how vital D-day was

The landings by the Allies led by the American and British forces on the 6th of June 1944 on the golden beaches of Normandy in northern France weren't only important because of the fact it gave the Allies a solid foot hold on Western Europe in which they could from there fight the Nazi's on a second front to that of their allies the Soviets, the Allies had a landing force of 175,000 men crossing the English Channel, by the end of the month after securing ports in northern France they had 1,600,000 men and machines on mainland Europe.

Although I may have sounded indifferent to the Allies fight in the Europe as compared to the Soviets who did the bulk of the fighting (killing 4 of every 5 German soldiers killed in the war) the landings in Normandy were vital to the timely defeat of the Germans.

Not only that but the speedy delivery of logistical support for those fighting against the Germans but also carried with it a good psychological effect on the millions of Soviets fighting on the Eastern Front.



The Soviets had suffered over 20,000,000 casualties after being lain under heavy siege by German oppression for nearly three years.

They had suffered massively and their land had been destroyed during the start of the German offensive because of their scorched earth policy which included the dissembling of factories and burning of crops for miles (that can't have been good for their economic growth of industry), to say they were weary of war would be an understatement.

But they had a fighting chance against the German forces, using massive infantry they overran the Germans where they could, eventually 80% of the German Army were sent fighting in the Eastern Front, several of these forces were pulled from Western Europe to avail in the fight to defend the Reich, the Luftwaffe had been put on the defense of Germany, therefore it would be unable to cover several other parts of Europe.

After the Atlantic Wall was formed in Europe, Hitler thought that any landing would be a failure and that if the Allies failed to spearhead a secure reinforcement zone in the north of France the Allied troops would be trapped and slaughtered by the German Army forces.

However history turned out to be much different, if this had been the case it could have seriously broke the morale of the Soviet Army and might have even prompted Stalin to except a peace treaty with Hitler bringing them back to where they started with the 1939 agreement, which would have seen Soviet forces drawing the border with Nazi Europe in eastern Poland, although Hitler didn't have anything sufficient to hit the several American bases in England with at this time, come 1945 if the D-day landings had failed the Americans would have probably hit the heart of Germany with the atomic bomb and burn the Reich from inside out. (That would be a very alternative to the history we have of two Japanese fishing cities being hit by these deadliest weapons in a vicious attempt to deter the Soviets).

However even though the tremendous sacrifice put forward by the Soviets (something that isn't properly remembered) did sufficiently strain Germany's war machine the timely injection of aid that came in the form of the Normandy landings helped the Third Reich come down before it had a chance to properly revive itself and cause more unthinkable damage and horror.

the bulk of the fighting

The most familiar image relating to the turning point of World War II in the Western world is the iconic image of American and British forces landing at the beaches in Normandy as they proceeded to liberate France from Nazi oppression, however what they fought through was an already war ravaged Europe, it took them six months to conquer what the German Army did in six weeks!

Not only was that because they had unchallenged air space for most of the way but it was also because only 20% of the German Army was all that was left behind to defend that space, not until the Battle of the Bulge which saw the Germans launch a massive offensive against a larger force of Americans using their big artillery guns.

The bulk of the fighting that had slowly eroded the solidity of the German military might was the war on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union, which saw the Russians not only fighting back the invading Nazi Army but also Finns and several other states seeking independence from Stalin's Soviet Russia (most notably Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia).



But what the Soviets did do was break the back of the German Army after being besieged in their major cities of Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad (which saw 20,000,000 people slaughtered), the Soviet counter offensives broke the back of the German Army which had broken into three divisions (Army Group North, South, Centre) which ended up too widely stretched to defend Germany itself.



Emptying the Baltic States, Ukraine, Poland and several other smaller states in Eastern Europe of German forces the Soviets eventually entered Germany itself and captured Berlin meeting the Allies at the Elbe River not long afterwords, they were the biggest single party to contribute to the war effort of ridding Europe of the Nazi's.

Even though they received American equipment from the Lend Lease they gave the manpower logistical support and the practical elements of winning such a huge war, right down to the guns, boots and uniforms that made up their large infantry groups.

While the American effort did help Britain fight out a hefty amount of the war in the European Theater, in the Battle of Britain the Royal Air Force cut down hundreds of Luftwaffe bombers and fighters and from 1941 on had proceeded to fly bombing raids against Germany and the occupied countries in Western Europe, this accelerated into the devastating firebombings of Dresden and Hamburg near the closing stages of the war.

However the Lend Lease from the United States which resupplied Britain during the war cost the equivalent of $500 billion today, a loan that literally bankrupted Britain after the war and was only paid off in 2006!

right in the middle of it all

During the German conquest of Western Europe in 1940 and the early months of 1941 one country remained untouched right in the centre of the fascists 'Fortress Europe'.


