#1939-40 World;s Far | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

musea-reviews · 2 years ago

Text

Waterliniemuseum

(Dutch Water Defense Lines Museum) ‘’Where UNESCO World Heritage Sites cross’’

Location: Bunnik, Utrecht, The Netherlands Price: 10,50 Duration: 1 - 2 hours Transport: bus from Utrecht central station, and a short walk Language: Dutch / English (Audio probably also in German, French, Ukrainian, Italian, Turkish Spanish, Chinese, Arabic) Activities: play games, learn history, walk around in nature, play with water Date of visit: Friday 17 March 2023Website

UNESCO

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a location or monument that is protected because it has a special cultural or physical significance. These places are all over the world, some of the more known ones are Machu Picchu in Peru, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Yellowstone National Park in the USA, or The Great Wall of China. There are so far 1154 monuments on the list if you want to check out which one is close to you, there is a map with every monument! In the Netherlands, we have 12 of these monuments, 2 of which cross here! One is the Lower Germanic Limes, which is the northern border of the Roman Empire and follows the river of the Rhine. This horizontal line going from the Netherlands all the way to Greece was protected by a roman soldier from the year 40 to 400 (in the Netherlands at least). This is also how my city came to be, build upon an ancient roman Castellum.

De oud Hollandse Waterlinie

The second one is The Dutch Water Lines, which is an important line of defence in Dutch history. This is a vertical line of villages and farmlands that are so below water level that it's made to be drowned in the protection of the rest of the country. Around the 1500’s the Dutch found out that enemies don't like wet feet, they would drown parts of land if enemies were approaching, these enemies back then were usually the French, Spaniards, or Germans. The Dutch would raise the water level exactly knee-high (50 cm / 20 inches) if you made it too high they would just get a boat, and if it was too low they could walk through it. The villages that would be put underwater would first get a short notice to evacuate of course. So in the Netherlands, you have 3 big rivers protecting us from the bottom, you only need to put guards on bridges, since without those you can simply not cross. But the middle of the country was open to attacks. So this line of land was made, which some higher-up paths, just like the bridges. Even if the land was underwater people could take roads, but on the other hand, it did force armies to take these small predictable roads, with forts full of armies next to em. so they usually just gave up the Old water linies have been used 2 times against the French. The first time worked well and they retreated. The second time the French had leaned and waited for winter, after flooding the lands it froze over, and they could simply walk. However, the French were not prepared that even back then the Dutch were outstanding ice skaters and simply put their army in skates. The French once again gave up.

Our savior in WW1 Then they kept bettering the waterworks and moved in a bit to include Utrecht in the protected part. These new water lines were however never put to use again, but that doesn't mean they didn't serve us well. Let's skip some time, 1914, World War 1 started. The Netherlands wanted to stay neutral, and this worked. Not because the Germans were so polite to take everything except for us, but because of the tread that we had our water lines. From found German documents they do talk about the fact that they simply could not take our country as ‘’ one can fight in the desert or the mountains, but no one can fight in mud’’. 1939, World War 2. We said we were going to stay neutral again, But German didn't take it. Quickly we flooded our lands, but that doesn't go as quickly as you might think. The big difference now was that there was a new invention, planes. They simply flew over the water, jumped with parachutes, and absolutely bomb Rotterdam to a pile of rubble. Within 4 days, the Netherlands had given up. I mean to be honest, our military back then were some guys in bikes, we weren't prepared for planes and bombs from them. After this, the water lines were actually used one more time when the Allied forces of the English, American, Canadian, and Polish armies came to free the Netherlands. The Nazis then opened the limes to try to stop them.

What about the museum tho

Well, after reading all of that, you would assume you probably don't even have to go to the museum anymore. But I still recommend it! It is the most fun and interactive museum I have been to yet. When I walked in, I got a little bracelet that I had to personalize with my language of choice and my postcode. Now I could turn on any videos, games and talking statues. Anything scanned will be in your preferred language. And the postcode is used to determine where you live, and to make references to protecting you (if you live left of the waterline). Usually, I love reading everything in a museum, but I was happy that in this museum all information was told to you through audio, videos, and games. There were little booklets on the wall if you really wanted more information, but that felt more optional. Whereas in most museums it's the other way around. Other things you could do at the museum were a VR flight with a sightly moving chair to make you feel like you're really flying over the Netherlands in a parachute. In the middle of the museum was an outside space where they build a replica of the waterline and different dams and doors so you or kids could play around with water while not knowing they are actually learning how it all works. This was closed now tho because it's practically still winter.

Another great thing about this museum was that not all the fun stuff was ‘’for 6 - 12’’ or something. I see a lot of museums having fun interactive learning things, or art workshops, but it's all just for children, bro I know I'm 23 but why can't I do a treasure hunt and answer silly little questions?? In this museum it was not for kids, anyone could do anything.

Very Topical

they really keep up to date, as mentioned before, with the VR and other technology. But also on politics. They had this part about the war between Russia and Ukraine. How when Russia attacked they assumed it would be easy to take Kiev quickly. But it turned out to be harder, as Ukraine did the same technique we have been learning about here, they flooded the rivers. It is not as big as here, but it was also not planned. I thought it was so cool to include information like this.

Lastly, I also would like to say that this was once again a museum with friendly people, and that really just makes it all so much better. People that are hyped to teach you about the topics. I started with a guy showing me around the first room, asking me what had piqued my interest to come here and what I hoped to learn, so he could better personalize his story to my situation. Sadly I have no reasons, and I know nothing of this, but I do love learning!

Fort Vechten It is a pretty small museum, to be honest, but that doesn't matter, as along these water linies there are so many forts. Just like the one, this museum was a part of, the fort itself is free to walk around, and the nature there is always beautiful. This is because the waterline and the forts were the property of the military, so no one could build their businesses and other buildings near them. Now that it is protected, it will still not be possible. So all of these areas are green and full of nature. Part of the fort was closed as it was a protected place for bats to sleep the whole winter, the dark thick walls of a fort are perfect for that.

Would I pay the price: no not really I think 7 euros would be the max, and I'm not such a big ‘’waterlinie’’ fan that I would go over that Would I revisit it: Definitely, it was a lot of fun and a nice walk. Who do I recommend it to: Dutch people interested in nature and history. Also, to tourists that are specifically into Dutch history or waterworks. Also very kid friendly Interactive: 5 Educational: 5 Storytelling: 5 Price: 4 memorable: 3 Total score: 4,4

1 note · View note

queersatanic · 8 months ago

Text

I Hindu Nationalists and Italian Fascism

II Moonje’s Plans for Militarising Hindus

III Eve of Second World War

IV Savarkar and Nazism

V Waiting for the Right Enemy

The literature promoted by militant Hinduism is trying nowadays to compare the attitude adopted by the Hindu Mahasabha towards the totalitarian regimes with Subhas Chandra Bose's position towards the axis powers. According to this literature, the evidence in favour of such interpretation is a meeting which took place between Bose and Savarkar in Bombay in June 1940.^25 On this occasion Savarkar is supposed to have suggested to Subhas that he should go to Europe and seek the dictators' support. Whereas the authors connected to the above-mentioned school of thought consider this claim a matter of fact, I could not find any record of the talks between the two leaders. According to a short article in the Times of India of June 24,

Mr Bose had also talks with Mr V D Savarkar, president of the All India Hindu Mahasabha. at the latter's residence at Dadar on Saturday evening. It is understood that the discussions related to the present political situation in the country and the steps the Hindu Mahasabha and the 'Forward Bloc' should take in co-operation with other parties. The results of the talks, it is stated, were not encouraging.

The episode, as always, did not go unnoticed by the police, who gave a brief account of it:

Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Bombay on June 22nd and had discussions with M A Jinnah and V D Savarkar with a view of exploring the possibilities of co-operation between the Forward Bloc and the Hindu Mahasabha respectively. Bose's efforts were apparently productive of no result. The Bombay Forward Bloc endeavoured to arrange a meeting on June 23rdat which Subhas Chandra Bose would speak, but it was necessary to abandon the meeting on account of lack of support (MSA, Home Special Department, 1023, 1939-40, SA dated June 29, 1940, 'Forward Bloc').

The absence of accounts by the Hindu Mahasabha on the meeting can be explained by the fact that, both the leaders being involved in anti-British activities, it would not make sense leaving records of sensitive matters. Not even among Bose's papers and writings is there any reference to the meeting. It is therefore impossible to reconstruct the content of the talks between the two leaders, unless we trust the only source available. This is the speech made by Savarkar on the occasion of the dissolution of the Abhinav Bharat in 1952. It is weak evidence, because it is not supported by any written proof, and was given several years after the event.

My impression of the episode is that it is a sort of historiographic invention, directed to legitimise the otherwise ambiguous position of the Hindu Mahasabha during the war. Asserting that Netaji's project had Savarkar' s sanction means not only that Savarkar had a sort of patronage on Bose's activities in Europe, but, more important, that Savarkar played an important role in the freedom fight.

Certainly the meeting did take place, and very possibly the two leaders discussed Bose's intention to go to Europe and seek the support of the axis powers. However, all this is far from meaning that Savarkar inspired Bose, who, right from 1933, had his own connections with the dictators' governments. The president of the Hindu Mahasabha put forward his claim on the content of his meeting with Netaji four years after Gandhi's assassination, when the image of the Hindu Mahasabha and its affiliations were badly damaged by the suspicion of their involvement in the murder. Accordingly it makes sense to think that the organisations of militant Hinduism must have perceived the necessity to rehabilitate their political past and re-invent a more clear-cut anti-British stand. What stronger argument, therefore, could be available than the assertion that the Hindu Mahasabha was secretly ready to support Bose's plans?

The involvement in Gandhi's assassination was not the only reason of crisis: the image of Hindu nationalism was indeed already damaged by the ambiguous attitude adopted in the war period. The policy actually followed by Hindu nationalism during the war, namely, responsive co-operation, was far from being unambiguous on both transfer of powers and relations with the British. In fact, the ambivalence of responsive co-operation was made explicit by Savarkar himself in a 1942 presidential speech. On that occasion Savarkar stated that: "the policy of responsive co-operation...covers the whole gamut of patriotic activities from unconditional co-operation to active and even armed resistance... (L G Khare (ed), Hindu Rashtra Darshan, Bombay, 1949, p 266). It comes as no surprise that this ambiguous stand raised almost universal suspicion towards the forces of militant Hinduism and invited the charge of collaborationism.^26

Immediately after the outbreak of the war, the Hindu Mahasabha decided that its working committee of September 10, 1939 should adopt the following line of conduct:

no reference should be made to the justice or otherwise of the claim of residents of Danzig to return to the Reich; for, in principle we shall have to support the action of the Germans of Danzig; not that we should denounce this but then under no circumstances can we take part in this war on the side of British (NMML, Savarkar papers, microfilm, rn 12, cit, letter from Mandlekar to Savarkar, September 7, 1939).

The working committee of September 10 decided which steps should be taken in order to prepare the nation to face th emergency provoked by the outbreak of the war:

As the task of detending India from any military attack is of common concern to the British government as well as ourselves and as we are unfortunately not in a position today to carry out that responsibility unaided, there is ample room for wholehearted co-operation between India and England (NMML, Moonje papers, subject files, n 51).

The preliminary condition for such co-operation was the devolution of full powers to a central Indian government by the British. Later on, the Hindu Mahasabha would be less strict than the Congress o this issue.

The committee wished for the realisation of the militarisation of Indian society and the Indianisation of the army. It requested a reform of the Arms Act, along the lines prevailing in the UK. It demanded also that territorial forces and paramilitary groups be strengthened, that new military organisations be created in those provinces where they did not exist before finally, that more Indian students be accepted in the military academies. The Hindu Mahasabha requested the government to increase the local production of modem armaments so that India could equip its army, without depending on imports from other nations.

Soon after this resolution, the Hindu Mahasabha started to work for the creation of a national militia. Naturally enough, Moonje became the person in charge. Inviting party members to attend a preliminary meeting for the foundation of the militia, in Pune on October 8, Moonje described the future organisation in the following terms:

I have the pleasure in bringing to your notice a resolution of the Hindu Mahasabha for the organisation of the Hindu Militia in the country for the purpose of taking part in the defence of India both from external and internal aggression, whenever an occasion of emergency may arise during the course of the Anglo-German War. ... I believe that it will be quite in the fitness of things, in view of the historic All-India Military leadership of the Maharashtra, that a beginning should be made in the Maharashtra; so that the lead may be taken up by the whole of India afterwards (NMML, ibid, circular letter dated September 27).

Who could be the internal aggressors if not the Muslims? The answer seems to be contained in a letter from Moonje to Khaparde of October 18:

... the Moslems are making themselves a nuisance. The Congress government will not stand up but will yield to them. We cannot expect any consideration at the hands of the Congress government. We shall have to fight both the government and the Moslems just as the Khaksars are doing in the UP. The Hindu Mahasabha will give its support to such fights as the Muslim League is supporting the Khaksars: you must prepare the volunteers in your towns. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh may be useful and handy (NMML, ibid).

Moonje expressed in more explicit terms his hostility to the Congress:

But there is one worry which is menacingly uppermost in its mind at the present moment and that is - what will happen if, in the mutually antagonistic and clashing ideologies, the Charka were to come into conflict with the Rifle ...? (NMML ibid, circular letter).

Charka as a Gandhian symbol was a metaphor for the Congress.

The theme of the 'internal enemy' is a further element of affinity between the ideology of fascism and of Hindu nationalism, expressed by a similar rhetoric. It seems nevertheless that the Sanghatanists were inclined to fight the Muslims and the Congress, rather than the British.

According to Moonje's plans, the RSS should be involved in the creation of the national militia. Indeed, in a letter of October 18 to General Nanasahib Shinde of Baroda, Moonje affirmed

I am glad to note that you have approved of my idea of a Hindu National Militia for Maharashtra as is being organised by the Hindu Mahasabha. I have been myself thinking of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and I am corresponding with their leader. They may have their peculier (sic) difficulties and the point is that the militia should be organised under these circumstances whether the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh can undertake the task or not (NMML, ibid, reply to a letter from Shinde to Moonje, dated October 16, 1939).

During this preliminary phase, Moonje consulted Hedgewar, with whom he exchanged several letters and whom Moonje hoped to meet, in order to discuss the participation of the RSS in the militia (NMML, ibid, letter from B S Moonje to Hedgewar, October 18, 1939).

On October 27 a militant from Lahore informed Moonje that

We have at present in Punjab several Dais and Sanghs, the total number of members of which is approximately about 50,000; but they are not working under a single organisation. There are Rashtriya Sevak Sangh, Atma Sangh, Mahabir Dal, Seva Sangh and Akali Dal working under different leaders. They have a sort of military organisation. The Akali Dal is armed with swords: but the others have other weapons. The Rashtriya Sevak Sangh has only lathies. The first thing to do is to bring all these sanghs on a uniform basis working under a single leadership though not of one man but of a council (NMML, ibid).

