1940 - Dec 7 1941 Robert C Valentine WW 2 Neutrality

The Early Years of WW II up to Dec. 7, 1941

This web page includes a few words on vol. 1 alongside the era of Neutrality.

In 1940, The Wave of the Future, A Confession of Faith, by Anne M. Lindbergh, wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh, made it to Readers Digest, outlining Hitler as the wave of the future.

But, this way was not to be.

Fortunately, for the world, the essence of liberty never agreed to unite with Hitler and also never met defeat during World War II.

Before America's entrance into WW II, what happened? The story is more than just politics. Little by little, from 1939 to early 1941, the American people were being edged into war. After Churchill's meeting with Roosevelt way before Pearl Harbor was bombed, however, he realized via conversations with F.D.R. that the U.S. administration believed the war could be won without American troops, especially after the Atlantic Charter meeting. The scale of war was thus: you had a British people of 40 million against a German nation of 80 million, who had the greatest army in the world. This is told vigorously in volume 1, which gives a ringside seat to the years 1939 to 1941, in a unique way.

Learning history in the world of today is more wonderful than just a menagerie of old, black and white photos, because today, you have excellent streaming videos, such as this one from 1940, which came from the mouth of legendary pilot Charles Lindbergh. He was a spokesperson for the America First Committee.

One must keep in mind, the early war years were quite different than 1944 or 1945; in fact, big changes characterized 1941 from 1940. One of which was the invasion of Russia in June and the other was the Dec. 7th bombing of Pearl Harbor. Each year is different, and a student of history should realize that; it cannot be all gum dropped into one era of neutrality as if those years are of the same mix. At the time of the invasion of Russia during summer, all of Europe was dazed at the speed and the extent the German war machine was accomplishing. Any person with half a brain, knew what events were proving to be—without U.S. help, (still a neutral country) a greater percent of the world, not just Western Europe, would fall to the dictates and ominous rule of Adolf Hitler—it was no more than just a world of "minding our own business."

One of the following PDsF also shows a TOP Secret page from the Roosevelt Library in NY with a microdot embedded on the page...a microdot, of an entire 8.5 x11 page shrunken masterfully to the size of a tiny dot. What is the concept of Fascism? Below from Valentine's book, Vol. One, are PDFs demonstrating examples of the contents of Vol. 1, including a speech by Pres. Roosevelt given on radio on May 16, 1940. In hindsight, one can say, "Oh, but neither Britain or Russia collapsed, they held on bravely. And, the micro soft dot was intercepted and halted." The question is, why did they not falter? One aspect was the wintery climate that snagged Germany once October of '41 crepted in, and the other is the tenacity for bravery of both the Russian and British peoples, one in an authoritarian scope, the other within the purview of a free democracy. What made 1939 and 1940 different from 1941, was Lend-Lease, which is amply covered in volume one.

To Defend Freedom

Fascism

Outline

(Above) Charles Lindbergh, and a popular culture cartoon from Dr Seuss from June 2, 1940.

But, in 1940, Lindbergh was up and down telling everybody England was going to loose and his place in early WW II history is cemented in American History. Video courtesy of Smithsonian Channel. Check out their web site, it has a lot of good things.

There are also hidden, secretive things that past WW II books fail to describe, such as the ITT (the international telephone conglomerate) that help built the speedy Fockerwulfs for Germany, the backbone of the German Luftwaffe (Air Force) beside the Messerschmidt. Aircraft that dropped bombs on British and later U.S. troops. Few know of Colonel Sosthenes Behn, the head of ITT who flew from N.Y. to Madrid, then on to Berne, Switzerland to help improve Hitler’s communications systems. Hardly anyone hears about the story that Ford trucks were built for the German troops in occupied France with authorization from Dearborn, Michigan. The sad stories of these can be augmented by reading today’s books including one of my favorites Charles Higham’s book Trading with The Enemy.

1940 remembered

Blockade Zones and more

Now would be a good time to tell you more things centering on and near 1940 BEFORE America entered the war.