Click to enlarge

You could argue that Switzerland wasn't conquered by the Nazi's for the same reason they didn't invade Sweden, that being that Switzerland was neutral, but the difference is that Switzerland was directly in the middle of Europe, the Nazi's knew that Sweden being neutral would mean that if the Soviets attempted to attack their forces in Norway the Swedes would provide a large buffer to protect them.

Switzerland geographically didn't have a similar situation.

However towards the end of the war when the Americans were liberating Europe Swiss air space was violated several times by both Americas and Germany's respective air forces, in several incidents the USAAF (United States Army Air Force) 'accidentally' dropped bombs on Switzerland, on one occasion B-24 bombers bombed Zurich believing they were bombing the German city of Freiburg!

The Americans stated these incidents were navigational errors but several claim that it was a direct attempt to force Switzerland to end it's economic ties with Nazi Germany as the war was coming to an end.

Apart from Nazi gold among other things being in Swiss banks and the role of the bankers operating from a neutral country to finance both sides of that war would Switzerland have been worth invading?



It would have meant open air space across all of Western Europe for the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force to operate in, apart from that not much else, and it could have done heavy damage to the German economy if they lost their assets in Swiss banks!

Apart from troops operating in harsh conditions the tactic of blitzkrieg that defeated Poland wouldn't have been properly put into effect considering certain parts of mountainous areas that armored columns wouldn't be able to operate in, apart from that Swiss resistance would have been very stubborn.

when 'The Moon Is Down'

Published in March 1942 The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck hasn't exactly stood the test of time, similar to the movie Red Dawn it focuses on the occupation of a single small town in Northern Europe by a state which is at war with England and Russia obviously referring to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany in World War II, the book even goes on to refer back to Germans humiliation after their defeat in World War I.



While for the time it was published the book was an inspiration showing a discontinued struggle with a growing resistance force of the town against the invaders, the mayor character who is forced to collaborate with the Nazi's stating "to break man’s spirit permanently is impossible!"

The historical background when this book was published was one of significance of the turning point of World War II, Western Europe had been conquered (except for England) and the war in the east was only just beginning to turn against the Nazi's after they were halted at the gates of Moscow and the same month the British launched the St Nazaire Raid.

The book was way before its time and shows the true spirit of man and in the end was right in stating that it would take time but the people would win over the evil presented by fascism, it did what it was written to do, and that was motivate and enthuse the resistance movements in occupied Europe, while it did this history shows (especially in Norway and France) that the will of the people is always stronger than the guns, the tanks and the planes of an evil empire.

Also it's a good book in the context of ordinary human beings and their ability against overwhelming odds to overcome them no matter how oppressed they are or how long it takes.

how private cooperations mucked up US government policy

In World War II the United States remained neutral until the attack on Pearl Harbor, yet before did support the Allied cause, legally giving them weapons through lend lease, yet private companies in the United States were at the time making profits by making business with the Nazi's.



Nazi Germany's war effort was largely supported by two organizations, one of which was called IG Farben. IG Farben produced 84% of Germany's explosives and even the Zyklon B used in the concentration camps to kill the Jews in their millions!

Also IBM (which later made personal computers) produced counting machines to help the Nazi's keep track of the vast amount of prisoners in the big concentration camps such as Auschwitz.



The Luftwaffe could not operate without a special additive patented by Rockefeller standard oil. The drastic bombing of London by Nazi Germany for example was made possible by a 20 million dollar sale of fuel to IG Farben by the Rockefeller standard oil company. This is just one small point about how America business funded both sides of World War II.



Another thing worth mentioning is the Union Banking Corporation of New York City. Not only did it finance numerous aspects of Hitler's rise to power, along with actual materials during the war, it was also a bank used for Nazi money-laundering. Which was eventually exposed for having millions of dollars of Nazi Money in its vaults. The Union Banking Corporation of New York was eventually seized for violation of the Trading with the Enemy Act.

The director and Vice President of the Union Bank was Prescott Bush, George W. Bush's Grandfather and of course our former George HW Bush's father, both of whom were presidents of the US!

But well before all of this in 1933 a group of wealthy businessmen that included the heads of Chase Bank, Goodyear, the DuPont family, Standard Oil, GM, and Senator Prescott Bush attempted to recruit Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler to lead a military coup against President Franklin D. Roosevelt to take down that government and in the insuing chaos install a fascist dictatorship in the United States!

Although it never got past its initial planning stages and Smedley did testify to a congressional committee in 1934.

