Friday August 29, 1941. Shifting sands

On this day in 1941, Charles Lindbergh at a rally of the American First Committee in Oklahoma City warned the audience that the United Kingdom might turn against the US "as she had turned against France and Finland". 

Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana.

Lindbergh was backed up by Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler who counseled that "If our interventionist want to free a country from the domination of another country, we ought to declare war on Great Britain and free India.  I have never seen such slavery as I saw in India a few years ago".

Wheeler was an outspoken left wing Democrat who had at one time crossed over to the Progressive Party and then back.  He opposed entry to the war right up until December 7, 1941 and was instrumental in the leaking of US plans to aid the British prior to the war, which went to press on December 4, 1941.  His isolationist stances caused him to suffer defeat in the first Montana election in which he was up after December 7, and he never returned to politics. A lawyer by training, he returned to practicing law and defended Max Lowenthal in front of the House Committee On Un American Affairs in the 1950s.  He's an example of how opposition to entry into the war was not, as sometimes imagined, politically uniform.

The rally itself was not well received by the public, and polls started increasingly swinging towards the Administration's interventionist policies.

Speaking of Finland, the Finns retook Viipuri.  Not forever of course, its Vyborg, Russia.

Flag for the city of Vybork, in the Leningrad Oblast.

The city did have a Finnish population at the time, but its entire population was evacuated in 1944 with the collapse of the Eastern Front.  It is, therefore, an example today of the massive population disruption brought on by the Second World War.

Finnish victory parade, August 31, 1941.

In Serbia, the puppet collaborationist Government of National Salvation commenced control of the country.

Vichy authorities arrested American journalist Varian Fry.  Fry was running an underground railroad effort helping Jews escape from France and to the United States, using Spain and Portugal as conduits.  He'd be expelled from the country.

Arthur McFadden became Australian Prime Minister in a coalition government.  He was a member of the minority Country Party.  The National Country Party, the "Nats" is a center right party that's strongest in rural areas and which has a focus on agrarian issues.

Thursday,, August 28, 1941. The Office of Price Administration Created, Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Loses Favor, The Soviet Dunkirk, Slaughter at Kamianets-Podilsky

The Office of Price Administration was crated by the Roosevelt Administration to combat inflationary trends caused by the massive boost in employment caused by World War Two and the countries efforts to get ready for it.

Stalin issued  a Decree of Banishment exiling Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic which had previously been an ethnic German Soviet enclave.  

The VGASSR would be officially disestablished on September 7.  It'd been created in the 1920s when the Soviets still attempted o placate local ethnic groups on the hopes that they'd come to like the Communist regime. 

Volga Oblast in yellow at bottom of map.

The fate of Volga Germans, in the country since the time of Catherine the Great, proved to be grim. The war would permanently impact their position in the country and while conditions improved for them after the death of Stalin, many emigrated to Germany under the German Law of Return, a trend that reached near totality in the 1980s and 1990s.  By that time it had reached a state of pathos and irony in that the remaining Volga Germans retained much of their early rustic nature, while also having lost the ability to speak German to a very large degree.  Their retained cultural attributes tended to shock modern Germans, while their inability to speak the language of their ancestors made it difficult for them to fit seamlessly into modern Germany.

While his action is regarded as one of the great atrocities of the Stalin era, and the Soviets have since apologized for it, at least in this instance Stalin's paranoid brutality was not without some reason to fear that they'd become a fifth column during the war given that anti Communist sentiments were strong in various Soviet ethnic groups.  Having said that, large numbers of Volga Germans volunteered for Soviet service in the Red Army during the war, although their services were not always accepted or wanted.

Emigrating to North America, it should be noted, had been a trend in the region for decades, and was accelerated when the Imperial Russian Government in later years rescinded exemption for the population from conscription.  In an interesting development, resistance to conscription, which in some Anabaptist German communities in Imperial Russia lead to North American emigration, did not tend to repeat itself in North America.

Today in World War II History—August 28, 1941

The Soviet Navy suffered a serious disaster when it lost several ships to mines while evacuating Tallinn, Estonia, in what has been called the "Soviet Dunkirk".   The Germans occupied the city on this day.  Meanwhile, the Germans lost a U boat to capture in Iceland. The boat would be returned to service in the Royal Navy as the HMS Graph.

The Germans also slaughtered 23,600 Jews in Kamianets-Podilsky on this day, as their campaign of slaughter reached new regions in the Soviet Union.

Saturday August 16, 1941. Lethal discipline in the Red Army.

Red Army soldier, you will not surrender your love to the Hitler's soldiers for the shame and dishonor.

On this day in 1941, Stalin issued Order No. 270

It provided:

Order of the Supreme Command of the Red Army on August 16, 1941, No. 270; "On the responsibility of the military for surrender and leaving weapons to the enemy"

Not only our friends, but also our enemies are forced to acknowledge that, in our war of liberation from German-Fascist invaders, that elements of the Red Army, the vast majority of them, their commanders and commissars conduct themselves with good behavior, courageously, and sometimes – outright heroically. Even those parts of our army who, by circumstances are detached from the army and encircled, preserve the spirit of resistance and courage, not surrendering, trying to cause more damage to the enemy and to leave the encirclement. It is known that such parts of our army continue to attack the enemy, and take every opportunity to defeat the enemy and break out of their encirclement.

Deputy Commander of the Western Front, Lieutenant-General Boldin, while in the 10th Army near Bialystok and surrounded by German-Fascist troops, organized from deep in the enemy's rear Red Army troops, who fought for 45 days behind enemy lines and made their way to the main forces of the Western Front. They destroyed the headquarters of two German regiments, 26 tanks, 1,049 passenger vehicles, transport vehicles and staff cars, 147 motorcycles, five batteries of artillery, four mortars, 15 machine guns, eight machine guns, one airplane at the airport and a bomb arsenal.

