Posted on 08/25/2011 4:15:26 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
* We saved a recording of Churchill’s broadcast on yesterday’s thread . It’s worth a listen. Go to reply #18.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/aug41/f25aug41.htm
Iran invaded by British and Soviets
Monday, August 25, 1941 www.onwar.com
In Iran... British and Soviet forces invade. They have been worried by reports of German “tourists” being in the country and have decided to demand that Iran accept their “protection” of its oil supplies. The British land forces are led by General Quinan and their naval support by Admiral Arbuthnot. The advance in two areas, to seize the oil installations near Abadan, and from the northeast of Baghdad to take similar sites around Kermanshah. The Soviet forces advance in three columns under General Novikov’s command. One column moves on Tabriz while the other two advance on either side of the Caspian Sea. There are also British landings at Bandar Shapur, Abadan and Khoramshahr in the Persian Gulf area. Two small Iranian warships are sunk and several Axis merchant ships are seized. The British forces moving on Kermanshah, commanded by General Slim, and all three Soviet columns soon make good progress. The Soviets bomb Tabriz. There is little Iranian opposition to either the British or the Soviet forces.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/25.htm
August 25th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: London: In his broadcast this evening, Churchill accused the Germans of perpetrating the wholesale massacre of civilians in occupied Soviet territories. “Whole districts are being exterminated,” Churchill said. “Since the Mongol invasions of Europe in the 16th century there has never been methodical, merciless butchery on such a scale. We are in the presence of a crime without a name.”
Churchill made no mention of Jews beings the main victims; to have done so would have let the Germans know that British intelligence is intercepting secret reports to Berlin from the Nazi extermination squads in the field. These conscientiously list the locations and numbers of those shot and thrown into ditches, often several thousand at a time.
The production of the Handley Page Halifax heavy bomber has now been subcontracted to to a number of firms, including English Electric at Preston, Rootes at Speke, Fairey at Stockport and the London Aircraft Production Group. The first of these aircraft, a MK II (V 9976), flies today. (22)
Minelayer HMS Welshman commissioned.
Corvette HMS Loosestrife launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORTH SEA: The German submarine U-452 is sunk in the southeast of Iceland, in position 61.30N, 15.30W, by depth charges from the RN antisubmarine trawler HMS Vascama and depth charges from an RAF Catalina J of No. 209 Squadron based at Reykjavik, Iceland. All hands, 42-men, on the U-boat are lost. (Jack McKillop)
GERMANY: Rastenburg: In talks with Mussolini, Hitler rails against Spain’s refusal to join the war. Count Galeazzo Ciano, son-in-law and Foreign Minister is also in attendance. Also today, Hitler receives Count Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese ambassador, for consultation. Film
U-313, U-314, U-315, U-316, U-367, U-368, U-369, U-370, U-399, U-400, U-429, U-430, U-681, U-682, U-683, U-719, U-720, U-721, U-722, U-747, U-748, U-749, U-750, U-865, U-866, U-867, U-868, U-869, U-870, U-871, U-872, U-873, U-874, U-875, U-876, U-925, U-926, U-927, U-928, U-1059, U-1060, U-1061, U-1062, U-1131, U-1132, U-1161, U-1162, U-1191, U-1192, U-1193, U-1194, U-1195, U-1196, U-1197, U-1198, U-1221, U-1222, U-1223, U-1224, U-1225, U-1226 ordered
U-333 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
FINLAND: A sudden counter-attack by two Soviet divisions stops the advance of Light Brigade T north-east of Viipuri. The brigade commander Col. Tiiainen is lethally wounded and the brigade is forced back. After two days of intense fighting the 12nd ID manages to stop the Soviet attack. (Mikko Härmeinen)
Saukko collides with German S 28 off Helsinki and must remain in dock for almost the rest of the sailing season. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: The Bryansk front commander, General Eremenko, tells Stalin, “I will smash this scoundrel Guderian, no doubt about it.”
General Heinz Guderian commander of the 2nd Panzer Army launches his forces south to encircle Kiev. (Jeff Chrisman)
U-752 sank Soviet minesweeper T-898/No 44 (ex-RT 411). (Dave Shirlaw)
SPITZBERGEN: Small British-Canadian force destroys radio and weather stations and coal supplies to destroy anything of use to the Germans. (Dave Shirlaw)
IRAN: The British land troops at Bandar Shapur, Abadan and Khoramshahr, Iran. The Soviets move into Iran with one column advancing on Tabriz, which is bombed. Two additional Soviet columns are advancing around the Caspian Sea.