Though many of the people who had backed the planned Business Plot still maintained financial ties with Nazi Germany up through America's entry into World War II.

what real 'change' looks like

People who compare Barack Obama to John F. Kennedy make me bitterly sick, there is a big difference and ignorance of history right there.



John F. Kennedy was a sad individual, his father Joseph Kennedy was pro Nazi and because of that most people probably expected Kennedy not to mess with the fundamentals of the establishment, yet if you look at his few years in office you can see that rather quickly through his own suffering he had discovered a personal sense of himself and begun to think of things such as economic recovery, going into and exploring space, making peace with the Soviet Union, and we all know what happened him in the end!

Now we have Obama who promised 'change' after the disaster of the Bush years and the start of the recession that occurred just before he took office.



I liked the guy I honestly did, when he won I thought it was too good to be true, he seemed to be an easy going person, calm and seems to be at peace with himself (very different than Kennedy), but what the main thing that matters at the end of the day is what he does, and the most important thing is the truth.

However Obama evidently is a notorious liar, and has carried on Bush's policy which include legalizing the Patriot Act and even keeping his former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and making the dirty war in Afghanistan even dirtier by throwing in more troops who are fighting not the Taliban but the people!

His promise of change has already turned out to be a lie, in the history of the last hundred years there were several infamous political leaders who came to power promising a better life and 'change', here I list the most popular three:

Vladimir Lenin


The take over of Bolshevik led by Lenin was at the time portrayed in Russia as the peoples revolution.

He talked about the positive change, yet during the times of Lenin and Stalin some 40,000,000 Russians were exterminated, those were people who spoke out against this revolution for their own sake or the sake of their friends and family!

Adolf Hitler


Hitler came to power when Germany was in a horrible economic situation in the years following World War I, he came in promising change and a better life for the people, he made the infrastructure of Germany better, made the Volkswagen (peoples car) to help people bring the German economy back up, yet during all of this he eliminated political opposition and made himself dictator, and within ten years of coming to power he waged the most horrific war in history slaughtering millions of people and eventually died after Germany was ravaged and destroyed and divided between two superpowers who were eager to destroy each other on its soil!

Mao Zedong


Mao came to power in China in 1949 promising yet again change and a better life for his people.

Within five years however under him 60,000,000 Chinese were wiped off the face of the Earth, yes 60 million of the people he had promised change to.


Now I'm not saying that the same will happen in today's United States but if it does it shouldn't be really be that surprising considering history of the promise of change.

the story of the Donau

Known as the 'slave ship' in Norway during World War II the Donau was a 9,000 ton transport ship used by the Kriegsmarine between Nazi Germany and World War II.

Although a transport ship when the war started, it was later requisitioned for war duty and outfitted with anti aircraft guns and depth charges.

It was used by the SS and the Gestapo operating in Norway to transport 540 Jews from their home where they would be then moved to Auschwitz in Poland, whilst on the Donua Jewish men and women were put in separate holds, there they were deprived of basic sanitary and treated badly at the hands of the soldiers.

When the Allies were getting the upper hand over the Germans the Donau was seen by the Norwegian resistance as a very dangerous threat to the RAF, so while it was docked in Oslo Harbor Roy Nilsen from Milorg and Max Manus (who had already sunk another vitally important German ship) from Kompani Linge planted ten limpet mines on the port side of the Donau in the maximally secured harbor getting away Scott-free.

The departure of the Donau from Oslo Harbor was delayed however meaning that the limpet mines detonated before the ship reached its destination (Drøbak).



The captain managed to beach her however where it lay until seven years after the war.

* Photos from the Norwegian movie Max Manus

** A picture of the real ship

the Nazi's Death Star

During the Nazi reign in Germany from 1933 to 1945 some very hi tech weaponry (for the time) was created, the Nazi's one idea Nazi physicists began to work on was launching a giant mirror into orbit.

The mirror, which they planned to design from about one million tons of metallic sodium, would burn cities to the ground, boil reservoirs, crisp people like bacon, kinda like the Ion cannon from the game Command & Conquer: Generals.



This so-called “sun gun” would be part of a space station 5,100 miles above Earth. “They calculated that the use of a huge reflector could produce enough heat, if focused on certain area, could make an ocean boil or burn up a city.”

The space station would be manned by Nazi spacemen with magnetic boots to help overcome weightlessness and most likely be powered by the sun (go figure).



The mirror itself was 100-meter-wide and would have been fitted at a point on the space station.

There are many obvious reasons this didn't come through, the closest the Nazi's got in space development was the V-2 rocket, 20,000 died of exhaustion making the ones fired at London that killed around 7,000 people!

Most of the German scientists moved to the US to continue their rocketry research. In addition to their work with US missile defense systems, many of the men went to work for the fledgling space program in the 1950s.

