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Henri-Chapelle Cemetery, Belgium

Date taken: November 1946

Photograph: Ralph Morse

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=c94836dddafcf8bd

August 15, 1945

"American servicemen and women

gather in front of "Rainbow Corner" Red Cross club in Paris

to celebrate the unconditional surrender of the Japanese."

By an unknown photographer,

Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer.

(111-SC-210241)

NARA > Picturing the Century:

One Hundred Years of Photography

from the National Archives

http://www.archives.gov/press/press-kits/picturing-the-century-photos/rainbow-corner-club-paris.jpg

http://www.archives.gov/press/press-kits/1930-census-photos/

Mary Louise Rasmuson    1911-2012

 (born Milligan)

Mary Louise Rasmuson

(...)

joined the Women’s Army Corps

when it was formed

during World War II,

rose to be its director

under two presidents

and later found a new life

as a civic leader

and philanthropist

in the young state of Alaska

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/us/
mary-louise-rasmuson-led-womens-army-corps-dies-at-101.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/us/
mary-louise-rasmuson-led-womens-army-corps-dies-at-101.html

Monuments men

Richard Barancik

belonged to a group of about 350 people whose goals,

during and after World War II,

included tracking down millions of objects plundered by the Nazis.

Photograph: via Barancik family

Richard Barancik, Last of the World War II Monuments Men, Dies at 98

He played a role in the celebrated Allied operation

to preserve European artworks and cultural treasures stolen by the Nazis.

NYT

July 22, 2023,    2:34 p.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/
world/europe/richard-barancik-dead.html

Allied unit known

as the Monuments Men and Women,

which during and after World War II

preserved a vast amount

of European artworks

and cultural treasures

that had been looted and hidden

by Nazi Germany

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/
world/europe/richard-barancik-dead.html

Les oeuvres volées par Hitler

ou l'incroyable sauvetage

Documentaire de Petra Dorrmann    52 mn

Allemagne-Autriche    2014

Dès 1944,

Hitler ordonne

de mettre à l’abri

les oeuvres d'art pillées.

Plus de 6 500 pièces

sont regroupées

dans la mine de sel

d’Altaussee, en Autriche.

Après son suicide,

le 30 avril 1945,

et alors que les Alliés

approchent,

les nazis se préparent

à tout faire sauter.

Quand, le 12 mai,

les "Monuments men"

américains arrivent,

les oeuvres d’art

sont intactes...

Qui les a sauvées ?

Hitler et Göring

avaient en commun

leur amour de l’art (sic).

D’où l’énergie déployée

par leurs sbires

à piller des œuvres,

parfois de façon concurrente,

dans tous les musées

des pays occupés ou à spolier

les grands collectionneurs

d’origine juive

comme la famille Rothschild.

À partir du printemps 1944,

Hitler donne l’ordre de mettre

les plus précieux trésors

à l’abri.

Dans la mine de sel

d’Altaussee, en Autriche,

sont ainsi regroupées

plus de 6 500 pièces

choisies par le Führer

pour le musée

qu’il rêve de créer à Linz,

dont la statue de la Madone

de Bruges de Michel-Ange

ou le retable de Gand

des frères Van Eyck.

Après son suicide,

le 30 avril 1945,

et alors que les Alliés approchent,

les responsables du lieu

se préparent à tout faire sauter.

Mais une série de personnages

- ouvriers et experts

au service des nazis,

résistants anglais et locaux -

s’en mêle.

Quand, le 12 mai,

les Monuments men

américains arrivent,

les œuvres d’art,

signées aussi Vermeer,

Rubens, Brueghel,

Rembrandt, Tintoret,

sont intactes.

Elles sont transportées

dans un dépôt central

à Munich

et restituées en partie

à leurs propriétaires.

En partie seulement,

car l’État autrichien

a joué un rôle

plus que trouble à ce sujet

des décennies durant.

http://www.arte.tv/guide/fr/050811-000/
les-oeuvres-volees-par-hitler-ou-l-incroyable-sauvetage - broken link

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/
world/europe/richard-barancik-dead.html

https://www.npr.org/2014/02/07/
272512931/behind-the-movie-tales-from-the-real-life-monuments-men

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/
movies/clooney-and-company-hunt-for-treasures-in-monuments-men.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/
arts/design/not-all-monuments-men-were-men.html

Saudi Arabia

gains strategic importance

during World War II

Although Saudi Arabia

officially maintained

neutrality

through most of the war,

the U.S. began

to court the kingdom

as it realized

the strategic importance

of Saudi oil reserves.

In 1943,

President Franklin Roosevelt

made Saudi Arabia eligible

for Lend-Lease assistance

by declaring

the defense of Saudi Arabia

of vital interest to the U.S.

In 1945,

King Abdel Aziz

and President Roosevelt

cemented the tacit

oil-for-security relationship

when they met

aboard the USS Quincy

in the Suez Canal.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/etc/cron.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/
saudi/etc/cron.html

Japan

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

August 6 / 9, 1945

Held near Berlin,

the Potsdam Conference

(July 17 - August 2, 1945)

was the last

of the World War II meetings

held by the “Big Three”

heads of state.

Featuring

American President

Harry S. Truman,

British Prime Minister

Winston Churchill

(and his successor,

Clement Attlee)

and Soviet Premier

Joseph Stalin,

the talks established

a Council of Foreign Ministers

and a central

Allied Control Council

for administration  of Germany.

The leaders arrived

at various agreements

on the German economy,

punishment

for war criminals,

land boundaries

and reparations.

Although talks

primarily centered

on postwar Europe,

the Big Three

also issued a declaration

demanding

“unconditional surrender”

from Japan.

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/potsdam-conference

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/
potsdam-conference 

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/24/
the-day-i-met-joseph-stalin-brush-with-greatness-berlin

8 May 1945

Victory in Europe Day / V-E Day Celebrations

in the U.S. / worldwide

7 May 1945

Germany signs unconditional surrender

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/7/
newsid_3578000/3578325.stm

5 May 1945

Denmark is liberated

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/05/
nazi-doctor-gay-people-carl-vaernet-escaped-justice-danish 

Germany    Battle of Berlin    1945

Russian soldiers in Berlin at the end of the war.

