Mark Scott Smith's Blog: Enemy in the Mirror, page 107

Military Secrecy 1942

With Hollywood-style dramatization, this 1942 US Army Training Film is worth watching.

 

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Jazz in the Third Reich

Jazz music, very popular in the Weimar Republic, came under attack from right wing conservatives in the Third Reich. Despite efforts to eliminate fremdländisch (alien) music by Hitler and his followers, jazz survived early efforts at prohibition.

Popular demand for syncopated music by civilians and soldiers on leave from the front resulted in an upswing in Jazz and swing dancing during the early years of the successful German Blitzkrieg (Lightning war).

Nevertheless, in January 1942, all public and private dance events were prohibited. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’ February 1943 proclamation of ‘total war’ signaled the end for most of the venues used by swing bands, which eventually effected jazz as well.

But Nazi response to jazz oscillated between prohibition for ideological reasons, and toleration for economic considerations. The Nazi government never decreed a nationwide ban on jazz, nor issue any corresponding law.

 

 

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Imperial Japanese WWII Tribute

via Japanese World War II Tribute – YouTube.

This video pastiche from America’s enemy in the mirror Imperial Japan, presents a melancholic view of a fallen empire and its valiant soldiers. Both eerie and fascinating, the clips and dramatic musical score reach the ultimate finale of sacrifice – the kamikaze. A postscript honors the accord between Imperial Japan and the Axis powers.

 

 

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D-Day – Then & Now

D-Day 1944; Wikimedia Commons

 

Click on each image below to switch back and forth between 1944 and today.

http://interactive.guim.co.uk/embed/2014/apr/image-opacity-slider-master/index.html?ww2-dday

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Where is Guadalcanal?

Here is a good map of Guadalcanal.

 

 

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Japanese Submarine Firebombs Oregon Forest – September 1942

I-25; Wikimedia Commons

On September 9, 1942, a  Yokosuka E14Y floatplane, launched from the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-25, dropped two incendiary bombs on the forest near Brookings, Oregon. Although the Japanese intended to start a forest fire, wet weather and alert fire lookouts limited the minimal damage.

I described the launch of the floatplane in my historical fiction novel Enemy in the Mirror: Love and Fury in the Pacific War:

Tanaka descended into the submarine and shortly emerged on the foredeck through a hatch. He pulled on his leather flying cap, pushed the goggles onto his forehead and stepped into the pilot’s seat in front of his observer. He revved the engine several times, pulled his goggles down over his eyes and saluted the bridge.

With a sharp crack and a whoosh, the E14Y airplane was catapulted off the bow of the submarine with its small engine wide open. It flew barely above the water for several minutes, then climbed slowly to an altitude of 150 meters. Soon it reached its maximum speed of 210 kilometers per hour.

Isamu and the Commander trained their binoculars on the airplane as it headed toward the flashing beacon of Cape Blanco. The drone of the 340-horsepower, nine-cylinder engine faded away before the plane flew completely out of sight. Isamu pondered the mission. Revenge for the Doolittle raid?  Perhaps that was an honorable motive. Yet he felt little of the emotion that Tanaka had expressed. On the other hand, he felt proud of the intricate technology that had produced this submersible aircraft and launching mechanism. Quite ingenious. And to strike a real blow, however psychological, against the enemy’s homeland was rather exciting. He was proud to be on the I-25.

 

 

 

 

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Bombing Civilians – WWII Britain & Germany

Wikimedia Commons

During the Spanish Civil War, Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force “volunteers,” allied with Spanish Fascists, bombed the undefended civilians of Guernica in 1937.

During the invasion of Poland in 1939, the Luftwaffe engaged in massive air raids against Polish cities. In addition to the destruction of infrastructure, hospitals were destroyed and many civilians and refugees were killed.

In May 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed the center of Rotterdam, killing many civilians.

In May 1940, after the Rotterdam attack,  the RAF initiated nighttime bombing raids on German industrial and military targets east of the Rhine. Targeting was so inaccurate however, that the raids soon assumed the character of terror bombing of German villages.

During July and August 1940, the Luftwaffe targeted only military airfields and radar stations in Great Britain.  At the time, civilian deaths during Luftwaffe bombing raids against strategic industrial targets were assumed to be collateral damage.

