Saturday, January 16, 1943. The RAF Bombs Berlin, the Red Army prevails at Velikiye Luki, the Afrika Korps repulsed at Bou Arada.

A heavy Royal Air Force raid saw Berlin bombed for the first time in 14 months, seeing the return of the British air arm for the first time since November 7, 1941.  The resulting fires from 1,000 bombs on the city could be seen for 100 miles.

On this, Sarah Sundin notes:

Today in World War II History—January 16, 1943: RAF bombs Berlin for first time since November 1941, with the first use of target indicator flares to mark the target for bombers farther back in the stream.

Only one British bomber failed to return.

Sundin also noted in her blog that the British 8th Army and the Free French, marching across the Sahara from Lake Chad, linked up.  That was a remarkable feat by any measure.

In North Africa, the Afrika Korps attacked at Bou Arada, Tunisia, and was repelled.

The Red Army prevailed in the Battle of Velikiye Luki, sometimes called the Little Stalingrad of the North.

Following the war, the Soviets tried a collective set of German soldiers, ranging from a private to a general, who had fought at the battle.  Nine were sentenced to death for crimes related to anti-partisan warfare and hung in the town square in January 1946.

Iraq declared war on Germany, Italy, and Japan.

You'd think, by this point, the message to the Germans should have been pretty clear.

The cover story of Science News was on radios for the war.

Friday, January 8, 1943. Ultimatum

Gen. Konstantin Rokossovsky of the Red Army sent an ultimatum to Gen. Friedrich Paulus at Stalingrad, demanding the German surrender by 10:00 on January 9.  The message promised food and medical assistance to the German command if it surrendered, but destruction if they did not.  

Paulus contacted Hitler by radio, who refused permission to surrender.  Paulus was in an event skeptical fo the Soviet offer.

The Soviets continued to advance in the Caucasus, and the Free French continued to gain in southern Libya.

Sarah Sundin reports, on her blog:

Today in World War II History—January 8, 1943: British turn over control of Madagascar, except Diego Suarez area, to the Free French. Axis convoys between Naples, Italy, and Tripoli, Libya, are suspended.

Thursday, January 7, 1943. State of the Union.

Franklin Roosevelt delivered his second State of the Union address to a wartime United States.  In it, he stated:

January 07, 1943

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Seventy-eighth Congress:

This Seventy-eighth Congress assembles in one of the great moments in the history of the Nation. The past year was perhaps the most crucial for modern civilization; the coming year will be filled with violent conflicts- yet with high promise of better things.

We must appraise the events of 1942 according to their relative importance; we must exercise a sense of proportion.

First in importance in the American scene has been the inspiring proof of the great qualities of our fighting men. They have demonstrated these qualities in adversity as well as in victory. As long as our flag flies over this Capitol, Americans will honor the soldiers, sailors, and marines who fought our first battles of this war against overwhelming odds the heroes, living and dead, of Wake and Bataan and Guadalcanal, of the Java Sea and Midway and the North Atlantic convoys. Their unconquerable spirit will live forever.

By far the largest and most important developments in the whole world-wide strategic picture of 1942 were the events of the long fronts in Russia: first, the implacable defense of Stalingrad; and, second, the offensives by the Russian armies at various points that started in the latter part of November and which still roll on with great force and effectiveness.

The other major events of the year were: the series of Japanese advances in the Philippines, the East Indies, Malaya, and Burma; the stopping of that Japanese advance in the mid-Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Indian Oceans; the successful defense of the Near East by the British counterattack through Egypt and Libya; the American-British occupation of North Africa. Of continuing importance in the year 1942 were the unending and bitterly contested battles of the convoy routes, and the gradual passing of air superiority from the Axis to the United Nations.

The Axis powers knew that they must win the war in 1942 -or eventually lose everything. I do not need to tell you that our enemies did not win the war in 1942.

In the Pacific area, our most important victory in 1942 was the air and naval battle off Midway Island. That action is historically important because it secured for our use communication lines stretching thousands of miles in every direction. In placing this emphasis on the Battle of Midway, I am not unmindful of other successful actions in the Pacific, in the air and on land and afloat —especially those on the Coral Sea and New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands. But these actions were essentially defensive. They were part of the delaying strategy that characterized this phase of the war.

During this period we inflicted steady losses upon the enemy -great losses of Japanese planes and naval vessels, transports and cargo ships. As early as one year ago, we set as a primary task in the war of the Pacific a day-by-day and week-by-week and month-by-month destruction of more Japanese war materials than Japanese industry could replace. Most certainly, that task has been and is being performed by our fighting ships and planes. And a large part of this task has been accomplished by the gallant crews of our American submarines who strike on the other side of the Pacific at Japanese ships—right up at the very mouth of the harbor of Yokohama.

We know that as each day goes by, Japanese strength in ships and planes is going down and down, and American strength in ships and planes is going up and up. And so I sometimes feel that the eventual outcome can now be put on a mathematical basis. That will become evident to the Japanese people themselves when we strike at their own home islands, and bomb them constantly from the air.

And in the attacks against Japan, we shall be joined with the heroic people of China—that great people whose ideals of peace are so closely akin to our own. Even today we are flying as much lend-lease material into China as ever traversed the Burma Road, flying it over mountains 17,000 feet high, flying blind through sleet and snow. We shall overcome all the formidable obstacles, and get the battle equipment into China to shatter the power of our common enemy. From this war, China will realize the security, the prosperity and the dignity, which Japan has sought so ruthlessly to destroy.

The period of our defensive attrition in the Pacific is drawing to a close. Now our aim is to force the Japanese to fight. Last year, we stopped them. This year, we intend to advance.

Turning now to the European theater of war, during this past year it was clear that our first task was to lessen the concentrated pressure on the Russian front by compelling Germany to divert part of her manpower and equipment to another theater of war. After months of secret planning and preparation in the utmost detail, an enormous amphibious expedition was embarked for French North Africa from the United States and the United Kingdom in literally hundreds of ships. It reached its objectives with very small losses, and has already produced an important effect upon the whole situation of the war. It has opened to attack what Mr. Churchill well described as "the under-belly of the Axis," and it has removed the always dangerous threat of an Axis attack through West Africa against the South Atlantic Ocean and the continent of South America itself.

The well-timed and splendidly executed offensive from Egypt by the British Eighth Army was a part of the same major strategy of the United Nations.

Great rains and appalling mud and very limited communications have delayed the final battles of Tunisia. The Axis is reinforcing its strong positions. But I am confident that though the fighting will be tough, when the final Allied assault is made, the last vestige of Axis power will be driven from the whole of the south shores of the Mediterranean.

Any review of the year 1942 must emphasize the magnitude and the diversity of the military activities in which this Nation has become engaged. As I speak to you, approximately one and a half million of our soldiers, sailors, marines, and fliers are in service outside of our continental limits, all through the world. Our merchant seamen, in addition, are carrying supplies to them and to our allies over every sea lane.

Few Americans realize the amazing growth of our air strength, though I am sure our enemy does. Day in and day out our forces are bombing the enemy and meeting him in combat on many different fronts in every part of the world. And for those who question the quality of our aircraft and the ability of our fliers, I point to the fact that, in Africa, we are shooting down two enemy planes to every one we lose, and in the Pacific and the Southwest Pacific we are shooting them down four to one.

We pay great tribute—the tribute of the United States of America— to the fighting men of Russia and China and Britain and the various members of the British Commonwealth- the millions of men who through the years of this war have fought our common enemies, and have denied to them the world conquest which they sought.

We pay tribute to the soldiers and fliers and seamen of others of the United Nations whose countries have been overrun by Axis hordes.

As a result of the Allied occupation of North Africa, powerful units of the French Army and Navy are going into action. They are in action with the United Nations forces. We welcome them as allies and as friends. They join with those Frenchmen who, since the dark days of June, 1940, have been fighting valiantly for the liberation of their stricken country.

We pay tribute to the fighting leaders of our allies, to Winston Churchill, to Joseph Stalin, and to the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Yes, there is a very great unanimity between the leaders of the United Nations. This unity is effective in planning and carrying out the major strategy of this war and in building up and in maintaining the lines of supplies.

I cannot prophesy. I cannot tell you when or where the United Nations are going to strike next in Europe. But we are going to strike- and strike hard. I cannot tell you whether we are going to hit them in Norway, or through the Low Countries, or in France, or through Sardinia or Sicily, or through the Balkans, or through Poland- or at several points simultaneously. But I can tell you that no matter where and when we strike by land, we and the British and the Russians will hit them from the air heavily and relentlessly. Day in and day out we shall heap tons upon tons of high explosives on their war factories and utilities and seaports.

Hitler and Mussolini will understand now the enormity of their miscalculations—that the Nazis would always have the advantage of superior air power as they did when they bombed Warsaw, and Rotterdam, and London and Coventry. That superiority has gone—forever.

Yes, the Nazis and the Fascists have asked for it—and they are going to get it.

Our forward progress in this war has depended upon our progress on the production front.

There has been criticism of the management and conduct of our war production. Much of this self-criticism has had a healthy effect. It has spurred us on. It has reflected a normal American impatience to get on with the job. We are the kind of people who are never quite satisfied with anything short of miracles.

But there has been some criticism based on guesswork and even on malicious falsification of fact. Such criticism creates doubts and creates fears, and weakens our total effort.

I do not wish to suggest that we should be completely satisfied with our production progress today, or next month, or ever. But I can report to you with genuine pride on what has been accomplished in 1942.

A year ago we set certain production goals for 1942 and for 1943. Some people, including some experts, thought that we had pulled some big figures out of a hat just to frighten the Axis. But we had confidence in the ability of our people to establish new records. And that confidence has been justified.

Of course, we realized that some production objectives would have to be changed- some of them adjusted upward, and others downward; some items would be taken out of the program altogether, and others added. This was inevitable as we gained battle experience, and as technological improvements were made.

Our 1942 airplane production and tank production fell short, numerically—stress the word numerically of the goals set a year ago. Nevertheless, we have plenty of reason to be proud of our record for 1942. We produced 48,000 military planes—more than the airplane production of Germany, Italy, and Japan put together. Last month, in December, we produced 5,500 military planes and the rate is rapidly rising. Furthermore, we must remember that as each month passes by, the averages of our types weigh more, take more man-hours to make, and have more striking power.

In tank production, we revised our schedule- and for good and sufficient reasons. As a result of hard experience in battle, we have diverted a portion of our tank-producing capacity to a stepped-up production of new, deadly field weapons, especially self-propelled artillery.