More than a thousand German soldiers and officers were killed. On 11 August Lieutenant-General Boldin struck the Germans from behind, broke through the German front, united with our troops, and led out of the encirclement 1,654 personnel and officers of the Red Army, including 103 wounded.

The commissar of the 8th Mechanized Corps, Brigade Commissar Popiel and the commander of the 406th Rifle Regiment, Colonel Novikov, have fought out of encirclement with 1,778 soldiers. During a bitter battle with the Germans, the Novikov-Popel group travelled 650 kilometres, causing huge losses to the enemy's rear.

The commander of the 3rd Army, Lieutenant-General Kuznetsov and Member of the Military Council, Army Commissar 2nd Rank Biryukov fought out of encirclement with 498 soldiers and officers of the 3rd Army, and led out of encirclement the 108th and 64th Infantry Divisions.

All these and many other similar facts show the resilience of our troops; the high morale of our soldiers, commanders and commissars.

But we cannot hide that recently there have been some shameful acts of surrender. Certain generals have been a bad example to our troops.

The commander of the 28th Army, Lieutenant General Kachalov who – together with his headquarters troops – was surrounded, showed cowardice and surrendered to the German fascists. However, the headquarters of Kachalov came out of encirclement, a small group from the encirclement of Kachalov's group, and Lt.-Gen. Kachalov chose to surrender – chose to defect to the enemy.

Lieutenant-General Ponedelin, commander of the 12th Army was encircled by the enemy, but had ample opportunity to get through them, as did the vast majority of his army. But Ponedelin has not shown due persistence and will to win, was panicked, frightened – and surrendered to the enemy, deserted to the enemy, thus committing the crime against the country of breaking a military oath.

The commander of the 13th Rifle Corps, Major General Kirillov, was surrounded by German-Fascist forces and, rather than to fulfill his duty to the country, entrusted to him to organize stubborn resistance of the enemy and to move out of encirclement, deserted the field of battle and surrendered to the enemy. As a result the 13th Rifle Corps was broken, and some of them without serious resistance surrendered.

In all the above situations some military council members, commanders, political workers, special section members, that were present in the encirclement, showed an unacceptable distraction, shameful cowardice and did not even try to become motivated to prevent Kachalov, Ponedelin, Kirillov and others to surrender to the enemy.

These shameful facts of surrender to our sworn enemy testify that there are unstable, cowardly, cowardly elements in the ranks of the Red Army, which is staunchly and selflessly defending its Soviet Motherland from the vile invaders. And these cowardly elements are not only among the Red Army, but also among the commanding staff. As you know, some commanders and political workers by their behavior, not only at the front of the Red Army did not show a sample of courage, strength and love of country, and vice versa hide in crevices in the offices are busy, do not see and do not observe the field of battle, and when the first serious challenges to combat shrink from the enemy, tear off his insignia, a deserter from the battlefield.

Can we put up with in the Red Army cowards, deserters who surrender themselves to the enemy as prisoners or their craven superiors, who at the first hitch on the front tear off their insignia and desert to the rear? No we can not! If we unleash these cowards and deserters they, in a very short time, will destroy our country. Cowards and deserters must be destroyed.

Can we assume battalion commanders and commanders of regiments, who hide in crevices during combat, do not see the battlefield, and make no progress on the field of battle are regimental commanders and battalions? No we can not! These are not commanders of regiments and battalions, they are impostors.

If such impostors are unleashed, they soon turn our army into a massive bureaucracy. These impostors should be immediately dismissed from office, reduced in post to the rank and file, transferred, and if necessary shot on the spot, before appointing in their place bold and courageous people from the ranks of junior command personnel or soldiers.

I ORDER:

•          That commanders and political officers who, during combat tear off their insignia and desert to the rear or surrender to the enemy, be considered malicious deserters whose families are subject to arrest as a family, for violation of an oath and betrayal of their homeland.

·         All higher commanders and commissars are required to shoot on the spot any such deserters from among command personnel.

·         Encircled units and formations to selflessly fight to the last, to protect materiel like the apple of their eye, to break through from the rear of enemy troops, defeating the fascist dogs.

·         That every soldier is obliged, regardless of his or her position, to demand that their superiors, if part of their unit is surrounded, to fight to the end, to break through, and if a superior or a unit of the Red Army – instead of organizing resistance to the enemy – prefers to become a prisoner they should be destroyed by all means possible on land and air, and their families deprived of public benefits and assistance.

·         Division commanders and commissars are obliged to immediately shift from their posts commanders of battalions and regiments, who hide in crevices during battle and those who fear directing a fight on the battlefield; to reduce their positions, as impostors, to be demoted to the ranks, and when necessary to shoot them on the spot, bringing to their place bold and courageous people, from among junior command personnel or those among the ranks of the Red Army who have excelled.

This order is to be read in all companies, squadrons, batteries, squadrons, teams and staffs.

Headquarters of the Supreme Command, Red Army

Chairman of the State Defence Committee J. STALIN

Deputy Chairman of the State Defence Committee V. MOLOTOV

Marshal S. BUDYONNY

Marshal S. TIMOSHENKO

Marshal B. SHAPOSHNIKOV

General of the Army G. ZHUKOV

This was the beginning of direct lethal action by the Soviets against surrendering and retreating members of the Red Army.  It wasn't unprecedented, however, as Stalin had already decimated the Red Army's officer corps prior to the war for bizarre and trumped up political reasons.  It all provided evidence of his absolute control over the Soviet Union, as at this point many other leaders would have been deposed.

