Author Archives: secondbysecond

Vignette: Traitor pigeons of World War II, and the story of Charlie Peanuts

Posted on April 1, 2013 by secondbysecond

Treason is no stranger, in time of war. England had her Lord Haw-Haw—William Joyce. The Norwegians had their Quisling. Yet treachery is not restricted to human form. A plethora of Dickin Medals—Victoria Crosses of the military animal world—were awarded to … Continue reading →

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Vignette: Nazis and the Occult

Posted on March 29, 2013 by secondbysecond

Médée: La Toison D’Or—Medea: The Golden Fleece by Ersel and Renot is an illustrated story that would delight anyone interested in Nazis and the occult, World War II, or the bandes dessinée genre, in general. Medea (Médée in French) of … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 24–30 March 1941: The Fall of Keren—The Unknown Victory

Posted on March 28, 2013 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, 27 March 1941, the city of Keren in Eritrea, Italian East Africa, fell to a combined force of British Army, Indian Army and Free French forces, under the command of British general William Platt. Following … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 17–23 March 1941: Aussie PM honoured in Pommie Land

Posted on March 17, 2013 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies was touring the British Isles. He was in Plymouth on 21 March 1941, and witnessed a heavy air raid, with the Luftwaffe dropping 20,000 incendiary bombs across the city. Twelve large … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 10–16 March 1941: Lend-Lease

Posted on March 15, 2013 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, 11 March 1941, President Roosevelt signed into law a statute that was diplomatically titled ‘An Act to Further Promote the Defense of the United States’; it was the famous Lend-Lease bill. Ideas and intentions that … Continue reading →

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In the news/Vignette: Let slip the dogs of war

Posted on March 13, 2013 by secondbysecond

Cry ‘Havoc’, and let slip the dogs of war—as Shakespeare’s Mark Anthony so famously said. Seventy-one years ago today, the United States Army did exactly that. On 13 March 1942, they began to train dogs for the War Dog Program, … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 3–9 March 1941: Gunther Prien perishes aboard the U-47

Posted on March 3, 2013 by secondbysecond

U-boat ace Kapitanleutnant Gunther Prien perished with his entire crew this week in the war, 8 March 1941, when the U-47 was sunk by the destroyer, HMS Wolverine. Formidable, indomitable, redoubtable were the adjectives that Churchill used to describe Prien, … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 24 Feb–2 March 1941: Diary of a Witness

Posted on February 28, 2013 by secondbysecond

Raymond-Raoul Lambert was one of the most prominent leaders of the Jewish community in France during the 1930s and the early years of the war. From 1941 to 1943, he headed the Union Générale des Israélites de France (UGIF), which … Continue reading →

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In the news: Have a look at my new facebook page

Posted on February 24, 2013 by secondbysecond

I have recently  created a new facebook page that contains all the blogposts of Second by Second World War. Please have a look at the page and ‘like’ if you like it. Here is the link for the fb page … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 17–23 February 1941: British monitor HMS Terror is fatally damaged off the coast of Libya

Posted on February 20, 2013 by secondbysecond

Monitors were the Royal Navy’s ugly ducklings. Slow, ungainly, and strange to behold. The calibre of their armament matched that of a battleship—i.e. 15 inch guns—but they possessed only two such guns, mounted in a single turret. A casual observer … Continue reading →

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