By 1941, the world was about two years into the Second World War. During this time for the most part, the people of the United States were not at war. The people in the British Isles were the last bastion of hope and Democracy. Songs in Great Britain when things were still not good, from a 2018 recording of the D-Day Darlings, with authentic songs of the early war period, when all needed a breath of hope and sunshine. 1940 was the year of the Fall of Western Europe and Dunkirk, and the Battle of Britain.

On May 10, 1940, to recap, the big German offensive, was launched upon Western Europe and the entire phony war was over. A Blitzkrieg, Lightning War, hurtled itself against Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and France. Norway and Denmark were already in the war.

In effect there were three German Armies that raced through Europe: Army Group A ran through the Ardennes Forest, with 45 divisions; Army Group B with multi-prong spearheading units thrust through the Low Countries; and Army Group C kept those ally forces on the Maginot Line in check.

By May 20, the Germans had amassed a striking force which consisted of ten panzer armored divisions, seventy motorized divisions, a hundred and forty infantry divisions plus the world’s best air force, a highly disciplined Luftwaffe force of 3,226 aircraft.

In Spring of 1940, Germany had over 100 divisions, with about 2690 tanks. The British side had 384 light tanks, plus 100 heavier ones. They had the Maginot Line. The Belgium and Dutch sported 26 divisions plus reserves. The upshot was the German High Command had a better air force, better communication and better tactics, and they closed in on some 400,000 who slowly began to be trapped. Among the Allies, morale was extremely low. What was once thought, that the allied generals had time to marshal resources, was now an extinguished idea. As a matter of record since their first staff meeting was held, when both the English and French could not understand each other because they did not bring their interpreters, somewhere since then, the European Allies believed they were ready. Before June, neither Italy or Japan—both aggressive partners of the future Tri-Axis—were at war against any European nation, but by June 11 Italy had joined the fray.

Many died and many Allied tanks were anniliated by the time of Dunkirk.

Winston Churchill did an inspiring radio speech, wars are not won by evacuation, the actual radio speech, about 12 min.

There have been depictions of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister, various depictions set against the backdrop of WW II: Wensley Pithey (Ike: The War Years 1978); Brendan Gleeson (INTO THE STORM 2009); the 2017 production with Brian Cox (Churchill) and the latest Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour 2017 (2018 Academy Award winner).

Some 80 years have elapsed, and the release of Dunkirk is quite a movie and we strongly suggest to see it, especially if you can see it in 70mm IMAX. (It won an Academy Award. CBS did a marvelous mini-clip. Good old AL Roker chats about the movie on NBC's TODAY and the Dunkirk spirit. Enjoy Behind the scenes, with IMAX.)

By May 21, 1940, the British forces were trapped and surrounded at the port of Dunkirk. The miracle job (Operation Dynamo) to evacuate thousands of troops at Dunkirk began, and it went on for ten days and nights. Scores of ships of every description from mighty warships draped in battleship grey to pleasure yachts, sail boats and tiny fishing boats performed a heroic evacuation. Some 1,350 ships were utilized in the evacuation. Dunkirk is part of vol 1 A Toast For You and Me, an informative 192-page book. It has a detailed chronology in the book, as all volumes.

Vol. 1: 1930s, 1940, 1941

Vol. 2: 1942 [see the year]

Commemorative Edtion: 1944 [see the year]

Dunkirk paid off for 338,226 troops we’re evacuated to fight another day; about 220,000 were British soldiers and about 117,000 Belgium and French troops. The scenes of a beaten allied army and air force in color were not released during the war but our volume has them; over 80,000 dead bodies were buried near Dunkirk.

Elsewhere on land, the screaming Stukas kept on annihilating the remaining allies. Unprotected, French aircraft factories and airfields were destroyed by June third.

On June Fourth, the fall of Dunkirk!

Up north near Norway’s coast just three days after Dunkirk, German battle cruisers sank two British destroyers, plus another British aircraft carrier, the Glorious; all three reported losses of some 1,500 men.