Photograph: Hulton Getty

'Dancing on graves':

Russia hits out at Berlin festival near burial site

G

Thursday 21 April 2016    15.59 BST

Last modified on Thursday 21 April 2016    16.08 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/21/
dancing-on-graves-russia-berlin-soviet-memorial-lollapolooza-festival 

Allied tanks move into a heavily bombed Munich

on April 29, 1945.

Knowing that the American troops were closing in,

residents began looting earlier that day,

taking food, furniture

and parts of Hitler’s art collection.

Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Hitler Looted the Art, Then They Looted Hitler

New research is helping the hunt for missing art,

largely amassed by Hitler,

then re-stolen by desperate Germans

in the closing days of the war.

NYT

July 19, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/
arts/design/hitler-looted-the-art-then-they-looted-hitler.html

21 April 1945

Red Army enters outskirts of Berlin

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/21/
newsid_3560000/3560175.stm

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/
berlin_01.shtml

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/
rare-photos-show-wwii-from-the-soviet-side-faminsky-bondar/

    March 26, 1945

Tokyo burns under B-29 firebomb assault

Tokyo burns under B-29 firebomb assault

May 26, 1945

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Firebombing_of_Tokyo.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Firebombing_of_Tokyo.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo_in_World_War_II

source > Library of Congress >

 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c11427

TITLE: Tokyo burns under B-29 fire bomb assault

REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-USZ62-111427 (b&w film copy neg.)

RIGHTS INFORMATION: Publication may be restricted.

For information see "New York World-Telegram & ...,"
(http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/076_nyw.html )

SUMMARY: Aerial view of Tokyo following bombing by B-29s, on the night of May 26.

MEDIUM: 1 photographic print.

CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1945.

NOTES: Associated Press photo from U.S. Army Air Forces.

New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection.

FORMAT: Aerial photographs 1940-1950. Photographic prints 1940-1950.

DIGITAL ID: (b&w film copy neg.) cph 3c11427

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c11427 

March 10, 1945

Japan

B-29 missions against Tokyo

At Yalta,

the Soviet Union also agreed

to join the war against Japan

as soon as Germany was defeated.

The United States and Britain,

shaken by the suicidal defence

of Pacific islands,

feared that storming Japan

would cost up to half a million

allied casualties.

At that stage,

nobody knew whether

the new atomic bomb

would work.

In the meantime,

General Curtis LeMay

stepped up

his bombing attacks.

On the night of 9 March,

he sent

his Superfortress squadrons

on a fire-bombing raid

against Tokyo.

The mainly wooden houses

blazed into an inferno.

It is estimated

that 97,000 people died,

125,000 were injured

and 1 million left homeless.

On 6 April,

US forces landed

on Okinawa to seize it

as a springboard

for the invasion of Japan itself.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/10/
second-world-war-liberation-europe

On March 10, 1945,

flying in darkness

at low altitudes,

more than 300 B-29s

droppedclose to a quarter

of a million incendiary bombs

over Tokyo.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/pacific-b-29s/ - broken link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/10/
second-world-war-liberation-europe

Germany

Bombing of Dresden - February 13-15, 1945

4-11 February 1945

Russia    Ukraine    Yalta Conference

Conference of the Big Three at Yalta

makes final plans for the defeat of Germany.

L to R:

Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill,

President Franklin D. Roosevelt,

and Premier Josef Stalin.

February 1945.

111-SC-260486

Pictures of World War II > Leaders

US National Archives

http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-05.jpg

http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/

WWII allies 3-power conf.

(L-R seated)

British PM Churchill,

US Pres. Roosevelt,

Soviet ldr. Stalin,

w. aides (standing L-R)

Fleet Adm. Cunningham,

Fleet Adm. King,

Air Marshal Portal,

US Adm. Leahy

& unident. Soviets,

at Livadia Palace.

Location: Yalta, Ukraine, Russia

Date taken: February 1945

Life Images

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4241863.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4201858.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/7/
newsid_3517000/3517236.stm

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/10/
second-world-war-germany-yalta 

January 1945

German ship Wilhelm Gustloff

is sunk

by three Russian torpedoes

in January 1945.

The ship carried soldiers

and thousands of civilians,

many of them children

from Poland, Latvia

and Lithuania.

They were all fleeing

the advancing Soviet army.

http://www.npr.org/2016/02/17/
466924137/more-died-on-this-wwii-ship-than-on-the-titanic-and-lusitania-combined

https://www.npr.org/2016/02/17/
466924137/more-died-on-this-wwii-ship-
than-on-the-titanic-and-lusitania-combined

Belgique, France, Luxembourg

Bataille des Ardennes / Battle of the Bulge

December 1944 - January 1945

Black WWII servicemen

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/10/
1211793420/half-american-explores-
how-black-wwii-servicemen-were-treated-better-abroad

G.I. Bill of 1944

After the war,

Black veterans were largely left out

of the benefits created

by the G.I. Bill of 1944.

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/
1134756262/half-american-matthew-delmont-black-wwii

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/10/
1211793420/half-american-explores-
how-black-wwii-servicemen-were-treated-better-abroad

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/
1134756262/half-american-matthew-delmont-black-wwii

1938-1944

Bombing of Chongqing

The bombing of Chongqing,

from 18 February 1938 to 19 December 1944,

were massive terror bombing operations

authorized by the Empire of Japan's

Imperial General Headquarters

and conducted by the Imperial Japanese

Army Air Service (IJAAF)

and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service

(IJNAF).

Resistance was put up

by the Chinese Air Force

and the National Revolutionary Army's

anti-aircraft artillery units

in defense of the provisional wartime

capital of Chongqing

and other targets in Sichuan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Bombing_of_Chongqing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Bombing_of_Chongqing

Oct. 29, 1944

First Jewish Broadcast

from Aachen, Germany   

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/
nyregion/18cantor.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZihm6VlYjo

9 - 19 October 1944

Second Moscow Conference

The Allied conference

held in Moscow

in October 1944

was codenamed Tolstoy.

It involved Stalin, Churchill

and their advisors.

