[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 and the occasional radio broadcast 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. Also visit our general discussion thread.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Okinawa, Ryukyus Islands, 1945: Japanese Thirty Second Army Defensive Dispositions, 1 April 1945
Luzon, P.I., 1941: Final Operations on Luzon, 3 February-20 July 1945
Southeast Asia, 1941: Final Allied Offensives in the Southwest Pacific Area 19 February-1 July 1945
China, 1941: Operation Ichigo, 1945 and Final Operations in the War
Southern Asia, 1941: Third Burma Campaign-Allied Victory, April-May 1945

[Tax-chick]

Good morning! Happy V-E Day!

I see on page 12 that we can’t expect a bigger meat ration any time soon ... but what about matches? Will we be able to get matches? I’ve been having a terrible time lighting my cigarettes with flint and steel!

[bert]

Hmmmm..... The ad pays tribute to a victorious soldier. The ad was purchased by New Departure, a General Motors Co.

As I recall, my first bicycle circa 1951 or so was made by New Departure. It was just a bicycle. It lacked the Knee action sophistication of the swanky Schwinns.

[freedumb2003]

This headline literally brought tears to my eyes — that and the “God Bless You” ad.

All gave some, some gave all.

I shudder to think what would have happened today - obozo and the liberals would be wringing their hands while Europe would be speaking German!

[IronJack]

And so it ends ... not just a war but an era. When will we ever again see an America so united and so able?

[chajin]

"Between 8 A.M. and noon, a record four-hour total of 1,163,470 calls was handled by the company."

I wonder how many phone calls are handled in NYC between those hours now; the common figure for all the US is 3,000,000,000 calls a day, which would be about 10 calls per person per day, and with about 8,000,000 people in NYC, that would be 80,000,000 calls, more or less.

[mowowie]

Thank you for the five year history lesson Homer, it’s been quite an informative ride.

[BroJoeK]

---

May 8, 1944:

• May 7: "Germany signs an unconditional surrender at U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters at Rheims, France.
  The fighting in Europe is to end at 11:01 p.m. on May 9; See May 8, 1945.

• "Breslau, Germany, is captured by Soviet troops after an 82-day siege.

• "Dutch Nazi leader and collaborator Anton Mussert is arrested.

• "Hungarian novelist Andor Endre Gelleri, age 38, dies at the Mauthausen, Austria, slave-labor camp two days after liberation.

• May 8: "V-E (Victory in Europe) Day: The Allies accept the unconditional surrender of Germany.

• "The Red Army liberates the concentration camp at Gross-Rosen, Germany.

• "Allies capture Hermann Göring."

"German Colonel General Alfred Jodl (center), Major General Wilhelm Oxenius (left), and Admiral Hans von Friedeburg sign the papers indicating that Germany has surrendered unconditionally.
Friedeburg would soon kill himself, and Jodl would be hanged after his conviction by the International Military Tribunal."

Germany Surrenders

"Germany's unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, marked an ignominious end to the Third Reich.
The regime had lasted a mere 12 years, not the one thousand that Hitler had promised.
Yet in those 12 years, more than 35 million people had lost their lives because of Nazi aggression.

"Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. Admiral Karl Dönitz, Hitler's designated successor, recognized that Germany's situation was hopeless.

Thus, on May 7, he sent Field Marshal Alfred Jodl and other senior generals to U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters to sign the terms of surrender.
Appalled at what he had seen in the concentration camps, Eisenhower refused to accord the enemy the honor of attending the ceremony in person, instead sending emissaries from the British, French, and Soviet armies.
A day later, the ceremony was repeated in Berlin, with Soviet General Georgi Zhukov accepting the surrender from German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel (pictured).
May 8, 1945, has gone down in history as "V-E Day"--Victory in Europe."

"On May 3, a few days after Hitler's suicide, the Czechs of Prague rose against their German overlords.
Wehrmacht troops inside the city threw back the civilian resisters for three days.
Then, on May 6, the collaborationist Russian National Liberation Army commanded by General Andrei Vlasov turned on its German comrades, assuring that the German forces could not hold the city.
German troops inside Prague began a retreat, and on May 9 the city was entered by Soviet forces.
Many Czechs were wounded and about 2,000 gave their lives during the uprising."

