The Second Millenium

[Vince53]

1936 has just arrived!


About a month after sending a death threat to J. Edgar hoover, Public Enemy #1 Alvin “Creepy” Karpis was on his way to a robbery. He entered his car, looked over his left shoulder to check traffic, and saw Hoover pointing a tommy gun at him. And thus ended the great era of American gangsters.

"The Phantom," the first costumed super-hero with a mask, appears in newspaper comics.

The WW1 peace treaty had forbidden Germany to keep troops in western Germany. But with France in a bad economic and political situation, Hitler occupies "The Rhineland" (which was actually part of Germany). With the military odds overwhelmingly in their favor, the French still back down. With his western border secure, Hitler is now free to begin conquering eastern Europe.

The last major democratic leader in the Japanese government is replaced.

Palestinian Arabs begin a major three year revolt against British rule and Jewish settlement. Massive British forces eventually win.

Thousands of North Americans die in their worst heat wave in history. In an unrelated event, an estimated 5 million Chinese die in a famine.

Germany builds the first successful helicopter. A later, improved model will see slight service in WW2 as a cargo carrier.

The Spanish Civil War begins. It will eventually become a testing ground for the weapons of WW2, as the Communists and Nazis each take sides.

The 1936 Olympics begin in Berlin. The parading nations all tip their flags to Hitler, until the United States comes out. The Americans raise their flag instead. Things get worse, when Jesse Owens, an American Negro, becomes the star athlete of the Olympics.

England's King Edward VIII resigns to marry a divorced American woman. His stuttering brother King George VI will become a minor but successful WW2 leader.

Two years after leading Billy Graham to Christ, Mordecai Ham begins his successful radio ministry. Continuing as a successful evangelist, he wins large numbers of converts in the southern US. His extreme right-wing politics alienate him from some Christians (including Graham), but he remains popular and successful. He later loses credibility when he falsely accuses the Jewish leader of Sear Roebuck of operating an inter-racial prostitution ring.

 

[Vince53]

1937 is a very bad year. And then it gets worse.

After Ethiopians fail to assassinate their Italian governor, Italian troops carry out a three-day massacre in Addis Ababa, killing up to 30 thousand civilians. 297 monks in a nearby monastery are massacred by the governor, who thought that they were involved.

Japanese troops swarm across a railway bridge connecting China and Manchuria, launching a full-scale invasion of China. Asian history books record this as the beginning of World War 2. The Japanese quickly capture Beijing and Shanghai.

The hydrogen-filled airship Hindenburg catches fire as it connects to a tower in New Jersey after flying across the Atlantic. Broadcast live by radio and filmed by five news companies, the two are combined to make the most famous radio and newsreel broadcast in history.

Joseph Stalin executes 31 Communists accused of trying to overthrow him. He then begins a year-long massacre that will kill about 724,000 Russians. On the other hand, productivity is four times higher than in 1928.

The first issue of Detective Comics features the evil villain Ching Lung. Later, it will introduce Batman. Still in print, Detective Comics is the longest-running comic book in history.

The Catholic Church condemns the Nazi doctrines on racism.

Germany begins producing the Volkswagen, building a city to house the employees. No, Hitler did not invent it.

Amelia Earhart disappears while flying over the Pacific. Despite several theories, the most likely explanation is engine failure.

The US appoints the first Black federal judge.

The Dominican Republic massacres thousands of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. (The two nations share the same island).

The Rape of Nanking. Capturing Nanking, the Japanese massacre about 300,000 Chinese over the next three months.

 

[Vince53]

1938


Japan invades Russia and is quickly defeated. The victorious Soviets then execute their own commander.

Instead of paying attention, two American high school boys spend their school time writing comic strips. They take an idea to a publisher, and Superman quickly rockets into a legend. It is fortunate that he is "able to leap tall buildings at a single bound;" he won't be able to fly for another few decades.

On January 25, an aurora borealis appears that is so bright that it is visible in most of Europe.

Germany's War minister is forced to resign when it is learned that his new wife used to pose for pornographic pictures. Hitler then takes personal command of the military. He quickly invades Austria, which surrenders without a fight.