America

was represented

by the US ambassador

Averell Harriman,

as an observer,

and the head

of the US military

in Moscow,

General John Dean.

Outcome:

Decisions

about Russia's entry

in the war against Japan;

post-war division

of the Balkans;

the future of Poland.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1144874.shtml

17-25/26 September 1944

Holland

Battle of Arnhem

Operation Market Garden

US Airborne Divisions

take objectives in Holland

to open a corridor

for the advancing British Army.

British 1st Airborne 10 Division

lands at Arnhem

but meets strong resistance.

The Allies fail

to gain a bridgehead

across the lower River Rhine

Airborne troops

retreat from Arnhem

- 26 September 1944

http://london.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/4/dday/pdfs/DDayAftermath.pdf

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/26/
newsid_3523000/3523972.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/battle_arnhem_01.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/launch_ani_arnhem.shtml

September 12 – 16, 1944

Conferences

Quebec, Canada - 1944

(codename Octagon)


Participants : Winston Churchill,

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Objectives:

Churchill:

to ensure that Great Britain

received extended

U.S. Lend-Lease supplies

and to propose dividing Germany

into zones of occupation ;

Roosevelt:

to discuss the plan

on the deindustrialization of Germany

created by Secretary of the Treasury

Henry Morgenthau.

Outcome:

They determined

Allied military strategy

in Europe and the Pacific.

Churchill

committed a British fleet

to help the U.S.

in the Pacific war

and received the assurance

of continued Lend-Lease aid

while Japan remained

undefeated.

The men agreed

that Germany would be divided

into occupation zones

after the war.

Despite

Churchill’s reservations,

they also approved

the Morgenthau plan

to obliterate German industry

and give German machinery

to Allied nations;

the plan was later abandoned.

http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/the-conferences.html#Octagon

http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/
the-conferences.html#Octagon

Winston Churchill [ left ]

and Franklin Roosevelt

sitting together on terrace of The Citadel, Quebec,

during the two leaders' conference on war problems.

Location: Quebec City, Canada

Date taken: 1944

Photograph: George Skadding

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f724f4053cc353c0.html

August - 2 October 1944

Poland

Warsaw Uprising

The Warsaw Uprising

took place on 1 August 1944,

when the Polish resistance

attempted to liberate Warsaw

from Nazi Germany

in occupied Poland.

The uprising lasted for 63 days,

ending after massive retaliation

by the Nazis

https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2013/aug/07/
poland-warsaw-uprising-69th-anniversary 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2013/aug/07/
poland-warsaw-uprising-69th-anniversary

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/3/
newsid_3560000/3560811.stm 

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/
warsaw-ghetto-uprising

France    1944

Battle of Normandy    June 1944

Liberation of Paris     August 1944

“The Shaved Woman of Chartres.”

Phortograph: Robert Capa

International Center of Photography,

via Magnum Photos

Who Was the Real ‘Shaved Woman of Chartres’?

NYT    Nov. 25, 2023    7:00 a.m. ET

In August 1944, in a city near Paris,

Robert Capa took a photograph of a woman cradling a baby

in the middle of a jeering crowd,

her head shaved and her forehead marked with a swastika.

The woman, Simone Touseau, would become infamous

— first as a symbol of the brutality of post-occupation France and later,

through painstaking scholarship, as an example of the Nazi sympathies

among some of the French during World War II.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/
opinion/simone-touseau-france-occupation.html

Interrogation of a Frenchwoman

who has had her hair shaved off for consorting with Germans,

Rennes, France, 1944

Miller wrote:

‘They were stupid little girls,

not intelligent enough to feel ashamed.

They’d been living with Hun boyfriends

since the first week of the occupation’

Surrealism and war:

the life of Lee Miller – in pictures

A new book of Miller’s photographs,

featuring a foreword by Kate Winslet

and an essay from her son,

also tells a unique story of the second world war

G

Tue 12 Sep 2023    07.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2023/sep/12/
surrealism-and-war-the-life-of-lee-miller-in-pictures

France    Liberation of Paris    25 August 1944

American troops in tank passing the Arc de Triomphe

after the liberation of Paris,

August 1944.

208-YE-68.
 

Pictures of World War II

US National Archives

http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-105.jpg - broken link

https://www.archives.gov/

Sign carrying civilians march in parade

the day after the liberation of Paris

by Allied troops.

Location: Paris, France

Date taken: August 26, 1944

Photograph: Frank Scherschel

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=2f7515f69abac870

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7984436.stm

https://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/
photos?template=print#france 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3590542.stm

https://www.lemonde.fr/
shoah-les-derniers-temoins-racontent/article/2005/08/01/
les-parisiens-racontent-l-embrasement-d-une-ville
_676095_641295.html

https://www.ina.fr/video/AFE00003169/
le-general-de-gaulle-a-paris-video.html

https://www.ina.fr/video/AFE99000037/
le-general-de-gaulle-met-le-pied-sur-la-terre-de-france-video.html

https://www.ina.fr/video/AFE00003044/
role-de-l-armee-francaise-dans-la-liberation-de-la-france-video.html

https://www.ina.fr/video/AFE00003140/
annonces-du-debarquement-en-normandie-et-de-la-liberation-
de-paris-a-alger-video.html 

https://www.ina.fr/video/AFE99000038/
journal-de-la-resistance-la-liberation-de-paris-video.html 

https://www.ina.fr/video/AFE01000022/
la-liberation-de-paris-version-monde-libre-video.html 

https://www.ina.fr/video/AFE04002049/
bilan-d-un-an-video.html

25 August 1944

Paris liberation made 'whites only'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7984436.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bristol/somerset/7868913.stm

Free French Fighters

leading a group of Nazi prisoners

as a crowd jeered in Paris in 1944.

[ Anglonautes' note:

the building behind the crowd

is the Palais Garnier / Opéra de Paris ]

Photograph: Bettman/Getty Images

French Resistance Fighter Goes Public

About Execution of German P.O.W.s

Forty-seven soldiers were shot dead

and secretly buried shortly after D-Day,

a veteran says.

The story was hidden for decades.