In spite of such mobilisation, the Hindu militia had not been formed. The government did not withdraw the existing restrictions imposed on military and paramilitary organisations and schools.

It is difficult to establish if the organisations of militant Hinduism were arming themselves against possible foreign invaders, the internal enemy, or the British. Most probably they were carefully hedging their bet, ready to take advantage of any future development. However, it is a fact that at a meeting with Linlithgow in Bombay on October 9, 1939, Savarkar adopted a decidedly conciliatory position vis-a-vis the British. According to Linlithgow

the situation, he [Savarkar] said, was that His Majesty's Government must now turn to the Hindus and work with their support. After all, though we and the Hindus have had a good deal of difficulty with one another in the past, that was equally true of the relations between Great Britain and the French and, as recent events had shown, of relations between Russia and Germany. Our interests were now the same and we must therefore work together. Even though now the most moderate of men, he had himself been in the past an adherent of a revolutionary party, as possibly, I might be aware. (I confirmed that I was). But now that our interests were so closely bound together the essential thing was for Hinduism and Great Britain to be friends; and the old antagonism was no longer necessary. The Hindu Mahasabha, he went on to say, favoured an unambiguous undertaking of Dominion Status at the end of the war. It was true, at the same time, that they challenged the Congress claim to represent anything but themselves (India Office (IO), Mss Eur F 125/8 1939, Letters to the Secretary of State for India: the letter is dated October 7, but the report of the meeting is in the postscript on October 9).

In 1940 the Hindu Mahasabha declared its intention to take part in the viceroy's executive council and the war office. We should not forget that neither the Hindu Mahasabha nor the RSS took part in the Quit India movement. The position they maintained in that period is clearly depicted by Savarkar's declaration of February 17, 1942, when he asserted that, if Japan, after having approached the Indian borders and invaded the country, had been ready to declare the independence of India, it would have incredibly "boosted" Indians' imagination. The British should therefore give the impression that fighting beside them meant fighting for freedom.^27 It seems, in other words, that the Hindu Mahasabha (and probably its affiliations) was more interested in succeeding the British, if possible with their complicity, rather than fighting them.

The other side of this ambiguous stand was a blatant admiration for the European dictators. According to a police report of May 1942, regarding the activities of Poona Officers Training Camp of April-May,

Dr P C Sahasrabudhe addressed the volunteers on three occasions. On 4.5.42 he announced that the Sangh followed the principle of dictatorship. Denouncing democratic government as an unsatisfactory form of government, he quoted France as a typical example and, praising dictatorship, he pointed to Japan, Russia and Germany. He particularly praised the Fuehrer principle of Germany. On 21.5.42 he drew attention to the value of propaganda, quoting Russia and Germany as examples, and again extolled the virtues of the leader principle, citing Mussolini's success as a further example (NAI, Home Poll Dept 28/8/1942, 'Summary of a report on the officers' Training Camp of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh held in April/May 1942 at Poona', copy in MSA, Home Special Dept, 822 IInd 1940-41).

When, in the 1940s, the totalitarian regimes had already revealed their true colours, the attitude of the organisations of militant Hinduism towards fascism and nazism was still benevolent. In spite of the already, even if only partially, known atrocities committed by Hitler and Mussolini, the main organisations of Hindu nationalism still praised the dictators and their regimes. This position could be justified, had it been part of a coherent and strong anti-British policy. However, as I have tried to demonstrate, the forces of Hindu nationalism seem to have concentrated their efforts more against the so- called internal enemies - Muslims and Congress - rather than the foreign invaders. While Bose's alliance with the axis powers had mainly an anti-British function, the Hindu Mahasabha used its support to the dictators as an instrument to blackmail the British.

VI Conclusions

Notes

Hindutva's Foreign Tie-up in the 1930s

Archival Evidence

To understand militant Hinduism, one must examine its domestic roots as well as foreign influence. In the 1930s Hindu nationalism borrowed from European fascism to transform 'different' people into 'enemies'. Leaders of militant Hinduism repeatedly expressed their admiration for authoritarian leaders such as Mussolini and Hitler and for the fascist model of society. This influence continues to the present day. This paper presents archival evidence on the would-be collaborators.

By Marzia Casolari

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Jan. 22-28, 2000, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Jan. 22-28, 2000), pp. 218-228

'Fascist' was in Sumit Sarkar's words, "till the other day a mere epithet" ('The Fascism of the Sangh Parivar', Economic and Political Weekly, January 30, 1993, p 163). It has come to define the ideology and practice of the Hindu militant organisations. It is a common place, accepted by their opponents, as well as by those who have a critical, but not necessarily negative, view of Hindu fundamentalism. Defining the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and, in general, the organisations of militant Hinduism I as undemocratic, with authoritarian, paramilitary, radical, violent tendencies and a sympathy for fascist ideology and practice, has been a major concern for many politically oriented scholars and writers. This has been the case with the literature which started with Gandhi's assassination and continues up to the present day with works such as Amartya Sen's India at Risk (The New York Review of Books, April 1993) and Christophe Jaffrelot's The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India (Viking, New Delhi, 1996), the latest book published on the subject, or the well known Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags (Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1993), which came out soon after the destruction of the Babri masjid. As a result, the fascist ideological background of Hindu fundamentalism is taken for granted, never proved by systematic analysis. This is an outcome that is, to a certain extent, explained by the fact that most of the above-mentioned authors are political scientists and not historians.

It is a fact that many of those who witnessed the growth of Hindu radical forces in the years around the second world war were already convinced of the Sangh's fascist outlook. Particularly acute was the perception that the Congress had of these organisations and their character. There is no need to mention the already well known opinion of Nehru, who, right from the beginning, had pointed at these organisations as communalist and fascist.

Less well known is the fact that, as shown by a confidential report circulated within the Congress most probably at the time of the first ban of the RSS, after Gandhi's assassination, the similarity between the character of the RSS and that of fascist organisations was already taken for granted. In fact, the report itself states that the RSS

...Started in Nagpur some sort of Hindu Boys Scout movement. Gradually it developed into a communal militarist organisation with violent tendencies.

The RSS has been purely Maharashtrian brahmin organisation. The non-brahmin Maharashtrians who constitute the bulk of C P and Maharashtra have no sympathy with it.

Even in the other provinces the chief organisers and whole-time workers will be found to be inevitably Maharashtrian brahmins.

Through the RSS the Maharashtrian brahmins have been dreaming of establishing in India 'a Peshwa Raj' after the withdrawal of Britishers. The RSS flag is the Bhagwa Flag of the Peshwas - Maharashtrian rulers [who] were the last to be conquered by the British - and after the termination of British rule in India, the Maharashtrians should be vested with political powers.

The RSS practises secret and violent methods which promote 'fascism'. No regard is paid to truthful means and constitutional methods.

There is no constitution of the organisation; its aims and objects have never been clearly defined. The general public is usually told that its aim is only physical training, but the real aims are not conveyed even to the rank and file of the RSS members. Only its 'inner circle' is taken into a confidence.

There are no records or proceedings of the RSS organisation, no membership registers are maintained. There are also no records of its income and the expenditure. The RSS is thus strictly secret as regards its organisation. It has consequently... (National Archives of India (NAI), Sardar Patel Correspondence, microfilm, reel no 3, 'A Note on the RSS', undated). Unfortunately the document stops abruptly here, but it contains enough evidence of the reputation the RSS already had by the late 1940s.

This document, however, is by no means exceptional. An accurate search of the primary sources produced by the organisations of Hindu nationalism, as well as by their opponents and by the police, is bound to show the extent and the importance of the connections between such organisations and Italian fascism. In fact the most important organisations of Hindu nationalism not only adopted fascist ideas in a conscious and deliberate way, but this happened also because of the existence of direct contacts between the representatives of the main Hindu organisations and fascist Italy.

To demonstrate this, I will reconstruct the context from which arose the interest of Hindu radicalism in Italian fascism right from the early 1920s. This interest was commonly shared in Maharashtra, and must have inspired B S Moonje's trip to Italy in 1931. The next step will be to examine the effects of that trip, namely how B S Moonje tried to transfer fascist models to Hindu society and to organise it militarily, according to fascist patterns. An additional aim of this paper is to show how, about the end of the 1930s, the admiration for the Italian regime was commonly shared by the different streams of Hindu nationalism and the main Hindu leaders.

Particular attention will be devoted to the attitude adopted by the main Hindu organisations during the second world war. During those crucial years, Hindu nationalism seemed to uneasily oscillate between a conciliatory attitude towards the British, and a sympathy for the dictators. This is in fact far from surprising because - as will be shown - in those years, militant Hindu organisations were preparing and arming themselves to fight the so-called internal enemies, rather than the British.

More generally, the aim of this paper is to disprove Christophe Jaffrelot's thesis that there is a sharp distinction between nazi and fascist ideology on one side and RSS on the other as far as the concept of race and the centrality of the leader are concerned.^2

I. Hindu Nationalists and Italian Fascism

None of the works mentioned above, Jaffrelot's included, deals with what I consider a most important problem, namely, the existence of direct contacts between the representatives of the fascist regime, including Mussolini and Hindu nationalists. These contacts demonstrate that Hindu nationalism had much more than an abstract interest in the ideology and practice of fascism.

The interest of Indian Hindu nationalists in fascism and Mussolini must not be considered as dictated by an occasional curiosity, confined to a few individuals, rather, it should be considered as the culminating result of the attention that Hindu nationalists, especially in Maharashtra, focused on Italian dictatorship and its leader. To them, fascism appeared to be an example of conservative revolution. This concept was discussed at length by the Marathi press, right from the early phase of the Italian regime.

From 1924 to 1935 Kesari regularly published editorials and articles about Italy, fascism and Mussolini. What impressed the Marathi journalists was the socialist origin of fascism and the fact that the new regime seemed to have transformed Italy from a backward country to a first class power. Indians could not know, then, that, behind the demagogic rhetoric of the regime, there was very little substance.

Moreover, the Indian observers were convinced that fascism had restored order in a country previously upset by political tensions. In a series of editorials, Kesari described the passage from liberal government to dictatorship as a shift from anarchy to an orderly situation, where social struggles had no more reason to exist.^3 The Marathi newspaper gave considerable space to the political reforms carried out by Mussolini, in particular the substitution of the election of the members of parliament with their nomination (ibid, January 17, 1928) and the replacement of parliament itself with the Great Council of Fascism. Mussolini's idea was the opposite of that of democracy and it was expressed by the dictator's principle, according to which 'one man's government is more useful and more binding' for the nation than the democratic institutions (ibid, July 17, 1928).%4 Is all this not reminiscent of the principle of 'obedience to one leader' ('ek chalak anuvartitva') followed by the RSS?

Finally, a long article of August 13, 1929, 'Italy and the Young Generations', stated that the Italian young generation had succeeded the old one to lead the country. That had resulted in the 'fast ascent of Italy in every field'. The article went on to describe at length the organisation of the Italian society according to fascist models. The principal reasons of the discipline of the Italian youths were strong religious feelings, widespread among the population, attachment to the family, and the respect of traditional values: no divorce, no singles, no right to vote for women, whose only duty was to sit at home, by the fireplace. The article focused then on the fascist youth organisations, the Balilla and the Avanguardisti.

One may wonder how the Indian journalists could be so well informed about what was going on in Italy. Very possibly, among their sources there was a pamphlet in English, published by an Italian editor in 1928, entitled The Recent Laws for the Defence of the State (copy in NAI, Foreign and Political Department, 647G, 1927). Emphasised, right from the beginning, was the importance of the National Militia, defined as "the bodyguard of the revolution". The booklet continued with the description of the restrictive measures adopted by the regime: a ban on the "subversive parties", limitations to the press, expulsion of "disaffected persons" from public posts, and, finally, the death sentence.

Significantly, the shift from the liberal phase to fascism is described by the pamphlet in strikingly similar terms to those employed by the above-mentioned articles:

This step [the shift to fascism] has struck a death blow to the thread-bare theories of Italian liberalism, according to which the sovereign state must observe strict neutrality towards all political associations and parties. This theory explains why in Italy the ship of state was drifting before the wind, ready to sink in the vortex of social dissolution or to be wrecked on the rocks of financial disaster.

Another inspiring source of the literature published in Kesari must have been the work by D V Tahmankar, the correspondent of the Marathi newspaper from London and admirer of the Italian dictator. In 1927 Tahmankar published a book entitled Muslini ani Fashismo, (Mussolini and Fascism), a biography of the dictator, with several references to the organisation of the fascist state, to the fascist social system, to the fascist ideology, and to Italy's recent past. An entire chapter, the last, was devoted to description of fascist society and its institutions, especially the youth organisations.

One can easily come to the conclusion that, by the late 1920s, the fascist regime and Mussolini had considerable popularity in Maharashtra. The aspects of fascism which appealed most to Hindu nationalists were, of course, both the militarisation of society and what was seen as the real transformation of society, exemplified by the shift from chaos to order. The anti-democratic system was considered as a positive alternative to democracy which was seen as a typically British value.

Such literature made an implicit comparison between fascism and the Italian Risorgimento. The latter's influence on Indian nationalism, both moderate and radical, is well known.^5 However, whereas the Risorgimento appealed to both moderates and extremists, fascism appealed only to the radicals, who considered it as the continuation of the Risorgimento and a phase of the rational organisation of the state.

The first Hindu nationalist who came in contact with the fascist regime and its dictator was B S Moonje, a politician strictly related to the RSS. In fact, Moonje had been Hedgewar's mentor, the two men were related by an intimate friendship. Moonje's declared intention to strengthen the RSS and to extend it as a nationwide organisation is well known. Between February and March 1931, on his return from the round table conference, Moonje made a tour of Europe, which included a long stop-over in Italy. There he visited some important military schools and educational institutions. The highlight of the visit was the meeting with Mussolini. An interesting account of the trip and the meeting is given in Moonje's diary, and takes 13 pages (Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), Moonje papers, microfilm, m 1).^6

The Indian leader was in Rome during March 15 to 24, 1931. On March 19, in Rome, he visited, among others, the Military College, the Central Military School of Physical Education, the Fascist Academy of Physical Education, and, most important, the Balilla and Avanguardisti organisations. These two organisations, which he describes in more than two pages of his diary, were the keystone of the fascist system of indoctrination - rather than education - of the youths. Their structure is strikingly similar to that of the RSS. They recruited boys from the age of six, up to 18: the youths had to attend weekly meetings, where they practised physical exercises, received paramilitary training and performed drills and parades.