In Britain, the ballpoint pen is invented.

Still a point of Black American pride, Joe Louis knocks out Max Schmeling,"The Nazi Superman," in the first round. Refusing to fire his Jewish manger, Schmeling was drafted into the paratroopers in WW2 and was discharged after being wounded. He risked his life to protect two Jewish children and became reconciled to Joe Lewis after the war.

A 450 ton meteor explodes twelve miles above the eastern US, injuring a cow.

After being refused permission to fly to Ireland, Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan becomes a legend. He files a phony flight plan from New York to California, flies to Ireland, and insists for the rest of his life that he did it by mistake.

Declaring that he has secured "Peace for our time," British Prime Minister Neville chamberlain becomes a legend of disgrace when he agrees to break Britain's defense treaty with Czechoslovakia. Without Britain, France and Russia also break their defense treaties, and Germany occupies western Czechoslovakia without a fight.

Revoking Jewish passports, Germany expels 12,000 Polish Jews. Poland takes 4,000, leaving 8,000 living on the Polish-German border.

It's exaggerated, but the radio broadcast "War of the Worlds," describing a Martian invasion of Earth, does cause mild panic in the US. (I've heard the broadcast, and it is very realistic).

November 9--In Germany, the "night of broken glass" begins as Nazi activists and sympathizers loot and burn Jewish businesses (the all night affair sees 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned, 91 Jews killed, and at least 25,000 Jewish men arrested).

December 17--The Atomic Age begins with the discovery of how nuclear fission works.

It's a major defeat for evolutionists when a live coelacanth is caught. Teaching that the coelacanth, had walked out of the water onto land to begin life on land, evolutionists had explained that the fish had become extinct millions of years ago. Underwater studies of live coelacanths show that they cannot walk on their fins.

 

[Vince53]

1939

“Holy Crimefighters, Batman!” The first Batman comic appears.

Pius XII begins his 19 year reign as Pope. Previously a successful high-level Church diplomat, he had opposed Nazism and the persecution of Jews and other minorities. However, he successfully signed treaties with the Nazis that protected German Catholics during WW2. During the war, he actively supported aid to war-torn areas, actively spoke against genocide, and continued to lobby (unsuccessfully) for peace. Accusations that he didn’t speak out enough against persecution of Jews are partly true, but it was for political and safety reasons—he was an outspoken critic of genocide.

A vehement foe of Communism, he was unable to stop persecution of Catholics in the sections of Europe conquered by the Soviet Union.

In 1950, he declared infallibly that Mary had risen from the dead and ascended to Heaven immediately after her death.

The process of making him a saint has stalled more than once due to Jewish opposition, although the Catholic Church has given him various posthumous spiritual honors.

Japan invades the Soviet Union again, this time with a much bigger army than last year—and suffers a much bigger defeat. It is history’s first battle in which both sides made major use of aircraft.

An earthquake in Chile kills about 30,000 people.

France repeals all of its defense treaties with eastern Europe, accepting that the Nazis will probably conquer it.

After threatening to attack Czechoslovakia with a massive bomber force, Hitler forces Czechoslovakia to surrender without a fight.

The Fascists win the Spanish Civil War, remaining in power until 1975. Devastated by the war, Spain stays neutral in WW2.

 

[Vince53]

We return to 1939 for more bad news...

Germany seizes Memelland from Lithuania. A small German territory that Lithuania had seized after WW1, the Soviet Union seized it after WW2. It is part of Lithuania today.

Marian Anderson sings before 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial, after being denied other sites because she is Black.

A 5 1/2 year old Peruvian girl gives birth to a healthy baby boy. The boy died in 1979, and the mother is still alive. The father is not known.

"The Wizard of Oz" hits the theaters. Not too successful, it became an annual television classic in the 1960's before fading away.

A private German firm invents the first practical jet fighter. Its wooden wings force it to fly no faster than 372 mph.

September 1--Germany invades Poland by land, sea, and air. European nations, along with the US, scramble to declare themselves neutral.