Red Army desertions never stopped during the war, and amazingly occurred even late in the war.  The numbers were quite substantial.  The Germans never took advantage of this to the extent they could have, as they regarded the Russians as subhuman.

On the same day, the Germans began to take Black Sea ports in Ukraine.

And Winston Churchill, on his way home from Newfoundland, stopped by in Iceland.

Tuesday August 5, 1941. Trends in the East.

The siege at Smolensk ended with the Germans taking 300,000 Red Army prisoners.

On the same day, the Provisional Government of Lithuania, frustrated in its hopes to secure an independent government for the country, disbanded.

Monday August 4, 1941. Courts, out of jail, and in the desert.

Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, facing front, seated with Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss and Phillip "Little Farvel" Cohen who shield their faces, and Louis Capone, in a Kings County Courtroom during jury selection.

On the same day Hitler met with a collection of his senior generals, all of whom urged him to commit to an advance on Moscow.  He declined their advice, and ordered instead that the Germans concentrate their forces on other targets, including eliminating pockets of resistance in their rear.

In the East, on the other side, the Polish Government in exile nominated Wladyslaw Anders as their senior commander for their forces to be raised in the Soviet Union.

Anders was of Baltic German extraction and was unusual for Pole in that he was a Lutheran.  He served in the Imperial Russian Army prior to and during World War One and then in the Polish Army after Poland separated from Russia.  He was a career officer who was captured by the Red Army after its invasion of Poland in 1939 and was in a Soviet prison up until being released to take command of the Polish forces to be formed in the Soviet Union.

It was Anders army that was taken out of the Soviet Union in 1942.  He never returned to Poland and died in London in 1970 at age 77.

A British soldiers' photograph:

Grandad’s WWII Diary – Boys outside tent – Kibrit – August 4th 1941

Thursday July 31, 1941. Goering, Heydrich, and the final solution.

Herman Goering ordered Reinhard Heydrich to make final preparations to solve the "Jewish question".

It's sometimes claimed that the Germans never put anything regarding the Holocaust in writing, which is incorrect. This is one such example and the order was later used in Goering's post-war trial.  Goering didn't contest its authenticity, but claimed it had been mistranslated and that it addressed a "possible solution" rather than a "final solution", hardly much of a defense.

In reality, there exists plenty of documentary evidence about the German slaughter of the Jews.

Soviet wartime poster, the caption reads something like "Red Army soldier, all hope is on you."

The Germans were still advancing, of course, but they were beginning to encounter stiff Soviet resistance and were not advancing as rapidly as they had been.  It should have been clear that the war in the East was not simply a repeat of prior German advances.  Nonetheless, the Germans had fully lauched into a campaign of ethnic slaughter were seemed to presuppose a victory they hadn't secured.

On the same day Sweden, which had wrung its hands over an earlier request it agreed to, refused permission to Germany to allow a second German infantry division to cross Swedish territory by rail.  In the same region, the Finns completed the reconquest of the Karelian Isthmus and began the process, although not yet implementing it, of going into defensive lines.  The Finns refused a request to attack Leningrad and, moreover, they had already endured a refusal by 2,000 Finnish troops to cross beyond the 1939 border. While they'd gotten past that, the Finns were in the process of wrapping up their offensive operations as they retook their pre Winter War borders.

The Germans restructured their forces in North Africa, reflecting the expansion of their operations.  Rommel was put in charge of the newly created Panzer Armee Afrika and Ludwig Cruwell given command of the Afrika Korps.

Wednesday July 30, 1941. Making up and futile raids.

Execution of the agreement between the Polish government in exile and the USSR, with Winston Churchill in attendance.

On this day in 1941 the Polish government in exile and the Soviet Union entered into a treaty abrogating the results of the Soviet Union's participation with Nazi Germany in the September 1939 invasion of Poland and making them allies. The agreement also provided that the USSR would cause a Polish military unit to be formed in its territory.

Polish-Soviet Union Agreements : July 30, 1941

Moscow, July 30, 1941

1. The Government of the U.S.S.R. recognizes the Soviet-German treaties of 1939 as to territorial changes in Poland as having lost their validity. The Polish Government declares Poland is not bound by any agreement with any third power which is directed against the U.S.S.R.

2. Diplomatic relations will be restored between the two governments upon the signing of this agreement, and an immediate exchange of Ambassadors will be arranged.

3. The two governments mutually agree to render one to another aid and support of all kinds in the present war against Hitlerite Germany.

4. The Government of the U.S.S.R. expresses its consent to the formation on territory of the U.S.S.R. of a Polish Army under a commander appointed by the Polish Government in agreement with the Soviet Government, the Polish Army on territory of the U.S.S.R. being subordinated in an operational sense to the Supreme Command of the U.S.S.R., in which the Polish Army will be represented. All details as to command, organization and employment of this force will be settled in a subsequent agreement.

5. This agreement will come into force immediately upon signature and without ratification. The present agreement is drawn up in two copies, in the Russian and Polish languages. Both texts have equal force.

The Soviet Government grants amnesty to all Polish citizens now detained on Soviet territory either as prisoners of war or on other sufficient grounds, as from the resumption of diplomatic relations.

The Soviets did indeed allow for the formation of Polish military units under this agreement, although in 1942 they were evacuated to the west through Iran. They were fairly sizable in number, with over 70,000 men at the time.  Following evacuation, they came under overall British control and were part of the Polish forces armed and equipped by the United Kingdom.

Following that, additional Polish formation were created under the leadership of Polish communists. These forces were outside the control of the Polish government in exile.