NYT

Published May 17, 2023

Updated May 18, 2023, 12:25 a.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/
world/europe/french-resistance-execution-german-pow.html

August 1944

Operation Dragoon

In August 1944,

the United States executed

a gigantic assault

on southern France.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/
opinion/the-forgotten-story-of-operation-anvil.html

Operation Dragoon

(initially Operation Anvil)

was the code name

for the landing operation

of the Allied invasion of Provence

(Southern France)

on 15 August 1944.

Although initially designed

to be executed in conjunction

with Operation Overlord,

the Allied landing in Normandy,

a lack of available resources

led to a cancellation

of the second landing.

By July 1944

the landing was reconsidered,

as the clogged-up ports in Normandy

did not have the capacity

to adequately supply the Allied forces.

Concurrently,

the French High Command

pushed for a revival of the operation

that would include large numbers

of French troops.

As a result,

the operation was

finally approved in July

to be executed in August.

Wikipedia, 27 February 2023

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dragoon

La chaleur terrasse la Provence

en cette mi-août 1944.

Les premiers soldats américains

de l’opération Dragoon

viennent d’arriver

dans le sud de la France

pour le débarquement.

L’assaut militaire

commence par la mer

puis se poursuit dans les airs.

Au total,

les Alliés mobilisent

plus de 500 000 hommes.

Ils seront presque 20 000

à perdre la vie.

https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/100223/
mag-ces-deux-resistants-dont-la-france-refuse-de-rechercher-les-corps

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Operation_Dragoon

https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/100223/
mag-
ces-deux-resistants-dont-la-france-refuse-de-rechercher-les-corps

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/
47/a8905647.shtml

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/
opinion/the-forgotten-story-of-operation-anvil.html

July 1944

Germany

The Stauffenberg plot to kill Hitler

Count Claus von Stauffenberg    1907-1944

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/10/
stauffenberg-plot-germany-hitler

June 1944

Italy

Liberation of Rome

https://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/
an-american-garden-in-a-foreign-land/  

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/5/
newsid_3547000/3547329.stm

The village of Oradour-sur-Glane, France,

where hundreds of citizens were killed in a church

set on fire by a Nazi SS division in June 1944.

Credit: Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

French Resistance Fighter Goes Public

About Execution of German P.O.W.s

Forty-seven soldiers were shot dead

and secretly buried shortly after D-Day,

a veteran says.

The story was hidden for decades.

NYT

Published May 17, 2023

Updated May 18, 2023, 12:25 a.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/
world/europe/french-resistance-execution-german-pow.html

10 June 1944

France

Oradour-sur-Glane

Nazi massacre of civilians

soldiers from

the Second SS Panzer Division,

known as Das Reich,

rolled into Oradour,

in west central France,

ordered its residents

to assemble

and slaughtered 643 of them.

Men were herded

into barns and shot,

then the barns

were set on fire.

Women and children

were confined in a church,

and the Germans threw grenades

into the building and burned it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/24/
world/europe/robert-hebras-dead.html

Six hundred and 42 people,

including 247 children,

were shot or burnt alive

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/03/
oradour-sur-glane-nazi-massacre-village

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/
oradour-sur-glane

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/24/
world/europe/robert-hebras-dead.html

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/09/
former-nazi-guard-france-oradour-massacre

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/03/
oradour-sur-glane-nazi-massacre-village

9 June 1944

France

Tulle

Nazi massacre of civilians

Le 9 juin 1944, en représaille

à des actions de résistance,

les Waffen SS

avaient pendu aux balcons

et aux lampadaires de la ville

99 Tullois.

Cent quarante-neuf habitants

avaient également été déportés

au camp de concentration

de Dachau, près de Munich

(sud-ouest de l'Allemagne),

dont 101 ne sont jamais revenus.

https://www.nouvelobs.com/topnews/20140609.
AFP9202/massacres-de-tulle-et-oradour-70-ans-apres-hommages-de-hollande-et-valls.html

https://www.nouvelobs.com/topnews/20140609.
AFP9202/massacres-de-tulle-et-oradour-
70-ans-apres-hommages-de-hollande-et-valls.html

France    D-Day / Normandy landings    June 6, 1944

Soviet and American airmen, June 1944.

Photograph: AFP via Getty Images

World War II, Ukraine and the Future of Conflict

Richard Overy’s prodigious “Blood and Ruins”

is a sweeping history of World War II

packed with lessons for the future.

NYT

April 4, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/
books/blood-and-ruins-richard-overy.html

Alexander Cassie    1916-2012

known as Sandy

It was on the moonless night

of March 24 and 25, 1944,

that 76 Allied prisoners of war,

most of them British,

clambered down a 30-foot shaft

and crawled through

a 340-foot-long tunnel

below the supposedly

escape-proof

Stalag Luft III camp

in eastern Germany

— the daring breakout

that was celebrated

in the classic 1963 movie

“The Great Escape.”

In their pockets,

the escapees carried

what looked like officially

stamped documents,

identification cards,

business cards

and even letters

written in German

from purported

wives and sweethearts,

all of which were intended

to make it possible for them

to befuddle a hapless

guard or police officer

stopping them

on their way to freedom.

Flight Lt. Alex Cassie,

a British bomber pilot,

was one of a half-dozen artists

who had been forging

those documents for months,

playing a central role

in the larger conspiracy

to free hundreds

of the nearly 1,000 airmen

in the camp.

They called their unit

Dean and Dawson,

after a well-known

London travel agency.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/world/europe/
alex-cassie-who-aided-great-escape-from-nazis-dies-at-95.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/world/europe/
alex-cassie-who-aided-great-escape-from-nazis-dies-at-95.html

19 March 1944

The German army invades Hungary

(...)

four weeks later,

the concentration of Jews

began.

Jews from Munkács

were forced into two ghettos,

and those from

the surrounding areas

were assembled

at two brick factories

on the outskirts of town.