September 3--France and Britain declare war on Germany. Regardless of when it actually began, it is now a world war. The next day, the Royal Air Force bombs a German port.

September 17--the Soviet union invades Poland.

October 6--after a magnificent defense that remains a legend of courage to this day, an overwhelmed Poland is forced to surrender.

October 8--the Holocaust begins with the first Jewish concentration camp formed in Poland.

Still a legend of courage, a German U-boat enters a major British naval base in Scotland and sinks a battleship. The U-boat then escapes.

Germany arrests all Polish university professors. Even Mussolini objects. The Nazis then close all Czechoslovakian universities, sending 1200 students to concentration camps.

The Soviet Union invades Finland.

In the US, "Gone With the Wind" is shown in theaters. It is still the highest-grossing film in history.

An earthquake in Turkey kills 30,000 people.

 

[Vince53]

The Genius Who Failed Benito Mussolini

Starting out as a successful Communist who organized many of Europe's post WW1 problems, Mussolini eventually founded the Fascist movement. With Italy in economic and political chaos, the Italians were faced with food shortages and poverty, worsened by Communist sabotage of successful enterprises that would have helped the nation.

Seizing the government and eventually eliminating democracy, Mussolini turned useless swamps into valuable farmland (still in use today). He encouraged women to donate their wedding rings and used the money to finance economic growth that provided jobs and food. Generally leaving Jews alone, he ruthlessly slaughtered his opponents. A devout Atheist, he publicly condemned Catholicism without resorting to persecution. He solved Italy's Communist problem by killing them. His improved infrastructure made Italy a popular tourists' destination, bringing in badly-needed foreign currency.

Believing that military force would give Italy the power to negotiate better treaties, he built up a well-trained but obsolete military. His wooden air force was a joke until he drove a British fleet out of the eastern Mediterranean and seized Ethiopia. His collection of obsolete vessels were well-trained and sank large numbers of Allied ships during WW2.

But pride was "The Leader's" downfall. Hitler failed to convince him to use his military to turn the Mediterranean into an Italian lake while using the Italian peninsula to guard Germany's southern flank. Instead, Mussolini plunged Italy into wars it couldn't afford. Dependent on Germany for fuel that the Germans couldn't spare, Italy got bogged down in unsuccessful invasions with poor equipment, producing a heavy death toll, military defeats, and a lack of men to work the farms.

Short of resources themselves, the Germans had to keep propping up the Fascists, who were eventually overthrown by the Italians. Rescuing Mussolini and putting him over a puppet government, the Germans couldn't keep the Italians from surrendering to the Allies, mounting a successful partisan war against their German occupiers, helping the invading Allies, and finally killing Mussolini.

And you know what? It worked! Italy is one of the most prosperous nations in the world today. Mussolini established a national loyalty that made democracy (which he opposed) possible. His increased farmlands, improved infrastructure, efficient operation of the railroads (he shot supervisors for running their trains late), and reduction of the Communist menace made post WW2 Italy a haven for foreign investors and a safe place to build factories.

 

[Vince53]

1940


Launching an unprovoked invasion of Greece, Italy formally enters World War 2.

The Japanese Air Force begins bombing Chinese cities with fleas carrying the Black Plague.

Russia invades Finland, suffering massive losses to "The White Death," an elite Finnish fighting force. Two months later, the USSR executes 14,700 Polish POWs and 10,000 Polish intellectuals.

Walt Disney releases Pinocchio. Although a successful classic, the cartoon was a failed attempt to replace live actors with cartoons. This would give Disney's advanced cartoon studios an advantage. In the film, even the shadows are pinpoint accurate, and all details are clear. But live films continue to this day.

Carob-14 dating is discovered. Proven accurate, but only under perfect conditions, Carbon -14 shows that all dinosaur skeletons are less than 10,000 years old.

It's an insult to middle-aged bald-headed White men! That's right, I'm talking about Elmer Fudd, who makes his debut this year.Elmer is peacefully taking photographs, and a scwewy wabbit keeps causing pwoblems.