Here are some other production figures:

In 1942, we produced 56,000 combat vehicles, such as tanks and self-propelled artillery.

In 1942, we produced 670,000 machine guns, six times greater than our production in 1941 and three times greater than our total production during the year and a half of our participation in the first World War.

We produced 21,000 anti-tank guns, six times greater than our 1941 production.

We produced ten and a quarter billion rounds of small-arms ammunition, five times greater than our 1941 production and three times greater than our total production in the first World War.

We produced 181 million rounds of artillery ammunition, twelve times greater than our 1941 production and ten times greater than our total production in the first World War.

I think the arsenal of democracy is making good.

These facts and figures that I have given will give no great aid and comfort to the enemy. On the contrary, I can imagine that they will give him considerable discomfort. I suspect that Hitler and Tojo will find it difficult to explain to the German and Japanese people just why it is that "decadent, inefficient democracy" can produce such phenomenal quantities of weapons and munitions- and fighting men.

We have given the lie to certain misconceptions—which is an extremely polite word- especially the one which holds that the various blocs or groups within a free country cannot forego their political and economic differences in time of crisis and work together toward a common goal.

While we have been achieving this miracle of production, during the past year our armed forces have grown from a little over 2,000,000 to 7,000,000. In other words, we have withdrawn from the labor force and the farms some 5,000,000 of our younger workers. And in spite of this, our farmers have contributed their share to the common effort by producing the greatest quantity of food ever made available during a single year in all our history.

I wonder is there any person among us so simple as to believe that all this could have been done without creating some dislocations in our normal national life, some inconveniences, and even some hardships?

Who can have hoped to have done this without burdensome Government regulations which are a nuisance to everyone- including those who have the thankless task of administering them?

We all know that there have been mistakes- mistakes due to the inevitable process of trial and error inherent in doing big things for the first time. We all know that there have been too many complicated forms and questionnaires. I know about that. I have had to fill some of them out myself.

But we are determined to see to it that our supplies of food and other essential civilian goods are distributed on a fair and just basis—to rich and poor, management and labor, farmer and city dweller alike. We are determined to keep the cost of living at a stable level. All this has required much information. These forms and questionnaires represent an honest and sincere attempt by honest and sincere officials to obtain this information.

We have learned by the mistakes that we have made.

Our experience will enable us during the coming year to improve the necessary mechanisms of wartime economic controls, and to simplify administrative procedures. But we do not intend to leave things so lax that loopholes will be left for cheaters, for chiselers, or for the manipulators of the black market.

Of course, there have been disturbances and inconveniences -and even hardships. And there will be many, many more before we finally win. Yes, 1943 will not be an easy year for us on the home front. We shall feel in many ways in our daily lives the sharp pinch of total war.

Fortunately, there are only a few Americans who place appetite above patriotism. The overwhelming majority realize that the food we send abroad is for essential military purposes, for our own and Allied fighting forces, and for necessary help in areas that we occupy.

We Americans intend to do this great job together. In our common labors we must build and fortify the very foundation of national unity- confidence in one another.

It is often amusing, and it is sometimes politically profitable, to picture the City of Washington as a madhouse, with the Congress and the Administration disrupted with confusion and indecision and general incompetence.

However—what matters most in war is results. And the one pertinent fact is that after only a few years of preparation and only one year of warfare, we are able to engage, spiritually as well as physically, in the total waging of a total war.

Washington may be a madhouse- but only in the sense that it is the Capital City of a Nation which is fighting mad. And I think that Berlin and Rome and Tokyo, which had such contempt for the obsolete methods of democracy, would now gladly use all they could get of that same brand of madness.

And we must not forget that our achievements in production have been relatively no greater than those of the Russians and the British and the Chinese who have developed their own war industries under the incredible difficulties of battle conditions. They have had to continue work through bombings and blackouts. And they have never quit.

We Americans are in good, brave company in this war, and we are playing our own, honorable part in the vast common effort.

As spokesmen for the United States Government, you and I take off our hats to those responsible for our American production—to the owners, managers, and supervisors, to the draftsmen and the engineers, and to the workers- men and women—in factories and arsenals and shipyards and mines and mills and forests—and railroads and on highways.

We take off our hats to the farmers who have faced an unprecedented task of feeding not only a great Nation but a great part of the world.

We take off our hats to all the loyal, anonymous, untiring men and women who have worked in private employment and in Government and who have endured rationing and other stringencies with good humor and good will.

Yes, we take off our hats to all Americans who have contributed so magnificently to our common cause.

I have sought to emphasize a sense of proportion in this review of the events of the war and the needs of the war.

We should never forget the things we are fighting for. But, at this critical period of the war, we should confine ourselves to the larger objectives and not get bogged down in argument over methods and details.

We, and all the United Nations, want a decent peace and a durable peace. In the years between the end of the first World War and the beginning of the second World War, we were not living under a decent or a durable peace.

I have reason to know that our boys at the front are concerned with two broad aims beyond the winning of the war; and their thinking and their opinion coincide with what most Americans here back home are mulling over. They know, and we know, that it would be inconceivable—it would, indeed, be sacrilegious —if this Nation and the world did not attain some real, lasting good out of all these efforts and sufferings and bloodshed and death.

The men in our armed forces want a lasting peace, and, equally, they want permanent employment for themselves, their families, and their neighbors when they are mustered out at the end of the war.

Two years ago I spoke in my Annual Message of four freedoms. The blessings of two of them- freedom of speech and freedom of religion—are an essential part of the very life of this Nation; and we hope that these blessings will be granted to all men everywhere.

'The people at home, and the people at the front, are wondering a little about the third freedom—freedom from want. To them it means that when they are mustered out, when war production is converted to the economy of peace, they will have the right to expect full employment—full employment for themselves and for all able-bodied men and women in America who want to work.

They expect the opportunity to work, to run their farms, their stores, to earn decent wages. They are eager to face the risks inherent in our system of free enterprise.

They do not want a postwar America which suffers from undernourishment or slums- or the dole. They want no get-rich-quick era of bogus "prosperity" which will end for them in selling apples on a street corner, as happened after the bursting of the boom in 1929.

When you talk with our young men and our young women, you will find they want to work for themselves and for their families; they consider that they have the right to work; and they know that after the last war their fathers did not gain that right.

When you talk with our young men and women, you will find that with the opportunity for employment they want assurance against the evils of all major economic hazards- assurance that will extend from the cradle to the grave. And this great Government can and must provide this assurance.

I have been told that this is no time to speak of a better America after the war. I am told it is a grave error on my part.

I dissent.

And if the security of the individual citizen, or the family, should become a subject of national debate, the country knows where I stand.

I say this now to this Seventy-eighth Congress, because it is wholly possible that freedom from want—the right of employment, the right of assurance against life's hazards—will loom very large as a task of America during the coming two years.

I trust it will not be regarded as an issue—but rather as a task for all of us to study sympathetically, to work out with a constant regard for the attainment of the objective, with fairness to all and with injustice to none.

In this war of survival we must keep before our minds not only the evil things we fight against but the good things we are fighting for. We fight to retain a great past- and we fight to gain a greater future.

Let us remember, too, that economic safety for the America of the future is threatened unless a greater economic stability comes to the rest of the world. We cannot make America an island in either a military or an economic sense. Hitlerism, like any other form of crime or disease, can grow from the evil seeds of economic as well as military feudalism.

Victory in this war is the first and greatest goal before us. Victory in the peace is the next. That means striving toward the enlargement of the security of man here and throughout the world —and, finally, striving for the fourth freedom- freedom from fear.

It is of little account for any of us to talk of essential human needs, of attaining security, if we run the risk of another World War in ten or twenty or fifty years. That is just plain common sense. Wars grow in size, in death and destruction, and in the inevitability of engulfing all Nations, in inverse ratio to the shrinking size of the world as a result of the conquest of the air. I shudder to think of what will happen to humanity, including ourselves, if this war ends in an inconclusive peace, and another war breaks out when the babies of today have grown to fighting age.

Every normal American prays that neither he nor his sons nor his grandsons will be compelled to go through this horror again.

Undoubtedly a few Americans, even now, think that this Nation can end this war comfortably and then climb back into an American hole and pull the hole in after them.

But we have learned that we can never dig a hole so deep that it would be safe against predatory animals. We have also learned that if we do not pull the fangs of the predatory animals of this world, they will multiply and grow in strength- and they will be at our throats again once more in a short generation.

Most Americans realize more clearly than ever before that modern war equipment in the hands of aggressor Nations can bring danger overnight to our own national existence or to that of any other Nation—or island—or continent.

It is clear to us that if Germany and Italy and Japan- or any one of them- remain armed at the end of this war, or are permitted to rearm, they will again, and inevitably, embark upon an ambitious career of world conquest. They must be disarmed and kept disarmed, and they must abandon the philosophy, and the teaching of that philosophy, which has brought so much suffering to the world.

After the first World War we tried to achieve a formula for permanent peace, based on a magnificent idealism. We failed. But, by our failure, we have learned that we cannot maintain peace at this stage of human development by good intentions alone.

Today the United Nations are the mightiest military coalition in all history. They represent an overwhelming majority of the population of the world. Bound together in solemn agreement that they themselves will not commit acts of aggression or conquest against any of their neighbors, the United Nations can and must remain united for the maintenance of peace by preventing any attempt to rearm in Germany, in Japan, in Italy, or in any other Nation which seeks to violate the Tenth Commandment -"Thou shalt not covet."

There are cynics, there are skeptics who say it cannot be done. The American people and all the freedom-loving peoples of this earth are now demanding that it must be done. And the will of these people shall prevail.

The very philosophy of the Axis powers is based on a profound contempt for the human race. If, in the formation of our future policy, we were guided by the same cynical contempt, then we should be surrendering to the philosophy of our enemies, and our victory would turn to defeat.

The issue of this war is the basic issue between those who believe in mankind and those who do not—the ancient issue between those who put their faith in the people and those who put their faith in dictators and tyrants. There have always been those who did not believe in the people, who attempted to block their forward movement across history, to force them back to servility and suffering and silence.

The people have now gathered their strength. They are moving forward in their might and power—and no force, no combination of forces, no trickery, deceit, or violence, can stop them now. They see before them the hope of the world- a decent, secure, peaceful life for men everywhere.

I do not prophesy when this war will end.

But I do believe that this year of 1943 will give to the United Nations a very substantial advance along the roads that lead to Berlin and Rome and Tokyo.