On August 24, 1940,  the Luftwaffe, apparently intending to bomb the docks, accidentally dropped bombs on central London, killing nine civilians.

On August 25, 1940,  95 RAF aircraft bombed Tempelhof Airport and the Siemens factory near the center of Berlin.  Bombs landed in fields, woods and some residential areas, but  no one was killed. Although the damage was slight, the psychological effect of this first bombing raid on Germany’s capitol appeared to have caused Hitler to change tactics.

On September 7, 1940, the Luftwaffe initiated the London Blitz, a significant tactical shift in Germany’s bombing campaign against Great Britain. Unlike the previous tactical campaign, the Blitz was intended to demoralize the civilian population and force a peace settlement.

London, Coventry, Plymouth & Liverpool suffered the most damage during Luftwaffe raids in 1940.  As the war grew, both Axis and Allied bombing campaigns increased and targeting became less restrictive. Bombing cities and civilians was viewed as disrupting enemy war industry, rail and control centers, and breaking the enemy’s will to fight. The controversial fire bombings of Hamburg (1943), Dresden (1945), Würzburg and other German cities followed.

From September-May 1940 London was bombed 71 times.

Berlin was bombed 363 times throughout WWII.

Bombing civilians as a means to demoralize the enemy was never successful for either the Luftwaffe or RAF.

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Women’s Army Corps – July 1942

Before WWII, the concept of women in uniform (other than nurses) was not well accepted by the U.S. public, Army or the Navy. However, facing a two front war, military & political leaders, and eventually the public, came to the realization that women were an important resource for both industrial and military sectors. Modeled after comparable British units, the U.S. Women’s Army Corps (WAC) was created in July 1942.

>150,000 women served in the WAC during WWII.  The average WAC officer candidate was 25 years old, had attended college, and was working as an office administrator, executive secretary, or teacher. The average WAAC auxiliary (enlisted person) was slightly younger, with a high school education and less work experience. Black women officer candidates (with similar educational and work experience as whites) attended the same classes and mess hall, but were placed in a separate platoon and provided segregated post facilities such as service clubs, theaters, and beauty shops.

WACs were assigned duties such as:  weather observers and forecasters, cryptographers, radio operators and repairmen, sheet metal workers, parachute riggers, link trainer instructors, bombsight maintenance specialists, aerial photograph analysts, and control tower operators. They computed the velocity of bullets, measured bomb fragments, mixed gunpowder, and loaded shells. Others worked as draftsmen, mechanics, and electricians, and some received training in ordnance engineering.

While most WACs served stateside, some went to various places around the world, including Europe, North Africa, and New Guinea. WACs landed on Normandy Beach just a few weeks after the initial invasion.

 

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HEIMAT: A Chronicle of Germany 1919-1982

This excellent 11-part mini-series, filmed for German television in 1984, relates the stories of people living in a small village in the Hunsrück Rhineland-Palatinate region of  Germany through the years 1919-1982.

The series follows the citizens of the fictional village Schabbach through the crises of the Weimar Republic, the rise and fall of Nazism, WWII and the rebuilding of Germany after the war.

The word Heimat describes a German concept with no real English equivalent: People are bound to their Heimat by their birth, childhood, language, earliest experiences or acquired affinity. 

Heimat is available on Netflix (I’m watching it for the 3rd time).

 

 

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Eleanor Roosevelt – Model First Lady

Gila River Relocation Center 1942; Wikimedia Commons

 

As the mother of four sons on active duty, the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt became an important symbol of patriotism during WWII.  She insisted that the White House practice the same food and gas rationing system as the rest of the country, participated in air raid drills and learned how to use a gas mask.

In her volunteer wartime efforts, she reflected and emphasized the work of American women who held jobs previously performed by men before they were sent overseas. She had a victory garden planted on the south lawn of the White House and made frequent radio appeals for Red Cross donations.

Throughout WWII in public remarks and writings, she emphasized the role of democracy against the tyranny of fascism  A frequent public critic of Hitler and Mussolini – they in turn made personal attacks against her in their own broadcasts.

Read her syndicated newspaper column My Day for this day 72 years ago.

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