From this they developed the Saturn V, the engine which carried the Apollo astronauts into orbit for the moon missions of 1969-1972.

That being said the development would have been possible over a couple of decades had the Nazi's not been fighting a losing World War II by 1942!

I guess that's another reason to hate Germany

Someone said this to me awhile ago and its been on my mind since;
it was something along the line of quote:

"I hate Germany cause of Hitler and all of them."

The ignorance of this bothered me for along time, sure there were about ten thousands Nazi's but most of the German people just wanted to live their lives, and Hitler came to power from a general election however, the result was only 33.1% for the NSDAP in that election. Only 71.1% of the eligible voters voted in that election in November 1932. That reduced the share to 23.5%.

I'm not praising Hitler or anything but he did take a shattered state in 1933 that was blamed for a war it didn't cause (The Great War) which was the biggest war in history at that time, but Hitler eliminated all opposition, made himself a powerful dictator and making the growing super power that was Germany a totalitarian state trying to Nazify everybody.



As a totalitarian state there were ways to stop people from starting a revolution or uprising against the Nazi's, a simple population surveillance, this was called the Blockwart (officially Blockleiter); one spy/contact person for about 40-60 households (about 170 individuals in average).
The system was very extremely effective.

The scary truth about fascism also is it's the most powerful form of government ever seen in history, the effects the Nazi's had fighting on the Eastern Front was proven by the fact that the Soviet forces had to withdraw nearly as far as Moscow scorching their own land, destroying their farms and factories to try and slow down the massive Nazi advance, Stalin's war of annihilation against Hitler showed both sides fighting a total war anyone who could hold a gun in Russia's case sent to fight.



The people of Germany suffered mightily during the Second World War on the hands of Stalin and the Allies, for instance what about the firebombing of Dresden by the RAF in early 1945, most of the city burned and over 40,000 people burned alive with it, most of them just civilians, where is the morality in that?


As if that wasn't enough the German people were to suffer for along time more, especially those in the east sector of Germany in the early post war years, hundreds of women who possibly had their husbands or sons killed fighting in the Eastern Front were raped by the occupying Red Army in the mid to late 1940's!



Also after Berlin was divided between West Germany and East Germany the inevitable World War III between the Allies and the Soviet Union would have resulted in the Germans being forced to kill each other before most probably have millions killed as the result of, American, British, French and Soviet nukes!

It would have been the mother of all suffering for one nationality in the 20th century but luckily it was never that bad.

What sickens me is with all this obvious evidence people can still say they hate Germany because of Hitler!

could Nazi Germany have taken over the world?

I don't like alternative histories, I don't like "what ifs" but the Nazi Germany question in relation to the rest of the world is an interesting one, the Third Reich was a true super power that crushed most of Europe in little over a year, but the question is if it played its cards right could it have actually taken over the world.

For instance their thrust into the Soviet Union forced the Russians to literally try and slow their advance by scorching the earth as they retreated, the Germans had hit nearly everywhere in Russia before being driven back, and apart from that fact by 1942 (perfect timing) the US were joining in with Britain and carrying out raids against the Nazi industry, what if Britain had been taken out of the fray so Nazi Germany could use its fair might against the Soviet Union.



Well these scenarios are explored in the novel Fatherland by Robert Harris in which the history is the same until the year 1941 when the Russians arrive at the gates of Moscow, but succeed in another offensive in the Caucasus in 1942, cutting the Red Army, since its armies are immobilized the Soviet Union is forced to surrender in 1943.

Britain is defeated after the Germans find the British have cracked their Enigma code, they withdraw their submarines and send false signals luring the Royal Navy into a series of traps and destroy it, using their U-boat fleet to full force with little resistance they destroy merchant shipping starving mainland Britain into surrendering in 1944.



The novel then details the Greater German Reich as a super power stretching as far east as the Ural mountains where they still fight a large number of Russian insurgents in an endless war, they are also at a Cold War with the United States both of which have nuclear arms.

But this scenario seemed possible for the time if Germany would have been able to use all its forces to the right extent, but the question remained if it would have been able to keep its occupied territories, (heavy resistance in the Ural mountains seems logical), and with the oil rich Caucasus under their belts the German war machine would definitely stay on its feet, plus if they succeeded in the Soviet Union and defeated Britain before December 1941 then the US would have no leverage or real reason to go to war with Germany.

Its an interesting scenario Harris puts forward but the truth was that the evil Adolf Hitler did have that amount of striking power, he nearly did succeed in bringing the Soviet Union to its knees but he was stupid near the end and brought a lot of pain and suffering to the people of Russia and Europe.