I tell you it is within the realm of possibility that this Seventy-eight Congress may have the historic privilege of helping greatly to save the world from future fear.

Therefore, let us all have confidence, let us redouble our efforts.

A tremendous, costly, long-enduring task in peace as well as in war is still ahead of us.

But, as we face that continuing task, we may know that the state of this Nation is good—the heart of this Nation is sound -the spirit of this Nation is strong—the faith of this Nation is eternal.

The travel restrictions noted the other day went into effect, as did the fuel oil rationing provisions.

The Red Army continued its advance in the Caucasus, reaching a position within 75 miles of Rostov on the Don.  Free French troops reached Murzuk in southern Libya.

Eccentric electrical field inventor Nikola Tesla died in New York City at age 86.

Sarah Sundin noted that on her blog, and also noted the following

Today in World War II History—January 7, 1943: African-American opera singer Marian Anderson performs in Constitution Hall after having been denied permission to sing there in 1939.

The famous singer was depicted on a thread here just the other day. 

Monday, December 28, 1942. Funding the Manhattan Project.

President Roosevelt authorized a major expenditure on the Manhattan Project, effectively significantly funding the project for the first time.

Hitler issued Directive No. 47.  This directive concerned the war in the southeast, and more particularly the Balkans and Crete, now that Allied attacks on those locations were a possibility.

On the same day, the costly but effective Tatsinskaya Raid ended in the East.

According to Sarah Sundin:

Today in World War II History—December 28, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Dec. 28, 1942: French Somaliland switches allegiance from Vichy to Free French, the final French territory in Africa to do so.

She also reports that the Germans began to experiment with sterilization of female prisoners at Buchenwald. 

Friday, December 25, 1942. A wartime Christmas.

Old Radio: December 25, 1942: 'Victory Parade's Christmas Par...:   December 25, 1942: All day long, Coca-Cola sponsored Victory Parade's Christmas Party of Spotlight Band s, transmitted on NBC Blue N...

A monograph sponsored by the National Park Service states the following about the Victory Parade radio program:

An Overview of The Spotlight Bands Series

In the fall of 1941, the Coca Cola Company signed a twenty-six week con¬tract with the Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) to air over 125 of its stations, the best of the big bands six nights a week. Monday through Friday, for a quarter of an hour from 10:15 to 10:30 pm Eastern Standard Time, five different bands appeared from the stage of the new Mutual Theater in New York City. The building which held a capacity of 1,000 guests had been the former Maxine Elliott Theater on West 39th Street that the network had acquired and renovated with the most modern of broadcasting equipment for the new series. Sixty percent of the programs originated from these facilities with the remaining forty percent being split between Chicago and Hollywood.

The Kay Kyser Orchestra was the first band to broadcast from the theater on November 3rd and for the next four evenings the melodies of Guy Lombardo, Sammy Kaye, Tommy Dorsey and Eddy Duchin were heard across the nation. The Saturday segment known as the 'Silver Platter' portion aired at the same time but was thirty min¬utes in length, 10:15-10:45 PM. However, unlike the Monday through Friday bands, the one on Saturday was not selected by the network. Rather, this time spot was kept open for the leader rolling up the largest nation-wide record sales during the previous week, thereby creating a mystery band for the listening audience each Saturday evening. The first 'Silver Platter' winner was the Freddy Martin Orchestra which had been selected because they had amassed the greatest amount of single sales the previous month with their recording of Tchaikovsky's classic, Piano Concerto in B Flat, featuring pianist Jack Fina.

Within a relatively short time, the Spotlight Band broadcasts became the most popular big band draw on the radio dial. The result was that the network rescheduled the series into an earlier primetime slot for greater audience exposure. With the February 2, 1942, program featuring the Benny Goodman band, a change was made to 9:30-9:45 PM Eastern War Time weekdays and 9:30-10:00 PM for Saturdays.

As the series neared its twenty-six week completion, negotiations between the network and the sponsor to renew stalled. The last performance aired on May 2, 1942 and featured the Harry James Orchestra from Hollywood. (As a footnote, the James band won the most 'Silver Platters' in the first series totaling seven including the last six Saturdays in a row because of their hit recording, Don't Want To Walk Without You, featuring vocalist Helen Forrest). 

Throughout the summer, negotiations with the network and Coca Cola con¬tinued but to no avail. For various reasons, the soft drink firm decided not to re-sign with Mutual. The “music trades” reported that the sponsor wished to become more involved in the war cause and were determined to return the program to the airwaves in the fall with a “new look”. By mid-August, Coca Cola had agreed to terms for a sec¬ond series with the Blue Network, soon to become the American Broadcasting Company or (ABC).

The first move toward the “new look” for the series was a name change to “The Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands”. With America now in the War, Coca Cola insist¬ed that their presentation be geared as much to the entertainment of the fighting men on both the home and training fronts as to its civilian audience. The format of six different bands each week was retained, but the nightly broadcast time was extended to twenty five minutes, 9:30-9:55 PM EWT. The last five minutes of each half hour was devoted to local news. Another important new feature was that the listening audience became directly involved with the selection of the weekly bands. A combination of two polls rather than record sales now determined which band played and where. The first involved the civilian listeners who voted for the bands they wanted to hear each week and the second was the “Victory Poll” open only to service personnel and defense work¬ers who, with their votes, determined the different nightly locations. The most signifi¬cant difference from the original series was that the broadcasts now aired directly from the various military installations, hospitals, and war plants throughout the country. Not only did Coca Cola send the bands to these locations at their expense, but, each time, the bands were booked and paid to play a three hour engagement. Also, for the first time, the radio shows in this series were numbered by the network. The importance of this notation will become apparent shortly. (Ironically, the first band to start the second series on September 21, 1942, was the Harry James Orchestra performing from the Marine Base on Parris Island, North Carolina).

On December 25th, Coca Cola sponsored a special presentation entitled, “Uncle Sam's Christmas Tree of Spotlight Bands”. This big band bonanza went on the air at noon EWT with the Sammy Kaye Orchestra from Fort Monmouth at Red Bank, New Jersey, and with few interruptions moved west and closed at midnight featuring the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra at the San Pedro Naval Base, San Pedro, California. A total of forty-three different bands, including Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson, participated in fifteen minute segments from all over the country. The music marathon was the largest of its kind ever attempted on a coast to coast radio network.

As the twenty-six week contract with the Blue Network ended in March, 1943, the Coca Cola Company appeared pleased and signed on again for the next two years. At this time Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) became involved with their own version of the band series. AFRS began, on March 22, to record the network programs direct from radio and telephone line feeds onto acetate lacquers in their studio facili¬ties. Later the programs were remixed and edited down to a fifteen minute format elim¬inating any mention of the sponsor. A new musical introduction and announcements by an AFRS broadcaster were then added. These new versions were pressed onto 16-inch transcription discs and distributed via AFRS to radio stations within their network around the world. (As a further footnote, many of these discs have survived till today and have proved a valuable asset in logging the specific whereabouts of the hundreds of bands at the time as well as the contents of their performances).

The first band that AFRS recorded for their purposes was the Hal McIntyre Orchestra. This program was #157 in the network series and assigned #1 with AFRS. This meant that originally there was a numerical difference of 156 between the two list¬ings. However, in October a discrepancy occurred when there appeared to be no pro¬gram #177 in the AFRS series. Many theories have surfaced in an attempt to explain this error. However, to date, no explanation has held water. Therefore, from this point onward a numerical difference of 155 existed between the series. For the next two years the Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands program numbering continued through #858 on the network and #703 on AFRS until Saturday June 16, 1945 with the Eddie Oliver Orchestra. At this time Coca Cola ended its six nights a week broadcasts and long term relationship with ABC.

However, two nights later, on June 18th, the Spotlight Band programs were back on the air when Coca Cola again teamed with Mutual (MBS), their original network partner, from the fall of 1941. With this move came a cutback in airtime for the bands. Instead of six nights a week, they now only performed three nights: Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the same time. The first band to broadcast in the new week¬ly format and initiate the third Spotlight Band series was the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra followed on Wednesday by Vincent Lopez. The Friday spot was pre-empted. For the next nine months until the end of March 1946, the band series continued unchanged from various venues and military installations around the country. On March 29th, with the networks 979th program (AFRS #826), the Ray Herbeck Orchestra brought to a close the third Spotlight series.

The band show now embarked on its fourth and final association with Coca Cola. This involved three set bands, one for each of the same three nights of the week. On Monday April 1st, there was Guy Lombardo; Wednesday, April 3rd, Xavier Cugat; and Friday, April 5th, the Harry James Orchestra. Although the network at this time discon¬tinued numbering the programs, AFRS continued with theirs. Much success and radio exposure for the dozens of different big bands had transpired since the original series began in the fall of 1941, but the marketing value of these musical organizations was no longer what it had been. Coca Cola decided it no longer wanted to be in the band business and let its contract with Mutual expire on December 27, 1946. With the Harry James appearance of November 22, the great era of the Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands came to a close.

Wayne Knight, Music Historian

The British 8th Army captured Sirte.

Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, the French resistance royalist who had assassinated Admiral Darlan, was executed.  He was rehabilitated in 1945 on the basis that Darlan's assassination had been "in the interest of liberation of France" although you apparently have to be French to grasp how.

German soldiers at Stalingrad receive their last issuance of horsemeat. The Germans had by this point slaughtered all of their horses.

Christmas dinners were held for those far away from home, including this one at the Andrew Feruseth Club on Christmas Day.

American families, like that of my father, went through their second wartime Christmas, but in some ways this one was significantly different.  Various types of rationing had set in, and the war was now over a year old with no end in sight, at least no end that most people could reasonably foresee.

Canadian ones, like my mothers, were going through their fourth wartime Christmas.

Saturday, December 19, 1942. The storm ends.

Today in World War II History—December 19, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Dec. 19, 1942: Free French take Pichon, Tunisia from Germans.

From Sara Sundin's blog.

Today saw the high water mark of Operation Winter Storm, the German effort to relieve Stalingrad.  German troops advanced to a point 30 miles south of Stalingrad, which is not close in military offensive terms.  They could not advance further, and the trapped forces had insufficient fuel to commence an effort to break out.

Saturday, November 28, 1942. Battle of Réunion and the Coconut Grove Fire.

The Coconut Grove nightclub in Boston caught fire, resulting in 492 people losing their lives.  It's the worst such disaster in American history.

The Léopard.