The famous educator Booker T. Washington, becomes the first Black to appear on a US postage stamp.

Germany invades Norway and Denmark. The world is shocked when the "Blitzkrieg" ("Lightning War") defeats Denmark in six hours. Germany then invades France, crashing through a sixty-mile breach in France's defenses.Germany simultaneously invades the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

Winston Churchill becomes Britain's Prime minister, after Neville Chamberlain resigns in disgrace.

A gigantic British army is trapped after Belgium surrenders. They flee to the northeastern tip of France, where "Dunkirk" becomes a legend of hope in the greatest rescue in history.

WW1 hero, Field Marshal Petain, becomes Prime minister of France, and immediately surrenders.

 

[Vince53]

We return to 1940, when Winston Churchill made several great speeches.

"...we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender..."

The Battle of Britain becomes a legend of civilian and military courage. Withstanding tremendous German bombardments, the British refuse to break. After losing 1,887 aircraft and killing 40,000 civilians, Germany has to quit after three months. The determined British population continues to support the war..."This was their finest hour." Having lost 1,547 aircraft, a battered Royal Air Force continues to fight. "Never in the field of human conflict, was so much owed, by so many, to so few."

Britain's Hawker Hurricanes had carried much of the burden, but the newly manufactured Spitfires now gave the British the best fighter plane in the world.

""We shall seek no terms. We shall tolerate no parley."

The Soviet Union invades and conquers the three tiny Baltic states.

British scientists invent the medicinal use of penicillin.

The US trades 50 over-age destroyers to Britain for military bases in the Caribbean. This frees Britain from having to patrol these areas. President Roosevelt secretly orders the destroyers to be stocked with food, coats, and raincoats for the British.

Having received large amounts of Romanian territory, Hungary massacres hundreds of Romanian civilians in those areas.

The US bans all scrap metal shipments to Japan. The next day, Japan officially allies with Germany and Italy. The US then re-instates the draft.

 

[Vince53]

For the last time, we return to 1940.

Stone Age paintings are discovered in caves in southern France.

It lives on as an act of genius. The Italians had a powerfully defended naval base at Taranto. A single wooden torpedo bomber drops a flare on the base's gigantic fuel tank. A second bomber then hits the fuel tank, illuminating everything on the ground but making it hard for the anti-aircraft gunners to see the British air fleet that has just arrived. The slow-moving wooden torpedo bombers devastate the Italian fleet, and the tide of war in the Mediterranean turns in favor of the British.

During the attack, the Italians did nothing wrong. They were careful and vigilant, yet their modern fleet was battered in a surprise air attack by obsolete carrier-launched planes. And, studying the reports, the Japanese wondered: "What would happen if modern carrier-based planes attacked a poorly-guarded, poorly-organized base?"

In the US, Abbot and Costello make their first film appearance. Woody Woodpecker makes his first cartoon, and Captain America first appears in the comics.

They don't want to, but Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia are forced to join the Axis.

Jewish terrorists sink a refugee ship, killing 200 Jews and 50 crew members. Why? The ship was deporting French Jewish refugees from Palestine. The bomb blew a hole in the side and might not have been intended to sink the ship.

What was the greatest airplane of WW2? Some people feel that Britain's wooden Mosquito, a light, fast fighter bomber that excelled everywhere it went is the winner. The Mosquito appears this year.

The British do it again! You can't operate your vehicles in a sandstorm, because they keep breaking down. So the British have been practicing during sandstorms. And now, they launch a massive attack on Italians on the Egyptian border during a sandstorm. Eventually, the British will crash their way halfway across northern Africa.

Quietly working on the atom bomb, the US synthesizes Plutonium in a laboratory.

Pennsylvania opens the first modern US turnpike, and California opens the first US freeway.

 

[Vince53]

Welcome to 1941! (Actually, you probably won't like it here).


Victorious Ethiopian forces capture Addis Ababba, liberating Ethiopia from Italy. Emperor Haile Selassie then returns in triumph.

