Found this on the web: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/bsp/worldwar_ii.stm Look like it could be worth keeping an eye on, I must admit the occasional edition of the TV news like this I haven't been too impressed with. Maybe reading it wil work. Ali
Of course, War was declared on Sunday 3 September, 1939. It was one of those "where were you when it happened?" days. I was walking on my way home from Sunday school. When I stopped -- as usual -- at the Towneley railway station level crossing to watch trains, the signal box man lowered the window and shouted "that's it, we're at war with Jerry!". James
When I woke up this morning, I was very aware of the date. I thought about the Schleswig-Holstein firing the first official shots at Westerplatte near Danzig and about how the Nazis started the war with a lie: Operation "Canned Goods," in which SS bigshot Alfred Naujocks and some cronies "raided" a radio station near Gleiwitz, took over the microphone, and spouted some anti-German rhetoric in Polish. They dumped bodies of concentration camp victims who had been poisoned earlier, dressed in Polish uniforms, and fired shots into them. Then they left. Then Goebbels and his propaganda team came in and used this "incident" to prove that the Polish Army had raided the German radio station and was threatening to invade Poland. So Germany had to "retaliate" for this "invasion." The "big lie" at work. And that "justification" led to the cold-blooded slaughter of 46 million people. A short time after the German newsreel cameras left the radio station at Gleiwitz, an ambulance drove into town, carrying four German soldiers in it. They were the third casualties of World War II. The second were the concentration camp prisoners. The first was the truth. Je me souviens.
Originally posted by Kiwiwriter@Sep 1 2004, 02:42 PM ....Then Goebbels and his propaganda team came in and used this "incident" to prove that the Polish Army had raided the German radio station and was threatening to invade Poland. So Germany had to "retaliate" for this "invasion."... [post=27910]Quoted post[/post] Britain was smart enough to know that a few Polish soldiers did not justify a german invasion force of 1.5 million german men.
Originally posted by salientpoints@Sep 2 2004, 06:43 AM But why is this under 60th Anniversary? [post=27926]Quoted post[/post] A good point, but anniversaries are a catalyst in starting off discussions and it is a good topic, even if there is a bit of a mapreading error in placing the post here.