On the same day, the Royal Navy launched a Quixotic raid on the European far north, hitting Kirkenes in Norway and Petsamo in Finland by air.

The raid was not a success and frankly fit into the category of odd British efforts of a show the flag nature that were not always well thought out. The leader of the two carrier raid doubted the concept himself and his doubts proved correct.  Conducted in the high Arctic summer, the long day precluded surprise and the overall results have been termed a "disaster".

The German 6th Army commenced an assault on Kiev.

Hitler issued  his Directive No. 34 on the fact of increased Soviet resistance to the invasion of the Soviet Union.  Just days prior he was planning for the whole thing to wrap up.

Monday, July 28, 1941. Listening to the radio.

WLS 1941

A radio advertisement, with an agricultural theme, from this day in 1941.  The Chicago, Illinois radio station wanted to boost the concept of farmers listening to radio while they worked.

Farmers certainly listened to the radio.

Georgia farm family listening to the radio, April 1941.  This photo certainly suggest that their house was a bit cramped.

I don't listen to the radio while I work, but that's probably because of the type of work I do, usually.

Well, having said that, when I'm on the road I do. . .well I don't, not much.  I used to.  I used to listen mostly to NPR on the radio when I traveled, assuming that I wasn't listening to cassette tapes, then later CDS.  Indeed, I listened to some giant sized "books on tape", on CDs.

Then I started listening to XM Radio quite a bit.  After a while, however, I switched to podcasts once I figured them out and had an iPhone. And that's the norm today.  

I've had some secretaries over the years who listened to the radio.  I've always found it irritating, frankly, when they did, if I could hear it. Usually they kept it down so it wasn't loud enough to bother me.  They didn't all listen to the same thing, however.  One listened to talk radio all day long, which constitutes my only exposure to the late Rush Limbaugh.  Another for a while listed to Christian music, and then fundamentalist Christian broadcasts, and then later switched to regular old music.  As she once made a point of "only listening to Christian music", and then went to country music, but remained in a fundamentalist congregation, I'm not sure what that radio evolution meant, if anything.

I've only known one lawyer who listed to the radio while he worked.  Frankly, I could never grasp how a person could do that.

This photo, and the story, also points out the rapid advance of technology in the 20th Century.  Given the nature of appearances in photos in the 1940s, my guess is that the parents depicted here are probably in their 30s, maybe their late 30s.  Looking at them today, we'd place them older than that, but I doubt it.

Assuming I'm right, the parents here would have spent their adult lives, but not their youth's with radio.  Based on the appearance of the cabin they lived in, my guess is that they didn't have a lot of money to splurge spend, but their radio isn't ancient.  Most of their married years, they likely had a radio.  In their youth, they wouldn't have.  In a decade or so, if we were to stop in, they probably didn't live in quite so rustic of quarters, and they might have been thinking of getting a television.

If they were listening to the news, they might have heard that on the same day, Finland broke off diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.

This points out the peculiar relationship of Finland to the war once again.  It makes sense that the UK and Finland would not have diplomatic relations during the war.  Finland was lucky, however, that the Western Allies held their actions from going any further.  Had the Western Allies declared war on Finland, which they did on Romania, Finland's post 1945 fate would have no doubt been much different.

Radio listeners might also have heard, on this day in 41, that the Germans continued to advance, and the Soviets continued to resist.  The Germans closed in on the encircled Red Army in Smolensk, but the Red Army, in spite of having given up 100,000 prisoners there the day prior, fought on.  The Wehrmacht also narroed the Leningrad pocket,  but they didn't, and wouldn't, take the city.

Friday, July 25, 1941. The U.S. Freezes Assets, Churchill Plans a Trip, Germany Advances Horrors.

Franklin Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the United States, with the immediate cause of this being the Japanese occupation of French Indochina.

The Japanese entering Saigon. Bicycles were a common means of conveyance in most armies at the time, with the U.S. being a real exception.

It'd be a mistake, of course, to view that as the sole cause, but it was instrumental in it.  Japan was getting more aggressive in its expansion, having now moved its military into Indochina.  It technically had French acquiescence to this, but as a practical matter, Vichy had little it could do about it.  Japan had already intervened militarily in the northern part of Indochina a year prior, so they were already there.   That had in fact resulted in fighting between the Vichy French and the Japanese, but Japanese occupation was a fact.  Indeed, Japan had already secured permission to garrison troops in southern Indochina.

Free French poster criticizing the Vichy administration's collaboration with Japan.

It hadn't because it remained concerned about the Soviet Union.  It's presence in Indochina had been ancillary to their war with China, but with increasingly difficult relations with the United States, and the United Kingdom, that focus changed once Germany invaded the Soviet Union.  The Japanese correctly guessed that the Soviets wouldn't interfere with them in any fashion while they were fighting the Germans.  Given that, Imperial Japan set its sights on the Dutch East Indies, and its oil, and war with the United States.

While Japanese occupation of Indochina was already a fact, the formal change is something that really couldn't be ignored by the U.S.  It was one step closer to war by both parties.

Oddly, China's assets were also frozen, and this by request of Chiang Kai Shek, the leader of Nationalist China.  While not exactly knowing why, this may be because Chiang had concerns about Chinese assets being used by the Japanese and, of course, he also faced a domestic competitor in the form of the Chinese Communist Party, which was contesting the Nationalist for control of China.

Also, on this day King George VI gave permission for Prime Minister Churchill to travel to the United States to meet with Roosevelt.  Permission was a formality, of course.

Not a formality was the growing relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt, often described as a friendship but in reality a species of alliance.  Churchill's visit was to be a secret and was part of the building of that alliance.