Japan and Russia sign a peace treaty, agreeing to stay out of each other’s wars. The two will continue trading up to the end of World War 2, despite being on opposite sides. Why? Japan does not want the Nazi empire to reach the Pacific—they want the warring Nazis and Communists to tie up each other’s forces and leave Japan alone while it conquers the Pacific.

Germany executes over 10,000 Germans with mental or physical disabilities.

Germany was the only nation left that used"Blackletter," an obsolete font that ran the letters together to save space, making reading more difficult. The Nazis order the nation to switch to Antiqua, which looks like handwriting and is easier to read.

The US enacts the Lend-Lease Act, in which vast amounts of American food and military equipment is lent to the Allies in return for lending military bases to the US.

The US declares that from now on, everyone born in Puerto Rico is a US citizen.

Two American scientists invent the first true computer. Capable of solving linear equations (i.e. x + 3=y + 5) and nothing else, it is later dismantled and thrown into a dumpster.

Protesting mistreatment of Jews, the defeated Dutch stage a major nation-wide strike. Crushed the next day by Dutch police and the German army, the failed strike is the first organized anti-Nazi revolt in occupied Europe.

Yugoslavia joins the Axis, but the military immediately overthrows the government. But the poorly-equipped military cannot withstand the rapid invasion of Germany's elite SS, and Yugoslavia falls. Using Yugoslavia and Romania's highways, the Germans then barrel into Greece, which had been successfully resisting the Italians.

A German scientist invents the first programmable computer, used to study wing problems on aircraft. Two years later, it is destroyed in a bombing attack.

The German superbattleship Bismark sinks the Hood, the most powerful ship in the British Navy. In a massive ocean hunt, the Royal Navy finds and sinks the Bismark. During the battle, the Polish destroyer Thunderbolt disobeys British orders and fights a 56 minute broadside with the Bismark, hitting seven times (they were two miles apart) before the two ships lose each other in the dark.

The Soviet Union deports 65,000 people from the conquered Baltic States to Siberia.

The US seizes all German and Italian ships in US ports, freezes all German and Italian assets in US banks, and expels the embassies of both nations.

Frustrated at his inability to conquer Britain, Hitler suddenly invades his Soviet ally. Why? Hitler correctly understood that socialism is based on theft. The USSR was growing steadily stronger and would inevitably attack Germany. Hitler needed Ukraine's massive farmlands, which could send food to Germany over land routes. Formerly regarded as Hitler's greatest military mistake, it was actually a calculated risk that didn't work because Hitler bungled it.

Meanwhile, the Russians begins a scorched earth policy, literally destroying everything as they retreat before the rapidly-advancing Germans.

 

[Vince53]

We return to 1941 (I wish we didn't have to).

The US Army invents the jeep. Often used by officers as a car, it's actually the world's smallest truck. Jeeps will play a major military role by pulling supply trailers and cannon into combat. And the US begins building the Pentagon.

Germany's elite SS begins executing Soviet POWs with poison gas. The SS will eventually use this gas to kill 1.2 million people. (Readers, this is what socialists do when they get into power). Germany also executes almost 34,000 Ukrainian Jews, and 2,000 Serbian men. In the northwest USSR, Germans execute 9,000 Jews in one day.

On the outskirts of Moscow, Germans are hit with one of the coldest winters in history.

And frustrated by the lack of oil needed for their stalled war in China, Japan makes one of the greatest errors in the history of the human race...

 

[Vince53]

"Never will we forget the character of this onslaught against us."

After a one-hour delay due to weather, 200 Japanese bombers and 50 fighters launched in the darkness north of Hawaii. Fooled by phoney Japanese peace talks, an incredibly negligent US Navy was caught by surprise. Even the incredulous Japanese couldn't believe that they flew over the Hawaiian Islands for over an hour without being reported.

The first fighters went straight to the airfields, destroying Pearl Harbor's closely-packed aircraft on the ground. A specially-designed bomb went through a thin spot in the battleship Arizona, exploding in the ammo section and destroying the ship.A few survivors reached the Nevada and manned anti-aircraft guns.

