months after the extermination of prisoners began.

Despite the growing public knowledge of the “Final Solution,” the mass extermination of European Jewry and the growing network of extermination camps in Poland, little was done to stop it. Outside Poland, there were only angry speeches from politicians and promises of postwar reprisals. Within Poland, non-Jewish Poles were themselves often the objects of persecution and forced labor at the hands of their Nazi occupiers; being Slavs, they too were considered “inferior” to the Aryan Germans.

But this did not stop Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz, two Polish Christians who were determined to do what they could to protect their Jewish neighbors. The fates of Kossak and Filipowicz are unclear so it is uncertain whether their mission was successful, but the very fact that they established the Council is evidence that some brave souls were willing to risk everything to help persecuted Jews. Kossak and Filipowicz were not alone in their struggle to help; in fact, only two days after the Council was established, the SS, Hitler’s “political” terror police force, rounded up 23 men, women, and children, and locked some in a cottage and some in a barn-then burned them alive. Their crime: suspicion of harboring Jews.

Despite the bravery of some Polish Christians, and Jewish resistance fighters within the Warsaw ghetto, who rebelled in 1943 (some of whom found refuge among their Christian neighbors as they attempted to elude the SS), the Nazi death machine proved overwhelming. Poland became the killing ground for not only Poland’s Jewish citizens, but much of Europe’s: Approximately 4.5 million Jews were killed in Poland’s death and labor camps by war’s end.

“Polish Christians come to the aid of Polish Jews,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6400 (accessed Dec 4, 2008).

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Posted in Europe Theater

 
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