[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
Tunisia, 1942: Final Allied Offensive – 22 April Attack, 3 May Attack, and Exploitation
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941: Status of Forces and Allied Theater Boundaries, 2 July 1942
India-Burma, 1942: Allied Lines of Communication, 1942-1943

[BroJoeK]

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April 25, 1943:

• April 22: "The Jews of Amersfoort, Holland, are deported.

• April 25: "As fires set by Germans consume the Warsaw Ghetto, a German Jew named Hoch desperately leaps from a fourth-floor window, breaking both arms and his spine; See Late April 1943

• Late April: "Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto begins to falter as bunkers are broached by German troops.
  Artillery bombardment of the ghetto has foiled Jewish strategy of engaging Germans in costly hand-to-hand combat; See May 1943."

The Katyn Massacre

"In April 1943 members of the German Army discovered a mass grave in a heavily forested area just outside of Katyn, a remote Soviet village. An international commission of physicians identified the bodies -- 4,143 discovered, but thousands more believed to be killed -- as Polish officers and soldiers.
According to the report issued by the German government, the men were captured by the Soviets during the 1939 Polish campaign; each was killed with a single shot to the nape of the neck just prior to the German invasion of Russia.

"When the Polish government-in-exile in London concurred with the report, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin broke off relations with the civilian regime and claimed that the Germans had committed the murders.
The Allies upheld Stalin's claim until 1952, when a United States congressional inquiry concluded that the Soviet secret police were responsible.
In April 1990 the Soviet Union acknowledged its responsibility for the Katyn Massacre."

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[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the extra credit, Homer. With grades like mine, you need everything you can get.

I have one more comment on today's stories, however. In the war news quiz is the question who are the Gurkhas? The Times' answer is they are natives of India. That is wrong and the reason it is wrong has to do with why Gurkhas are not from India.

In the 19th Century the British invaded Nepal, seeking to add it to British India. It is one of the few colonial wars they lost (our own Revolution being the worst defeat, of course). But the Brits were so impressed by Nepal's Gurkha soldiers that they sought to recruit them into their army. Gurkhas have served ever since and served with distinction in WWII. At Indian independence the British and Indian armies split the Gurkha regiments. Still with the Brits, the Gurkhas scared the hell out of the Argies in the Falklands war.