On 11 May 1944

the deportations

to Auschwitz began,

and on 23 May

the last deportation train

left Munkács.

https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/communities/
munkacs/during_holocaust.asp 

https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/communities/
munkacs/during_holocaust.asp 

Italian Campaign    1943-1945

July - August 1943

Battle of Kursk

The largest tank battle in history

German and Soviet operations

on the Eastern Front

Georgi Zhukov    1896-1974

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/
zhukov_georgi.shtml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Battle_of_Kursk

July 1943

Western Allies invade Sicily

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/10/
newsid_3587000/3587283.stm

1943-1945

Allies

Italian campaign

The campaign started

in July 1943,

when the troops

invading Italian territory

became the first

to liberate Nazi Europe,

and did not end until 1945.

However,

much of the most critical fighting

took place in May and June 1944,

leading up to the liberation of Rome,

on 5 June 1944 – the day before

the Normandy Landings.

(...)

Allied casualties in Italy

were more than 312,000

– considerably higher

than those in Normandy.

British casualties are thought

to have been more than 90,000,

during a gruelling advance northwards

through what Winston Churchill

called the "underbelly of Europe".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/britainatwar/5299500/
D-Day-dodgers-prepare-for-attention.html - broken link

11-25 May 1943

Allies

Second Washington Conference

The primary focus

of the conference

was future strategy

in the European war.

A major decision was made

to delay the invasion of France;

a date was set for May

the following year.

To establish air bases

in the Azores,

the Allies also decided

to apply to Portugal

for assistance.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1142047.shtml - broken link

Norway

Birger Edvin Martin Stromsheim    1911-2012

There was no Google Earth,

no Gore-Tex

and only a modest

measure of hope

on the February night in 1943

when six Norwegians parachuted

into the remote and frigid

Telemark region

of their home country

for an outdoor challenge

like few others.

They had skis

and explosives

and a destination:

the German-controlled

Norsk Hydro facility,

high on an isolated

and snowy ridge.

The Norwegians intended

to destroy equipment inside

that the Germans

were using to produce

what is known as heavy water,

a crucial ingredient

in making a nuclear weapon

and one they feared

the Nazis would use

to build an atomic bomb.

One of the demolitions experts

on the team,

Birger Stromsheim,

died Nov. 10 in Oslo at 101.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/world/europe/
birger-stromsheim-who-aided-raid-on-nazi-plant-dies-at-101.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/world/europe/
birger-stromsheim-who-aided-raid-on-nazi-plant-dies-at-101.html

14-24 January 1943

Allies

Casablanca Conference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Casablanca_Conference

Russia

Battle of Stalingrad

August 21, 1942 - February 2, 1943

Winter 1942

Germany

Reinhard Hardegen    1913-2018

leading German

submarine commander

of World War II

who brought U-boat warfare

to the doorstep

of New York Harbor

in the winter of 1942

(...)

Soon after

the United States went to war

with Japan and Germany,

Admiral Karl Donitz,

the commander of the German

submarine service,

sent six U-boats to attack

oil tankers and freighters

in American and Canadian waters

before they could head overseas.

The mission,

code-named Paukenschlag

(Drumbeat),

was aimed at further

disrupting Britain’s

precarious supply lifeline

and demoralizing

the American home front.

Captain Hardegen

provided Drumbeat

with some of its

most stirring exploits

when his U-boat sank

two ships off Long Island

and brought him close

enough to New York City

to see the glare

from Manhattan’s

skyscrapers

in the night skies.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/
obituaries/reinhard-hardegen-who-led-u-boats-to-americas-shore-dies-at-105.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/
obituaries/
reinhard-hardegen-who-led-u-boats-to-americas-shore-
dies-at-105.html

Operation Torch

Algeria-Morocco military campaign

Allied Landings in French North Africa

8 November 1942

November 1942

 November 1942 was the month

that brought the Allies

hard-fought victories in North Africa

and inspired Churchill to say

that the war had reached

“the end of the beginning.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/
books/review/november-1942-peter-englund.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/
books/review/november-1942-peter-englund.html

19 August 1942

France

Dieppe Raid / Landing

also known as

The Battle of Dieppe,

Operation Rutter

or Operation Jubilee

Most of the 6,000-strong force

was made up of Canadians,

seeing front line action

for the first time,

as well as British, American

and French soldiers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/19/newsid_3560000/3560309.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/19/
newsid_3560000/3560309.stm

France

Margival, près de Soisson

Margival,

la forteresse hitlérienne

méconnue

Construit en 1942

par des ouvriers français,

le camp de Margival, dans l'Aisne,

fut, jusqu'en 1944,

le QG d'Hitler en France.

http://www.lesechos.fr/info/france/020725082719.htm

https://www.lesechos.fr/12/08/2010/
lesechos.fr/020725082719_
margival--la-forteresse-hitlerienne-meconnue.htm  

Japan

The Japanese military

raped and enslaved

thousands of Asian

and European women

in army brothels

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/
opinion/another-attempt-to-deny-japans-history.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/
obituaries/kim-bok-dong-dead.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/
opinion/another-attempt-to-deny-japans-history.html

15 February 1942

Singapore forced to surrender

British, Australian, and Indian troops

surrender to the Japanese

as Singapore falls in 1942.

Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images

Into the storm: the horror of the second world war

Eighty years ago the worst conflict in history began,

killing up to 85 million people.

It also shaped modern Britain

and its relationship with Europe

G

Sun 1 Sep 2019    08.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2019/sep/01/
ascherson-into-the-storm-second-world-war-outbreak

British forces in Singapore

surrender unconditionally

to the Japanese

seven days after enemy troops

first stormed the island.

(...)

The British capitulation

comes one week after

Japanese forces

invaded Singapore

and only two weeks

since their onslaught

on the Malay Peninsula

forced the British troops'

withdrawal to the island.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/15/
newsid_3529000/3529447.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/15/
newsid_3529000/3529447.stm

https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2019/sep/01/
ascherson-into-the-storm-second-world-war-outbreak

1942

USA

The Women Airforce Service Pilots

- The "WASPs"

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/us/
24cowden.html

1942

USA

 Prescott Sheldon Bush's

company's assets

were seized in 1942 under

the Trading with the Enemy Act

George W. Bush's grandfather

US senator Prescott Sheldon Bush

1895-1972

Steve Bell

The Guardian        G2        p. 23        10 May 2005

Top > Main character: U.S. President George W. Bush

Top > last image on tle right: Adolf Hitler.