The Léopard landed Free French Troops at Réunion off of the east coast of Madagascar in order to take the island from Vichy, which rapidly occurred.

Saturday, November 7, 1942. Giraud escapes France.

The British submarine Seraph smuggled French general Henri Giraud out of France.

Giraud was an opponent of the Vichy regime and had escaped German captivity, for Switzerland, back in April.  Vichy tried to lure him back, but he demurred.

While all in anticipation of Torch, the submarine took Giraud to Gibraltar, where he remained until November 9.  Relationships between the Free French officers were always highly complicated and tense, in part because their legitimacy was really legally questionable, which their organization, supported by the Allies, reflected. The Allies always tried to split the difference between outright firebrand rebels, like DeGaulle, and those who still held some ties to Vichy as the legal government.  Those in a position in between, like Giraud, were in an odd spot.

Stalin issued his Order of the Day proclaiming, on the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution, that Germany had "yet to feel the weight" of the Red Army, a promise which turned out to be true.

The Australians flanked the Japanese on the Kokoda Track.

Johnny Rivers, blues influenced rock musician, was born in New York City.

Wednesday, August 19, 2022. The Raid On Dieppe.

No. 4 Commando landing at Dieppe.

One of the most famous, and controversial, Allied operations of the Second World War occurred on this day when a largely Canadian force was committed to a British operation that's been termed a "raid", but which was on such a huge scale, that that term is debatable.  Operation Jubilee, or the Raid on Dieppe.  It was the bloodiest day of the war for the Canadian Army.

By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-291-1205-14 / Koll / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5476892

The Canadian Second Infantry Division, together with British Commando units featuring a small group of American Rangers, and French commandos, supported with Canadian armor, landed at 04:50 on this morning at the French resort town, with Allied forces landing on six beaches.   By the end of the day, 68% of the Canadian force was lost, either being killed, wounded or captured.

By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-362-2211-12 / Jörgensen / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5411278

The raid was somewhat ill-conceived in that it was on such a large-scale, and designed to test very large scale raids and to also send a signal to the Soviets that the Allies did actually intend to invade France at some point.  It made use of Canadian troops, as the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division had been assigned to protective duties in the United Kingdom and was available. The raid had been scheduled to occur somewhat earlier, and some equipment issued to the Canadians had been recovered, with the same type of equipment then hastily reissued, but with new examples that had to be rapidly reworked for functioning by Canadian troops.

Lord Louis Mountbatten, whom history has not treated well, played a planning role in the operation.  Bernard Law Montgomery got the blame later for some of the operations failures, but he had already been assigned to the 8th Army and cannot really be blamed.

The Germans were already wary of the possibility of British raids, and became aware that the British were interested in Dieppe by French double agents.  At the time, British intelligence was having trouble of this type.

By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-291-1229-12 / Meyer; Wiltberger / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5476900

Some of the raid went well.  No. 4 Commando, for example, to which the American Rangers were attached, landed and conducted their operations very well and withdrew as planned prior to 0800.  The Canadian landings, however, were generally a disaster, and ultimately they experienced heavy losses.  Trouble was experienced landing the supporting tanks, and the Luftwaffe turned out in force, with a major air battle between the Luftwaffe and the RAF/RCAF being the result.  The withdrawal commenced at 0940 and was complete by 1400, but was conducted under heavy fire.  The Germans captured the operation plan for the battle, which, when analyzed, was regarded by the Germans as basically inept.

The battle is regarded as a major disaster, but dissenting voices, which I basically am here, have taken the position that it was an expensive day in school for the Allies.  The British in particular gleaned major lessons about conducting landings that they would employ in Operation Overlord two years later, including the significance of landing tanks.  As a result, the British were particularly well-equipped with special tanks for the landings at Normandy.   The Allies also realized a need for temporary harbors, which would become a major focus for Overlord.

The Germans learned lessons as well, but were overall pleased with how well their forces had done in the defense, and not without reason.  One of the major factors in the German success, however, had been the presence of the Luftwaffe, which, in spite of being obvious, would be ignored by the Germans by 1944 as raids over Germany by strategic bombers took up their air assets.  

As minor side notes, the 50 American Rangers were assigned to Lord Lovat's No. 4 Commando, one of the most eccentric units of the war. This was to give them combat experience, but it was a fortunate assignment, as this part of the raid went well.  Additionally, Sarah Sundin notes that RAF Mustang I's were in the battle and gained their first areal victory on this day.

German treatment of Canadian prisoners would leading to lasting animosity between some Canadian soldiers in regard to the German army, leading some units to be very reluctant to take German prisoners in later actions.

The Japanese landed another 900 men on Guadalcanal.

The Red Army launched the Sinyavino Offensive in an effort to relieve Leningrad.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, August 18, 1942. The Japanese Tokyo Express.

1940s, 1942, Guadalcanal, Imperial Japanese Navy, Posters, South Pacific, World War Two

Wednesday, February 18, 1942. A bad day at sea.

It wasn't a good day for the Allies. 

February 18, 1942: 80 Years Ago—Feb. 18, 1942: Japanese land on Bali, cutting ferry link from Australia to Java.

The above item from Sarah Sundin's blog shows how menacing the Japanese advance was becoming to Australia, constituting, at least from an Allied and Australian prospective, a real threat to the Australian mainland.

On the same day, the Japanese began to murder Chinese in Singapore that they regarded as a threat in the Sook Ching operation.

Chiang Kai-shek met with Mahatma Gandi in Calcutta, in one of the odder  tête-à-tête's of the war.

The USS Truxton and the Pollux ran aground at Lawn Point, Newfoundland, in a storm, resulting in over 200 deaths.  On the same day, the Free French submarine Surcouf may sank off of Panama after colliding with the US freighter Thompson Lykes.

The Sucouf might be described as, frankly, weird.  It was a huge submarine that featured two 8 in deck guns.  It's entire crew of 130 went down with her.

Some submarine hit the Truxton, at any rate, although her crew thought it was a U boat and some still think that may be the case.  She may have actually been sunk due to friendly fire from a Catalina cruising the area, or another US aircraft doing the same.

The Japanese photo magazine Ashai Graph, which oddly published its name in English and Japanese, featured Japanese tanks in Singapore on its cover.

Wednesday December 24, 1941. Christmas Eve. The end of the Battle of Johnston and Palmyra Atolls. The Seizure of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. The Arcadia Conference

Just like now, people were traveling on December 24 in 1941, with these photographs taken at a Washington, D. C. bus terminal.

And they gathered as well, as these photos of a Christmas Eve gathering in the home of an Army doctor show, also in Washington D.C.

The White House Christmas Tree was illuminated.

Both Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, both in Washington, D. C. for the Arcadia Conference, delivered Christmas speeches.

Roosevelt stated:

Fellow workers for freedom:

There are many men and women in America- sincere and faithful men and women—who are asking themselves this Christmas:

How can we light our trees? How can we give our gifts?

How can we meet and worship with love and with uplifted spirit and heart in a world at war, a world of fighting and suffering and death?

How can we pause, even for a day, even for Christmas Day, in our urgent labor of arming a decent humanity against the enemies which beset it?

How can we put the world aside, as men and women put the world aside in peaceful years, to rejoice in the birth of Christ?

These are natural—inevitable—questions in every part of the world which is resisting the evil thing.

And even as we ask these questions, we know the answer. There is another preparation demanded of this Nation beyond and beside the preparation of weapons and materials of war. There is demanded also of us the preparation of our hearts; the arming of our hearts. And when we make ready our hearts for the labor and the suffering and the ultimate victory which lie ahead, then we observe Christmas Day—with all of its memories and all of its meanings—as we should.

Looking into the days to come, I have set aside a day of prayer, and in that Proclamation I have said:

"The year 1941 has brought upon our Nation a war of aggression by powers dominated by arrogant rulers whose selfish purpose is to destroy free institutions. They would thereby take from the freedom-loving peoples of the earth the hard-won liberties gained over many centuries.

"The new year of 1942 calls for the courage and the resolution of old and young to help to win a world struggle in order that we may preserve all we hold dear.

"We are confident in our devotion to country, in our love of freedom, in our inheritance of courage. But our strength, as the strength of all men everywhere, is of greater avail as God upholds us.

"Therefore, I... do hereby appoint the first day of the year 1942 as a day of prayer, of asking forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past, of consecration to the tasks of the present, of asking God's help in days to come.

"We need His guidance that this people may be humble in spirit but strong in the conviction of the right; steadfast to endure sacrifice, and brave to achieve a victory of liberty and peace."

Our strongest weapon in this war is that conviction of the dignity and brotherhood of man which Christmas Day signifies-more than any other day or any other symbol.

Against enemies who preach the principles of hate and practice them, we set our faith in human love and in God's care for us and all men everywhere.

It is in that spirit, and with particular thoughtfulness of those, our sons and brothers, who serve in our armed forces on land and sea, near and far- those who serve for us and endure for us that we light our Christmas candles now across the continent from one coast to the other on this Christmas Eve.

We have joined with many other Nations and peoples in a very great cause. Millions of them have been engaged in the task of defending good with their life-blood for months and for years.

One of their great leaders stands beside me. He and his people in many parts of the world are having their Christmas trees with their little children around them, just as we do here. He and his people have pointed the way in courage and in sacrifice for the sake of little children everywhere.

And so I am asking my associate, my old and good friend, to say a word to the people of America, old and young, tonight Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Churchill stated next:

I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home.  Whether it be the ties of blood on my mother’s side, or the friendships I have developed here over many years of active life, or the commanding sentiment of comradeship in the common cause of great peoples who speak the same language, who kneel at the same altars and, to a very large extent, pursue the same ideals, I cannot feel myself a stranger here in the centre and at the summit of the United States.  I feel a sense of unity and fraternal association which, added to the kindliness of your welcome,  convinces me that I have a right to sit at your fireside and share your Christmas joys.

This is a strange Christmas Eve.  Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and, with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other.  Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the land or wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field.  Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart.  Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm.  Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace.

Let the children have their night of fun and laughter.  Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play.  Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.

I'm sure other Allied leaders also addressed their nations, if they had a Christian culture.  I don't know what they said, however.  Prime Minister King of Canada would have been in Washington, D.C., of course.