According to the literature promoted by the RSS and other Hindu fundamentalist organisations and parties, the structure of the RSS was the result of Hedgewar's vision and work. However Moonje played a crucial role in moulding the RSS along Italian (fascist) lines. The deep impression left on Moonje by the vision of the fascist organisation is confirmed by his diary:

The Balilla institutions and the conception of the whole organisation have appealed to me most, though there is still not discipline and organisation of high order. The whole idea is conceived by Mussolini for the military regeneration of Italy. Italians, by nature, appear ease-loving and non-martial like the Indians generally. They have cultivated, like Indians, the work of peace and neglected the cultivation of the art of war. Mussolini saw the essential weakness of his country and conceived the idea of the Balilla organisation...Nothing better could have been conceived for the military organisation of Italy...The idea of fascism vividly brings out the conception of unity amongst people...India and particularly Hindu India need some such institution for the military regeneration of the Hindus: so that the artificial distinction so much emphasised by the British of martial and non-martial classes amongst the Hindus may disappear. Our institution of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh of Nagpur under Dr Hedgewar is of this kind, though quite independently conceived. I will spend the rest of my life in developing and extending this Institution of Dr Hedgewar all throughout the Maharashtra and other provinces.

He continues describing drills and uniforms:

I was charmed to see boys and girls well dressed in their naval and military uniforms undergoing simple exercises of physical training and forms of drill.

Definitely more meaningful is the report of the meeting with Mussolini. On the same day, March 19, 1931 at 3 pm, in Palazzo Venezia, the headquarters of the fascist government, he met the Italian dictator. The meeting is recorded in the diary on March 20, and it is worth reproducing the complete report.

...As soon as I was announced at the door, he got up and walked up to receive me. I shook hands with him saying that I am Dr Moonje. He knew everything about me and appeared to be closely following the events of the Indian struggle for freedom. He seemed to have great respect for Gandhi. He sat down in front of me on another chair in front of his table and was conversing with me for quite half an hour. He asked me about Gandhi and his movement and pointedly asked me a question "If the Round Table Conference will bring about peace between India and England". I said that if the British would honestly desire to give us equal status with other dominions of the Empire, we shall have no objection to remain peacefully and loyally within the Empire; otherwise the struggle will be renewed and continued. Britain will gain and be able to maintain her premier position amongst the European Nation (sic) if India is friendly and peaceful towards her and India cannot be so unless she is given Dominion Status on equal terms with other Dominions. Signor Mussolini appeared impressed by this remark of mine. Then he asked me if I have visited the University. I said I am interested in the military training of boys and have been visiting the Military Schools of England, France and Germany. I have now come to Italy for the same purpose and I am very grateful to say that the Foreign Office and the War Office have made good arrangements for my visiting these schools. I just saw this morning and afternoon the Balilla and the Fascist Organisations and I was much impressed. Italy needs them for her development and prosperity. I do not see anything objectionable though I have been frequently reading in the newspapers not very friendly criticisms about them and about your Excellency also. Signor Mussolini: What is your opinion about them? Dr Moonje: Your Excellency, I am much impressed. Every aspiring and growing Nation needs such organisations. India needs them most for her military regeneration. During the British Domination of the last 150 years Indians have been waved away from the military profession but India now desires to prepare herself for undertaking the responsibility for her own defence and I am working for it. I have already started an organisation of my own, conceived independently with similar objectives. I shall have no hesitation to raise my voice from the public platform both in India and England when occasion may arise in praise of your Balilla and Fascist organisations. I wish them good luck and every success. Signor Mussolini - who appeared very pleased - said - Thanks but yours is an uphill task. However I wish you every success in return. Saying this he got up and I also got up to take his leave.

The description of the Italian journey includes information regarding fascism, its history, the fascist 'revolution', etc, and continues for two more pages. One can wonder at the association between B S Moonje and the RSS, but if we think that Moonje had been Hedgewar' s mentor, the association will be much clearer.^7 The intimate friendship between Moonje and Hedgewar and the former's declared intention to strengthen the RSS and to extend it as a nationwide organisation prove a strict connection between Moonje and the RSS. Moreover, it makes sense to think that the entire circle of militant Hinduism must have been influenced by Moonje's Italian experience.

#hindutva #Hindutva's Foreign Tie-Up in the 1930s #Marzia Casolari

83 notes · View notes

usafphantom2 · 3 years ago

Text

Captured Dornier DO-335 Pfeil at Oberpfaffenhofen airport in May 1945

flickr

Ronnie Bell Following

Captured Dornier DO-335 Pfeil at Oberpfaffenhofen airport in May 1945

The Dornier Do 335 Pfeil ("Arrow") was a World War II heavy fighter built by the Dornier company. The two-seater trainer version was also called anteater, The Pfeil's performance was much better than other twin-engine designs due to its unique "push-pull" layout and the much lower drag of the in-line alignment of the two engines. The Luftwaffe was desperate to get the design into operational use, but delays in engine deliveries meant only a handful were delivered before the war ended, The origins of the Do 335 trace back to World War I when Claudius Dornier designed a number of flying boats featuring remotely-driven propellers and later, due to problems with the drive shafts, tandem engines. Tandem engines were used on most of the multi-engine Dornier flying boats that followed, including the highly successful Do J Wal and the gigantic Do X. The remote propeller drive, intended to eliminate parasitic drag from the engine entirely, was tried in the innovative but unsuccessful Do 14, and elongated drive shafts as later used in the Do 335 saw use in the rear engines of the four-engined, twinned tandem-layout Do 26 flying boat.

There are many advantages to this design over the more traditional system of placing one engine on each wing, the most important being power from two engines with the frontal area (and thus drag) of a single-engine design, allowing for higher performance. It also keeps the weight of the twin powerplants near, or on, the aircraft centerline, increasing the roll rate compared to a traditional twin. In addition, a single engine failure does not lead to asymmetric thrust, and in normal flight there is no net torque so the plane is easy to handle. The choice of a full "four-surface" set of cruciform tail surfaces in the Do 335's rear fuselage design, included a ventral vertical fin–rudder assembly to project downwards from the extreme rear of the fuselage, in order to protect the rear propeller from an accidental ground strike on takeoff.

In 1939, Dornier was busy working on the P.59 high-speed bomber project, which featured the tandem engine layout. In 1940, he commissioned a test aircraft, closely modeled on the airframe of the early versions of the Dornier Do 17 bomber but only 40% of the size of the larger bomber, and fitted with a retractable tricycle landing gear to validate his concept for turning the rear pusher propeller with an engine located far away from it and using a long driveshaft. This aircraft, the Göppingen Gö 9 showed no unforeseen difficulties with this arrangement, but work on the P.59 was stopped in early 1940 when Hermann Göring[citation needed] ordered the cancellation of all projects which would not be completed within a year or so.

In May 1942, Dornier submitted an updated version with a 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bombload as the P.231, in response to a requirement for a single seat high-speed bomber/intruder. P.231 was selected as the winner after beating rival designs from Arado, Junkers, and Blohm & Voss development contract was awarded as the Do 335. In autumn 1942, Dornier was told that the Do 335 was no longer required, and instead a multi-role fighter based on the same general layout would be accepted. This delayed the prototype delivery as it was modified for the new role.

Fitted with DB 603A engines delivering 1,750 PS (1,287 kW, 1,726 hp) at takeoff, the Do 335 V1 first prototype, bearing the Stammkennzeichen (factory radio code) of CP+UA, flew on 26 October 1943 under the control of Flugkapitän Hans Dieterle, a regular Heinkel test pilot and later primary Dornier test pilot. The pilots were surprised at the speed, acceleration, turning circle, and general handling of the type; it was a twin that flew like a single. However, several problems during the initial flight of the Do 335 would continue to plague the aircraft through most of its short history. Issues were found with the weak landing gear and with the maingear's wheel well doors, resulting in them being removed for the remainder of V1 flights. V1 made 27 flights, flown by three different pilots. During these test flights V2 (W.Nr 230002), Stammkennzeichen CP+UB was completed and made its first flight on 31 December 1943, again under the control of Dieterle. New to the V2 were upgraded DB603 A-2 engines, and several refinements learned from the test flights of V1 as well as further windtunnel testing. On 20 January 1944, V3 (W.Nr. 230004),Stammkennzeichen CP+UC was completed and flown for its first time by Werner Altrogge. V3 was powered by the new DB603 G-0 engines which could produce 1,900 PS (1,400 kW) at take-off and featured a slightly redesigned canopy which included rear-view mirrors in blisters, one in each of two matching side panels of the main canopy. Following the flights of the V3, in mid January 1944, RLM ordered five more prototypes (V21–V25), to be built as night fighters. By this time more than 60 hours of flight time had been put on the Do 335 and reports showed it to be a good handling, but more importantly, very fast aircraft, described by Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch himself as "...holding its own in speed and altitude with the P-38 and it does not suffer from engine reliability issues". Thus the Do 335 was scheduled to begin mass construction, with the initial order of 120 preproduction aircraft to be manufactured by DWF (Dornier-Werke Friedrichshafen) to be completed no later than March 1946. This number included a number of bombers, destroyers (heavy fighters), and several yet to be developed variants. At the same time, DWM (Dornier-Werke München) was scheduled to build over 2000 Do 335s in various models, due for delivery in March 1946 as well.

On 23 May 1944, Hitler, as part of the Jägernotprogramm directive, ordered maximum priority to be given to Do 335 production. The main production line was intended to be at Manzel, but a bombing raid in March destroyed the tooling and forced Dornier to set up a new line at Oberpfaffenhofen. The decision was made, along with the rapid shut-down of many other military aircraft development programs, to cancel the Heinkel He 219 night fighter, and use its production facilities for the Do 335 as well. However, Ernst Heinkel managed to delay, and eventually ignore, its implementation.

At least 16 prototype Do 335s were known to have flown (V1–V12, W.Nr 230001-230012 and Müster-series prototypes M13–M17, W.Nr 230013-230017) on a number of DB603 engines including the DB603A, A-2, G-0, E and E-1. The first preproduction Do 335 (A-0s) starting with W.Nr 240101, Stammkennzeichen VG+PG, were delivered in July 1944. Approximately 22 preproduction aircraft were thought to have been completed and flown before the end of the war, including approximately 11 A-0s converted to A-11s for training purposes.

Flight tests

Do 335 tested in the USA, and today the only surviving exampleThe first 10 Do 335 A-0s were delivered for testing in May. By late 1944, the Do 335 A-1 was on the production line. This was similar to the A-0 but with the uprated DB 603 E-1 engines and two underwing hardpoints for additional bombs, drop tanks or guns. It was capable of a maximum speed of 763 km/h (474 mph) at 6,500 m (21,300 ft) with MW 50 boost, or 686 km/h (426 mph) without boost, and able to climb to 8,000 m (26,250 ft) in under 15 minutes. Even with one engine out, it could reach about 563 km/h (350 mph).

Delivery commenced in January 1945. When the United States Army overran the Oberpfaffenhofen factory in late April 1945, only 11 Do 335 A-1 single-seat fighter-bombers and two Do 335 A-12 trainers had been completed.

French ace Pierre Clostermann claimed the first Allied combat encounter with a Pfeil in April 1945. In his book The Big Show (pages 273-274) he describes leading a flight of four Hawker Tempests from No. 3 Squadron RAF over northern Germany, when he intercepted a lone Do 335 flying at maximum speed at treetop level. Detecting the British aircraft, the German pilot reversed course to evade. Despite the Tempest's considerable low altitude speed, the RAF fighters were not able to catch up or even get into firing position.

VariantsBuilt

Do 335 A-0 : 10 pre-production aircraft.

Do 335 A-1 : Single-seat fighter-bomber aircraft.

Proposed

Do 335 A-2 : single-seat fighter-bomber aircraft with new weapon aiming systems, later proposed longer wing and updated DB603L engines.

Do 335 A-3 : single-seat reconnaissance aircraft built from A-1 aircraft, later proposed with longer wing.

Do 335 A-4 : single-seat reconnaissance aircraft with smaller cameras than the A-3

Do 335 A-5 : single-seat night fighter aircraft, later night and bad weather fighter with enlarged wing and DB603L engines.

Do 335 A-6 : two seat night fighter aircraft.

Do 335 A-7 : A-6 with longer wing.

Do 335 A-8 : A-4 fitted with longer wing.

Do 335 A-9 : A-4 fitted with longer wing, DB603L engines and pressurized cockpit.

Do 335 B-1 : Abandoned in development.

Do 335 B-2 : Single-seat destroyer aircraft. Fitted with 2 additional MK 103 in the wings and two 300 litre (80 US gal) auxiliary fuel tanks.

Do 335 B-3 : updated B-1 but with longer wing.

Do 335 B-4 : update of the B-1 with longer wing, DB603L engine.

Do 335 B-12: dual seat trainer version for the B-series aircraft.

Do 435 : A Do 335 with the redesigned, longer wing. Allied intelligence reports from early May 1945 make a report of a spotted Do 435 at the Dornier factory airfield at Lowenthal.

Do 535 : Actually the He 535, once the Dornier P254 design was handed over to Heinkel in October 1944.

Do 635 : long-range reconnaissance version. Also called Junkers Ju 635 or Do 335Z. Mock up only.

Do P 256: turbojet nightfighter version, with two podded He S011 engines,[2] based on Do 335 airframe.

Only one Do 335 survives today. The aircraft was the second preproduction Do 335 A-0, designated A-02, with construction number (Werknummer) 240102, and factory radio code registration, or Stammkennzeichen, of VG+PH. The aircraft was assembled at Dornier's plant in Oberpfaffenhofen (southern Germany) on 16 April 1945. It was captured by Allied forces at the plant on 22 April 1945. The aircraft was test flown from a grass runway at Oberwiesenfeld, near Munich, to Cherbourg, France while escorted by two P-51s. The Do 335 was easily able to out distance the escorting Mustangs and arrived at Cherbourg 45 minutes before the P-51s. VG+PH was one of two Do 335s to be shipped to the United States aboard the Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Reaper, along with other captured German aircraft, to be used for testing and evaluation under a USAAF program called "Operation Sea Horse". One Do 335 (registration FE-1012) went to the USAAF and was tested in early 1946 at Freeman Field, Indiana. Its fate is not recorded.

VG+PH went to the Navy for evaluation and was sent to the Test and Evaluation Center, Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Maryland. Following testing from 1945 to 1948, the aircraft languished in outside storage at Naval Air Station Norfolk. In 1961, it was donated to the Smithsonian's National Air Museum, though it remained in deteriorating condition at Norfolk for several more years before being moved the National Air & Space Museum's storage facility in Suitland, Maryland. In October 1974, VG+PH was returned to the Dornier plant in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany (then building the Alpha Jet) for a complete restoration. In 1975, the aircraft was restored by Dornier employees, many of whom had worked on the airplane originally. They were amazed to find that the explosive charges built into the aircraft to blow off the tail fin and rear propeller in the event of an emergency were still on the aircraft and active 30 years later.

Following restoration the completed Do 335 was displayed at the Hanover, Germany Airshow from 1 May to 9 May 1976. After the air show, the aircraft was lent to the Deutsches Museum in Munich where it was on display, without a swastika on the dorsal vertical tail in accordance with German law, until 1986, when it was shipped back to Silver Hill, Maryland. VG+PH can be seen today in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air & Space Museum alongside other unique late-war German aircraft such as the only known example of the Arado Ar 234B-2 Blitz jet recon-bomber, and the only surviving Heinkel He 219A Uhu (Eagle-Owl) night fighter's fully restored fuselage and tail surfaces is on display as an assembled unit, as the wings and engines/nacelles of the surviving He 219A there are still undergoing restoration as of Oct 2009.