An inept and unprepared leadership fought back, but it was the courage of the enlisted men that became a legend. A group of self-organized Marines shot down a fighter with rifles. On the ships, sailors fired back with hastily-issued rifles. Dorie Miller, a Black cook, became a legend when he manned an anti-aircraft gun, shooting down a fighter and a dive bomber, saving his ship. Seizing a training gun, two enlisted men damaged several Japanese planes attacking an airfield.

Losing only 22 planes after crippling half of America's Pacific fleet, the victorious Japanese could have won WW2 if they had returned for a second attack. Pearl Harbor's gigantic fuel storage tanks and extensive repair facilities were valuable targets. But with over half his surviving planes damaged, and with the location of US submarines unknown, the admiral decided that the risk was too great.The American enlisted men were too much for them.

My father, who manned his post after his ship was hit, was one of those enlisted men.

 

[Vince53]

December 7, 1941 The Day of Infamy

An ungoing urban legend reports that the US knew in advance that the Japanese were going to bomb Pearl Harbor--a legend that no one with a college degree in history believes.

Yes, the US knew that the Japanese were going to make a major move, but intelligence experts predicted (and prepared for) an attack off the coast of Asia. Individual aircraft carriers were attached to a fleet for reconnaissance and protection--the idea of combining four carriers into a "carrier fleet" to launch a major attack was unthinkable.

A mixed batch of intelligence agencies kept their information secret from each other in order to prevent leaks. Separate pieces of information, therefore, could not be combined to get "the big picture."

But most of all, it is the effect of Pearl Harbor that convinces some people that there was a conspiracy. The Japanese victory at Pearl Harbor was the turning point of WW2--but the Japanese still lost the war. Usually, the winner of the turning point goes on to win the war. But by forcing a slumbering US into a war that it didn't want, Japan sealed the doom of the Axis. An enraged American people demanded revenge, the peace movement virtually disappeared, and "the great arsenal of democracy" switched to a war footing.

 

[Vince53]

1942 is a very grim year.

Most Americans are surprised to learn that a British fleet had to be stationed off New York City, and a combined US-Canadian fleet had to be stationed off Boston Harbor. But having lost half its Pacific fleet, the US couldn't defend the convoys that were now open targets for German U-boats. Americans are also surprised to learn that Britain and Russia put far more into winning WW2 than the US did. In addition, many smaller nations, especially Canada, put a higher percentage of their resources into winning the war.

Germany begins sinking Mexican oil transport ships in Mexican waters, and Mexico declares war. Almost half a million Mexicans will enlist in America’s armed forces, and the Aztec Eagles will fly fighter planes in the Philippines. With British and American help, Mexico modernizes much of its industry, producing needed products to sell to the US.

Germany sinks five Brazilian ships in two days. A month later, Brazil declares war. Brazil will sink twelve submarines, help escort over 300 convoys, and fight with distinction in the invasion of Italy.

The US invents the first mass-produced helicopter.

C.S.Lewis's great Christian classic, "The Screwtape Letters," is published. Uncle Screwtape, a senior devil, writes advice to his nephew Wormwood on how to destroy a newly-born-again Christian. Download free at http://www.truechristianity.info/en/the_screwtape_letters_download.php

After a Japanese submarine shells California, the US illegally arrests Japanese-American citizens and confiscates much of their property.

Britain's chief naval base in the Pacific, Singapore, falls to the Japanese.

The Philippines fall to Japan, but US General Douglas MacArthur is rescued and placed in command of America's Pacific forces. About 700 American and Filipino POWs die on the Bataan Death March when they are forced to walk 60 miles with little food and water. Survivors reported that some Japanese soldiers helped weakened prisoners while others murdered them.

Profiles in Courage--the entire nation of Malta is awarded for heroism for withstanding a tremendous German siege. And to the horror of the Japanese, carrier-launched US aircraft bomb Tokyo, causing the Japanese to pull badly-needed forces back to protect the home islands.

 

[Vince53]

We return to 1942.

No, it's not a joke: Britain designs an aircraft cattier made of ice. To be stationed in the north Atlantic where Allied aircraft can't protect convoys, the carrier will have a forty-foot thick hull and refrigerator units to keep from melting. After two years of study, however, the project is abandoned.