George Bush's grandfather,

the late US senator Prescott Bush,

was a director

and shareholder of companies

that profited

from their involvement

with the financial backers

of Nazi Germany.

The Guardian

has obtained confirmation

from newly discovered files

in the US National Archives

that a firm of which Prescott Bush

was a director was involved with

the financial architects

of Nazism.

His business dealings,

which continued

until his company's assets

were seized in 1942  under

the Trading with the Enemy Act,

has led more than 60 years later

to a civil action for damages

being brought in Germany

against the Bush family

by two former

slave labourers at Auschwitz

and to a hum of pre-election

controversy.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/
usa.secondworldwar
 

http://digital.guardian.co.uk/guardian/2005/05/10/pages/two22.shtml

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/
usa.secondworldwar

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/
germany.secondworldwar

Europe map    1942

Carte de l'Europe en 1942. Europe map. 1942.

Mémorial de la Shoah

http://www.enseigner-histoire-shoah.org/outils-et-ressources/chronologie-et-cartes/cartes.html

USA    Manhattan project    1942-1946

22 December 1941 - 14 January 1942

Allies

Washington Conference

The First Washington Conference,

also known as

the Arcadia Conference

(ARCADIA was the code name

used for the conference),

was held in Washington, D.C.,

from December 22, 1941,

to January 14, 1942.

It brought together the top British

and American military leaders,

as well as Winston Churchill

and Franklin Roosevelt

and their aides, in Washington

from December 22, 1941

to January 14, 1942,

and led to a series

of major decisions

that shaped the war effort

in 1942–1943.

Arcadia was the first meeting

on military strategy between

Britain and the United States;

it came two weeks

after the American entry

into World War II.

The Arcadia Conference

was a secret agreement

unlike the much wider

postwar plans

given to the public

as the Atlantic Charter,

agreed between

Churchill and Roosevelt

in August 1941.

The main policy

achievements of Arcadia

included the decision

for "Germany First"

(or "Europe first"—that is,

the defeat of Germany

was the highest priority);

the establishment

of the Combined Chiefs of Staff.

based in Washington,

for approving

the military decisions

of both the US and Britain;

the principle

of unity of command

of each theater

under a supreme commander;

drawing up measures

to keep China in the war;

limiting the reinforcements

to be sent to the Pacific;

and setting up a system

for coordinating shipping.

All the decisions were secret,

except the conference

drafted the Declaration

by United Nations,

which committed the Allies

to make no separate peace

with the enemy,

and to employ full resources

until victory.

In immediate tactical terms,

the decisions at Arcadia

included

an invasion of North Africa

in 1942,

sending American bombers

to bases in England,

and for the British

to strengthen their forces

in the Pacific.

Arcadia created a unified

American-British-Dutch

Australian Command

(ABDA) in the Far East;

the ABDA fared poorly.

It was also agreed

at the conference

to combine military resources

under one command

in the European

Theater of Operations

(ETO).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadia_Conference - 27 April 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Arcadia_Conference

11 December 1941

Germany and Italy declare war on US

Germany and Italy

announce they are at war

with the United States.

America

immediately responds

by declaring war

on the two Axis powers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/11/newsid_3532000/3532401.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/11/
newsid_3532000/3532401.stm

25 August - 17 September 1941

Allies    Middle East    Persia (now Iran)

Anglo-Soviet invasion

Operation Countenance

Persia's

strategic importance

increased

as the war progressed.

In 1940 it produced

over eight million

tons of oil, essential

for the Allied war effort.

Furthermore,

Germany's invasion of Russia

in June 1941

made Persia critically important

for sending

American Lend-Lease supplies

to the Eastern Front.

While officially neutral,

Persia

had friendly ties with Germany

and was home

to many German nationals.

Reza Shah Pahlavi's

refusal to expel

the German nationals,

coupled with their

more strategic concerns,

prompted

an Anglo-Soviet invasion

in August 1941.

The invasion

and occupation of Persia

was swift and undemanding.

The British units

invaded Persia

from their bases in Iraq,

to the south of Iran.

The Russians

invaded from the north.

Persian resistance

was rapidly overwhelmed

and neutralised

by Soviet and British

tanks and infantry.

Before long,

the Shah was exiled

to South Africa.

The British and Soviet troops

met in Tehran on 17 September

and effectively

divided the country

between them

for the rest of the war.

A Tri-Partite

Treaty of Alliance

between Britain,

Russia and Persia,

signed in January 1942,

committed the Allies

to leaving Persia

at the end of the war.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/
factfiles/nonflash/a1130121.shtml

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/
factfiles/nonflash/a1130121.shtml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Anglo-Soviet_invasion_of_Iran

August 1941

Allies

Secret meetings

seal US-Britain alliance

Top-secret meetings

between Prime Minister

Winston Churchill

and American President

Franklin D Roosevelt

(...)

Details of the meetings

only emerged

after the announcement

of a joint declaration

by Britain and America

on the basic principles

for a post-war world,

sealing the alliance

between the two countries

for the downfall of Hitler.

(...)

The document,

known as the Atlantic Charter,

consists of a list of eight (?)

undertakings.

 

1 - Britain

and the United States

seek no territorial gains

from the war

2 - any changes to a country's

territory should only happen

with the agreement

of the people living there

3 - it is the right of everyone

to choose the government

under which they will live

4 - self-government

should be restored

to those who have lost it

5 - there should be free trade

between all nations

6 - improvements in the economy

and in living standards

should be available to all

7 - there should be peace

following what the Charter calls

"the end of Nazi tyranny"

8 - peace should enable

freedom of movement

around the world

9 - a belief

that aggressive nations

must be disarmed

if the world is to live at peace

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/14/newsid_3536000/3536533.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/14/
newsid_3536000/3536533.stm

Allies

France

Normandie-Niémen unit

Created by de Gaulle in 1942

to help repel Hitler’s invasion

of the Soviet Union in June 1941,

the Normandie-Niémen unit

was composed

of nearly 100 French fighter pilots,

almost half of whom

were killed in action.