Germany established Reichskommissariat Ostland, the administrative unit for the occupied Baltics and Belarus, on this day.  The plan for the region was to Germanize the Baltics and to settle it with Germans.  The region was regarded as "European" by the Germans due to the prior influence of Germany, Sweden and Denmark.  The Belarusians were regarded as hopelessly backwards peasants who would be exploited.  Jews, of course, were to be killed.

Germany began to act on these plans immediately, which is somewhat of a surprise in context.  Not only did the Germans begin to slaughter Jewish residents of the area, along with Communists, but it also began to move German settlers into the areas it had taken.  Indeed, while he has said little about it, one individual I know had a grandfather who had moved into the Eastern lands, resulting of course in his status as a refugee later on.

July 22, 1941. Vichy France and Imperial Japan entered a mutual defense pact . . .

 as hard as that is to envision.

For all practical purposes, the Vichy administration in Indochina was practically on its own during the war and saw itself as fairly helpless in regard to Japan. The following day, it would allow Japanese troops to enter French Indochina.

Slovak forces engaged in combat for the first time with the Red Army at Lypovec.

They did not cover themselves in glory, from the prospective of the invading Axis forces, as they reacted poorly to combat and suffered defections.  Indeed, the Slovaks withdrew some of their forces all the way back to Slovakia on the pretext that they couldn't repair equipment in the field.

While this was an extreme example, it showed a weakness in the German efforts.  By and large, the rank and file of Germany's allies in the USSR were not enthusiastic about the cause, and indeed some of the nations that had sent them into it were lukewarm. The national reasons for joining Germany varied, but at the troop level it was an unwelcome war against a powerful enemy.  Of Germany's allies that were full participants in the war, only Finland really had troops that were first-rate.

The Vichy government again restricted Jewish participation in French civil life, now requiring the registration of their businesses, as noted here:

Today in World War II History—July 22, 1941

Monday July 21, 1941. National Emergency.

President Roosevelt sent to a message to Congress asking it to declare a national emergency in order that military reservists could be retained.

The message read:

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES

Last year the Congress of the United States recognizing the gravity of the world situation held that common prudence required that American defence, at that time relatively very weak, be strengthened in its two aspects. The first called for the production of munitions of all kinds. The second called for the training and service of personnel. The Selective Training and Service Act authorized the annual induction into military service of a maximum of 900,000 men for this training and service, of whom 600,000 are now in the army. The Congress also authorized the induction into service of the National Guard, the reserve officers, and other reserve components of the Army of the United States.

In the absence of further action by the Congress, all of those involved must be released from active service on the expiration of twelve months. This means that beginning this Autumn about two-thirds of the Army of the United States will begin a demobilization.

The action taken last year was appropriate to the international situation at that time. It took into consideration the small size and the undeveloped state of our armed forces. The National Guard, which then formed the bulk of these forces, had to be seasoned; its technical training and general efficiency greatly improved. The ranks of the National Guard and the Regular Army had to be brought to full strength; and, in addition, the army required for its tremendous expansion the services of approximately 50,000 reserve officers.

In effect, two steps were taken for the security of the nation. First, the Selective Service Act initiated annual military training as a prime duty of citizenship. Second, the organization and training of field armies was begun-training in team-work-company by company, battalion by battalion, regiment by regiment, and division by division. The objective was to have ready at short notice an organized and integrated personnel of over 1,000,000 men.

I need scarcely emphasize the fact that if and when an organized and integrated company, battalion, regiment or division is compelled to send two-thirds of its members home, those who return to civil life, if called to the colors later on, would have to go through a new period of organization and integration before the new unit to which they were assigned could be depended on for service. The risks and the weaknesses caused by dissolving a trained army in times of national peril were pointed out by George Washington over and over again in his Messages to the Continental Congress.

It is, therefore, obvious that if two-thirds of our present army return to civilian life, it will be almost a year before the effective army strength again reaches one million men.

Today it is imperative that I should officially report to the Congress what the Congress undoubtedly knows: that the international situation is not less grave but is far more grave than it was a year ago. It is so grave, in my opinion, and in the opinion of all who are conversant with the facts, that the army should be maintained in effective strength and without diminution of its effective numbers in a complete state of readiness. Small as it is in comparison with other armies, it should not suffer any form of disorganization or disintegration.

Therefore, we would be taking a grave national risk unless the Congress were to make it possible for us to maintain our present full effective strength and during the coming year give training to as many additional Americans as we can, when immediate readiness for service becomes more and more a vital precautionary measure, the elimination of approximately two-thirds of our trained soldiers, and about three-fourths of the total officer personnel, would be a tragic error.

Occasional individuals, basing their opinions on unsupported evidence or on no evidence at all, may with honest intent assert that the United States need fear no attack on its own territory or on the other nations of this hemisphere by aggressors from without.

Nevertheless, it is the well-nigh unanimous opinion of those who are daily cognizant, as military and naval officers and as government servants in the field of international relations, that schemes and plans of aggressor nations against American security are so evident that the United States and the rest of the Americas are definitely imperiled in their national interests. That is why reluctantly, and only after a careful weighing of all facts and all events, I recently proclaimed that an unlimited national emergency exists.

It is not surprising that millions of patriotic Americans find it difficult in the pursuit of their daily occupations and in the normal lives of their families to give constant thought to the implications of happenings many thousand of miles away. It is hard for most of us to bring such events into focus with our own readily accepted and normal democratic ways of living.

That is why I must refer again to the sequence of conquests-German conquests or attacks-which have continued uninterruptedly throughout several years-all the way from the coup against Austria to the present campaign against Russia.