The Holocaust is in full progress, with most concentration camps located in Poland.

A botched radio message sends an American air fleet on the wrong mission--and they catch the Japanese fleet by surprise at the Battle of the Coral Sea. Australia is saved, and their history books teach that it is the turning point of WW2.

Our God was better--in an incredible series of incredible co-incidences, the US catches the far-superior Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway, sinking all four carriers. Nobody gets that lucky--it was God. The two sides are now equal, but the superior industrial might of the US spells doom for the Japanese. The victorious US quickly next Guadalcanal, taking the offensive in the Pacific.

Later hidden by Christian friends, Ann Frank receives a new diary on her thirteenth birthday and begins making entries. "The Diary of Ann Frank," who later dies in a concentration camp, becomes a classic.

German scientists successfully launch the first workable jet fighter. Later in the year, they launch the first rocket into space.

A hurricane and flood kill 40,000 people in Bombay, India.

"Here he comes, that mouse of mice!" Mighty Mouse appears in his first cartoon.

Using mostly Negro soldiers as laborers, the US completes the Alaska Highway. The Japanese had actually invaded Alaska, capturing two sparsely-populated islands, and the US feared an invasion of Alaska. After the war, it turned out that both nations spent far more military resources on Alaska than it was worth--sudden, massive windstorms made Alaska unsuitable for large air bases.

Victorious British forces turn the tide in north Africa. Soon, American forces join them there.

American scientists perform the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction.

 

[Vince53]

It's our last visit to 1942.

Dr. Janusz Korczak was a Polish Jew who was a children's author and director of a Jewish orphanage in Warsaw. When the entire orphanage is rounded up for a concentration camp he refuses to leave. None of them are ever head from again.

British sailors board a sinking U-boat and capture its valuable decoding machine and code books.

DDT becomes a popular crop pesticide. It rapidly cuts down on diseases such as malaria. Decades later, its long-term use is found to be dangerous, and most developed nations have abandoned it for other pesticides.

When did Hitler become insane? His invasion of Russia was not an act of madness--the Germans sliced rapidly through Soviet defenses, capturing thousands of tanks and guns, seizing vast areas of farmland, and taking over one million prisoners. Stalingrad, a major manufacturing city is literally destroyed (after the war, 2% of the buildings were reparable) but the German advance is now stalled. Faced with a bitterly cold winter, German generals want to fall back forty miles to a well-maintained rail line and wait for spring. Hitler refuses, and a vast German army, wearing summer uniforms, with their equipment often unable to start in the cold, is left in the ruins.

 

[Vince53]

1943

Suffering miserably from the war, which they are now losing, Italy arrests Mussolini. In one of the greatest commando raids in history, Germany rescues Mussolini from the Italians. He is then established as ruler of the Nazi puppet state in northern Italy. But the Allies invade and seize Sicily, and the Italians realize that they are only cannon fodder for the failed Nazi Empire; Italy then surrenders and is immediately occupied by Germany.

Germany executes Polish resistance hero Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz. Born in Poland, his parents divorced and his mother married a Greek. He fought successfully in the resistance for both nations, committing enough sabotage to destroy forty German aircraft and two U-boats.

The Pentagon building is completed.

Gigantic Soviet armies surround the freezing, starving Germans around Stalingrad.Having gone insane at some point, Hitler had promoted the German commander to Field Marshal, because no German Field Marshal had ever surrendered.The Field Marshal surrenders his huge army, and the victorious Soviets now take the offensive.

Germany increases its executions of Russians, Ukrainians, Jews and others as it faces defeats on various fronts.

Four US Army chaplains drown after giving their life jackets to others on a torpedoed ship.

A tiny volcano appears in a Mexican cornfield. Defying scientific explanation, Paricutan becomes one of the most dangerous volcanoes on Earth as it rapidly rises, goes dead for decades, and then revives. Although tourists enjoy climbing to the top, it occasionally causes earthquakes and tremors.