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/
world/europe/26albert.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/
world/europe/26albert.html

USA    Home front

Soviet-German War    1941-1945

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/
soviet_german_war_01.shtml

Operation Barbarossa    22 June 1941

Germans invade the Soviet Union

Air Raid Over Moscow

Overall of central Moscow

w. antiaircraft gunners dotting sky over Red Square

w. exploding shells w. spires of Kremlin silhouetted

by German Luftwaffe flare.

Location: Moscow, Russia

Date taken: July 26, 1941

Photograph: Margaret Bourke-White

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=eabefc43c9dc43b0

22 June 1941 - 7 January 1942

Operation Barbarossa / Операция Барбаросса

Under Operation Barbarossa,

the Germans invaded Ukraine

in 1941

and were hailed as heroes

for driving out the Russians.

Antisemitic propaganda

flooded the country

and helped smooth the passage

towards the acts of genocide

that would eventually mean

one in four of all the Jewish people

who died in the Holocaust

were murdered in Ukraine

in its few years

under Nazi occupation.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/sep/04/
ukraine-holocaust-ground-zero-review-
it-is-the-unfathomable-suffering-that-stays-with-you

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/sep/04/
ukraine-holocaust-ground-zero-review-
it-is-the-unfathomable-suffering-that-stays-with-you

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/22/
newsid_3526000/3526691.stm

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/06/
operation-barbarossa-russia-second-world-war 

Greece    Axis occupation    April 1941 - October 1944

Ragged young Greek children during WWII.

Location: Greece

Date taken: October 1944

Photograph: Dmitri Kessel

Life Images

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_occupation_of_Greece_during_World_War_II

The Axis occupation of Greece

during World War II

began in April 1941

after the German and Italian

invasion of Greece,

and was carried out together

with Bulgarian forces.
 

The Occupation lasted

until the German withdrawal

from the mainland

in October 1944.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_occupation_of_Greece_during_World_War_II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Axis_occupation_of_Greece

In early March 1941,

Bulgaria

joined the Axis alliance

and, in April 1941, participated

in the German-led attack

on Yugoslavia and Greece.

In return, Bulgaria received

most of Thrace from Greece,

and Macedonia

as well as parts of eastern Serbia

from Yugoslavia.

Though Bulgaria participated

in the Balkan Campaign,

it refused to enter the war

against the Soviet Union

in June 1941

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005451

Hitler/Jaeger File

German troops enter Bulgaria.

Date taken: March 1941

Photograph: Hugo Jaeger

Hugo Jaeger was one of Hitler's personal photographers.

http://www.life.com/image/ugc1000272/in-gallery/27022

Life images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=79631bc8a3b75742

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/
bulgaria

Japan, USA    Pacific Campaign    1941-1945

USA    Japanese-Americans internment camps

Japan, USA    Pearl Harbor

Sunday, 7 December 1941

The case against American isolationism

during the second world war

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/07/
american-isolationism-henry-luce-ww2

Britain declares war

on Finland,

Hungary and Romania

on 5 December 1941,

following the signing

of the Tri-partite Pact

and Finland's alliance

with Germany

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar
/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1138501.shtml

1941-1944

The Continuation War

Finland allied itself

with Nazi Germany

(...)

not to prevent Soviet conquest

but to win back territories

lost to the USSR

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/23/
why-finland-allied-itself-with-nazi-germany

The Continuation War

was a conflict fought

by Finland and Nazi Germany,

as co-belligerents,

against the Soviet Union (USSR)

from 1941 to 1944,

during World War II.

In Russian historiography,

the war is called

the Soviet–Finnish Front

of the Great Patriotic War.

Germany regarded

its operations in the region

as part of its overall war efforts

on the Eastern Front

and provided Finland

with critical material support

and military assistance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation_War - 27 April 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation_War

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/23/
why-finland-allied-itself-with-nazi-germany

German conquests in Europe    1939-1942

German conquests in Europe, 1939-1942 > map

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_nm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005137&MediaId=363

Copyright ©

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.

A Senegalese captive at Lamarche,

in the Haute-Marne, France, 1940

Second world war through the lenses of German soldiers

– in pictures

In 1939, thousands of German soldiers,

many of them conscripts, were dispatched across Europe.

They went armed not only with weapons but with cameras

– the famous German Leica and Rolleiflex –

in their bags and orders to capture what they saw.

As Britain, France and the Allied countries mark

the 77th anniversary of the Normandy landings

on D-day this weekend,

a recently released book

All at War: Photography by German Soldiers 1939-45,

is a compilation of these photographs taken from a vast collection

held by the Archive of Modern Conflict in London.

Here are some of the photographs from the book

G

Sat 5 Jun 2021    10.52 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2021/jun/05/
the-second-world-war-through-the-lens-of-german-soldiers-in-pictures

19 and 20 June 1940

Lyon, France

188 tirailleurs « sénégalais »,

6 tirailleurs nord-africains

et 2 légionnaires russe et albanais

sont massacrés

par l’armée allemande

au nord de Lyon.

https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2020/06/16/
ces-tirailleurs-africains-massacres-par-les-nazis
_6042980_3224.html

https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2020/06/16/
ces-tirailleurs-africains-massacres-par-les-nazis
_6042980_3224.html

German occupation of the Channel Islands

June 1940- 9 May 1945

Концлагерь на острове Джерси:

как британцы прятали беглого советского солдатаКонцлагерь

на острове Джерси: как британцы прятали беглого советского солдата

BBC News - Русская служба        Video        8 May 2020

Британцу Бобу Ле Суеру – 99 лет.

Во время Второй мировой войны

он помогал некоторым советским военнопленным,

бежавшим из концлагеря.

С одним из них, Федором «Биллом» Бурым,

у него завязалась дружба на всю жизнь.

Боб рассказал Русской службе Би-Би-Си о том,

как сбежавших военнопленных прятали всей деревней,

оформляли им поддельные документы

и как «казацкая песня» чуть не выдала Федора фашистам.