Via Flickr

5 notes · View notes

greatworldwar2 · 5 years ago

Text

• Ilyushin Il-2 Ground Attack Aircraft

The Ilyushin Il-2 or Shturmovik was a ground-attack aircraft produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. With 36,183 units of the Il-2 produced during the war.

The Il-2 was designed by Sergey Ilyushin and his team at the Central Design Bureau in 1938. TsKB-55 was a two-seat aircraft with an armoured shell weighing 700 kg (1,540 lb), protecting crew, engine, radiators, and the fuel tank. Standing loaded, the Ilyushin weighed more than 4,700 kg (10,300 lb), making the armoured shell about 15% of the aircraft's gross weight. Uniquely for a World War II attack aircraft, and similarly to the forward fuselage design of the World War I-era Imperial German Junkers J.I armored, all-metal biplane, the Il-2's armor was designed as a load-bearing part of the Ilyushin's monocoque structure, thus saving considerable weight. The prototype TsKB-55, which first flew on October 2nd, 1939, won the government competition against the Sukhoi Su-6 and received the VVS designation BSh-2 (the BSh stood for "Bronirovani Shturmovik" or armoured ground attack).

The BSh-2 was overweight and underpowered, with the original Mikulin AM-35 1,022 kW (1,370 hp) engine designed to give its greatest power outputs at high altitude. Because of this it was redesigned as the TsKB-57, a lighter single-seat design, with the more powerful 1,254 kW (1,680 hp) Mikulin AM-38 engine, a development of the AM-35 optimised for low level operation. The TsKB-57 first flew on October 12th, 1940. The production aircraft passed State Acceptance Trials in March 1941, and was redesignated Il-2 in April. Deliveries to operational units commenced in May 1941. One of the first 1940 photographs of the Il-2 show it equipped with two MP-6 23 mm autocannons developed by Yakov Taubin. The MP-6 gun weighed 70 kg and developed an initial muzzle velocity of 900 m/s. It operated on the short recoil principle and had a rate of fire of about 600 rpm. In the early Il-2 prototypes, these guns were fed by 81-round clips. In flight, these clips sometimes became dislodged because of their large surface, which caused them to experience significant aerodynamic pressure. Subsequently, in May 1941, development of the MP-6 gun was terminated and Taubin was arrested and summarily executed in October that year.

In early 1941, the Il-2 was ordered into production at four factories, and was eventually produced in greater numbers than any other military aircraft in aviation history, but by the time Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22nd, 1941, only State Aviation Factory 18 at Voronezh and Factory 381 at Leningrad had commenced production, with 249 having been built by the time of the German attack. Production early in the war was slow because after the German invasion the aircraft factories near Moscow and other major cities in western Russia had to be moved east of the Ural Mountains. Ilyushin and his engineers had time to reconsider production methods, and two months after the move Il-2s were again being produced. After threats by Stalin to increase production, Stalin's notion of the Il-2 being 'like bread' to the Red Army took hold in Ilyushin's aircraft plants and the army soon had their Shturmoviks available in quantity.

The first use in action of the Il-2 was with the 4th ShAP (Ground Attack Regiment) over the Berezina River days after German invasion began. The aircraft was so new that the pilots had no training in flight characteristics or tactics, and the ground crew no training in servicing or re-arming. The training received enabled the pilots only to take-off and land; none of the pilots had fired the armament, let alone learned tactics. There were 249 Il-2s available in June 1941. In the first three days, 4th ShAP had lost 10 Il-2s to enemy action, a further 19 were lost to other causes, and 20 pilots were killed. By July, 4th ShAP was down to 10 aircraft from a strength of 65. Tactics improved as Soviet aircrews became used to the Il-2's strengths. Instead of a low horizontal straight approach at 50 metres altitude, the target was usually kept to the pilot's left and a turn and shallow dive of 30 degrees was used. Although the Il-2's RS-82 and RS-132 rockets could destroy armored vehicles with a single hit, they were so inaccurate that experienced Il-2 pilots mainly used the cannon. Another potent weapon of the Il-2s was the PTAB shaped charge bomblets (protivotankovaya aviabomba, "anti-tank aviation bomb").

PTABs were first used on a large scale in the Battle of Kursk. The Il-2 was thereafter widely deployed on the Eastern Front. The aircraft could fly in low light conditions and carried weapons able to defeat the thick armor of the Panther and Tiger I tanks. In the Battle of Kursk, General V. Ryazanov became a master in the use of attack aircraft en masse, developing and improving the tactics of Il-2 operations in co-ordination with infantry, artillery and armored troops. Il-2s at Kursk used the "circle of death" tactic: up to eight Shturmoviks formed a defensive circle, each plane protecting the one ahead with its forward machine guns, while individual Il-2s took turns leaving the circle, attacking a target, and rejoining the circle. Ryazanov was later awarded the Gold Star of Hero of Soviet Union twice, and the 1st Assault Aviation Corps under his command became the first unit to be awarded the honorific title of Guards. In 1943, 26 Shturmovik sorties were conducted. About half of those lost during were shot down by fighters, the rest falling to anti-aircraft fire.

During the Battle of Kursk, VVS Il-2s claimed the destruction of no less than 270 tanks (and 2,000 men) in a period of just two hours against the 3rd Panzer Division. Perhaps the most extraordinary claim by the VVS's Il-2s is that, over a period of four hours, they destroyed 240 tanks and in the process virtually wiped out the 17th Panzer Division. The 17th Panzer did not register any abnormal losses due to aircraft in the summer of 1943, and retreated westwards with Army Group South later in the year, still intact.

The main problem with the Il-2 was the inaccuracy of its attacks. Towards the end of war, the Soviets were able to concentrate large numbers of Shturmoviks to support their main offensives. The effect, however, was often more psychological than actual physical destruction of targets, particularly against dug-in and armored targets. While some attacks against large unprotected targets such as horse and truck convoys and railyards had devastating results, attacks against dug-in point targets were usually ineffective. The frequent duels between dug-in 20 and 40 mm AA guns and Il-2 attackers never resulted in the complete destruction of the gun, while many Il-2s were brought down in these attacks. The heavy armor of the Il-2 also meant that it would typically carry only comparatively light bomb-loads, which together with the poor accuracy of its attacks made it a far less deadly attack aircraft than contemporary Allied fighter-bombers such as the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and Hawker Typhoon.

Thanks to the heavy armor protection, the Il-2 could take a great deal of punishment and proved difficult for both ground and aircraft fire to shoot down. A major threat to the Il-2 was German ground fire. In postwar interviews, Il-2 pilots reported 20 mm (0.79 in) and 37 mm (1.46 in) artillery as the primary threat. While the fabled 88 mm (3.46 in) calibre gun was formidable, low-flying Il-2s presented too fast-moving a target for the 88's relatively low rate of fire, only occasional hits were scored. Owing to a shortage of fighters, in 1941–1942, Il-2s were occasionally used as fighters. While outclassed by dedicated fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190, in dogfights, the Il-2 could take on other Luftwaffe aircraft with some success. While the Il-2 was a deadly air-to-ground weapon, and even a fairly effective interceptor against slow bombers and transport aircraft, heavy losses resulted from its vulnerability to fighter attack. Losses were very high, the highest of all types of Soviet aircraft, though given the numbers in service this is only to be expected.

Some surviving examples still remain of this aircraft one is 1872452 – Airworthy with the Wings of Victory Foundation in Moscow. It was recovered in 2015 from the bottom of a lake near Murmansk and restored. Another is under restoration to airworthy condition at the Vadim Zadorozhny Museum of Technology in Moscow. Finally an additional is at the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum in Everett, Washington. It incorporated parts of an aircraft recovered from a swamp near Pskov and was restored.

#second world war #world war 2 #soviet union #airforce history #aviation #military aircraft #wwii #aircraft #soviet air force #military history

69 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 4 years ago

Text

Clark Gable and His WW2 Death Wish

https://ift.tt/3oDIaDK

Clark Gable did not intend to see action when World War II came to America. Which is not to say he ignored the war. Gable was there that day in 1940 when President Franklin Roosevelt gave his famous “Arsenal of Democracy” speech from the Oval Office. And, indeed, the first thing the movie star did when he heard about the Pearl Harbor attack was cable FDR to offer his full support—and, tellingly, the besieged president promptly answered right back.

But then in the 1930s and early ‘40s, Gable was “the King of Hollywood;” the reigning movie star who could sell more tickets than anybody this side of Shirley Temple, and he didn’t have to sing or dance to do it either. He was a mustachioed and muscular alpha who appealed to everybody, even presidents, and was one of the few leading men who would tell Louis B. Mayer no (at least until casting for Gone with the Wind came along). The government saw the value in that kind of celebrity when the dark storm clouds of war gathered over Europe and the South Pacific, and so did Gable. Still, he was practically 41 when the bombs fell in Hawaii and more than happy to support the war from afar.

As he told fellow MGM stablemate Jimmy Stewart at the latter’s going away party in 1940—Stewart had just happily joined the Army—“You know you’re throwing away your career, don’t you?” When Stewart answered yes, Gable added, “You won’t catch me doing that, but I wish you godspeed.”

Gable had success, Gable had power, and for the first time in his four decades on this earth, Gable had something approaching peace thanks to his marriage to Carole Lombard, the firecracker screwball star. Yet in less than a year, all of those things turned to ash following Lombard’s violent death. When her plane went down in a fiery blaze, it was treated as a national tragedy around the country, and for her husband it was the beginning of the end.

The King became broken, despondent, and finally disillusioned enough to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. To this day, some say he went to Europe with a death wish, and on at least one bombing raid, Capt. Gable almost had it granted as a Luftwaffe shell passed right between his feet.

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard posing for photographers shortly after their marriage in 1939.

The King and Queen of Hollywood

Women were always easy for Clark Gable, and for a time so were wives. The first Mrs. Gable was Josephine Dillon, 17 years his senior, and she was introduced to him as an acting coach by another woman who was his then-fiancée. As a handsome, if unrefined son of an Ohioan farmer, the 23-year-old Gable was perfect clay for Dillon. She turned him into her greatest student, teaching him how to lower his voice and hold your attention. As his patron and wife, Dillon also introduced Gable to all her Broadway connections and the adjacent stock companies. It was even as the star of one of those companies that he met Maria Langham, a wealthy widow and oil heiress who was also 17 years his senior.

As the second Mrs. Gable, Ria introduced Gable to Manhattan’s high society and exquisite living, teaching him social etiquette and the value of a finely tailored tuxedo. One wife taught him how to play at being an actor, and the other taught him how to play at being a gentleman. They served their purposes and they were both brushed off.

But Lombard? He couldn’t brush her off ever.

The first time Clark met Carole, it was a surprisingly chaste affair. The two were cast as the leads of 1932’s No Man of Her Own. Unlike many of his leading ladies in the 1930s, Gable made no passes at Lombard, who was married to movie star William Powell at the time and intended to remain that way. Nevertheless, they hit it off, as the breathlessly quick-witted Lombard did with almost everyone.

Gable wasn’t yet “the King of Hollywood” then, but he was well on his way. Two years later, he’d star in the film that popularized screwball comedies, It Happened One Night (1934), which won him an Oscar for Best Actor, and two years after that he would lead the granddaddy of all disaster movies, San Francisco (1936). By ’38, he was already Tinseltown royalty when then-gossip columnist Ed Sullivan overheard Gable’s drinking buddy and sometime-rival, Spencer Tracy, affectionately refer to him as “King.” Sullivan immediately lit upon the idea of holding a national poll for the “King and Queen of Hollywood.”

More than 20 million people voted and, by a huge majority, Gable was crowned “King” for the rest of his career. Meanwhile, Myrna Loy was elected “Queen of Hollywood.” The fact they were then filming MGM’s Test Pilot (with Tracy) certainly suggests the results might’ve been tampered with. It also likely struck Loy as ironic since her first encounter with Gable ended with her pushing him into a hedge bush after he drunkenly bit the back of her neck while his second wife, Ria, was sitting in a nearby car. Gable refused for years to talk to Loy socially after that rejection, including between takes on film sets.

So yes, the King was a womanizer—complete with a secret baby born out of wedlock to co-star Loretta Young—in a sham marriage at the beginning of his reign. But things began changing when he finally ran into Lombard again, and at last he found his matching monarch.

It was at the White Ball in 1936 that the pair’s paths crossed a second time. By now, Clark was fully estranged from Ria, and the two lived in separate houses. Lombard, meanwhile, had risen to her own stardom by bringing her transgressive life-of-the-party persona to recent screwball comedies directed by Howard Hawks and Ernst Lubitsch. Vivacious, whip smart, and an eventual inspiration for Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lombard was a hard-drinking and giddy star with her own orbit.

According to Clark Gable: A Biography by Warren G. Harris, when Gable saw Lombard on the dance floor, he went up and said, “I go for you, Ma.” After a moment’s confusion, Lombard realized he was quoting their characters’ nicknames for each other in No Man of Her Own from four years earlier. She responded, “I go for you too, Pa.”

For the rest of their lives, they’d always refer to each other as “Ma” and “Pa.”

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard play with horses at the Encino ranch in 1939.

The Love of His Life

That first night on the dance floor actually ended in the pair’s first of many fights. But in a trick that would come to define the pattern of their relationship, Gable woke up the next morning in his hotel room with two doves sitting on his chest. They’d been secreted there with a note on one’s leg: “How about it? Carole.”

Unlike Gable’s other romantic entanglements, Lombard always controlled the tone and tempo of their courtship while Gable offered Lombard an escape from the glamour goddess, society girl image she’d molded herself to in Hollywood. She was an athlete growing up and, alongside Pa, she picked up outdoor-living again.

Clark taught Carole rifling, skeet-shooting, and camping. In ’38, she joined what had up to that point been Gable’s all-male hunting club with fellow actors and Hollywood talent. When the other men complained about a woman being present and sharing their bathroom, she brought along her own trailer with a private bathroom—taunting Clark and the others by then keeping him out. She crawled in the mud next to the dudes, and would soon be on all of the Gables’ hunting trips.

The pair eloped in ’39 after three years of courtship. This occurred in large part because Photoplay magazine revealed the two were living in sin (Gable was still married and too chintzy to get a divorce). Shortly after the embarrassment, however, Gable paid off his second wife and Lombard became the third Mrs. Gable.

“I just think of that husband of mine all the time,” Lombard once said with her usual candor. “I’m really stuck on the bastard. And it isn’t all that great lover crap, because if you want to know the truth, I’ve had better. No, I’m nuts about him and not just about his nuts.”

When the two moved into their Encino ranch, Gable made his gun collection the centerpiece when you walked in the front door, and Lombard began raising chickens and cattle. It was about as far from Beverly Hills as you could get, or as Lombard enthused, “The best little shit house in the San Fernando Valley.”