Iran had been invaded, its prime minister, Ali Mansur, told the Mejlis [parliament] this afternoon, by Soviet columns from the north and British ones from the south. There are condemnations from all over the Middle East.
The attack began in the early hours of this morning. While Soviet columns under General Novikov headed for Tabriz and Kazvin, Indian troops crowded onto steamers and motor boats, silently approached the port of Abadan. Another force, under Major-General Slim, crossed the border near Kermanshah. Iranian troops have resisted, but apart from the gallant Admiral Bay Endor, who died at his post, not much.
Since Britain and Russia divided Iran into two spheres of influence in 1908, Iranians have looked to Germany to escape the Anglo-Russian vice. There are many Germans in Iran, running posts, telegraphs and railways, as the Allies claim, but most have been here for years.
As Iran is neutral the Allies have compromised that neutrality. Britain justifies its action by its need for oil from Abadan, while the USSR needed a supply route from the Persian Gulf.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Galt departed St John’s with Convoy SC-41 to Iceland.
Corvette HMCS Moose Jaw arrived St John’s to join NEF. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Finback launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
"German military and civilian authorities meet at Vinnitsa, Ukraine, to discuss the fate of about 20,000 Hungarian Jews impressed into forced labor and interned at Kamenets-Podolski, Ukraine.
Lt. General Friedrich Jeckeln announces that all 20,000 will be liquidated by September 1.
"Fifteen hundred Jews are murdered at Tykocin, Poland.
"In Yugoslavia, 8,000 Jewish residents of Belgrade are transported to Topovske Supe, where they are murdered."
"Rallying the German nation to war against the Soviet Union, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels could reach most of the populace through his radio broadcasts by the end of 1941.
War on two fronts did not deter Goebbels from pressing for the removal of Jews from German society.
The first deportation of Jews from Berlin occurred in October."
Killing Accomplices
"During their tireless campaign to annihilate Europe's Jews, the Nazis found thousands of willing accomplices among the populations of Eastern and Western Europe.
"Indigenous police forces in France and the Netherlands took part in roundups.
Hungarian troops and Fascist extremists joined the hunt and helped slaughter thousands.
Slovakia's Hlinka Guard, modeled on Nazi Storm Troopers, attacked Jews while local police organized deportations.
The Ustasa --a Croatian nationalist, separatist, terrorist organization--tortured and barbarously murdered Jews with axes and hammers.
In Romania and the Crimea, the bloodthirsty enthusiasm of volunteer ethnic Germans and Romanian army units who engaged in mass shootings shocked even the SS.
"When the mobile killing squads of the Einsatzgruppen swept into the Soviet Union, their comparatively thin ranks were augmented by auxiliary troops of native Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Ukrainians.
The Omakaitse, Estonian police collaborators, rounded up the Jews of Tallinn and helped the Nazis shoot hundreds.
Selbstschutz, Latvian police, assisted in the killing of thousands in Riga.
Lithuanian police seized and executed Jews, while Lithuanian nationalists killed thousands in pogroms.
The particularly brutal Hilfspolizei (Ukrainian Auxiliary Police) hunted down Jews escaping from ghettos and killed thousands.
Without the work of these sympathizers, the Nazi campaign of genocide would have been noticeably less effective."
Thanks for your entry. I, too, have searched archives of many newspapers in search of answers.
Here is a small flavor of Coleman's take on those events:
"American people did not see any need for war, in spite of the massive propaganda blasts emanating for the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations, which had been conducting a very successful propaganda war against Germany, one that made Herr Goebbels of the German Ministry of Information, look like a rank amateur.
Not even Churchill’s pompous statements, always given the widest possible coverage by the American press, made a dent in American opinion which was running strongly against participation in a war in Europe."Roosevelt was relying on the “Colonel House formula” to help him devise a “carefully sprung trick” to overcome public and private resistance to war.
Had those patriots who tried hard to warn Marshall, Roosevelt, Hull and Stimson of Japan’s plans to attack Pearl Harbor been heeded, there would of course have been no “carefully sprung trick.”
For instance; FBI director J. Edgar Hoover went to see Roosevelt at the White House in August 1941 to deliver a warning about Japanese plans.
He explained that his information had come from a double agent for Britain and Germany.
The agent, Dusko Popov told Hoover that in July 1941 he was ordered to Pearl Harbor.
His assignment was to make a precise study of military and naval installations there, particularly the harbor and airfields.
As well as reporting to British Naval Intelligence, he also informed Hoover."There was no doubt about the authenticity of Popov’s information.
But instead of expressing gratitude, Roosevelt ordered Hoover not to talk about or convey the information to anyone else, as he, Roosevelt, had the matter, “well in hand.”"This is a perfect example of Roosevelt’s treachery and treason and betrayal of the United States, because Roosevelt kept this vital information from the Congress.