Britain completes the Colossus, a successful code-breaking computer. Continually improved with 11 new versions, all of them and their plans were destroyed after the War for security reasons.

 

[Vince53]

We're back in 1943-a very bad year for the Axis.

Despite taking far heavier losses, the USSR wins the greatest tank battle in history. Germany is now being driven back across the entire Russian front.

The Allies invade Sicily; bomb Rome; and virtually destroy Hamburg, Germany in a massive bomber attack. The Allies then invade the Italian mainland, causing the collapse of the Fascist government. In Naples, the population joins the Italian Resistance in driving the German occupiers out of the city. And as Allied forces approach Rome, the Italian Air force drops four bombs on Vatican City, trying to destroy its radio station.

The US launches a massive and unsuccessful attack on Romanian oil refineries.

PT 109, commanded by John F. Kennedy, is rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, The injured Kennedy leads his crew to an island and they are eventually rescued.

Germany beheads three Catholic priests and a Lutheran minister for preaching anti-Nazi sermons.

Lebanon becomes independent of France.

Britain begins bombing Berlin.

Germany begins massacring all concentration camp residents and then destroying the camps to get rid of the evidence.

 

[Vince53]

And now it's 1944!


Mexico agrees to pay US oil companies for property it had appropriated six years earlier.

An earthquake in Argentina kills about 10,000 people.

Britain drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin in a single day.

Sweden legalizes homosexuality.

In Italy, Mount Vesuvius erupts for the last time (so far). Still active, it is the most dangerous volcano in the world because 3 million people live in the vicinity.

"A mind is a terrible thing to waste." The United Negro College Fund begins. a 2005 survey found that it helps support about 65,000 Black American college students.

As the Soviets approach, Germany begins a large-scale extermination of Jews in Hungary and Albania.

As deported Poles are liberated by the advancing Russians, Britain and the US agree to train "The Army of Poland." Advancing through Italy with the Allies, the Poles become legends of courage and ferocity in battle.

For the first time, helium-filled blimps cross the Atlantic, as the US Navy sends six Goodyear blimps to the Mediterranean for submarine patrols. Although armed with a machine gun and four depth charges, the only blimp to ever see combat was sunk by a U-boat off the Florida coast.

The US sinks six Japanese submarines in two weeks, a record that has never been matched. How? Britain had invented a submarine detector designed for the smaller, nimbler German U-boats. When applied to the larger, less-maneuverable Japanese subs, the Japanese were easier to detect.

And the US Navy captures a U-boat, still on display at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.

 

[Vince53]

We return to 1944--

June 6--D-Day--In the greatest amphibious invasion in history (until Okinawa), 155,000 Allied soldiers land in northern France. Under a heavy land and air bombardment, the Allies advance off the beaches and through Germany's "Atlantic Wall."

Iceland declares itself independent of Denmark. It will go on to become one of the wealthiest nations in the world.

Germany suffers its greatest military defeat as Russia wins a massive battle that extends across much of eastern Europe. When it is over, Soviet troops are in east Poland and are on their way to Berlin. But a massive Soviet attack on Finland fails, and Finland survives as an independent nation.

The US Army arrests and court-martials Lieutenant Jackie Robinson for refusing to move to the back of a segregated army bus. Jackson is later acquitted and goes on to become a baseball superstar.

25,700 Brazilian troops land in Italy, where they fight with distinction.

A German "Storm Bird" becomes the first jet to shoot down a plane. Eventually, Storm Birds will shoot down 542 Allied aircraft. Hopelessly outclassed by the heavily-armed jet, the Allies destroy many of them on the ground. Canadians are the first pilots to shoot down a jet.

Heavily-equipped and sometimes trained by the Russians, the Polish Resistance begins the Warsaw Uprising. Timed to take place just before Russia invades Warsaw, the Resistance is betrayed--they fight for 63 days, and after they are annihilated, the Russians enter Warsaw.

No, he is not a fictional character--Smokey the Bear survives a forest fire and goes on to become the beloved mascot of the National Forest Service.

During the year, tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers drown as American submarines sink troop transport ships.