It was here that Lombard planned to soon retire, beginning with a one-year sabbatical in an effort to have children. Yet after a year of trying, they only had two miscarriages to show for it. They agreed to keep trying, but they’d soon run out of chances.

Clark Gable and wife Carole Lombard circa 1940.

The Loss of His Life

When the bombs fell in Pearl Harbor, it was Carole who urged Clark to telegraph Roosevelt as soon as possible. She was also in the White House for the president’s fireside chat in 1940. And unlike Gable, she was furious when the president responded, “You are needed where you are.”

With the war finally here, Lombard urged Gable to join the Army in December 1941 while she hoped to join the Red Cross. For Christmas, instead of her usual lavish presents she sent all her friends engravings announcing she’d made a donation to the Red Cross in their name. And when she got wind of MGM publicity chief Howard Strickling trying to position Gable for a safe desk job in Washington D.C. for the course of the war, she told both men, “The last thing I want for Pappy is one of those phony commissions!”

Gable preferred helping the war where FDR told him he should—from the comfort of Hollywood. On Dec. 22, 1941, he presided over the first meeting of the Screen Actors Division of the Hollywood Victory Committee as its newly appointed chairman. The committee functioned as a way for Hollywood stars and leaders to organize all activities in support of the war effort. His wife was the first at the meeting to pledge her cooperation in donations, bond rallies, and touring the troops.

When a request came from the Treasury Department for the Victory Committee to launch Indiana’s participation in the national campaign of selling war bonds on Jan. 15, 1942, Gable recognized his Indiana-born wife as the perfect talent to send along. Carole was thrilled to go, although apprehensive about leaving Clark behind.

Gable couldn’t join his wife on her journey by train because he was about to start work on Somewhere I’ll Find You: his second film with Lana Turner. Up until then, Carole had been very open-minded about Gable’s continued infidelities and little affairs, even after they were married. She turned a blind eye to more than one rumor of him sleeping with a co-star here, or a starstruck journalist there, because she assumed you had to let Clark Gable be Clark Gable. But she drew the line over rumors about Clark and Lana, the latter of whom was infamously dubbed the “Sweater Girl” when she was discovered at a soda fountain at age 16. Blonde and buxom, Turner was 20-years-old when she first worked with the 40-year-old Gable. These stories did get to Lombard.

The evening before she left for Indiana, the couple had a huge blowout during which Clark failed to convince his wife he never slept with Lana Turner. The last night Gable and Lombard were under the same roof, they slept in different beds. The next morning, he did not see his wife off to the train station.

As with many of their fights, things cooled almost immediately. Before she left, Lombard still delivered a pack of handwritten love letters to her live-in secretary Jean Garceau to deliver to Clark, one at a time, everyday she was away. She also had the prank she planned before their fight still be delivered, so when Gable returned home from work that night he found a naked blonde dummy in his bed with a note. “So you won’t be lonely.” Gable reportedly laughed until he had tears in his eyes.

According to Garceau when the two talked by phone the next night, they sounded like “lovebirds” again. And according to the You Must Remember This podcast, Gable had Carole’s hotel room in Indianapolis be covered in red roses when she got in. But before even then, Lombard’s train stopped in Salt Lake City where she saw the troops marching and immediately telegraphed her husband, “HEY PAPPY, YOU’D BETTER GET INTO THIS MAN’S ARMY.”

On Jan. 15, Lombard intended to raise $500,000 in war bonds. Instead, she raised over $2 million. Afterward, she was so eager to get home to Gable following their fight that she decided she’d fly back to California instead of returning by train. This was expressly forbidden by the Treasury Department. Commercial travel was still relatively dicey, and they feared she’d be a target for Nazi saboteurs. Additionally, she was traveling with her mother Elizabeth Peters, a superstitious woman who’d never flown and was deathly afraid to start now. She was also there with Otto Winkler, Gable’s publicist and buddy who was best man at their wedding.

The morning their flight was to leave Indianapolis, Otto got Carole to at least agree to a coin toss. Heads they fly, tails they take the train. Carole won. From Indianapolis, they would make multiple stops, including Wichita, Albuquerque, and Las Vegas. TWA Flight Number 3 never reached Burbank.

That night Gable arranged a surprise party to welcome the three heroes back—as well as a surprise male dummy with an erection waiting for Carole upstairs. He was reportedly giddy waiting for the phone call from limo driver Larry Barbier, who was supposed to report when they landed. Instead, Clark got a call from MGM fixer Eddie Mannix.

“Can I get back to you?” Gable asked. “I’m expecting word on Ma’s arrival any minute.”

Mannix cut him off. “King, that’s why I’m calling. Larry Barbier just phoned from the airport. Carole’s plane went down just a few minutes after it left Las Vegas.” She was gone.

Clark Gable stands next to co-pilot Lt. Col. Robert W Burns beneath B-17 “The Duchess” after bombing raid in September 1943.

Clark Gable Goes to War

The fallout from the literal wreckage of Lombard’s flight was national news. A bewildered Gable joined Mannix and other MGM brass for their own chartered flight to Vegas. He could see the burning debris that Lombard’s flight smeared across Table Rock Mountain from the air. Locals in the city described it as “apocalyptic” and like an “inferno.”

Mannix refused to let Gable go on the rescue party climbing the mountain—convincing him Carole, Otto, and Bettie might have survived and were now walking to the city. So the star stayed behind and drank. The next morning, he received a cable from Mannix. “NO SURVIVORS. ALL KILLED INSTANTLY.”

In truth, the bodies of Lombard and everyone else on board had been more or less cremated by the fire after impact. And while Mannix couldn’t be certain, he believed he found what was left of Carole: a decapitated, charred body with a few blonde strands of hair and the remnants of a ruby and diamond pin Gable had given his wife the year before. He never told Clark about what he saw, but brought back the hairs and piece of ruby.

The next day, FDR sent Gable private condolences and publicly awarded Lombard a medal as “the first woman to be killed in action in the defense of her country in its war against the Axis powers.”

The official and (likely) reason for that flight’s crash is it was overloaded with servicemen and movie star luggage, and the pilot failed to see the mountain in front of him, on which all lights had been turned off to preserve wartime power. Although, according to Orson Welles (as per You Must Remember This), Hollywood and government insiders all knew Nazi saboteurs did in fact bring down the plane, and Roosevelt covered it up to prevent a nationwide panic.

In the months that followed, Gable grew quiet and despondent, losing 20 pounds despite drinking untold amounts of Scotch every day. He dined alone for all meals and began wearing a locket with Carole’s hair and ruby remnants within. According to household staff, he rarely slept and stayed up all hours of the night watching 16mm prints of Lombard’s old movies he had sent over (she’d given him the projector as a Christmas present). Now he had time for no woman except the one he lost.

When he discovered MGM was still trying to keep him from being drafted—with the age range now being raised to 45—Gable grew furious. A scriptwriter pal put him in touch with Col. Luke Smith of the Army Air Corps, who told Gable he should consider applying for training as an aerial gunner since it’s one of those jobs no one seems interested in.

“Everybody wants to be a pilot,” Smith told Gable. “Your becoming a gunner would help to glorify the plane crews and the grease monkeys.” Gable made up his mind to enlist in spite of the wrath of MGM head Louis B. Mayer. He also defied the constraints of his age of 41 by passing the physical—save for the need of getting triplicates of his new dentures (Gable had false teeth his whole career).

On Aug. 12, 1942, Gable enlisted into the Army air force. Right beforehand he told Jill Winkler, Otto’s widow, “I’m going in, and I don’t expect to come back, and I don’t really give a hoot whether I do or not.”

Capt. Gable posing for the press with a gunner’s weapon in June 1943.

The Aerial Gunner with a Death Wish

There is still much speculation over whether Gable actually wanted to die in World War II. His superiors eventually reached that conclusion based on his cavalier attitude, and he at least seemed ambivalent about the whole affair. However, it is interesting he joined the air force considering that, after Lombard’s death, he developed a fear of flying for the rest of his life. Following the war, he would always prefer to make his transatlantic crossings by ocean liners instead of planes.

But during the war? Frankly, he didn’t seem to give a damn one way or the other.

Gable’s biggest fear during the whole conflict was his struggle to pass officer’s training in a 90-day course stateside. A high school dropout, Gable was challenged by the academic course work, which he ultimately got around by treating each textbook like a script he needed to memorize.

Once he was an officer (and allowed to grow back his trademark mustache), he seemed in relatively good spirits for the first time in months. Before going overseas, he told Garceau, “I have everything in the world anyone could want, but for one thing. All I really need and want is Ma.”

In April 1943, Gable was shipped off to join the 351st Heavy Bombardment Group in Peterborough, England, about 80 miles north of London. Gable also received an automatic promotion to the rank of captain, although this had as much to do with the heavy losses of Allied officers as it did with Gable’s leadership.

In truth, Gable likely enjoyed playing the part of officer more than he entirely became it. The military loved letting him pose for the press as a gunner with a bombardier’s bullets wrapped around his neck, but that wasn’t his actual job. While Gable did on at least two occasions take on the role of aerial gunner in combat, his official role was as an observational gunner—he was there to pick up the weapons in the side or rear of a B-17 if the gunner operating it was injured or killed (which did happen).

Otherwise, Gable was there because the Army wanted him to film footage they could use as propaganda, glorifying the role of gunners. While in officer’s school, the Army reunited Gable with cinematographer Andy McIntyre, who would become his sidekick and cameraman in the air. And after his graduation, Gable arranged the transfer of his scriptwriting buddy John Lee Mahin, then a lieutenant serving as an instructor in Combat Intelligence, to join them. In all, Gable and McIntyre built a film crew of six men to film the other fliers on B-17 missions. They were called “the Little Hollywood Group.”

More than twice the age of many of the pilots and gunners he flew with, Gable found himself facing heavy skepticism in his early training.

“None of the kids believed he was going to do anything at all,” Mahin recalled in Warren’s Clark Gable biography. “They never thought he was going to expose himself to any kind of danger. They said it was all a lot of bullshit. It really killed Clark that the kids shunned him.”

The brass, however, loved Gable at first. Many of his superiors invited him nearly every night to dinner, an annoyance he’d soon relegate to one evening a week. And while he welcomed the press to photograph him at the planes, he also refused the special treatment of having private quarters set up, which earned him more respect from the young fliers.

He’d also soon prove himself as a member of Col. William Hatcher’s Chickens (a nickname for his bombing group) when he went up in the air on May 4, 1943. Hatcher was onboard the same B-17 that day as group commander and co-pilot; the 351st were tasked with taking out several factories in Nazi-occupied Antwerp, Belgium.

During Gable’s first combat mission, flak from ground defenses took out one of the plane’s four engines and its stabilizer. More unnervingly, after delivering the plane’s payload, a German’s 20mm shell pierced the center of the plane, with the corner of the shell passing through the heel of Gable’s boot—lifting it clean off—and then exiting the aircraft inches above Gable’s head.

On another mission, Gable took over for gunners who were wounded or killed (there was at least one of each that day). Fifteen holes were found in the fuselage. For Gable, such horrors were also a vindication, as he fully won the respect of the kids around him.

“They adored him,” Mahin recalled. “They couldn’t stay away from him. And he was proud that they accepted him.”

Portrait of Capt. Gable after arriving in England in 1943 as part of the the 351st Bombardment Group.

Hitler’s Prize

At Peterborough, Gable grew increasingly chummy with the other fliers serving. He bought a used motorcycle and would make small talk on trips around the base. And on more than a few weekends, he would head to London to screen at MGM offices some of the footage he shot in the air. He also would meet with his pre-war Hollywood chum, David Niven, who was serving as an instructor for British Commandos and had recently married and had a son.

“From then on our cottage became Clark’s refuge from military life,” Niven recalled. “With Carole’s death, he had been dealt the cruelest of blows, but on the surface at least, he was making the best of it. In his own deep misery, he found it possible to rejoice over the great happiness that had come my way, and he became devoted to my little family.”

Niven added, “Clark’s personal wounds seemed to be healing, but Carole was never far from him, and the very happiness of our little group would sometimes overwhelm him. [My wife] found him one evening on an upturned wheelbarrow in the garden, his head in his hands, weeping uncontrollably.”

Movies

Audrey Hepburn: The Secret WW2 History of a Dutch Resistance Spy

By David Crow

Movies

Jimmy Stewart and the WW2 Mission That Almost Broke Him

By David Crow

Still, Gable seemed to be settling into a new happy rhythm of camaraderie on the base, frequent trips to London, and even playing the field. He renewed an affair with a pre-Lombard paramour in London, the English (and now married with children) Elizabeth Allan. Nonetheless, he may have been enjoying himself too much for his superiors’ liking.

Robert Matzen, author of Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe and Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3, told me he believed Gable had a death wish.

“Carole Lombard, his wife, wanted him to go fight and she’s killed,” Matzen said. “So he then decides, ‘Alright, I’ll go fight and hopefully I’ll be killed too.’ That’s why he wanted to be in the Eighth Air Force, because he wanted to die in a plane crash.” Also, unlike Stewart, Matzen stressed, Gable never fully adapted to military culture.

Said Matzen, “Gable was much more interested in being Clark Gable in England than Jim Stewart was interested in being Jimmy Stewart in England.” This weighed on the mind of Col. Hatcher, as did the growing understanding that every B-17 Gable was on became a prize for Nazi Germany.

The day the 351st arrived in England, Nazi radio propagandist William Joyce, aka “Lord Haw Haw,” broadcast from Berlin the following: “Welcome to England, Hatcher’s Chickens. Among whom is famous American cinema star, Clark Gable. We’ll be seeing you soon in Germany, Clark. You will be welcome there too.”

Adolf Hitler apparently adored Clark Gable, considering him his favorite American actor. A movie nut with a love for British and Hollywood cinema, Hitler even allegedly smuggled a film print of Gone with the Wind before it opened in the UK. Hitler therefore marked Gable as one of the most prized “war criminals” in the Allied Forces, offering a handsome reward to any German soldiers who can bring Gable to him alive.

The actor was terrified of being paraded through Berlin like King Kong and was only half-joking when he told a friend, “If Hitler catches me, the sonofabitch will put me in a cage like a gorilla and send me on a tour of Germany. If a plane that I’m in ever gets hit, I’m not bailing out.”

While his superiors might’ve appreciated the sentiment, they feared the humiliating spectacle of one of their gunners becoming a Nazi political tool—or the actor putting a bigger target on their bombing group. Additionally, Gable didn’t follow protocol as intended, at one point threatening a military doctor after the physician apparently said nonchalantly that Gable’s pal had hours to live while the young man was awake and listening. And, again, the opinion became that he wanted to be shot down.

So it was in October 1943, after only five combat missions, Capt. Gable was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal for “exceptionally meritorious achievement while participating in five separate bomber combat missions.” Hatcher apparently pulled the strings to get Gable out.

Clark Gable in 1960 on the set of his last film, The Misfits, with Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift.

