[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – Operations of the Japanese First Air Fleet, 7 December 1941-12 March 1942
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – American Carrier Operations, 7 December 1941-18 April 1942
Micronesia, Melanesia and New Guinea: Japanese Centrifugal Offensive-Japanese Fourth Fleet and South Seas Detachment Operations, December 1941-April 1942
Luzon, P.I., 1941: Centrifugal Offensive, 10 December 1941-6 May 1942-Fourteenth Army Operations on Luzon
Netherlands East Indies, 1941: Japanese Centrifugal Offensive, December 1941-April 1942, Sixteenth Army and Southern Force (Navy) Operations
Southern Asia, 1941: Japanese Centrifugal Offensive (and Continued Operations), January-May 1942
Eastern Europe, 1941: Soviet Winter Offensive – Operations, 6 December 1941-7 May 1942
North Africa, 1940: Rommel’s Second Offensive, 21 January-7 July 1942

[GeronL]

Senators abgrily debate pension cut?

Senator Byrd is mentioned.... I know he was old but... wow

heh

[Oratam]

Bicycles spotted on Bukit Timah Road?

[CougarGA7]

• John K McCarthy, a coast watcher sets up a base camp at Pondo on New Britain. He has been asked to try and gather as many of the remaining Australian troops on the island as possible with the hopes of evacuating them.

[BroJoeK]

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February 14, 1942:

"Vidkun Quisling

"Vidkun Quisling, founder of the antisemitic political party Nasjonal Samling (NS, or National Unity), welcomed Germany's occupation of his own country on April 9, 1940.
That evening his broadcast proclaimed a new Norwegian government.
Quisling would be its prime minister.

"This coup met Norwegian resistance, and did not entirely satisfy the Germans, who sidelined Quisling in favor of Josef Terboven, the German administrator who would govern Norway brutally throughout the war.
Meanwhile, Quisling's persistence served some German interests; for example, he recruited Norwegian troops for the German military.
On February 1, 1942, Terboven permitted Quisling to become Ministerpresident of a "national government."
Quisling supported the subsequent deportation of Norwegian Jews to Auschwitz.

"A Norwegian firing squad executed Quisling on October 24, 1945.
His legacy is that his name has become a standard noun: A "quisling" is a traitor."

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[fso301]

That's an interesting p5 article interviewing Col. Miller in Bataan. Miller turned out to be an outspoken critic of MacArthur and we've discussed his 1949 book "Bataan Uncensored" on a number of these threads.

[InMemoriam]

SINGAPORE: The city is surrounded by the Japanese 18th Division in the west, the 5th Division in the northwest and the Guards Division to the north and northeast. The Japanese burst into Alexandra Military Hospital and bayonet a number of the staff and patients, including one patient lying on the operating table. They then herd 150 into a bungalow and execute them tomorrow. (Jack McKillop)

Yes, and one of the few humane generals in the Japanese army, Yamashita, then has the officers responsible executed, and personally apologizes to the survivors. One of the rare punishments of an atrocity by a Japanese general. Ironically, he is later hung as a war criminal after failing to exercise adequate control over troops during our invasion of the Philippines, which he was sent to the Philippines to defend against with only a few days warning. Even though all of the atrocities were against his explicit orders.

Tomorrow, he will accept the surrender of Singapore, banging on the table and shouting demands at Percival to disguise the fact that the Japanese are out of food, most ammunition, and outnumbered many to one.

Check out his last words sometime; we could have used him in the postwar period. There are multiple statements; one in his cell, to the Japanese people, and two versions of a last statement on the gallows. He had been humbled by what he learned at his trial. A Japanese Rommel.