Pope Pius XII delivered a message on Vatican Radio, in which he stated a five point plan for peace:

Nell'alba e nella luce che rifulge previa alla festa del Santo Natale, attesa sempre con vivo anelito di gioia soave e penetrante, mentre ogni fronte si prepara a curvarsi e ogni ginocchio a piegarsi in adorazione davanti all'ineffabile mistero della misericordiosa bontà di Dio, che nella sua carità infinita volle dare, quale dono più grande e augusto, all'umanità il suo Figliuolo Unigenito; il Nostro cuore, diletti figli e figlie, sparsi sulla faccia della terra, si dilata a voi, e, pur non obliando la terra, si eleva e si profonda nel cielo.

La stella, indicatrice della culla del neonato Redentore, da venti secoli ancora splende meravigliosa nel cielo della Cristianità. Si agitino pure le genti, e le nazioni congiurino contro Dio e contro il suo Messia (cf. Sal 2,1-2): attraverso le bufere del mondo umano la stella non conobbe, non conosce né conoscerà tramonti; il passato, il presente e l'avvenire sono suoi. Essa ammonisce a mai non disperare: splende sopra i popoli, quand'anche sulla terra, come su oceano mugghiante per tempesta, si addensino i cupi turbini, generatori di stragi e di miserie. La sua luce è luce di conforto, di speranza, di fede incrollabile, di vita e certezza nel trionfo finale del Redentore, che traboccherà, quale torrente di salvezza, nella pace interiore e nella gloria per tutti quelli che, elevati all'ordine soprannaturale della grazia, avranno ricevuto il potere di farsi figli di Dio, perché nati da Dio.

Onde Noi, che, in questi amari tempi di sconvolgimenti guerreschi, siamo straziati dei vostri strazi e doloranti dei vostri dolori, Noi che viviamo come voi sotto il gravissimo incubo di un flagello, dilaniante un terzo anno ancora l'umanità, nella vigilia di tanta solennità amiamo di rivolgervi con commosso cuore di padre la parola, per esortarvi a restar saldi nella fede, e per comunicarvi il conforto di quella verace, esuberante e trasumanante speranza e certezza, che si irradiano dalla culla del neonato Salvatore.

Per vero, diletti figli, se il nostro occhio non mirasse più su della materia e della carne, appena è che troverebbe qualche ragione di conforto. Diffondono, sì, le campane il lieto messaggio del Natale, si illuminano chiese e oratori, le armonie religiose rallegrano gli spiriti, tutto è festa e ornamento nei sacri templi; ma la umanità non cessa dal dilaniarsi in una guerra sterminatrice. Nei sacri riti echeggia sulle labbra della Chiesa la mirabile antifona: «Rex pacificus magnificatus est, cuius vultum desiderat universa terra»;(2) ma essa risuona in stridente contrasto con avvenimenti, che rombano per piani e per monti con fracasso pieno di spavento, devastano terre e case per estese regioni, e gettano milioni di uomini e le loro famiglie nell'infelicità, nella miseria e nella morte. Certo, ammirevoli sono i molteplici spettacoli di indomato valore nella difesa del diritto e del suolo natìo; di serenità nel dolore; di anime che vivono come fiamme di olocausto per il trionfo della verità e della giustizia. Ma pure con angoscia che Ci preme l'animo pensiamo e, come sognando, guardiamo ai terribili scontri di armi e di sangue di quest'anno che volge al tramonto; alla infelice sorte dei feriti e dei prigionieri; alle sofferenze corporali e spirituali, alle stragi, alle distruzioni e rovine che la guerra aerea porta e rovescia su grandi e popolose città, su centri e vasti territori industriali, alle dilapidate ricchezze degli Stati, ai milioni di gente, che l'immane conflitto e la dura violenza vengono gettando nella miseria e nell'inedia.

E mentre il vigore e la salute di larga parte di gioventù, che andava maturando, si vengono scuotendo per le privazioni imposte dal presente flagello, vanno per contro salendo ad altezze vertiginose le spese e i gravami di guerra, che, originando contrazione delle forze produttive nel campo civile e sociale, non possono non dar fondamento alle ansie di coloro che volgono l'occhio preoccupato verso l'avvenire. L'idea della forza soffoca e perverte la norma del diritto. Rendete possibile e offrite porta aperta a individui e gruppi sociali o politici di ledere i beni e la vita altrui; lasciate che anche tutte le altre distruzioni morali turbino e accendano l'atmosfera civile a tempesta; e voi vedrete le nozioni di bene e di male, di diritto e d'ingiustizia perdere i loro acuti contorni, smussarsi, confondersi e minacciare di scomparire. Chi in virtù del ministero pastorale ha la via di penetrare nei cuori, sa e vede qual cumulo di dolori e di ansietà inenarrabili s'aggravi e si amplifichi in molte anime, ne scemi la brama e la gioia di lavorare e di vivere; ne soffochi gli spiriti e li renda muti e indolenti, sospettosi e quasi senza speranza in faccia agli eventi e ai bisogni: turbamenti d'animo che nessuno può prendere alla leggiera, se tiene a cuore il vero bene dei popoli, e desidera promuovere un non lontano ritorno a condizioni normali e ordinate di vita e di azione. Davanti a tale visione del presente, nasce un'amarezza che invade il petto, tanto più in quanto non appare oggi aperto alcun sentiero d'intesa tra le parti belligeranti, i cui reciproci scopi e programmi di guerra sembrano essere in contrasto inconciliabile.

Quando si indagano le cause delle odierne rovine, davanti a cui l'umanità, che le considera, resta perplessa, si ode non di rado affermare che il cristianesimo è venuto meno alla sua missione. Da chi e donde viene siffatta accusa? Forse da quegli apostoli, gloria di Cristo, da quegli eroici zelatori della fede e della giustizia, da quei pastori e sacerdoti, araldi del cristianesimo, i quali attraverso persecuzioni e martirii ingentilirono la barbarie e la prostrarono devota all'altare di Cristo, iniziarono la civiltà cristiana, salvarono le reliquie della sapienza e dell'arte di Atene e di Roma, adunarono i popoli nel nome cristiano, diffusero il sapere e la virtù, elevarono la croce sopra i pinnacoli aerei e le volte delle cattedrali, immagini del cielo, monumenti di fede e di pietà, che ancora ergono il capo venerando fra le rovine dell'Europa? No: il Cristianesimo, la cui forza deriva da Colui che è via, verità e vita, e sta e starà con esso fino alla consumazione dei secoli, non è venuto meno alla sua missione; ma gli uomini si sono ribellati al Cristianesimo vero e fedele a Cristo e alla sua dottrina; si sono foggiati un cristianesimo a loro talento, un nuovo idolo che non salva, che non ripugna alle passioni della concupiscenza della carne, all'avidità dell'oro e dell'argento che affascina l'occhio, alla superbia della vita; una nuova religione senz'anima o un'anima senza religione, una maschera di morto cristianesimo, senza lo spirito di Cristo; e hanno proclamato che il Cristianesimo è venuto meno alla sua missione!

Scaviamo in fondo alla coscienza della società moderna, ricerchiamo la radice del male: dove essa alligna? Senza dubbio anche qui non vogliamo tacere la lode dovuta alla saggezza di quei Governanti, che o sempre favorirono o vollero e seppero rimettere in onore, con vantaggio del popolo, i valori della civiltà cristiana nei felici rapporti fra Chiesa e Stato, nella tutela della santità del matrimonio, nella educazione religiosa della gioventù. Ma non possiamo chiudere gli occhi alla triste visione del progressivo scristianamento individuale e sociale, che dalla rilassatezza del costume è trapassato all'indebolimento e all'aperta negazione di verità e di forze, destinate a illuminare gl'intelletti sul bene e sul male, a corroborare la vita familiare, la vita privata, la vita statale e pubblica. Un'anemia religiosa, quasi contagio che si diffonda, ha così colpito molti popoli di Europa e del mondo e fatto nell'anime un tal vuoto morale, che nessuna rigovernatura religiosa o mitologia nazionale e internazionale varrebbe a colmarlo. Con parole e con azioni e con provvedimenti, da decenni e secoli, che mai di meglio o di peggio si seppe fare se non strappare dai cuori degli uomini, dalla puerizia alla vecchiezza, la fede in Dio, Creatore e Padre di tutti, rimuneratore del bene e vindice del male, snaturando l'educazione e l'istruzione, combattendo e opprimendo con ogni arte e mezzo, con la diffusione della parola e della stampa, con l'abuso della scienza e del potere, la religione e la Chiesa di Cristo?

Travolto lo spirito nel baratro morale con lo straniarsi da Dio e dalla pratica cristiana, altro non rimaneva se non che pensieri, propositi, avviamenti, stima delle cose, azione e lavoro degli uomini si rivolgessero e mirassero al mondo materiale, affannandosi e sudando per dilatarsi nello spazio, per crescere più che mai oltre ogni limite nella conquista delle ricchezze e della potenza, per gareggiare di velocità nel produrre più e meglio ogni cosa che l'avanzamento o il progresso materiale pareva richiedere. Di qui, nella politica, il prevalere di un impulso sfrenato verso l'espansione e il mero credito politico incurante della morale; nell'economia il dominare delle grandi e gigantesche imprese e associazioni; nella vita sociale il riversarsi e pigiarsi delle schiere di popolo in gravosa sovrabbondanza nelle grandi città e nei centri d'industria e di commercio, con quella instabilità che consegue e accompagna una moltitudine di uomini, i quali mutano casa e residenza, paese e mestiere, passioni e amicizie. 

Ne nacque allora che i rapporti reciproci della vita sociale presero un carattere puramente fisico e meccanico. Con dispregio di ogni ragionevole ritegno e riguardo l'impero della costrizione esterna, il nudo possesso del potere si sovrappose alle norme dell'ordine, reggitore della convivenza umana, le quali, emanate da Dio, stabiliscono quali relazioni naturali e soprannaturali intercorrano fra il diritto e l'amore verso gl'individui e la società. La maestà e la dignità della persona umana e delle particolari società venne mortificata, avvilita e soppressa dall'idea della forza che crea il diritto; la proprietà privata divenne per gli uni un potere diretto verso lo sfruttamento dell'opera altrui, negli altri generò gelosia, insofferenza e odio; e l'organizzazione, che ne seguiva, si convertì in forte arma di lotta per far prevalere interessi di parte. In alcuni Paesi, una concezione dello Stato atea o anticristiana con i suoi vasti tentacoli avvinse a sé talmente l'individuo da quasi spogliarlo d'indipendenza, non meno nella vita privata che nella pubblica.