The End

Even though Gable’s time in combat ended in October of ’43, he still wound up with 50,000 feet of film at his disposal. He was apparently shocked when he learned the air force really didn’t care what he did with the footage since gunner recruitment was up. So he returned to Los Angeles, having been reassigned to the city’s photographic division. Allowed to cut the film at MGM, Gable put together five short films that could be used for instruction on operating B-17s. But by the time it made its way through the Pentagon’s chain of command… the war was over. The footage mostly still lies unused in government archives.

After finishing the films, Gable had expected to be assigned to a new bombing division in the Pacific Theater. As he waited months for the orders to come in, he found out on the news about the D-Day landing in Europe on June 6, 1944. Feeling forgotten and discarded by the Air Corps, he requested to be discharged on June 12, which was his right as a volunteer over the age of 42. A captain named Ronald Reagan granted Gable his discharge after 670 days of service.

Clark eventually re-acclimated to Hollywood and restarted his career, but by 1945 his days as “the King” were waning, and he saw more flops accompany his diminishing hits. He also had many more affairs with leading ladies, extras, and socialites. But for years he refused to marry, telling friends, “It wouldn’t be fair. I have nothing left to give.”

For the rest of his life, Clark mourned Carole, including on Jan. 15, 1944 when he was on hand for the launch of the SS Carole Lombard. Gable was supposed to speak at the event. Instead, he mostly cried.

Eventually he did remarry, twice, and finally had one child who wasn’t disowned in secret. But after the star died of a heart attack at age 59 in 1960, his fifth wife, Kay Williams, honored his final wishes: Gable was interred at Glendale’s Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Next to Ma.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Clark Gable and His WW2 Death Wish appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/35A0RQk

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

2 notes · View notes

tzigone · 4 years ago

Text

DC’s new timeline setup (Linearverse)

https://www.gamesradar.com/dc-introducing-a-new-wrinkle-to-classic-continuity/

“Instead, in Forged's final pages readers learn the despite all the familiar trappings of DC's past and future in the storyline like the original depictions of Superman's birth world of Krypton, it all actually takes place in its own new corner of the Omniverse called the Linearverse, in which all of DC's 80+ year history takes place in one singular and, of course, linear timeline on one Earth. In other words, the Batman-Bruce that began his career in 1939 is the same Batman-Bruce Wayne who just took part in 2020's 'The Joker War.' “

In the Linearverse, "people age far more slowly, living much longer than elsewhere," Waverider (a gatekeeper of DC's timelines) explains to Batman in the final pages of Forged. "Your youth and vitality will endure for decades, enabling you to be effective far longer than the universal norm."---

----

So, there’ve been many discussions on how this is problematic. It has to go backward from 1939 as well as forward.

If Bruce actually looks like he's only aged 10 years since his debut (unsure, but they want him prime of life), then it's about 8.2 years passing to 1 year's aging.

The Trigger Twins and John Tane and other characters from the western DC comics should still be living. They were seemingly in their 20s in the 1880s (in the actual stories, not post-COIE change), so should look less than 10 years older than Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, etc., and be perceived as guys in their 40s.

Obviously if Bruce looks like he's aged 20 years, it's a different story.

Oh, at a 1/8 speed, the 80+ year-old lookers would remember before the Americas were found by most of Europe. The Black Death. Some even the founding of Tenochtitlan. The invention of Gutenberg's printing press. So many implications.

The absurdity is almost kinda fun now.

#DC comics #Linearverse #Batman #Superman #Trigger Twins

2 notes · View notes

ladyimaginarium · 5 years ago

Text

I’m making a timeline of the Uchiha-Senju kids and this is how it goes so far, long post ahead!

Momoka is the eldest, Aiko and Akio are twins though Aiko is the older one and they’re younger by two years, Haruka is four years younger than Aiko and Akio, Takehiko is two years younger than Kimiko and Kimiko is two years younger than Takehiko - they are all a few years younger than Hiruzen and Danzo’s age group.

Momoka was born a year after Konoha was founded when Hikaku was 26 and Toka was 28 ; 29 and 30 when the twins were born, 33 and 35, 35 and 37 when Takehiko was born and 37 and 40 when Kimiko, their final child was born. Momoka was five years old when Uchiha Madara attacked Konohagakure and Aiko and Akio were four years old - barely old enough to remember - while Momoka remembered everything ; Haruka was born two years afterward, Takehiko was born four years after and Kimiko six years afterward.

By the time of Audaces Fortuna Juvat, Momoka is twelve years old by the end of the first ever Chunin Exams and she turns thirteen at the end of the story, Aiko and Akio are ten, Haruka is six, Takehiko is four and Kimiko is two.

The First Shinobi World War, much like its equivalent, World War I, lasted four years, starting when Momoka was 12 turned 13 and lasted until she was 17 where she actively played a major role, even moreso by the end of the war, Aiko was 15 ( and Akio would’ve been ) 15, Haruka would’ve been 11, Takehiko would’ve been 9 and Kimiko would’ve been 7 by the time the first war ended. Momoka and Aiko were the only active contributors of the First Shinobi World War as the rest of the children were too young to participate but they helped in other ways by supporting the war effort - Momoka was a skilled kunoichi in her own right, and Aiko shined as a medical nin by the middle through the end of the war by the time a terrible plague swept across Fire Country, and Aiko’s medical genius and talent saved the lives of millions. After the war came a twenty year time of peace ( the first decade being the Narutoverse equivalent of The Roaring 20′s or the Golden 20′s ) followed by years of economic depravity which then became the Narutoverse equivalent of The Great Depression. It was during the first decade after that Momoka began training Hatake Sakumo, Hatake Kakashi’s father, who was said to surpass even the Sannin in strength and prowess ( and slowly begin rising to power in the Uchiha Clan ), Aiko’s skills improved as a medical genius and as a spymaster, Haruka went missing for a time in her adolescence only to return to Konoha a skilled and ruthless assassin ( it’s ... a long story ), and Takehiko and Kimiko truly blossomed as shinobi and as popular and well beloved nobles of the country.

Kimiko never lived to see the Second Shinobi World war rise nor see her only son, Nawaki, die a brutal death or her only daughter, Tsunade, rise to fame, as the war arose six years after her assassination.

Then the Second Shinobi World War began.

Kimiko gave birth to Tsunade when she was eighteen and Nawaki the same year she died - at age twenty two. Momoka was twenty eight when Tsunade was born, Aiko was twenty six, Haruka was twenty two and Takehiko was twenty, and Toka would be 62 and Hikaku would be 60 by the time Tsunade was born and 66 and 64 when Nawaki was born and Kimiko died later that same year. When Kimiko was assassinated at age twenty two, Takehiko was twenty four, Haruka was twenty eight, Aiko was thirty and Momoka was thirty two. Takehiko took protective custody over Tsunade and Nawaki as Kimiko made him promise her that he’d look after her children while dying in his arms, and that he did to his dying day.

Momoka would’ve been 37, Aiko would’ve been 35, Haruka would’ve been 31, and Takehiko would’ve been 29 by the time the Second Shinobi World War arose.

The Second Shinobi World War, much like it’s counterpart, World War II, lasted six years ( 1939-1945 ), so Momoka was 43 when it ended, Aiko would’ve been 40, Haruka would’ve been 36, and Takehiko would’ve been 34 - though Haruka and Aiko both died prior to the Second Shinobi World War happening and Takehiko died during the events of the Second Shinobi World War so he died at 34, respectively, ten years after Kimiko died. Toka was 74 by the time the Second Shinobi World War ended and Hikaku would’ve been 72, as he died prior to the Second War. So, Momoka was definitely having Kagami’s children before ( and possibly during ) the Second War and lived long enough to have and meet her grandchildren.

After the Second War, I’d like to think that Momoka trained Uzumaki Kushina, Naruto’s mother, in becoming a jinchuriki for a long while, as the was the only known person who could control the Kyuubi seeing as there were no Mokuton users at the time and Uzumaki Mito was long dead by then. I’m uncertain on how old Momoka would be when the Third Shinobi World War arose, because the timeline’s unclear and there’s no real counterpart to go off of but the source says it took place more than ten years prior to the begnning of the series and we don’t know how long it lasted ... and that’s really vague, but regardless, she fought and survived the Third Shinobi World War ( and it would be her last war ) and she would later die in the Uchiha Clan Massacre ( whether by her own hand or Itachi’s - it’s hard to tell ), meaning she lived long enough to watch Team Minato grow up, to see Kurama attack Konoha ( AGAIN ) and meet Naruto, Sasuke, all the Konoha 11, etc etc etc. until she finally died a few years later.

#i think i might have messed it up but voila LAJALAJALJAGLAJGALJGAA #this is like really long but this is just for reference's sake AGJGALGAJGLJGAAGLJ #but i hope this clarifies things!!#OUT OF THE GALAXY. ( ANGIE SPEAKS. )#MISCHIEF MANAGED. ( REFERENCES. )#THE STARS HAVE ALL ALIGNED. ( HEADCANONS. )#LOOK TO YOUR KINGDOMS ; I'M COMING FOR THEM ALL. ( UCHIHA MOMOKA. )#TELL ME LOVE IS ENDLESS ; DON'T BE SO PRETENTIOUS. ( UCHIHA AIKO. )#( PENDING UCHIHA AKIO TAG. )#GO TO HELL FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE. ( UCHIHA HARUKA. )#THE BLOOD IS AS RARE AND SWEET AS CHERRY WINE. ( UCHIHA TAKEHIKO. )#YOU'RE THE ONLY LIGHT ONLY IF FOR A NIGHT. ( UCHIHA KIMIKO. )#EVERYTIME I CLOSE MY EYES IT'S LIKE A DARK PARADISE. ( SENJU TOKA. )#( PENDING UZUMAKI MITO TAG. )

6 notes · View notes

tabloidtoc · 5 years ago

Text

Hollywood Reporter, November 20

Cover: Spotify’s Daniel Ek and Dawn Ostroff unveil a plan to harness Hollywood talent and exclusive podcasts to become the world’s #1 audio platform

Page 10: Contents

Page 14: Contents

Page 21: The Report -- Star Wars Uncertainty Extends to Disney’s Lucasfilm Leader Too

Page 22: What the End of the Paramount Decrees Actually Means

Page 24: Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun and the Imminent Rerecording War

Page 26: More Joker -- Warners’ 1B Reasons to Say Yes

Page 28: Box Office, Broadcast TV, Cable TV, Billboard Hot 100, Billboard 200, Closer Look -- Apple TV + Audience So Far

Page 30: Awards Season -- Best Picture -- Joker, The Good Liar, Ford v Ferrari, Best Original Screenplay -- Lena Waithe for Queen & Slim, Best Actress -- Jessie Buckley in Wild Rose, Best Supporting Actress -- Margot Robbie in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Zhao Shuzhen in The Farewell

Page 32: 7 Days of Deals -- It’s Showtime for A24-produced Features on Television, $500M Price Is Right for Sony’s GSN Takeover, Rights Available -- The Districts by Johnny Dwyer, Revelation by Bobi Gentry Goodwin, Film -- Nicolas Cage, Spike Lee, Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland, Sam Worthington and Russell Crowe, Michael De Luca

Page 33: Television -- Sarah Michelle Gellar, Vanessa Bayer, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Nick Cannon, Clive Owen, Jenni Konner and Sarah Treem, Digital -- Joe and Anthony Russo, Riley Keough, Bill Murray and Alyssa Milano, Eddie Murphy, Gary Oldman, Real Estate -- Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Rep Sheet -- Mia Maestro, Valerie Weiss, Drake Doremus, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Victoria Mahoney, Julia Fox, Next Big Thing -- Jonah Hauer-King

Page 37: About Town -- Cenk Uygur: ‘I’m Going to Maul Them’

Page 38: R.I.P. Retail Therapy: A Fond Farewell to Barneys, Mike Nichols and Sidney Lumet and Roman Polanski: Three New Reads on Larger-Than-Life Moviemaking

Page 40: Yes, I Did Say That! Taylor Swift, John Stankey, Elizabeth Banks, Byron Allen, Julia Wolov on Louis C.K., Gayle King, Alex Zhu, Jeff Probst, Flashback -- Courteney Cox in 2014

Page 42: HFPA and THR’s Golden Globes Ambassador Party -- Kaitlyn Dever and Olivia Wilde and Beanie Feldstein, Daniel Kaluuya and Emilia Clarke, Jacob Tremblay and Rob Gronkowski, Kate Beckinsale and Jamie Foxx and Tyrese Gibson, Adam Scott, Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd and Robert Pattinson, Greta Gerwig and Amy Pascal, Ali Wong and Chrissy Metz, Florence Pugh and Joe Keery and Ginnifer Goodwin and Jameela Jamil, Natasha Lyonne and Jill Soloway and Shakina Nayfack, Dylan Brosnan and Pierce Brosnan and Lorenzo Soria and Paris Brosnan, Justin Hartley and Bonnie Arnold, Sam Taylor-Johnson and husband Aaron

Page 43: The Big Bash Gala -- Megan Colligan and son Lukas Roybal, Nina Jacobson, Mike Shumard, Susan Moseley and Priscilla Valldejuli and Sherry Lansing and Laura Lizer, Mike Daly, Michael Green and Rob Steinman and Dan Gardenswartz

Page 44: Rambling Reporter -- Finding Jack’s directors originally wanted Elvis Presley to bring back from the dead but had to settle for James Dean, Noah Baumbach’s agent Jeremy Barber has cameos in three of his films including Marriage Story, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington finally won the top prize at the 1939 Cannes Film Festival, Idris Elba is now shilling for Ford but he used to work on their assembly line, Power Dining -- Dana Walden, Jeremy Zimmer, T Bone Burnett, Billy Porter, Halm Saban, JoJo Siwa, Bruce Willis, Olivia Munn, Michael Ovitz, Ben Stein, Bob Simonds, Roy Price, John Branca, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez, Common, Laura Dern

Page 46: Hitched, Hatched, Hired

Page 50: The Business -- Lisa Katz and Tracey Pakosta

Page 52: Law & Policy -- The Streaming Wars’ Wild West: Programmers vs. Distributors

Page 54: The Race -- Are Films About Slavery Good for African Americans?

