[Homer_J_Simpson]

If you would like to be added to or deleted from the Real Time +/- 70 Years ping list, send me a freepmail. The frequency of the posts will increase slightly in September 1938 due to the events of that month – a key period for the twentieth century.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

This may be my longest single post yet. I decided to cram many items into one post. There is some good stuff in here, if I do say so myself. For you Mil-heads I especially recommend the image of an artists impression of the interior of the Maginot Line. Note the theatre where, presumably, the French soldiers can watch movies in air conditioned comfort as their gray-clad foes are outside marching in the hot sun. Here is a table of contents:

From the Sunday magizine, "News of the Week in Review"

Hitler Fails to Crack Morale of Opponents
'Crust' of Gunpowder Guards France
Mussolini Uneasy over Czech Crisis
World Watches Nazis' Rally
Japanese Drive Bogs Down in China

From page 15 of the front section

More Immigration is Zionist Demand
4 short articles and a chart

Finally, cute puppies!

[Fiji Hill]

The total of such forces – exclusive of the Shansi formations of the Eighth Route Army – has been given as half a million men...

The Eighth Route Army was controlled by the Communist Party of China, headed by Mao Tse-tung.

[Fiji Hill]

The Tromp and the Sumatra, the two ships mentioued in the article on the Dutch naval review would go on to have notable careers. During World War II, the Tromp, which saw heavy combat, would be falsely reported as being sunk so many times, only to reappear, that it earned the nickname "Ghost Ship." The Sumatra was eventually scuttled on the coast of Normandy to create a breakwater for an artificial harbor set up to support the Normandy invasion of 1944.

[r9etb]

How hideously ironic.... The triumph of wishes over reality. Mr. Obama should take note.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

9/7/38 update

On September 5, President Benes, realizing that a decisive step on his part was necessary to save the peace, convoked the Sudeten leaders Kundt and Sebekovsky to Hradschin Palace and told them to write out their full demands. Whatever they were he would accept them. "My God," exclaimed the deputy Sudeten leader, Karl Hermann Frank, the next day, "they have given us everything." But that was the last thing the Sudeten politicians and their bosses in Berlin wanted. On September 7 Henlein, on instructions from Germany, broke off all negotiations with the Czech government. A shabby excuse about alleged Czech police excesses at Moravska-Ostrava was given.

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Pg. 383

The “police excesses at Moravska-Ostrava” (alt spelling Maehrisch-Ostrau) are extensively covered in tomorrow’s post.

[Silly]

That Hitler — what a stinker!