"On May 6, 1945, the U.S. Third Army liberated a camp at Ebensee in Austria.
These survivors had obviously suffered from months, if not years, of starvation rations.
One soldier remembered that 'the living that were walking around were so gaunt; their heads were shaven; they had sores on their bodies.
Some were walking about naked in a daze.
Others had blankets wrapped around them, held together by a belt, and their facial features were normal size but everything else was completely out of proportion.' "

"A German Reichsbank official and U.S. Third Army troops examine bags of European currency hidden deep within a salt mine.
This hiding place, one of many maintained by the Nazis, also yielded an estimated 100 tons of gold bullion and several art treasures.
Nazi policy sanctioned the looting of billions of dollars worth of gold and other goods from Jewish and Christian owners.
Most of the gold came from the national banks of occupied nations, but some derived from the gold teeth and personal possessions of exterminated victims of the Holocaust.
We now know that governments and national banks of some neutral nations, especially Switzerland, helped launder looted gold, aiding the German war effort."

"U.S. Seventh Army soldiers carry a few of the priceless paintings discovered in Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria.
This loot had been earmarked for an art gallery at Linz, Austria, where Hitler had spent much of his childhood.
The pieces were collected on the orders of Hermann Göring, Nazi Germany's leading art thief."

"The Nazis elevated looting to the level of a dark art form, appropriating virtually everything of value that fell within their grasp.
As the Reich crumbled early in 1945, the Allies discovered increasing numbers of Nazi caches of valuables.
Here, First Lieutenant James Rorimer of the U.S. Seventh Army examines a tray of stolen antique jewelry, gold snuff boxes, and other items uncovered at Bavaria's Neuschwanstein Castle."

"Walking on makeshift artificial legs, crippled Russian and Polish prisoners accompany an American armored car at Mauthausen.
These prisoners had escaped the executions of disabled prisoners that occurred in the last days of the camp.
Many were double amputees, with little hope of returning to the lives and jobs they had before the war."

---

[Squawk 8888]

Canada Ping!

[The KG9 Kid]

Happy VE Day!

[ex-snook]

42 May 8

FAST FORWARD TO AUGUST 1945 AND BEYOND
The war in Europe is over. Training and conditioning is ordered in case orders to ship to the Pacific were received.

Hurray for Truman. He dropped the bombs. The war in the Pacific is over. We won’t be going Island hopping. We will be going home. Whatever Redoubt there was must have on the Eastern front to hold back the Russians. The Nazis gave up fighting us. There were no Werwolves here.

Occupation in Austria is not bad in the meantime. We were in Salzburg, then the Gastein resort. A trainload of Jewish folks stopped off on their way to Israel. The castle, that was the center of the later ‘Sound of Music’, was now a beer hall. We gathered up watches, preferably black face or Mickey Mouse, for when we would be rotated to Vienna. The Russians would gobble them up at ungodly prices, paid for by occupation currency with our plates. Later the USA wised up and reissued the currency and gave us pay books to keep track of money sent back to the States. Woopee, I was 19 and it was wine, women and song.
.
........................Later. Unfortunately, I did not go to Vienna. I liked the sound of Strauss music. I got a few promotions as senior guys went home. I wait for when my points are reached.

.........................My points are reached. I’m 20 now. Life would resume again, I’ll be old enough to vote next year, I’ll get my old job back with the railroad, maybe I can switch to days, I will go to college at night. I hope I’ll get admitted. I did not have a college prep preparation. I can shoot any weapon that can be carried. I hope that’s over.

......................... I’m heading for Hamburg. The SS India Victory awaits me. I’ll going to miss you guys. Keep in touch. Goodbye.

...........................I went to reunions for many years. These are my brothers. Not up to it anymore. Our reunions were augmented by the new 42nd from the Iraq wars. The torch is passed. A century of wars. Endless.

[colorado tanker]

Happy VE Day, Homer!

Quite the culmination of you labor of love.

Now, as Mr. Churchill said, time to finish with those treacherous Japanese!

[Billthedrill]

Happy VE Day! Long, fantastic project on the home stretch. Thanks again as ever.

[ex-snook]

Thanks for what must be a labor of love. A very well done!

[central_va]

Congrats Homer but the war isn't over yet. The nips are going to get theirs.

[dfwgator]