Chi potrà oggi meravigliarsi se tale radicale opposizione ai principi della cristiana dottrina venne infine a tramutarsi in ardente cozzo di tensioni interne ed esterne, così da condurre a sterminio di vite umane e distruzione di beni, quale lo lediamo e a cui assistiamo con profonda pena? Funesta conseguenza e frutto delle condizioni sociali ora descritte, la guerra, lungi dall'arrestarne l'influsso e lo svolgimento, lo promuove, lo accelera e amplia, con tanto maggior rovina, quanto più essa dura, rendendo la catastrofe ancor più generale.

Dalla Nostra parola contro il materialismo dell'ultimo secolo e del tempo presente male argomenterebbe chi ne deducesse una condanna del progresso tecnico. No; Noi non condanniamo ciò che è dono di Dio, il quale, come ci fa sorgere il pane dalle zolle della terra, nelle viscere più profonde del suolo nei giorni della creazione del mondo nascose tesori di fuoco, di metalli, di pietre preziose da scavarsi dalla mano dell'uomo per i suoi bisogni, per le sue opere, per il suo progresso. La Chiesa, madre di tante Università d'Europa, che ancora esalta e aduna i più arditi maestri delle scienze, scrutatori della natura, non ignora però che di ogni bene e della stessa libertà del volere si può far un uso degno di lode e di premio ovvero di biasimo e di condanna. Così è avvenuto che lo spirito e la tendenza, con cui fu spesso usato il progresso tecnico, fanno sì che, all'ora che volge, la tecnica debba espiare il suo errore ed esser quasi punitrice di se stessa, creando strumenti di rovina, che distruggono oggi ciò che ieri essa ha edificato.

Di fronte alla vastità del disastro, originato dagli errori indicati, non si offre altro rimedio, se non il ritorno agli altari, a' pie' dei quali innumerevoli generazioni di credenti attingevano già la benedizione e l'energia morale per il compimento dei propri doveri; alla fede, che illuminava individui e società e insegnava i diritti e i doveri spettanti a ciascuno; alle sagge e incrollabili norme di un ordine sociale, le quali nel terreno nazionale, come in quello internazionale, ergono un'efficace barriera contro l'abuso della libertà, non altrimenti che contro l'abuso del potere. Ma il richiamo a queste benefiche sorgenti ha da risonare alto, persistente, universale, nell'ora in cui il vecchio ordinamento sarà per scomparire e cedere il passo e il posto a un nuovo.

La futura ricostruzione potrà presentare e dare preziosa facoltà di promuovere il bene, non scevra anche di pericoli di cadere in errori, e con gli errori favorire il male; ed esigerà serietà prudenti e matura riflessione, non solo per la gigantesca arduità dell'opera, ma ancora per le gravi conseguenze che, qualora fallisse, cagionerebbe nel campo materiale e spirituale; esigerà intelletti di larghe vedute e volontà di fermi propositi, uomini coraggiosi e operosi, ma, sopra tutto e avanti tutto, coscienze, le quali nei disegni, nelle deliberazioni e nelle azioni siano animate e mosse e sostenute da un vivo senso di responsabilità, e non rifuggano dall'inchinarsi davanti alle sante leggi di Dio; perché, se con la vigoria plasmatrice nell'ordine materiale non si accoppierà somma ponderatezza e sincero proposito nell'ordine morale, si verificherà senza dubbio la sentenza di S. Agostino: «Bene currunt, sed in via non currunt. Quanto plus currunt, plus errant, quia a via recedunt».(3)

Né sarebbe la prima volta che uomini, i quali stanno nell'aspettazione di cingersi del lauro di vittorie guerresche, sognassero di dare al mondo un nuovo ordinamento, additando nuove vie, a loro parere, conducenti al benessere, alla prosperità e al progresso. Ma ogni qualvolta cedettero alla tentazione d'imporre la loro costruzione contro il dettame della ragione, della moderazione, della giustizia e della nobile umanità, si trovarono caduti e stupiti a contemplare i ruderi di speranze deluse e di progetti abortiti. Onde la storia insegna che i trattati di pace, stipulati con spirito e condizioni contrastanti sia con i dettami morali sia con una genuina saggezza politica, mai non ebbero vita, se non grama e breve, mettendo così a nudo e testimoniando un errore di calcolo, umano senza dubbio, ma non per questo meno esiziale. 

Ora le rovine di questa guerra sono troppo ingenti, da non dovervisi aggiungere anche quelle di una pace frustrata e delusa; e perciò ad evitare tanta sciagura, conviene che con sincerità di volere e di energia, con proposito di generoso contributo, vi cooperino, non solo questo o quel partito, non solo questo o quel popolo, ma tutti i popoli, anzi l'intera umanità. È un'intrapresa universale di bene comune, che richiede la collaborazione della Cristianità, per gli aspetti religiosi e morali del nuovo edificio che si vuol costruire.

Facciamo quindi uso di un Nostro diritto o, meglio, adempiamo un Nostro dovere, se oggi, alla vigilia del Santo Natale, divina aurora di speranza e di pace per il mondo, con l'autorità del Nostro ministero apostolico e il caldo incitamento del Nostro cuore, richiamiamo l'attenzione e la meditazione dell'universo intero sui pericoli che insidiano e minacciano una pace, la quale sia acconcia base di un vero nuovo ordinamento e risponda all'aspettazione e ai voti dei popoli per un più tranquillo avvenire.

Tale nuovo ordinamento, che tutti i popoli anelano di veder attuato, dopo le prove e le rovine di questa guerra, ha da essere innalzato sulla rupe incrollabile e immutabile della legge morale, manifestata dal Creatore stesso per mezzo dell'ordine naturale e da Lui scolpita nei cuori degli uomini con caratteri incancellabili; legge morale, la cui osservanza deve venir inculcata e promossa dall'opinione pubblica di tutte le Nazioni e di tutti gli Stati con tale unanimità di voce e di forza, che nessuno possa osare di porla in dubbio o attenuarne il vincolo obbligante.

Quale faro splendente, essa deve coi raggi dei suoi principi dirigere il corso dell'operosità degli uomini e degli Stati, i quali avranno da seguirne le ammonitrici, salutari e proficue segnalazioni, se non vorranno condannare alla bufera e al naufragio ogni lavoro e sforzo per stabilire un nuovo ordinamento. Riassumendo pertanto e integrando quel che in altre occasioni fu da Noi esposto, insistiamo anche ora su alcuni presupposti essenziali di un ordine internazionale, che, assicurando a tutti i popoli una pace giusta e duratura, sia feconda di benessere e di prosperità.

1. Nel campo di un nuovo ordinamento fondato sui principi morali, non vi è posto per la lesione della libertà, dell'integrità e della sicurezza di altre Nazioni, qualunque sia la loro estensione territoriale o la loro capacità di difesa. Se è inevitabile che i grandi Stati, per le loro maggiori possibilità e la loro potenza, traccino il cammino per la costituzione di gruppi economici fra essi e le azioni più piccole e deboli; è nondimeno incontestabile - come per tutti, nell'ambito dell'interesse generale - il diritto di queste al rispetto della loro libertà nel campo politico, alla efficace custodia di quella neutralità nelle contese fra gli Stati, che loro spetta secondo il gius naturale e delle genti, alla tutela del loro sviluppo economico, giacchè soltanto in tal guisa potranno conseguire adeguatamente il bene comune, il benessere materiale e spirituale del proprio popolo.

2. Nel campo di un nuovo ordinamento fondato sui principi morali, non vi è posto per la oppressione aperta o subdola delle peculiarità culturali e linguistiche delle minoranze nazionali, per l'impedimento e la contrazione delle loro capacità economiche, per la limitazione o l'abolizione della loro naturale fecondità. Quanto più coscienziosamente la competente autorità dello Stato rispetta i diritti delle minoranze, tanto più sicuramente ed efficacemente può esigere dai loro membri il leale compimento dei doveri civili, comuni agli altri cittadini.

3. Nel campo di un nuovo ordinamento fondato sui principi morali, non vi è posto per i ristretti calcoli egoistici, tendenti ad accaparrarsi le fonti economiche e le materie di uso comune, in maniera che le Nazioni, meno favorite dalla natura, ne restino escluse. Al qual riguardo Ci è di somma consolazione il vedere affermarsi la necessità di una partecipazione di tutti ai beni della terra anche presso quelle Nazioni, che nell'attuazione di questo principio apparterrebbero alla categoria di coloro «che danno» e non di quelli «che ricevono». Ma è conforme a equità che una soluzione di tale questione, decisiva per l'economia del mondo, avvenga metodicamente e progressivamente con le necessarie garanzie, e tragga ammaestramento dalle mancanze e dalle omissioni del passato. Se nella futura pace non si venisse ad affrontare coraggiosamente questo punto, rimarrebbe nelle relazioni tra i popoli una profonda e vasta radice germogliante amari contrasti ed esasperate gelosie, che finirebbero col condurre a nuovi conflitti. Decorre però osservare come la soddisfacente soluzione di questo problema strettamente vada connessa con un altro cardine fondamentale di un nuovo ordinamento, del quale parliamo nel punto seguente.

4. Nel campo di un nuovo ordinamento fondato sui principi morali, non vi è posto - una volta eliminati i più pericolosi focolai di conflitti armati - per una guerra totale né per una sfrenata corsa agli armamenti. Non si deve permettere che la sciagura di una guerra mondiale con le sue rovine economiche e sociali e le sue aberrazioni e perturbazioni morali si rovesci per la terza volta sopra la umanità. La quale perché venga tutelata lungi da tale flagello, è necessario che con serietà e onestà si proceda a una limitazione progressiva e adeguata degli armamenti. Lo squilibrio tra un esagerato armamento degli Stati potenti e il deficiente armamento dei deboli crea un pericolo per la conservazione della tranquillità e della pace dei popoli, e consiglia di scendere a un ampio e proporzionato limite nella fabbricazione e nel possesso di armi offensive.

Conforme poi alla misura, in cui il disarmo venga attuato, sono da stabilirsi mezzi appropriati, onorevoli per tutti ed efficaci, per ridonare alla norma Pacta sunt servanda, «i patti devono essere osservati», la funzione vitale e morale, che le spetta nelle relazioni giuridiche fra gli Stati. Tale norma, che nel passato ha subìto crisi preoccupanti e innegabili infrazioni, ha trovato contro di sé una quasi insanabile sfiducia tra i vari popoli e i rispettivi reggitori. Perché la fiducia reciproca rinasca devono sorgere istituzioni, le quali, acquistandosi il generale rispetto, si dedichino al nobilissimo ufficio, sia di garantire il sincero adempimento dei trattati, sia di promuoverne, secondo i principi di diritto e di equità, opportune correzioni o revisioni.