Every move up and down and across Europe, and into Asia, and into Africa has been conducted according to a time schedule utilizing in every case an overwhelming superiority not only in materiel but in trained men as well. Each campaign has been based on a preliminary assurance of safety or non-aggression to the intended victim. Each campaign has been based on disarming fear and gaining time until the German Government was fully ready to throw treaties and pacts to the winds and simultaneously to launch an attack in overwhelming force.

Each elimination of a victim has brought the issue of Nazi domination closer to this hemisphere, while month by month their intrigues of propaganda and conspiracy have sought to weaken every link in the community of interests that should bind the Americas into a great western family.

I do not think that any branch of the Government of the United States will be willing to let America risk the fate which has destroyed the independence of other nations.

We Americans cannot afford to speculate with the security of America.

Furthermore, we have a definite responsibility to every country in the Western Hemisphere-to aid each and every one of them against attack from without the Hemisphere. I do not believe that any branch of the American Government would desire today to abrogate our Pan-American pacts or to discard a policy which we have maintained for nearly a century and a quarter.

If we do not reverse this historic policy, then it is our duty to maintain it. To weaken our army at this particular time would be, in my judgment, an act of bad faith toward our neighbors.

I realize that personal sacrifices are involved in extending the period of service for selectees, the National Guard and other reserve components of our army. I believe that provision now can and will be made in such an extension to relieve individual cases of undue hardship, and also to relieve older men who should, in justice, be allowed to resume their civilian occupations as quickly as their services can be spared.

Nevertheless, I am confident that the men now in the ranks of the army realize far better than does the general public, the disastrous effect which would result from permitting the present army, only now approaching an acceptable state of efficiency, to melt away and set us back at least six months while new units are being reconstituted from the bottom up and from the top down with new drafts of officers and men.

The legislation of last year provided definitely that if national danger later existed, the one year period of training could be extended by action of the Congress.

I do not believe that the danger to American safety is less than it was one year ago when, so far as the army was concerned, the United States was in a woefully weak position. I do not believe that the danger to our national safety is only about the same as it was a year ago.

I do believe-I know-that the danger today is infinitely greater. I do believe-I know-that in all truth we are in the midst of a national emergency.

I am not asking the Congress for specific language in a specific bill. But I can say frankly that I hope the Congress will acknowledge this national emergency either for a specific period or until revocation by the Congress or the President.

The objective is, of course, the all important issue. It is to authorize continuance in service of selectees, National Guard and reserve components of the army and the retired personnel of the Regular Army, with the understanding that, should the exigencies of the situation permit, early return to civil pursuits will follow in due course.

Because of the swiftness of modern events, I think the Congress should also remove the restrictions in regard to the numbers of selectees inducted each year for training and service.

And, in order to reduce individual hardships to a minimum, I urge that the Congress provide that employers be asked to continue to keen jobs open for their employees who have been held in the army. For my part I will direct the return to civil life of officers and men whose retention on active duty would impose undue hardship and that selectees and enlisted men of the National Guard, who have reached the age of twenty-eight, be transferred from active service to a reserve component as rapidly as possible.

At great cost to the nation, and at increasing dislocation of private buying, we are accepting the material burdens necessary for our security. In such matters we accept the fact of a crisis in our history.

It is true that in modern war men without machines are of little value. It is equally true that machines without men are of no value at all. Let us consolidate the whole of our defense-the whole of our preparation against attack by those enemies of democracy who are the enemies of all that we hold dear.

One final word: time counts. Within two months disintegration, which would follow failure to take Congressional action, will commence in the armies of the United States. Time counts. The responsibility rests solely with the Congress.

Roosevelt's obvious concern was that a failure of Congress to authorize the emergency would result in the release of hundreds of thousands of National Guardsmen and large numbers of reservists, something that would have been crippling to the build up of the U.S. military in anticipation of war.

The address also illustrates the difference between the Regular armed forces and the Reserves.  President Roosevelt noted the numerous reserve commissions in the Army system.  It's often not appreciated that most of the military in really big build-ups is officered by men who are commissioned as reservists, not regulars.  In World War Two the reserve officers vastly outnumbered the regular officers in the Navy and the Army.  This distinction doesn't exist for enlisted men, but for officers in wartime, or even in large peacetime buildups, it very much does.  For example, most of the officers in the service during the Cold War, up until the elimination of conscription, were reservists.

The opposition to the President's request, and it did exist, was focused on the obvious fact that the US was so deep into preparing for war, imagining the country avoiding it was becoming very difficult to do.

The following photos, taken at Ft. Benning on this day in 1941, show some of that build up.

They also demonstrate the nature of the Army at the time, and it as a mirror on American society. These troops are African Americans going to new permanent billets. The Army was, of course, segregated.

It would remain mostly segregated throughout the war, something that was the topic of criticism even at the time.

Some significant and very interesting entries on the Today In World War II History blog for this date:

Today in World War II History—July 21, 1941

Among these are the expansion of the Concentration Camp system in Poland and the Luftwaffe commencing bombing of Moscow.

Also very interesting is the start of an aluminum salvage drive in the U.S., which of course wasn't yet at war as noted.  Material shortages were already a concern.

On the same day the Luftwaffe commenced nighttime bombing over Moscow, Hitler visited his officers on the Eastern Front.

Saturday July 19, 1941. V for Victory

Winston Churchill first publically used the "V for Victory" reference on this day in 1941.  It was to become a signature sign of his, and the western Allies, during World War Two, being adopted by him as a widely used hand gesture.

The speech was broadcast early in the morning the following day, and after that the V became a popular item of graffiti in occupied Europe.  The Germans attempted to co-opt the use of it themselves, as it was so widespread.