Justification for America to go to war had to be contrived!"Coleman, John (2010). Pearl Harbor and Beyond: An Account of Treachery and Treason
What’s his source for this exchange between FDR and Hoover?
No sources at all, that I can find.
So much for Coleman.
Both Prange and Victor discuss Dusko Popov, code name Tricycle, and his meeting with J. Edgar Hoover.
Prange does not, but Victor does claim that Hoover reported Popov's interest in Pearl Harbor to President Roosevelt.
But even Victor (c2007) does not purport to quote from a conversation where FDR dismissed Hoover's warning.
We should note that Hoover had long been wire-tapping the Japanese consulate in Hawaii, and well knew of their interest in the US fleet, and would doubtless have reported it to President Roosevelt.
This is explained away as being nothing more that "routine" espionage, of the kind every nation did on all others.
But Popov's interest in Pearl Harbor was of a different nature, and should have excited more interest at top levels of the US government than it did, imho.
My copy of Coleman's book is a Kindle PC version, and I had not noticed before that he apparently included no references to source material.
WTF?
So, until I can learn something new about it, I'm inclined now to just cross Coleman off as nothing more than a toxic collection of rumor and innuendo...
If it makes you feel any better, this is the same Dr. Coleman who claims that MI-6 was charged with, and executed the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. Mind you, MI-6 did not exist in 1865, but what the hell. He also makes the claim that the HIV virus was developed at Harvard University and spread by the WHO under the guise of the eradication of Small Pox. Apparently they were infecting them with HIV at the same time they were vaccinating them. He’s an interesting character.
Then it seems to me, the good "doctor" could well serve as our gold-standard for what it means to be a "conspiracy nut" -- no verifiable references, full of wild accusations and alleged quotations, in short, nothing serious going on between his ears.
And by that standard, authors like Stinnett, Victor and Toland just don't "measure up", since each does make a serious (if sometimes flawed) effort to back their claims with verifiable references.
In terms of the Holocaust, newspapers of the time are not very helpful.
The reasons are at least twofold:
First and most obviously, the Nazis did their level best to keep the whole thing secret, so very little verifiable information escaped to the Allies.
Second, and not so obviously, Allied leaders who did know Holocaust basics -- mass murder of Jews -- leaders including Churchill, Roosevelt and the Pope, were reluctant to make a "big deal" about it, for fear of how Nazis could turn anti-Jewish propaganda against them.
Indeed, when you consider the entire scope of the Second World War -- circa 75 million dead -- six million murdered Jews is an important, but relatively small, part of the Big Picture.
So, in short, leaders like Roosevelt wanted to keep WWII a "War of Freedom against Tyrany", which could unite all allied citizens, not a "War to Save the Jews", which could leave many allied citizens scratching their heads.
That's why you don't see so much about it in newspapers of the time.
But if you follow Homer's posts carefully, you'll note the Holocaust was not completely ignored, even in these early days.
Anyway, I have nearly two dozen books here on the Holocaust, and most of these quotes come out of a summary book called "The Holocaust Chronicles".
They are also available online here:
or here:
Holocaust Chronology
The NYT’s account (from somewhere in England) of the CEF’s booing Mackenzie King is in this issue.
The Canadian troops were angry about the stalled Conscription bill and their lack of participation in the Desert Campaign against Rommel with the Aussies.
Well, they got to participate in Hong Kong at Christmas. :^(
Coleman is an extreme nut in the general sense of the word. Victor and Stinnett are agenda driven authors who are only interested in propping up conjecture that supports their preconceived conclusions. This makes them misrepresent data as well as ignore data that runs counter to their thesis.
Based on my conversations with Mr. Stinnett and his son, I would have to add profiteering to his motivations. Not only did he intentionally leave his sourcing vague as to make it very hard to confirm, if you ask him to send his notes to you or even just a more specific citation he will try to charge you such an exorbitant fee (before shipping even) that it would almost be cheaper to buy the entire record group and sift through it yourself. I’m pretty certain he has been more interested in profiting from the sensationalism of the subject more than actually producing a legitimate academic study on the subject. It would explain the plethora of flaws in his work.
My opinion of you as a scholar has just increased multi-fold.
Nice work, FRiend!
I appreciate the complement. I take my research very seriously, even for these threads so I’m not afraid to contact an author if I think I can get more detail. In this case Stinnett disappointed me, but other authors have been very helpful. David Glantz responded to one of my queries with a list of books to read and specific roll numbers from the National Archives to get in order to obtain the information I wanted.
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