Non Ci nascondiamo il cumulo di difficoltà da superarsi, e la quasi sovrumana forza di buona volontà richiesta a tutte le parti, perché convengano a dare felice soluzione alla doppia impresa qui tracciata. Ma questo lavoro comune è talmente essenziale per una pace duratura, che nulla deve rattenere gli uomini di Stato responsabili dall'intraprenderlo e cooperarvi con le forze di un buon volere, il quale, guardando al bene futuro, vinca i dolorosi ricordi di tentativi non riusciti nel passato, e non si lasci atterrire dalla conoscenza del gigantesco vigore, che si domanda per tale opera.

5. Nel campo di un nuovo ordinamento fondato sui principi morali, non vi è posto per la persecuzione della religione e della Chiesa. Da una fede viva in un Dio personale trascendente si sprigiona una schietta e resistente vigoria morale che informa tutto il corso della vita; perché la fede non è solo una virtù ma la porta divina per la quale entrano nel tempio dell'anima tutte le virtù, e si costituisce quel carattere forte e tenace che non vacilla nei cimenti della ragione e della giustizia. Ciò vale sempre; ma molto più ha da splendere quando così dall'uomo di Stato, come dall'ultimo dei cittadini si esige il massimo di coraggio e di energia morale per ricostruire una nuova Europa e un nuovo mondo sulle rovine, che il conflitto mondiale con la sua violenza, con l'odio e la scissione degli animi ha accumulate. Quanto alla questione sociale in particolare, che al finir della guerra si presenterà più acuta, i Nostri Predecessori e anche Noi stessi abbiamo segnato norme di soluzione; le quali però convien considerare che potranno seguirsi nella loro interezza e dare pieno frutto solo se uomini di Stato e popoli, datori di lavoro e operai, siano animati dalla fede in un Dio personale, legislatore e vindice, a cui devono rispondere delle loro azioni. Perché, mentre l'incredulità, che si accampa contro Dio, ordinatore dell'universo, è la più pericolosa nemica di un giusto ordine nuovo, ogni uomo, invece, credente in Dio ne è un potente fautore e paladino. Chi ha fede in Cristo, nella sua divinità, nella sua legge, nella sua opera di amore e di fratellanza fra gli uomini, porterà elementi particolarmente preziosi alla ricostruzione sociale; a maggior ragione, più ve ne porteranno gli uomini di Stato, se si dimostreranno pronti ad aprire largamente le porte e spianare il cammino alla Chiesa di Cristo, affinché, libera e senza intralci, mettendo le sue soprannaturali energie a servigio dell'intesa tra i popoli e della pace, possa cooperare col suo zelo e col suo amore all'immenso lavoro di risanare le ferite della guerra.

Ci riesce perciò inspiegabile come in alcune regioni disposizioni molteplici attraversino la via al messaggio della fede cristiana, mentre concedono ampio e libero passo a una propaganda che la combatte. Sottraggono la gioventù alla benefica influenza della famiglia cristiana e la estraniano dalla Chiesa; la educano in uno spirito avverso a Cristo, instillandovi concezioni, massime e pratiche anticristiane; rendono ardua e turbata l'opera della Chiesa nella cura delle anime e nelle azioni di beneficenza; disconoscono e rigettano il suo morale influsso sull'individuo e la società: determinazioni tutte che lungi dall'essere state mitigate o abolite nel corso della guerra, sono andate sotto non pochi riguardi inasprendosi. Che tutto questo, e altro ancora, possa essere continuato tra le sofferenze dell'ora presente è un triste segno dello spirito con cui i nemici della Chiesa impongono ai fedeli, in mezzo a tutti gli altri non lievi sacrifici, anche il peso angoscioso di un'ansia d'amarezza, gravante sulle coscienze.

Noi amiamo, Ce n'è testimonio Dio, con uguale affetto tutti i popoli senza alcuna eccezione; e per evitare anche solo l'apparenza di essere mossi da spirito di parte, Ci siamo imposti finora il massimo riserbo; ma le disposizioni contro la Chiesa e gli scopi, che esse perseguano, sono tali da sentirci obbligati in nome della verità a pronunziare una parola, anche perché non ne nasca, per disavventura, smarrimento tra i fedeli.

Noi guardiamo oggi, diletti figli, all'Uomo-Dio, nato in una grotta per risollevare l'uomo a quella grandezza, dond'era caduto per sua colpa, per ricollocarlo sul trono di libertà, di giustizia e d'onore, che i secoli degli dei falsi gli avevano negato. Il fondamento di quel trono sarà il Calvario; il suo ornamento non sarà l'oro o l'argento, ma il sangue di Cristo, sangue divino che da venti secoli scorre sul mondo e imporpora le gote della sua Sposa, la Chiesa, e, purificando, consacrando, santificando, glorificando i suoi figli, diventa candore di cielo.

O Roma cristiana, quel sangue è la tua vita: per quel sangue tu sei grande e illumini della tua grandezza anche i ruderi e le rovine della tua grandezza pagana, e purifichi e consacri i codici della sapienza giuridica dei pretori e dei Cesari. Tu sei madre di una giustizia più alta e più umana, che onora te, il tuo seggio e chi ti ascolta. Tu sei faro di civiltà, e la civile Europa e il mondo ti devono quanto di più sacro e di più santo, quanto di più saggio e di più onesto esalta i popoli e fa bella la loro storia. Tu sei madre di carità: i tuoi fasti, i tuoi monumenti, i tuoi ospizi, i tuoi monasteri e i tuoi conventi, i tuoi eroi e le tue eroine, i tuoi araldi e i tuoi missionari, le tue età e i tuoi secoli con le loro scuole e le loro università testimoniano i trionfi della tua carità, che tutto abbraccia, tutto soffre, tutto spera, tutto opera per farsi tutto a tutti, tutti confortare e sollevare, tutti sanare e chiamare alla libertà donata all'uomo da Cristo, e tranquillare tutti in quella pace, che affratella i popoli, e di tutti gli uomini, sotto qualunque cielo, qualunque lingua o costume li distingua, fa una sola famiglia, e del mondo una patria comune.

Da questa Roma, centro, rocca e maestra del Cristianesimo, città più per Cristo che per i Cesari eterna nel tempo, Noi, mossi dal desiderio ardente e vivissimo del bene dei singoli popoli e dell'intera umanità, a tutti rivolgiamo la Nostra voce, pregando e scongiurando che non tardi il giorno che in tutti i luoghi, dove oggi l'ostilità contro Dio e Cristo trascina gli uomini alla rovina temporale ed eterna, prevalgano maggiori conoscenze religiose e nuovi propositi; il giorno, in cui sulla culla del nuovo ordinamento dei popoli risplenda la stella di Betlemme, annunziatrice di un nuovo spirito che muova a cantare con gli angeli: Gloria in excelsis Deo, e a proclamare, come dono alfine largito dal cielo, a tutte le genti: Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. Spuntata l'aurora di quel giorno, con qual gaudio Nazioni e Reggitori, sgombro l'animo dai timori di insidie e di riprese di conflitti, trasformeranno le spade, laceratrici d'umani petti, in aratri, solcanti, al sole della benedizione divina, il fecondo seno della terra, per strapparle un pane, bagnato sì di sudore, ma non più di sangue e di lacrime!

In tale attesa e con questa anelante preghiera sulle labbra, mandiamo il Nostro saluto e la benedizione Nostra a tutti i Nostri figli dell'universo intero. Scenda la Nostra benedizione più larga su quelli - sacerdoti, religiosi e laici - che soffrono pene e angustie per la loro fede: scenda anche su quelli che, pur non appartenendo al corpo visibile della Chiesa cattolica, sono a Noi vicini per la fede in Dio e in Gesù Cristo, e con Noi concordano sopra l'ordinamento e gli scopi fondamentali della pace; scenda con particolare palpito d'affezione su quanti gemono nella tristezza, nella dura ambascia dei travagli di quest'ora. Sia scudo a quanti militano sotto le armi; farmaco ai malati e ai feriti; conforto ai prigionieri, agli espulsi dalla terra natìa, ai lontani dal domestico focolare, ai deportati in terre straniere, ai milioni di miseri che lottano a ogni ora contro gli spaventosi morsi della fame. Sia balsamo a ogni dolore e sventura; sia sostegno e consolazione a tutti i miseri e bisognosi i quali aspettano una parola amica, che versi nei loro cuori forza, coraggio, dolcezza di compassione e di aiuto fraterno. Riposi infine la Nostra benedizione su quelle anime e quelle mani pietose, che con inesauribile generoso sacrificio Ci hanno dato di che potere, sopra le strettezze dei Nostri mezzi, asciugare le lacrime, lenire la povertà di molti, specialmente dei più poveri e derelitti tra le vittime della guerra, facendo in tal modo sperimentare come la bontà e benignità di Dio, la cui somma e ineffabile rivelazione è il Bambino del presepe che della sua povertà volle farci ricchi, mai non cessano, per volger di tempi e sciagure, di esser vive e operanti nella Chiesa.

A tutti impartiamo con profondo amore paterno dalla pienezza del Nostro cuore la Benedizione Apostolica.

The New York Times would report the Pope's plan as essentially the fitting well with the eight point plan laid out by Roosevelt and Churchill.

The German government was a dedicated opponent of Christianity, but it remained something it had to contend with. While it would be a topic for elsewhere, early German efforts to completely co-opt the Lutheran Church had failed and the Catholic Church remained too unified and outside of the influence of the government to take on.  Given that, the long term plan was to suppress Christianity where it could, and destroy it later.  At least within the SS, the long term plan was to create a new paganistic German national religion.

As Christmas remained a large feature of German culture notwithstanding, Joespeh Goebbels to to the air to deliver a Christmas Eve message to the German people.  It went:

As I speak on Christmas Eve over the radio to the German people, I am the spokesman for the homeland to all our soldiers who are far from home during this war Christmas of 1941. I know that countless people envy my ability to speak over the aether to millions of Germans in many lands and continents. How many men and women, fathers, sons and daughters, wish they could stand in my place and greet their sons, husbands, brothers, or fathers! How many soldiers and Germans abroad wish they could step to the microphone and speak to their mothers, fathers, children, or brothers and sisters.