Page 56: Behind the Screen -- Finding the Revs and Roars of Ford v Ferrari

Page 62: Style -- Wine for Everyone on Your List

Page 64: Send Me the Same Stuff the Guys Get -- Don’t buy into antiquated stereotypes and assume women want wine as gifts

Page 66: Cover Story -- Spotify the Storyteller

Page 72: Producers Roundtable -- Debra Martin Chase, Peter Chernin, Charlize Theron, Dan Lin, Emma Tillinger Koskoff and David Heyman

Page 80: Awards Season Playbook -- Directing -- James Mangold of Ford v Ferrari, Taika Waititi of Jojo Rabbit, Destin Daniel Cretton of Just Mercy, Noah Baumbach of Marriage Story, Quentin Tarantino of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Bong Joon Ho of Parasite, Melina Matsoukas of Queen & Slim, Dexter Fletcher of Rocketman, Robert Eggers of The Lighthouse, Benny and Josh Safdie of Uncut Gems, Trey Edward Shults of Waves

Page 82: Writing -- These screenplays might seem fantastical but the exploration of how a dad’s love (or lack of it) shapes a man couldn’t be more real

Page 84: The making of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Page 88: Critic’s Notebook -- The “Plus TV” Era Is Upon Us

Page 89: Social Climbers -- Actors -- Lili Reinhart, Tom Felton, Scripted TV -- Stranger Things, TV Personalities -- Jimmy Fallon

Page 90: Backlot -- Hollywood’s Top 25 Marketing Masterminds

Page 94: How Singapore Is Shaping Asia’s Digital Future

Page 96: 90 Years of THR -- 1982 -- Tom Hanks Got His Start in Splatter and D&D Flicks

#tabloid #hollywood #spotify #daniel ek #dawn ostroff #charlize theron #will ferrell #paul rudd #robert pattinson #rob pattinson #bobby pattinson

4 notes · View notes

twf100 · 6 years ago

Text

The new years on the Western Front

German bunker at Dodengang near Diksmuide Belgium, December 2018

By January 1 1915, the hopes that the war would end quickly had dissolved into the mud of Belgium and France. The First Battle of Ypres in Belgium had ended the month before, and with it the tactics of open warfare for the next four years. Armies now faced each other for 450 miles across Western Europe, from the English Channel, across Belgium and northern France, all the way to the Swiss border. The Germans had fully moved to the defensive, reinforcing their trenches, building concrete bunkers up and down the line, and clearing positions for deadly machine gun and artillery fire. The Allies dug in as well, but had already begun making plans to attack in 1915 in the desire to evict the Germans from Belgian and French territory. The Allies built few bunkers and did not improve their trenches. Why bother, the Allied commanders thought, when they would be moving to the German positions soon enough? They would find this much easier said than done, and would experience heavy losses during the campaigns in the French Artois, at Loos and in the Champagne.

The hope for a breakout on the Eastern Front at Gallipoli, and for the USA to join the war after the sinking of the Lusitania, would both prove to be disappointing to the Allies. April of 1915 would see the first use of chlorine gas at St. Julien Belgium, with appalling results. Shockingly long casualty lists, British munition shortages, and with no end in sight, the 1915 year of the Great War came to a close.

Monument Le Mort Homme near Verdun France, December 2018

1916 would make the previous year of the war look tame in comparison. On February 21 the Germans launched Unternehmen Gericht (Operation Judgement) and attacked the French at Verdun. With a stated desire to “bleed France white”, German commander Erich von Falkenhayn looked to break both the strength of the French army and the will of the French citizenry to continue with the war. He was nearly successful. Instead, under General Philippe Petain, the French would rally to the defense of Verdun. The battle would cost Von Falkenhayn his job in addition to nearly one million German and French casualties, distributed more or less equally between the two armies. The German and French armies would each have successful offensives in the later years of the war, but the Battle of Verdun was a high water mark for both forces in terms of strength and morale.

Front Line July 1 1916, La Boisselle France, December 2018

On July 1 1916, British forces at the front along the Somme River in France, climbed over the top of their trenches and launched an attack. Wave after wave of young men walked across No-Man’s-Land into withering German artillery and machine gun fire. The bloodiest day in the history of the British Army saw nearly 20,000 soldiers killed, most within the first hour of the attack. By November Britain had suffered half a million casualties. The trauma of The Somme still resonates today throughout the United Kingdom, as well as Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand. Not to be outdone, the French would suffer 200,000 casualties. The Germans took half a millions casualties of their own at the Somme.

Canadian National Vimy Memorial, near Givenchy-en-Gohelle France, April 2018

The slaughter of 1916 would continue into 1917. This year of the war saw dramatic events such as the Russian Revolution and their near total withdrawal from the war, as well as the United States declaring war on Germany. French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre had been replaced by Robert Nivelle by the first of the year. On April 16 Nivelle launched an offensive of his own along the front in Northern France. German forces had already retreated to the fortifications of the Seigfriedstellung (Seigfried Line, or commonly known as the Hindenburg Line) and Nivelle’s offensive was a disaster. The French suffered nearly 200,000 casualties and gained practically nothing. In frustration at the meaningless loss of life, French troops began to mutiny. In May numerous French divisions flatly refused to fight. Nivelle was sacked and replaced by the hero of Verdun, Philippe Petain. “I am waiting for the tanks and the Americans” Petain stated. There would be no more pointless French attacks.

Tyne Cot British Cemetery and Memorial, near Passendale Belgium, April 2018

While Petain worked to end the mutinies, bring his soldiers back under control and rebuild French army morale, the British sought to keep the Germans distracted in Belgium. On June 7 1916 British Commander-in-Chief Douglas Haig launched the Battle of Messines. While deemed a strategic success for the British, both armies would each suffer 25,000 casualties at Messines. The next month Haig launched the Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres). A heavy bombardment that turned the landscape into a muddy soup, as well as constant rain, created conditions that were truly a hell on Earth. Soldiers that fell into the mud would slowly be sucked under to drown. Any attempt to help a trapped comrade would result in additional soldiers being sucked into the mire. Despite the atrocious conditions, repeated attacks were ordered, but almost no significant ground was gained by British forces. Final casualty counts are disputed, but by November anywhere between half a million and one million soldiers were killed, wounded or missing, with the numbers again being almost equally split between the British and German armies.

1918 would see the final year of the Great War, but it would prove to be just as horrific as the previous years. With Russia out of the war, the German Empire could focus their army on the Western Front. They had no time to lose as thousands of American soldiers were pouring into France each day. On March 21 the Germans launched the Kaiserschlacht offensive and broke through Allied lines in Belgium and France. Within a week they had attacked to a depth of 40 miles and by May German forces were back on the Marne and threatening Paris just as they had done in 1914. Philippe Petain’s defensive strategy stopped the German advance in July and, having advanced past their own ability to supply their forces, the Germans had to fall back. The Kaiserschlacht was over and Germany had suffered nearly 700,000 casualties.

Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial, Romagne-Sous-Montfaucon France, December 2018

On August 8 1918 the Allies, now under the unified command of French Field Marshall Ferdinand Foch, began the Hundred Days Offensive with the Battle of Amiens in France. German General Erich Ludendorff would later refer to this day as the as the Schwarzer Tag des Deutschen Heeres (Black Day of the German Army). Morale had crumbled among German troops and they were surrendering in massive numbers. The Germans suffered 30,000 casualties on that day alone. German soldiers called reserve troops moving up for battle “strike breakers”. German commanders, trying to rally their retreating troops, were told “You’re prolonging the war!” In September German allies were dropping out of the conflict. Bulgarian, Turkish, and Austria-Hungarian armies stopped fighting. With Americans now on the battle lines, the Allies were out of their trenches and fighting the Germans in open country. Each day more German soldiers would surrender and the Allies would gain more ground. October riots within Germany convinced the high command that no more was possible. The possibility of winning the war was gone and on November 6 a delegation set out from Berlin to negotiate with Ferdinand Foch and the Allies at Compiegne France. The Armistice took effect five days later.

Foch Monument at the Glade of the Armistice, near Compiegne France, April 2018

January 1 1919 saw the first New Year’s Day on the Western Front without battle in four years. But the war was not officially over. The Paris Peace Conference opened on January 18. It was not lost on the Germans that this date was the anniversary of the establishment of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 as well as the establishment of the German Empire in 1871. The “Big Four” major powers of France, Britain, Italy, and the United States dominated the conference and worked together to unilaterally draft the Treaty of Versailles. In addition to the loss of colonial territories, the reduction of its military force, the levy of reparations and new national borders, the treaty placed the full blame for the war on the “aggression of Germany”. While US President Woodrow Wilson and the American delegation did not believe it was fair to lay the blame for the war solely on the German Empire, they were unsuccessful in getting the language of the treaty changed. The treaty was signed by representatives of Germany, France, Britain, the United States, Italy and Japan on June 28 1919, precisely five years to the day after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Great War was now officially over.

The 1918 “Alsace-Lorraine” Monument depicting a German eagle impaled by a sword, near Compiegne France, April 2018

German popular resentment of the Treaty of Versailles, the humiliation of their defeat, costly reparations, the embittered memoirs of Ludendorff and other German military commanders, along with economic depression, and political instability, are all considered to have contributed to the resulting Nazi political success that began in 1925. Some believed, like economist and British delegate to the Paris Peace Conference John Maynard Keynes, that the conditions of the treaty were far too harsh and would end up being counter-productive to peace and the word economy. French Field Marshall Foch felt the opposite. Foch believed the treaty to be far too lenient on Germany. At the signing of the treaty he declared “This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.”

The Second World War began on September 1 1939 with the German invasion of Poland, twenty years and 65 days after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

Postscript: This is probably the last of the big text posts. From this point on I will be sharing the sites of the Western Front as they are today, 100 years after the end of the Great War. I have seen some pretty amazing things around Belgium and France and I look forward to sharing the images of these sites with you.

Additionally, if you are interested in a great book about the Paris Peace Conference I would highly recommend Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan.

January 4, 2019

#ww1 #worldwar1 #westernfront #greatwar #treatyofversailles #ludendorff #foch #Petain #DouglasHaig #Passchendaele #somme #verdun #Kaiserschlacht

8 notes · View notes

transcriptroopers · 7 years ago

Text

@hm-ha-hm-hm-hm-ha

Hi! Thanks a lot for this contribution. I’ve written this three times now because I don’t save my work, and I’m an actual dumbass despite my writing all of this, so bear with me history buffs!!!

This response is a very popular method of washing the west’s hands of Russia: point at Stalin. A high school debate team might scream “ad hominem” if he didn’t so damn well deserve it. Perhaps I should have been more explicit in my original post about Stalin’s acts of barbarism, but I wasn’t for the same reason I wasn’t more explicit with Hitler’s: we know. The west ensures that we are well aware (although perhaps not very well informed) about the atrocities of the USSR and before. Detailing them would have contributed nothing meaningful to my post imo, but for future reference: Hitler: bad. Stalin: bad. Moving on, I believe it is a fundamental misunderstanding of history to call the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact “allying” the USSR to Germany, and it is most certainly fallacious to say that they ready to invade each other anyway. To say this pact made them “allies” is as misleading as calling the USSR and the U.S. “allies” during the Cold War.

Stalin knew before anyone else that Hitler was planning military expansion. It was a very rough time to live next door to fascists; people have some difficulty distinguishing this, but fascism is not the same thing as communism. Fascism is usually considered the far right and communism is usually considered the far left, but being radical doesn’t make them equivalent ideologies, or “just as bad,” as some put it. They are, by nature, incompatible ideologies. So it’s hard to understand why history remembers them as allies, even hesitant ones.

When Hitler entered power in 1933, he was already intending to invade both Russia and Poland over Lebensraum. He described this concept as land that rightfully belonged to Germans, land they were meant to have by right of destiny. It included pretty much all workable land in the world. Slavic people were also “undesireables” to him, and his original goals included exterminating all Slavic people, which at the time was around 180 million in the USSR alone. Though he wasn’t often a pragmatic man, he did ultimately settle for just taking all of Russia’s land and resources, which at the time was a good one sixth of the earth’s surface. That’s a lot of Lebensraum.

Stalin, by contrast, was far too busy murdering millions of his own people to start carrying out world domination. When people speak of Hitler’s world domination, they mean it literally -- his “master race” and Final Solution and Lebensraum -- his actual plans to wipe out the majority of the earth. When people speak of Stalin’s world domination, they’re usually referring to his efforts towards the “popular front,” an global ideological effort toward educating the masses about leftism at a time when merely being suspected of being a communist was grounds for a life sentence or worse. The ultimate end goal was to end capitalism, but it is a very different thing to stage a war against an economic ideology than on people. If you’re the U.S. and Great Britain -- countries whose rule dangerously toed the line of fascism -- this was tantamount to world conquest. The people were already more aware of the corrupted parts of capitalism than they were in WWI, largely thanks to the Great Depression, and were discovering communism on their own. Unions were beginning to hold real power in the U.S., (you know...regular old unions...the things that gave us the “40 hour work week,” child labor laws, weekends, OSHA, minimum wage, etc) and these and workers’ strikes (along with other efforts for social reform like the Suffragette movement) were the examples provided as “proof” that Soviet spies were invading. America was liberalizing and giving power to the people; that was the domination.

Stalin also intended to assist in liberating conquered, colonized, and annexed countries in the western empire, which if you’re keeping track is all of them lol British France German American and even Dutch empires were being criticized and threatened, for Stalin was an anti-imperialist and unlike Hitler, he did not admire Churchill’s endeavors in India or the U.S.’s “kill every person over the age of 10″ dealings in the Philippines. Depending on who you ask, one might argue that wanting to free indigenous people brutally colonized by western forces was a good thing, but perhaps not so if they were your colonies and your entire nation’s economy depended on you stealing their resources.

Anyway, this gave all of the allies really good reasons to not want to help Stalin even before there was evidence of his many victims when there was evidence of Nazi expansion. Don’t confuse the past and the present; the west did not hate Stalin because he was a monster, (or else it would hate itself a lot more) but because he was trying to spread communism and liberate their colonies. So, again, in 1933 when Hitler took office and was all but announcing his intent to eventually conquer Poland and Russia, the USSR was left without allies. In 1936, Germany broke the Treaty of Versailles and had military forces occupy neighboring Rhineland. This invasion, not Poland, was the beginning of Hitler’s global conquest, and it went completely unchallenged by allies, despite the USSR’s protest. When the west failed to stop him, Stalin grew convinced that Germany and Great Britain (whose ideologies were much more compatible) would become allies, and Churchill would keep good on his word to “strangle Bolshevism in its cradle.”

By 1939, Stalin faced the fact that the German war machine was outside Russia’s door and they had no allies who would help if they were invaded. Russia by this point was gearing up for a defensive war, but had no intent to invade Germany, particularly because by 1939 Stalin had his hands full just trying to kill everyone in his own government. So at last, the USSR and Germany signed a non-aggression pact, not a treaty of alliance. The two promised not to commit acts of aggression against each other for the next ten years, to not invade each other, to keep their military forces away from each other. It was the political equivalent of two countries saying “please don’t declare war on me.”

Two weeks after this pact was signed and with no threat of Russian rebuff, Germany invaded Poland, with whom they had signed a non-aggression pact in 1936, and WWII began. The timing was terrible; Stalin and Hitler were the two most evil people the world could imagine, and now they were working together to destroy the world. Germany would break its non-aggression pact (again) with the USSR in 1941, and Russia would not merely “bear the brunt” of the fighting but the overwhelming majority of it. The death toll of its soldiers alone was ten and a half million people. In Moscow, eight and a half million. In Stalingrad, a million people. In Leningrad, one million. All of these civilians and Red Army home defenders with large populations of women and children. In response to Hitler’s invasion of Russia, future president Harry Truman said: “If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances.” The tagged on line at the end is woefully inadequate compensation for the rest of the statement: that the brutalized citizens of the USSR were no better than the Nazis invading them.

