Mark Scott Smith's Blog: Enemy in the Mirror, page 96

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The Great Escape – March 1944

Allied airmen captured during WWII were incarcerated in POW Camps run by the Luftwaffe called  Stammlager Luft (abrev., Stalag). Allied POWs reported that the Luftwaffe (unlike the Gestapo or SS) respected fellow flyers, and treated airmen POWs well, with the exception of an inconsistent food supply.

Since the Geneva Conventions stipulated ~10 days of solitary confinement as reasonable punishment for attempted escape, many captured Allied airmen felt it was worth the risk.

On March 24, 1944, under the leadership of RAF pilot Roger Bushell, 76 POWs escaped from Stalag Luft III (100 miles southeast of Berlin) by digging three tunnels with Red Cross powdered milk cans.

73 of the escapees were soon recaptured – only three men were able to flee to safety. Under direct orders of an angry Adolf Hitler, the Gestapo drove the Allied airmen to remote locations and murdered them. Shortly thereafter, potential escapees were warned of dire consequences.

 

 

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一番美しく The Most Beautiful

The Most Beautiful was a 1944 Japanese propaganda film, written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. Young women working in a WWII military optics factory overcome many personal hardships in patriotic commitment to wartime Imperial Japan.

 

 

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Vichy France Cartoon

Vichy France propaganda cartoon about the allied bombings of France.

A Jewish radio announcer in London broadcasts the imminent arrival over France of Allied Liberator aircraft.

US planes, flown by Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Popeye, Goofy and Felix the Cat, drop bombs killing innocent French civilians.

 

Vichy France

Between June 1940 and May 1945, 1,570 French cities and towns were bombed by Anglo-American forces.

The total number of civilians killed was 68,778 men, women and children.

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Nylons & WWII

In the 1930s, silk was the preferred material for women’s stockings. But they were expensive and not very durable. When DuPont began manufacturing nylon in 1939, most American women switched from silk to nylon stockings.

High demand brought shortages in 1942 after the United States joined the war. Because nylon used in the manufacture of parachutes, tents, ropes, and tires, was critical to the war effort, worn-out nylon stockings were collected and recycled for military use and many women began applying a foundation on their legs ( liquid stockings) to give the illusion of hosiery. 

Nylon stockings survived for another two decades after the war, then virtually disappeared when DuPont invented stretch-fit Lycra, and pantyhose came into fashion.

 

 

 

 

 

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V-2 Rocket 1944

The German V-2 (Vergeltungswaffe 2–“Retribution Weapon 2”) was Mankind’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. Powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, more than 3000 V-2 rockets were launched against Allied cities in 1944.

The initial V-2 target was London;  later, Antwerp and Liège were attacked. ~ 9,000 civilians and military personnel were killed in the V-2 attacks. Additionally, 12,000 forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners died during weapon production.

 

 

 

 

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Veterans Day

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Hacksaw Ridge

 

This film, about a conscientious objector who actually saved 75 lives as a medic in the midst of a terrible battle on Okinawa, was directed by Mel Gibson. As might be expected, it’s a little corny and extremely violent. But the WWII verisimilitude, both on the home front and in the Pacific War, is outstanding.

Caution: the battle scenes are particularly horrific–a bit like Saving Private Ryan on steroids.

Overall I, like most of the audience, was moved and inspired by the story of this true WWII hero.

 

Here is an interesting analysis by the NY Times reviewer A.O. Scott 

 

 

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Blue Star in the Window

The blue star flag, designed during WWI by U.S. Army Captain Robert Queissner, became the unofficial symbol of a child in service. In January 1942, a newspaper article by Army Captain George Maines requested information regarding children serving in the armed forces – more than 1000 mothers responded.

In February 1942, the Blue Star Mothers of America was founded in Michigan. Chapters were quickly formed in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Oregon, Iowa, Washington, California, Pennsylvania, and New York.

Each blue star on the flag represents a service member in active duty. A gold star is displayed if a service member is killed in action or dies in service.

 

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WWII Spies

 

             

 

Although its importance has been emphasized through books and movies, in The Secret War: Spies, Codes and Guerrillas 1939-1945  the historian Max Hastings concludes that information gained from espionage was relatively unimportant in the outcome of WWII. Rather, Hastings states, careful analysis of open-source material proved far more useful than secrets uncovered by daring Allied and Axis spies.

 

 

 

 

 

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