I must today speak for them all. I must extend the greetings and deepest wishes from here to there and from there to here. I will say little of politics this evening. We all know what we Germans have to say about world conditions and the future. Everyone knows that we must withstand the storms of the age until victory is ours. That has become clear in recent years, and I do not need to say anything about it.

Instead, I want to talk of the thoughts and feelings that move all of us this Christmas Eve. I will speak for half an hour as one person to another. We will consider the difficulties of the century in which we stand, and look both backwards and forwards.

There are few presents under the Christmas tree this year. The effects of the war are evident there as well. We have sent our Christmas candles to the Eastern Front, where our soldiers need them more than we do. Rather than producing dolls, castles, lead soldiers, and toy guns, our factories have been producing things essential for the war effort. Our troops are the first priority.

But gifts are not the most important thing about Christmas anyway. Since we can no longer celebrate Christmas as generously and wastefully as in the past, perhaps we will remember even more its spiritual nature. Instead of giving outward gifts to our family, friends, and community, today we will express our love to one another and our faith in all that holds us together. We long for a golden bridge to extend to all those whom we love across the distant reaches, countries, oceans, and continents.

All eyes look to the homeland. Our soldiers and Germans abroad above all have learned how beautiful it is in the past year. That may be why they have fought so bravely and loyally for it. They wanted to protect it from the horrors of war. All that they left behind when they heeded duty’s call they hope to find upon their return just as it was when they left. The war has become a school that has increased the love all of us have for the homeland. Whatever the difficulties of today or tomorrow, the individual finds there the meaning of his devotion, his sacrifice, his bravery. In this third war Christmas, we celebrate more spartanly and more modestly than before, but we are protected and guarded against the threats of our enemies. We must thank those who defend us, our sons, fathers, and brothers, who have learned only in distant lands among foreign peoples how dear their fatherland and their people are.

The great task demands the same sacrifice from us! The hardest demands are on our soldiers. They are spending their third Christmas away. The homeland is the center about which all their thoughts and wishes circle. Their greatest pride must be that they are defending the homeland and protecting it from the fury of war. They have learned the terrors of modern warfare, with which they are daily surrounded. It is surely worth their great and brave exertions to see to it that their village and their Fatherland do not meet the same fate as countless villages and cities in enemy countries. Think of what would have become of their parents, their wives and their children if they had not defended the homeland! Each German soldier should remember that. The homeland can only be as they imagine, and as they hope to find it upon their return, if millions of its fathers and sons defend it.

The same is true for all Germans abroad. They often live in an entirely foreign, sometimes hostile, world. It should not surprise us that we are not always loved as we defend our right to life. Envy and distrust, hatred and persecution often surround our fellow countrymen. We read about it occasionally in the newspapers, but they experience it every day. In a tiny minority, they are the targets of propaganda hostile to Germany. They are mocked, harassed, see their houses searched, and are put in prison. Why else would they bear it all with pride and dignity? They love the homeland even more deeply than we, and give their full devotion. For us, speaking German is a matter of course, but they are spat on for it. We read German newspapers every day, they get them months later and pass them from hand to hand as a message from the beloved homeland. We listen to the German radio every night, they tinker for hours with their sets to get a few words from the homeland. We see our German films and newsreels whenever we care to, but they have to gather secretly to watch a copy of a film like “The Western Campaign,” which we have practically forgotten about.

They, too, would rather be at home than abroad, but they stay at their post to serve the fatherland. They are not worn down by hatred and suspicion. They are the pioneers of Germandom in the world. They are not out to conquer the world, as our enemies say, but to defend their ethnicity. This Christmas Eve we think of them as well as our soldiers, because we know that Christmas is a deeply German holiday that binds us all together. Perhaps they think today that although their tasks are difficult, they still have it easier than Germans abroad had it during the World War, during which they often learned nothing from the homeland other than what our enemies wanted them to hear. Today, they are at least connected to us by radio. They receive our news and speeches, hear German music and German songs, learn of the heroic battles of our troops. In brief, their imaginations have a bridge that each day carries them back home.

And they can be at ease. They will not experience the shame of 1918, when the German people’s collapse struck them like a numbing blow. Today the homeland knows what is expected of it, and is giving its full efforts. They have not deserted us and we will not desert them. The homeland would not be worth the sacrifices that millions are making for it were it not ever striving to be worthy of them. Certainly it is not easy. It must give up many familiar habits and accept a thousand large and small privations. Those who live in areas being attacked from the air have much to bear, and deserve the highest praise and warmest recognition.

The whole nation is worthy of the great era in which we live. Still, all the burdens of the homeland are but a fraction of the sacrifices, burdens and privations, the actions and the dangers, that our soldiers endure, or of the persecutions that Germans abroad constantly endure. We at home, God knows, have no reason to complain. We have to accept the war’s demands. The war has only made us harder. We will not win by weakness. We must be brave and ever ready. Victory will not be given to us; we have to earn it. Everyone must do his part. Even on this Christmas Eve that must be the focus of our thoughts. The time will come when the war’s demands are past. At a later Christmas, we will look back on this Christmas Eve. In the fond light of memory, none of us will wish we had missed it. All the dead of the war will stand as shining heroes before our eyes, those who gave their lives to win a better life for their nation.

There is probably no one among us who in this hour does not look up to heaven. The war has taught us not only be to strong against our enemies, but also to accept our fate and the will of its godly ruler. We thank the Almighty for the proud victories that he again has given us. We will continue fighting until total victory is ours.

Our time together has come to an end. Our soldiers sit together and talk of home. At home we think only of them, and speak in spirit with them. Germans abroad think once more of the great Reich of the Germans. Then we will all return to the troubles and difficulties, burdens, sacrifices, and privations of everyday life. We may never forget that we all have a responsibility, each in his own way, to work and fight for a rapid victory.

We keep our eye fixed on it. We do not doubt it for a minute. In thinking of the Führer, who on this evening, too, is everywhere where Germans gather, we are reminded of the Fatherland. It will be larger, more beautiful, more prosperous after the war is over. It will be a proud and free homeland for us all. We want to thank the Führer for that. He can depend on his people at the front, at home, and in the wide world. He leads us, and we follow him. Without a shadow of doubt, we follow him bearing the flag and the Reich. The flag and the Reich shall be pure and unstained when the great hour of victory comes.

I greet you from the depths of my heart. Earlier we sang of peace on earth in our songs. Now the time has come to fight for it. Peace through victory! That is our slogan.

May my words bring a scent of the homeland far to the East and the West, to the front against Bolshevism, to North Africa’s deserts, to the seas where our submarines and warships sail, to the most distant nations and continents and the farthest corner of the earth where a German heart still beats, but also to the homeland itself, to the cities and the countryside, to every hut and every home.

 In the Northern Hemisphere, and involving the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and France, Free French forces landed on Saint Pierre and Miquelon, small French islands off of southwestern Newfoundland.  They were dispatched there by a Free French flotilla consisting of three corvettes and a submarine.

The administration of the islands had declared loyalty to Vichy but there was no opposition to the Free French, who took possession of the islands in twenty minutes in the very early morning.  The landing had been over the objection of Canada and the United States.  Newfoundland, which was not yet part of Canada, had wanted the Free French takeover, however.  The US position was in part out of fear that radio installations on the island would be destroyed in a takeover.

Free French Submarine Surcouf which lead the invading flotilla.

A vote on the islands' allegiance was held on December 25, Christmas Day, with 98% of the men, the only ones allowed to vote, voting for allegiance to the Free French effort.  The United States objected to the takeover as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine and compared the act to German and Japanese aggression.

On Christmas Eve, or at least the day before Christmas, 1941, the Japanese gave up shelling Johnston and Palmyra by submarine.  The result of the odd naval duel was inconclusive, but it was significant in that at this point the Japanese were meeting with some difficulties.  They had to expend considerably more effort to take Wake than they had anticipated, and now they had failed to destroy airbases at Johnston and Palmyra.

Most of the attacks had been at night, when the aircraft stationed on both islands were hampered in potential operations and the counterfire was by Marine Corps shore battery.

Both islands are absolutely tiny, with Palmyra being larger and forested.  Johnston Atoll is barren and pretty much uninhabitable but for support.  Palmyra has no evidence of human contact at all before being discovered in 1802.  Johnston Atoll was known to Hawaiians, but because of its exceedingly barren nature, they did not attempt to inhabit it.

Both islands were reinforced following this engagement, and they'd remain occupied by the Navy and Marine Corps throughout World War Two.  In 1941 and early 1942, they were the critical front line for the Hawaiian Islands, some 700 miles distant.  Palmyra would become an important way station for the US in the war in the Pacific.

The seat of the Filipino government was moved to Corregador.

The Japanese Navy torpedoed the SS Absaroka off of California, but she'd survive the war.  She was beached at Fort MacArthur due to the attack, which was named for Gen. Douglas MacArthur's father, a hero of the Civil War.

It was a day for submarines.  The Dutch submarine K XVI sank the Japanese destroyer Sagiri off of Borneo.  The German U-568 sank the British corvette Salvia off of Alexandria.  The British submarine H31 disappeared in the Bay of Biscay, probably the victim of a mine.

Japanese machine gunner in the Battle of Changsha.

On the same day the Japanese launched an offensive in China, starting the Battle of Changsha.  This was the first Japanese offensive in China following Pearl Harbor and the first during which the Japan and China were officially at war.  Going well at first, the Japanese would ultimately meet fierce resistance from the under sung Chinese Nationalist Army resulting in a Japanese defeat, the first such defeat following December 7, 1941.

In the US, the California Coastal Patrol of the United States Army Air Corps was engaged in training, including with this B-18, a little considered US aircraft of the period.

B-18s were envisioned as significant American two engined bombers, but they never really panned out.  Many were destroyed on the ground by the Japanese in the Philippines and the surviving examples in the US continued on in the anti-submarine role until mid-war, when B-24s replaced them.  Some B-18s were converted to cargo planes at that time.

Haiti declared war on Bulgari, Hungary and Romania.

Closer to home:

I can probably accurately state part of what my parents did on this day in 1941.  It would have obviously been a day off for a Christmas break from school for both of them.

They may have gone to Midnight Mass, although I don't know that.  My father spoke of having attended Midnight Masses more than my mother, but always in the context of being an altar server.  If he was not serving, chances are that they would have gone to an early morning Mass.  

In any event, both of them likely listened to the radio addresses given by Roosevelt and Churchill.  They would have been big events, given the massive uncertainty of the times, the ongoing conference in Washington, D.C., and the recent entry of the United States into the war.