The hand gesture predates Churchill's use of it and its origin is obscure.  The palm out version is the one that is commonly associated with calls for victory, and then later, in the United States, with a call for peace, the latter of which started during the Vietnam War.  It can symbolize both in some modern protests.

Aviator Katherine Stinson giving the V sign in Tokyo, 1920.

The back of the hand out version, it should be noted, is a rude gesture in some cultures.  The palm out version has become enormously widely used by the Japanese, particularly Japanese women, who use it very widely in photographs.

On this day in 1941 Adolph Hitler issued his Directive No. 33, which remains one of the most discussed Hitler orders of the war.

While the German armies were all still advancing, resistance was stiffening in some regions and the Germans were not advancing in the south as rapidly as they'd hoped for and some pockets of resistance, such as Leningrad and Smolensk were holding out.  Hitler accordingly issued his Directive 33 taking forces from Army Group Center and assigning them to Army Group North and Army Group South. The assignment to Army Group North, FWIW, is commonly ignored when historians analyze this event.

The order also indicated that Moscow was no longer the primary Germany target.

This order met immediate resistance with the German senior leadership, which ran a backdoor effort to prevent its implementation.

It's common to assert that this realignment of forces brought about a military disaster by guaranteeing that the Germans would not take Moscow in 1941. It should be noted that this was not apparent in July 1941 but what was apparent is that Soviet resistance was already stiffening.  While the recently directed directives 32 and 32a contemplated the war being won in the east by the fall of 1941, it was becoming clear that this might not occur in the south and north, with the south, the Soviet breadbasket and the source of Soviet petroleum, being very problematic.  Seizure of Ukraine had been a declared German objective as far back as the Nuremberg rally speech of 1936 and the German need for foodstuff and petroleum was a pressing matter.

Moscow was the major Soviet communications and transportation hub, so it was not an idle objective, so the realignment of forces can be debated. The decision to attempt it, however, was not as unthinking as often portrayed.

Friday July 18, 1941. Stalin, ignoring the ongone second front, writes the British about a second front.

On this day in 1941 Stalin wrote the first of his "second front" letters, asking for the British to open up a second front in France and the Arctic.

This would prove to be an enduring Soviet theme during the war which completely ignored that the British Commonwealth had troops on the ground, fighting the Germans, on the day Operation Barbarossa commenced.  The Eastern Front was the second front.  On this particular day British Commonwealth forces were completing day two of the Twin Pimple raid, were besieged at Tobruk, had just defeated the Vichy French in Syria and Lebanon, were occupying Iraq, having just defeated a fascist coup there, were besieged, more or less, on Malta, and were engaged in the titanic Battle of the Atlantic.

None of this of course means that really enormous scale fighting wasn't going on in the East.  Operation Barbarossa is arguably the largest invasion ever conducted (although in terms of per capita population and scale, the Mongol invasion of everything to their west and the Hun invasion of the same is really actually larger).  The Soviets had, in fact, just lost 300,000 men to German captivity the prior day.  Still, it's a fact that the British, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, and Indians, to name a few, were fighting on the ground for months prior to any Soviet soldier firing a shot.

Stalin's repeated requests were so pronounced that they've become part of the myth of World War Two, which has gone so far as to imagine that Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944, opened up that second front.  By that time, the Allies had taken all of North Africa, Sicily, and Rome.  Additionally, the western Allies were keeping the Japanese tied up in the Pacific. While there was little risk of the Japanese entering the war against the Soviet Union. . . they'd never been able to defeat the Chinese, that still helped alleviate a Soviet security concern.

Part of the reason this myth continues to endure has to do with really effective British propaganda and assessment of their foreign audiences.  Churchill wanted to placate, not anger, Stalin, so he went along with the theme.  We really don't need to anymore.

In other war news, the United States Army Air Corps started operating out of Iceland and Secretary of the Navy Knox approved a plan to build 100 destroyers for the Royal Navy.  You can find out about that here:

Today in World War II History—July 18, 1941

Thursday July 17, 1941. The bloody East.

Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox whatching Marine Corps landings in North Carolina on this day in 1941.

On this day in history, Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak came to an end.  His 56 game streak remains a record.  

More on that can be viewed here.

Today in World War II History—July 17, 1941

The British carried out the "Twin Pimples" raid on the Italian lines near Tobruk. The raid was a success but had no impact on the siege.

On this day Alfred Rosenberg, an Estonian born Baltic German, was appointed Reichminister of the newly conquered eastern territories where he was to oversee the implementation of the Lebensraum concept.  He had been present at a conference the prior day where the topic had been discussed.

He was well familiar with it, being a very early proponent of it and an early influence on the Nazi world view.  He was educated in Imperial Russia and came of age in that country but did not serve in its armed forces during World War One.  He came to Germany in the early 1920s and quickly became a Nazi.  He ran the Nazi Party during Hitler's imprisonment.  A virulent proponent of Nazi ideology, he was an opponent of Christianity as well as Judaism.

Heydrich also acted in accordance with these goals on this day by reemphasizing the extermination orders issued to German troops in the east.

The Germans encircled Uman and took 300,000 Soviet prisoners of war.

Franco gave a highly bellicose public speech accusing the Allies of planning the war badly and having lost it, and criticizing  the United States for supporting the Allies.  The speech was generally baffling as it was obviously pro Axis but also gave no indication that Spain itself intended to join in the war.

President Roosevelt issued a proclamation banning trade with Latin American firms that supplied materials to Nazi Germany.

Monday, July 14, 1941. Bastille Day and the Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre

On this day in 1941 French forces in Lebanon and Syria officially ended hostilities with the British Commonwealth in what is known as the Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre.  

It was Bastille Day.

The day was marked in British Palestine at a hospital for Free French troops.