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLvEvclJlZA

https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=mLvEvclJlZA
video - BBC - 8 May 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/nov/18/
guernsey-files-islanders-nazi-occupation

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/mar/12/
uk.culturaltrips.channelislands

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/may/10/
secondworldwar.monarchy

Netherlands

German occupation    1940-1945

May 1940

France

The Wormhoudt massacre

(or Wormhout massacre)

mass murder

of 80 British and French POWs

by Waffen-SS soldiers

from the 1st SS Division

Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

during the Battle of France

in May 1940.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhoudt_massacre - 4 December 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Wormhoudt_massacre

1940

Russia

Katyn massacre

forest of Katyn,

near the city of Smolensk

zbrodnia katyńska, mord katyński

Катынский расстрел

In the spring of 1940

the Soviets proceeded

with the “liquidation”

of the Polish officer corps,

shooting nearly 15,000 men

in Katyn Forest

http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/movies/18katy.html

22,000 Polish

officers and intellectuals

were murdered

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/24/katyn-massacre-poland-president

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/28/
katyn-massacre-russia-documents-web

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/24/
katyn-massacre-poland-president

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/
katyn-painful-wound-that-has-yet-to-heal-1942117.html 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/5579176/Katyn-review.html  

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8606126.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11845315

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8606126.stm - 7 April 2010

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jun/19/
katyn-andrzej-wajda-film-review  

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/
movies/18katy.html

Romania and Hungary

joined the Tri-partite Pact

- originally signed

on September 27, 1940

by Germany, Japan and Italy -

in November 1940,

as Hitler prepared his attack

against Bolshevism

on the Eastern Front.
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1138501.shtml - broken link

October 23, 1940

France    Hendaye    Adolf Hitler meets Francisco Franco

Smiling German ldr. Adolf Hitler (R)

shaking hands w. Spanish leader Generalissimo Francisco Franco (2L)

during Hitler's only official meeeting w. Franco.

Location: Hendaye, France

Date taken: October 23, 1940

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=2bab5be9c6f1bc41

https://www.ina.fr/video/AFE85000178/
entrevue-historique-du-chancelier-hitler-avec-le-general-franco-
video.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/
3533400/Franco-feared-Hitler-would-kidnap-him.html

Axis alliance

The three principal partners

in the Axis alliance were

Germany, Italy, and Japan.

These three countries recognized

German domination

over most of continental Europe;

Italian domination

over the Mediterranean Sea;

and Japanese domination

over East Asia and the Pacific.

The Axis was opposed

by the Allied Powers,

led by Great Britain,

the United States,

the Soviet Union, and China.

Five other nations joined the Axis

after the start  of World War II.

The decline and fall

of the Axis alliance

began in 1943.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/
axis-alliance-in-world-war-ii

The Tripartite Pact,

also called the Three-Power Pact,

Axis Pact, Three-way Pact

or Tripartite Treaty,

was signed

in Berlin, Germany

on September 27, 1940.

It established

the Axis Powers of World War II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripartite_Pact

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Tripartite_Pact

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/
axis-alliance-in-world-war-ii

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/triparti.asp

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/
books/blood-and-ruins-richard-overy.html

22 June 1940

United Kingdom

Charles de Gaulle's

BBC rallying call to France

Appel du 22 juin

Il n'y a pas eu d'enregistrement

(audio ou film)

de l'Appel du 18 juin 1940,

contrairement

à celui du 22 juin 1940,

avec lequel on le confond souvent

http://www.charles-de-gaulle.org/pages/l-homme/dossiers-thematiques/
1940-1944-la-seconde-guerre-mondiale/l-appel-du-18-juin/documents/l-appel-du-22-juin-1940.php - broken link

18 June 1940

United Kingdom

Charles de Gaulle's

BBC rallying call to France

Appel du 18 juin

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/18/
charles-de-gaulle-bbc-broadcast

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/13/
de-gaulle-rallying-cry-almost-silenced

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10339678

15 June 1940

The Soviet Union invades Lithuania

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/04/
chiune-sugihara-my-father-japanese-schindler-saved-6000-jews-lithuania

France    Battle of Dunkirk    20 May - 3 June 1940

Hitler/Jaeger File

Dunkirk after British bombardment and retreat.

Location: Dunkirk, France

Date taken: June 1940

Photographer: Hugo Jaeger

Hugo Jaeger was one of Hitler's personal photographers.

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/df15c1ca7a20795a.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/4/
newsid_3500000/3500865.stm

The Fall of France    May - June 1940

In 1940, refugees fled Paris

in anticipation of the German invasion.

Photograph: FPG/Hulton Archive,

via Getty Images

Would You Hide a Jew From the Nazis?

Nicholas Kristof

NYT

SEPT. 17, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/
opinion/sunday/would-you-hide-a-jew-from-the-nazis.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/
fall_france_01.shtml 

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/
france

Netherlands    Rotterdam    May 14, 1940

Leveled city of Rotterdam

resulting from ignored German ultimatum

ordering Dutch commander of city to cease fire

delivered to him at 10:30 a.m. on May 14, 1940;

at 1:22 p.m.,

German bombers set

whole inner city of Rotterdam ablase,

killing 30,000 of its inhabitants.

Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands

Date taken: 1940

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=c35a9c97fcd778ca - broken URL

German bombers

set whole inner city of Rotterdam ablaze,

killing 30,000 of its inhabitants

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
German_bombing_of_Rotterdam 

10 May 1940

Germany invades the Netherlands

On 10 May 1940,

the German army

invaded the Netherlands.

It was the start

of five days of fighting

that resulted

in the occupation

of the Netherlands

(...)

The planned attack

on the Netherlands

was part of a larger

plan of attack,

of which the code name

was Fall Gelb.

The goal of the Germans

was to conquer France.

They wanted to bypass

the French defence line

at the eastern border

by going through

the Netherlandsand Belgium.

https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/
go-in-depth/german-invasion-netherlands/

https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/
go-in-depth/german-invasion-netherlands/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/15/
arts/dutch-war-diaries.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/25/
obituaries/freddie-oversteegen-dutch-resistance-fighter-
dies-at-92.html

Avril 1940

Guerre dans le Grand Nord

Occupation of Denmark

En avril 1940,

les troupes allemandes

lancent une offensive

contre la Norvège.

D’abord prises au piège

à Narvik, port norvégien

au-delà du cercle polaire,

elles sont ensuite

en première ligne