An ocean liner was bombed by German dive bombers off Saint Nazaire, France. The liner Lancastria was evacuating over 5,300 allied troops. Because the evacuation was without air cover, the large vessel was sunk, taking another 3,000 down with her. When you read about the description of Sicily, that whole invasion operation cost the U.S. some 2,000 men. You can imagine how disastrous it was losing 3000 Allied troops in 1 single day in just 1 ship in 1940.

News such as the Lancastria were hush hush, and even though there are many WW II books in this big world of ours, few tell you the real ship sinkings of each year like A Toast For You and Me.

There were many losses at sea during the early stages of WW II. Keep this in mind: During the actual war, with the exception of Dunkirk, most losses inflicted on the ally troops were rarely released in complete form to a world press transfixed on Europe. The Allied peoples also did not want to supply information that would aid the enemy.

On June 10, 1940 Italy hoping to get a piece of the cake, declared war on France. However, it was a move that was not as dumb as it suggests though the declaration of war was belated, Mussolini had a reason: to stall for time. His purchasing agents in the U.S. had purchased 250,000 tons of scrap iron and steel. And, they needed time to get it out of American hands. The figure of 250 thousand tons of scrap iron was more than double the normal yearly import.

By the time the U.S. government was able to clamp down on the shipments, close to 200,000 tons had been shipped. Ooh la la, Paris, France. When Paris was under Nazi wings. The Battle of Britain followed.

Hitler struck with all his fury on England. The British defensive lines held. The people, who were the main part of the chain of defense and survival, they never broke down. This entire story is part of the wonderful book A Toast For You and Me, America’s Participation, Sacrifice and Victory, vol 1.

All the art work and lithographs in each volume, with the exception of the computer generated flags and some maps, are authentic from the 1940s. A variety of sources have been consulted in the preparation of each historical volume.

Early WW II is beyond a simple world of politics.

Top Secret

Neutrality laws are not ubiquitous

On verge of war 1941

The advent of war, before Dec 7th, was more than patriotism and propaganda. It meant survival. Not that it meant we were being attacked already, but that unless something was done to check Hitler, it could mean we were next.

Take a closer look at war through a contemporary Hollywood picture about the laws of survival: Dunkirk, released in 2017.

The human miracle of the story is told in an epic movie released by Chris Nolan appropriately titled Dunkirk, and it is quite educational. PDF files listed here are sample pages from vol. 1, offered for you. Listen to one of the veterans who was there.

Scenes of war to come.

The bloated dead horses. Then the skeleton horse.

Color photo:

Captured hordes of prisoners, with the common denominator starvation, exposure, forced labor camps OR death.

In the course of the war, many POWs and the emprisoned Jews were made to suffer inhumanly, with a subdued populace of middle and Eastern Europe having the worst of it. The Night and Fog decree, a policy, which allowed the Gestapo to detain and whisk away to Germany proper anyone from the West or the East who was a suspect of any suspected crime, without the Gestapo giving any lawful reason other than he/she has done a crime against the State, became an insidious and horrible way of life.

The Gestapo was the secret police that existed in all Europe, led by Chief Heinrich Himmler. He and his Nazis believed in the Aryan supremacy, led by the beliefs of Madame Blavatsky. See my volume Alert: For The Times, Book of Secrets. This Aryan spirit targeted youth from the early 1930s onward, and who were inspired by a new awakening so that by the time we get to the early 1940s, “they ain’t kids anymore” and they collectively thought they were superior to everyone else on the planet. The “Sons of Light” swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler, the second antiChrist, and as I stated in my past writings, in a sense it was all for a “new order.”