That day had been transformed into a sort of memorial day by the Vichy regime.  It remained on France's official calendar of holidays, but was altered from a celebration of the initiation of the French Revolution to one commemorating France's war dead.  This was part of an overall Vichy struggle with republican symbols and holidays that saw efforts to recast many such things, where they were not discarded.

Hitler, if he took note of the day at all, obviously didn't celebrate it.  Rather, he was still pondering the imminent defeat of the Soviet Union, revised his directive of the previous day with a part "A", which read:

The Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces

Führer Headquarters, 14th July 1941. 13 draft copies

On the basis of my intentions for the future prosecution of the war, as stated in Directive 32, I issue the following general instructions concerning personnel and equipment :

1. General:

Our military mastery of the European continent after the overthrow of Russia will make it possible considerably to reduce the strength of the Army. Within the limits of this reduced Army, the relative strength of the armoured forces will be greatly increased.

The manning and equipment of the Navy will be limited to what is essential for the direct prosecution of the war against England and, should the occasion arise, against America.

The main effort of equipment will be devoted to the Air Force, which will be greatly strengthened.

2. Manpower:

The future strength of the Army will be laid down by me, after receiving proposals from Commander-in-Chief Army.

The Replacement Army will be reduced to conform with the diminished strength of the Army.

The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces will decide, in accordance with my directives, on the employment of the manpower which will become available for the Armed Forces as a whole and for the armaments industry.

The Class of 1922 will be called up at the latest possible date, and will be distributed by the High Command of the Armed Forces in accordance with the future tasks of the various branches of the Armed Forces.

3. Arms and Equipment:

(a) The Armed Forces as a whole.
The arming and equipment of troops will be reduced to the requirements of the situation in the field, without reference to existing establishment scales.

All formations not intended for actual combat (security, guard, construction, and similar units) will be armed basically with captured weapons and second line equipment.

All requests for 'general Armed Forces equipment' will be immediately reduced or rejected in relation to available supplies, need, and wear and tear. Continued manufacture of such weapons as can be proved to be necessary will be decided in agreement with the Minister for Armaments and Munitions.

Plant (buildings and machine tools) already in use will not be expanded unless it can be shown that existing equipment cannot be put to full use by the introduction of shift working.

Work on all such permanent buildings for industry and the Armed Forces as are intended for use in peace-time, rather than for the immediate prosecution of the war and for the production of arms, will be halted. Construction directly necessary for the conduct of the war and for armaments will remain subject to the regulations of the General Plenipotentiary for Building. Buildings erected by civilian contractors will be limited by him to such as are most essential to the war effort.

Contracts of all kinds which do not comply with these principles will be immediately withdrawn.

The manpower, raw materials, and plant released by these measures will be made available for the main tasks of equipment and placed, as soon as possible, at the disposal of the Minister of Armaments and Munitions for use elsewhere.

(b) Army:
The extension of arms and equipment and the production of new weapons, munitions, and equipment will be related, with immediate effect, to the smaller forces which are contemplated for the future. Where orders have been placed for more than six months ahead all contracts beyond that period will be cancelled. Current deliveries will only continue if their immediate cancellation would be uneconomic.

The following are exceptions to these limitations:

The tank programme for the motorised forces (which are to be considerably reinforced) including the provision of special weapons and tanks of the heaviest type.

The new programme for heavy anti-tank guns, including their tractors and ammunition.

The programme for additional equipment for expeditionary forces, which will include four further armoured divisions for employment in the tropics, drawn from the overall strength of the armoured forces.

Preparations for the manufacture of equipment unrelated to these programmes will be halted.

The Army's programme for anti-aircraft guns is to be co-ordinated with that of the Air Force, and represents a single unified scheme from the manufacturing point of view. All available plant will be fully employed in order to achieve the delivery targets which I have laid down.

(c) Navy:
The Navy will continue its submarine programme. Construction will be limited to what is directly connected with this programme. Expansion of the armaments programme over and above this is to be stopped.

(d) Air Force:

The overall armaments program will concentrate on carrying out the expanded 'Air Armaments program' which I have approved. Its realization up to the spring of 1942 is of decisive importance for the whole war effort. For this purpose all available manpower from the Armed Forces and industry will be employed. The allocation of aluminum to the Air Force will be increased as far as possible.

The speed of the programme, and the extent to which it can be fulfilled, will be linked to the increased production of light metals and mineral oil.

4. The programme for powder and explosives will concentrate upon the requirements of the Air Force (bombs and anti-aircraft ammunition) at the expense of the requirements of the Army. Buildings will be restricted to the barest essentials and confined to the simplest type of construction.

Production of explosives will be limited to the existing basis.

5. It is particularly important to ensure supplies of raw materials and mineral oil. Coal production and the extension of the light metal, artificial rubber, substitute materials, and liquid fuel industries will be supported by the Armed Forces in every way, particularly by the release of miners and specialist workers. The construction of the necessary plans for the extended air armaments industry will be developed simultaneously.

6. The allocation of manpower, raw materials, and plant will be made in accordance with these principles.

7. The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces will issue the necessary orders for the Armed Forces, and the Minister for Armaments and Munitions for his sector, in mutual agreement.

signed: ADOLF HITLER

These directives are interesting not only in that he thought he'd won the war, by this time, against the Soviet Union, but that in he thought it would still require some prosecution against the British, and perhaps the United States, about which he didn't seem overly concerned.  That war, in his mind, was going to be primarily an air and naval war, and his decisions to start shrinking the German army as soon as possible reflected that.

In New York some kids were still acting normal.

Vladeck Houses, Madison St., New York City.   This was a housing project.