By historical aspects, Stalin was responsible for the deaths of about twenty million Russians. Conversely, Hitler was responsible for the deaths of about sixty million Russians on top of the many millions of other deaths we all know he was responsible for. Russia lost more lives than all off the other nations in WWII combined. It would be a massive historical disservice to those victims to say they deserved it because both sides were equally bad.

#wwii #ww2

47 notes · View notes

lushscreamqueen · 3 years ago

Text

PLANET OUTLAWS – 1953 on the Schlocky Horror Picture Show

PLANET OUTLAWS – 1953

OPENING: Hello good evening and yes to follow the old cliché', welcome to the SCHLOCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW with me, your host Angelica Houston, just kidding, yes really me Nigel Honeybone here again to thrill you chill you and fulfil you. Tonight we go back to the future as ATOMIC WAR comes from outer space …again…and we explore the 25th Century with Buck Rogers as he saves the world..again , in the 1953 classic PLANET OUTLAWS, Oh wait, was that a spoiler?

BREAK: Wowie, how about that. I'm so excited I'm just going to sit here for a few minutes…………………………….want something more mind numbing? How about a word from ouR sponsers, and then after the break back to the wibble wobble that is "PLANET OUTLAWS"

MIDDLE: AMAZING EXPLOITS OF DEATH-DEFYING DARING!...Zooming from planet to planet in spark-sputtering space ships! Battling human robots! Conquering new worlds! And that's just the tagline. ? I guess 20th century viewers were less sophisticated than we are in the 21st century. We wouldn't stand for someone taking 12 perfectly fine Thrill-thronged chapters of BUCK ROGERS from 1939 and cutting it down into 68 minutes of silver screeniness. I mean really people it was a 14 year old repeat I guess Universal thought no-one would notice because it had a new name. PLANET OUTLAWS. Director Ford Beebe who also worked on Flash Gordon was straight from The Phantom Creeps and then went back to Flash to finish Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. PLANET OUTLAWS stars Buster Crabbe, or as his family knew him, Larry. Now Larry Buster Crabbe had also previously starred in two Flash Gordon serials a couple of Tarzans and a long string of westerns, so it was only natural for Universal to decide he was perfect as the heroic Buck Rogers aka the really old guy who keeps saving the universe but isn't Flash Gordon. Buster Crabbe was not actually the first actor to play Buck Rogers physically. That honour goes to an unknown man who played Buck in a Virginia department store, instead of that store's regular Santa Claus. He couldn't be found for the movie I guess.

Constance Moore who was probably just glad to get the work in what would come to be her first highly recognized film role. was cast as the as relatively seldom-seen romantic interest Wilma Deering, a role made far more famous by Erin Gray in the 70's, while Jackie Moran being one of the lesser remembered but quite active child actors during the 30s and 40s found his feet as sidekick and special friend George "Buddy" Wade. Interesting enough, Evil "Killer" Kane being played by Anthony Warde, who has a huge amount of work under the pseudonym "uncredited" also had a name was change for the movie. In the original comic strip, his was called Oba Kane, and he had a twin brother named Nova and a pistol called "Baby". In the comic he also had a girlfriend named Ardala Valmar but movie regulations would not allow any of this background to be used, so instead, Oba "Killer" Kane is presented as the despotic ruler of a future Earth. Aren't they all? But if you are starting to think sixty eight minutes of a black and white futuristic blast from the past is a bit beyond you and you have all those socks to wash before Monday, You should stick around just to see Prince Tallen of Saturn. He is so wonderfully played by Philip Ahn in an embarrassing piece of typecasting you may recognise him as as Master Kan from Kung Fu. I think he probably should have kept the costume, if only to see what it looked like in colour. There I don't think I gave too much of the plot away! So come fly with me as we return you to the future-uture-uture (echo voice) in PLANET OUTLAWS

CLOSING: It strikes me that PLANET OUTLAWS is almost like a male fantasy come to life. Think about it, Buck gets to take a nice, long five-hundred-year nap! With my busy schedule I'm ecstatic if I can get a fifteen-minute nap on a weekend! Then when he wakes up, Buck is the smartest, most dynamic guy around. Never mind that in real life you would treat someone five centuries behind the times like something that escaped from the zoo. Everyone needs Buck to go on exciting missions, fight the bad guys, test exotic equipment and fly rocket ships and crash them -- I think out of five or six flights Buck makes in the serial, he only lands successfully once. Plus it's easy to see the bullet cars used in the movie are the same ones from Flash Gordon's trip to Mars in 1938. Even the script is a bit suspect. PLANET OUTLAW is probably based on an unofficial Flash Gordon story in which Flash Gordon travels to Saturn, but this story was not and has never been part of the original Flash Gordon universe it was illegally published in 1936 and the final rip-off, the music for PLANET OUTLAWS is from Bride of Frankenstein in 1935. Is there no shame in Hollywood? And so as Uranus sinks slowly into the west I bid you goodnight until we reach into the black hole that is Public Domain for next week's Celluloid Hero and say "Toodles!!"

by Lushscreamqueen Dec 26, 2008

0 notes

ironstank · 7 years ago

Text

WHEN A GIRL MEETS BOY

PAIRING(S): 40's!Bucky x Reader, Dum Dum Dugan x OFC Dotty

WARNING(S): Curse words

WORD COUNT: 1973

AUTHOR’S NOTES: I wrote this on a whim and I love it so much fvlgffbnefjnf Bucky is actually my most favourite thing in the planet like he could punch me in the face with his metal arm (or what used to be his metal arm) and I would thank him for it.

Listen to How About You by Judy Garland (1941), then You’ll Never Know by Alice Faye (1943)

MASTERLIST ( ! ) • PROMPTS ( ! ) • ASK BOX ( ! )

1943, SOMEWHERE BEHIND THE ENEMY LINES

War was a mean place. You knew that better than anybody.

You were an army nurse, straight out of your father’s farm in England. But simply put, you were an army brat. Your father, an old veteran, now a farmer. Your mother, an old army nurse, now a wife of a farmer. Your brothers were also soldiers of war, like your grandfather, and his father before him, and his father before him.

1939, the army was recruiting. It was not voluntary. Anybody over the age of 18 and unmarried were expected to enlist. Your brothers saw it as an opportunity to mean something – to be a part of something bigger than themselves. But truth be told, they probably left to impress the ladies in town.

Nevertheless, your brothers run off with their heads held high and brave faces, but your father was not glad. He was not proud. He did not wave them goodbye with a smile on his face, his arm was not around your mother’s waist with a look of pride and joy. In fact, your brothers had left in the middle of the night, through the window, leaving all but a light kiss on your forehead before they had run off to the save their country. Four years had passed, and you had not heard from then since.

You hated them for it. And then you didn’t, because soon enough, you had done the same thing. You followed your mother’s footsteps like your brothers had followed your fathers. You had left with all but a daisy on your bed, and a red stained lip kiss on your favourite handkerchief your grandmother knitted you.

Now, you hated yourself for it.

Your lovely parents only ever wanted you to be safe – all of you. Your brothers, yourself – your parents always said they hated every second they ever spent in war.

Now you were somewhere in Italy, far, far, away from the safety of home. You, along with a dozen nurses you soon began seeing as the sisters you never had, were kidnapped and captured and became prisoners of war. You along with hundreds of Allied soldiers.

Many had come and gone. None came back. They were taken for something. Torture, interrogation, experiments, whatever it was it couldn’t have been good. You and your girls had been there for months. You didn’t speak German, but a Dorothy did. She was your friend.

SEVEN MONTHS AGO FROM TODAY, FOUR DAYS AFTER BEING TAKEN:

“What are they saying, Dotty?” You whispered towards her.

Dotty brushed her blonde hair away from her face. “They refuse to touch us.”

Mary, another friend of yours, whispered beside you. “Like what they’re doing to the soldiers?” She raised her brow.

Dotty nodded. All of you sat on the floor of the cage you were locked in. Her hand was raised on the bars as she stared at the NAZI soldiers. “Yes. Not until they capture more of us.”

You raised your brow. “Pardon me?”

“They need more women to experiment on, but they don’t have enough. They’re waiting until they catch more of us.” She gulped and spun around. “Then they’ll begin.”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.”

The newest set of soldiers were American – mostly. You and the girls were used to British and French soldiers, actually, you’d met a couple of Australians along with way, too. They were all dead now.

Winifred had already made friends. She was another nurse from your infantry. She asked them the same questions she always asked the newbies. What infantry are you from? How many of you? Any women with you? And, will there be anyone coming to save us?

On average, it took the Germans months to get through one infantry since there were hundreds of soldiers. Currently, your girls and the 107th infantry were on standby. They had arrived two months after you and your girls, making a total of five months of being imprisoned together.

Beside your cage, was a group of soldiers, none too savage and pig-headed, in fact, they were gentlemen. When they first arrived, they ratted you tired from their questions. None of which were about their safety, but instead, about yours.

“Are you ladies hurt?”

“How long have you been here?”

“Did those bastards touch you?”

“We’ll fucking kill them if they did.”

“C’mon, doll, don’t shy away, tell us the truth”

James Buchanan Barnes.

Oh, he was a dream. Mocha brown hair, bright blue eyes like heaven. His face was as handsome as he was kind. A total dreamboat, in your opinion. Young, handsome, brave, intelligent, and his smile was the brightest out of all. He became your best friend. In his cage, there was four of them left – once upon a time, there were twenty-two. When the Germans return, his odds weren’t so great.

He first met you when you were sat on the floor with the girls. The soldiers of war were crying, wailing, screaming, threatening. The 107th was new then, and one thing you and the girls had realised was that soldiers all went through the same stages. Anger, more anger, frustration, sadness, then acceptance.

And you were just about sick of it. Sure, you let them be, you allowed them to be men – to be human. But these men, goodness me, they’re anger lasted at least three times more than all the others.

Dotty’s head was on your lap, the other girls were also sitting and fiddling with each other’s hair. “I miss my victory rolls.” Dotty pouted.

You smiled softly and continued to brush your fingers through her blonde hair. “I know, darling.” Before you could say more, the sound of angry men fighting interrupted. Your words died before they were born. You remembered your life back at the farm; picking flowers, collecting eggs, milking the cows, picking strawberries. The sun seeped through your skin as the fresh, clean wind blew past your face. You’d be wearing a clean dress that always got dirty before noon arrived. Even then, there wasn’t anyone to judge you. And to past the time, you’d sing. You took a deep breath.

“When a girl meets boy / life can be a joy / but the note they end on / will depend on little pleasures they will share / so let us compare.”

Soon enough, the men of war began to silence. Dotty’s face turned to awe, and hundreds of eyes were on you.

“I like New York in June, how about you? / I like Gershwin tune, how about you? / I love a fireside when a storm is due / I like potato chips, moonlight and motor trips / How about you? / I’m mad about good books, can’t get my fill / and Franklin Roosevelt’s looks give me a thrill / holding hands at the movie show / when all the lights are low / may not be new, but I like it / how about you? / I like Jack Benny’s jokes / to a degree / I love the common folks / that includes me / I like to window shop on 5th Avenue / I like banana splits, late supper at the Ritz / How about you?”

“Doll?” Bucky’s voice broke through the crowd of soldiers.

Your eyes turned to his. And suddenly, it was only you and him. “Hi, Buck.”

He beamed. His eyes were just as tired as yours, and his heart probably as heavy. “What was your mother like?”

You smiled at his question. “Well, she was beautiful. A strong woman. She was also an army nurse, like me.” You smiled at the thought of your mother. “She’s every bit as hard-headed as I am.”

He held your index finger through the holes of the cage. “She sounds wonderful.”

You nodded, brushing your [Y/H/C] hair behind your ears. “She would have liked you.”

A soft and playful look washed over his face. “You’d want me to meet your Ma?”

You giggled and nodded once more. “I think you’d be the first man my mother would approve of.”

His posture straightened ever so slightly in pride. Then he paused, frowned, then turned to you. “You bring home men a lot?”

“No, silly.” You smiled, wiggling you finger that was in his hand. “I lived in a farm. Not a lot of guys like a lady who gets dirty.”

Bucky huffed. “I do.”

Your smile widened. “I know.”

Silence came from the both of you, comfortable silence, anyway. You listened to the conversations of the others. Dotty had gotten herself an older fellow. She was as fond of him as he was of her. His name was Dum Dum Dugan. You received a wink from him as you caught his eye. You grinned. You hadn’t even noticed Bucky’s eyes on you until he spoke again.

“They’ll be back soon, doll.”

Your face fell. No, no, no, no, no, this can’t be happening. “Don’t say that, Buck.” You whimpered.

His brows narrowed as he turned to you in concern and sadness. The tears in your eyes were threatening to fall. “Doll, don’t cry.” He whispered. His grabbed as much of your hand as he could, rubbing his thumbs on your skin. “Hey, hey, hey, don’t you do that to me, sweet girl, look at me.” And so you did. “Now, you know I love the sound of your voice. And your eyes, man that has to be one of my favourite things about you.”

Well, that was it. A tear had escaped and there was nothing you could do to stop it. “Buck … ”

He sighed, then chuckled drily. “I really wish I got to take you on a date.”

You sniffed then shook your head. “You will.” You nodded at him through your tears. “Oh, James, you will. Just survive, and when we get out of here, take me to dinner at your favourite restaurant. Take me to meet your ma, and your pal, Steve. You said they’d like me. You know how much I like being praised.”

Bucky’s eyes brightened. “That punk.” He chuckled. “Alright, I’ll even take you to meet the fellas at my barbershop. I already know Ma’s gonna love you. So will Rebecca.” – his baby (and favourite) sister out of four. You sighed and nodded. The comfort from his fingers seeped through you. “Can you do me a final favour, doll?”

Your eyes bounced from his left eye to his right. You’d already memorised the difference. The iris on his left eye was slightly larger. The one on his right had specks of darker blue. There were creases on the sides of his eyes. This man smiled so much, they left permanent evidence of it. The sides of his mouth twitched up as he noticed your stare. You had memorised his face as he had yours. “Sing for me, doll.”

You didn’t have to be told twice.

“You’ll never know just how much I miss you / you’ll never know just how much I care / and if I tried, I still couldn’t hide my love for you / you ought to know, for haven’t I told you so / a million or more times / went away and my heart went with you / I speak your name in my every prayer / If there is some other way to prove that I love you / I swear I don’t know how / you’ll never know if you don’t know now – ”

You couldn’t finish your song.

The Germans had come to take him in their arms.

THREE DAYS SINCE YOU’D SEEN BUCKY:

The sound of footsteps woke you up.

You blinked rapidly, your eyes desperate for clear sight.

“Who are you supposed to be?”

You began searching your surroundings until you spotted the source of the voice. A man was perched over the cages, hands ruffling in a bag. The commotion had gotten everybody’s attention.

“Captain America.”

Dotty cocked her head from beside you. “Are you wearing tights?”

288 notes · View notes