Hundreds of thousands and then millions of people were subjugated to the “new order”. One early crescendo came in 1940 to 1941, after the fall of Paris, when in Poland all Jews were ordered and segregated into recreated medieval ghettos. Thousands of people were forced to move with their belongings into these partitioned closed off ghettos with walls and barbed wires. In the planned “thousand year Reich” one had not even reached the height of the Nazi concentration camps and the death toll of Jews in the millions and millions. Each concentration camp had a cluster of slave-labor camps, too. The largest camp was Auschwitz in Poland. The gas chambers and crematoriums were barely built in 1942. The Jews outside of Poland were told they were being transported for resettlement. Those in the starving ghettoes of Poland were even told the resettlement was better and were given bread. Those arrivals saw tall fences and those fit to work were put to work; all others were led in columns to the showers, told to be “deloused” from germs, but in reality they were led to their deaths.

By the early forties, there existed a nest of informants who spied on their own, from inside Germany to any captured territory, and Europe was a hell in 1940-1943. The world of Allied intelligence, to counter all this, was in the thick of things and, for your information, it was principally a British show. Yet, they paid the price the early years, notably the success by the Gestapo in 1942 in where numerous pro-British agents were captured in Holland, one after another. All this was the World at War in the terrible early and middle war years.

One should also keep in mind Imperial Japan had been bent on Asian takeover all throughout the 1930s beginning with the occupation of highly-industrialized Manchuria in 1931, but remember this date: September 27, 1940, when Germany, Italy and Japan signed a treaty of mutual assistance.

The pact recognized the leadership of Japan “in the establishment of a new order in Greater Asia.” That treaty is reproduced in vol. 1 of Valentine’s research under “Voices of History”. A few days before the signing, Imperial Japan sent her troops into northern Indo-China. All this plus the fact rights were given for Japan to station 3 air bases in northern Indo-China well before the McCollum letter of October 1940, a letter discovered by historian Robert B. Stinnett. There is more than meets the eye the months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

So much went on during the so-called era of Neutrality. However, the trick is to try to segment things so as to afford a reader passage into the nebulous era via the actual passing of time as they happened without getting the reader mixed up, complete with the innocuous stories of secret diplomatic and naval codes, code-breaking, month by month . . . until, whammo, December 7th, 1941.

Code-breaking is a story of certitude delight for anyone who likes history, and it is amply covered in volume one of A Toast For You and Me.

From the era when Nanking was plundered, across the early 1940s when math wiz Madame X (Miss Agnes M Driscoll) was able to decipher the initial tables of 5-Num, a Japanese secret code, to the harrowing months of 1941, from Cavite to Hawaii to Washington DC, it is all there in this wonderful book.

ONI, Code Book S, SM Code, Black Code, Purple Code, the world of espionage and spies are handled in the book at the same time world events are laid bare to the interested reader. Moreover, the world did not stop on a dime, for interspersed between the situations in Asia, existed the world-takeover by Adolf Hitler at the same time. Early WW II is beyond a simple world of politics, for the Axis boots were marching all over the world. In 1941, came headline news, German forces launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia. They were marching in tandem with their air forces, so the United States saw heightened Air Force operations domestically grow, below. Take some time and ask any WW II veteran, if you can find one, how important was aircraft. They will all tell you the same, no great victory is possible without air superiority.

Vol 1 covers the early days of WW II, when the Axis were quite strong. It was predominently the era of radio as it was also the era of Neutrality for the United States. The following link is a compilation of radio broadcasts, courtesy of danieljbmitchell and KCRW, that contain actual transcriptions of the period. This opens with English-language German radio propaganda, when the Nazis thought they were invincible. The reference to Dec. 11 compiles a time just 4 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. None of the voices were concocted by some crazy Hollywood writer. These are actual radio broadcast, both pro-Axis and anti-Axis. (Listen up to the 12 min mark, thereafter it is an entirely different time period.)

Herewith, is a chronologic timeline of 1941 that may surprise you, registering this period of American Neutrality, a period that actually covers 1939-1941 in the book, but the link (above) only conveys 1941. The last PDF below is just a small inkling of the research on 5-Num that is found in vol 1. (Sample pages of book are provided.)

Last of Peace