Category Archives: World War II

This week in the War, 1–7 April 1940: Hitler has missed the bus

Posted on April 2, 2012 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, on Thursday 4 April, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gave an optimistic speech to Conservative Party members, declaring that Hitler had ‘missed the bus.’ Following the collapse of Poland the previous year, Europe had settled … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 25–31 March 1940: Atlantis

Posted on March 26, 2012 by secondbysecond

This week in the war on 31 March 1940, the German auxiliary cruiser, Atlantis, set sail from Bremen for the open waters of the Atlantic. As a commerce raider, she had a dummy funnel and a variety of tricks to change … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 18–24 March 1940: Brenner Pass meeting

Posted on March 18, 2012 by secondbysecond

A much publicized meeting between right-wing dictators, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, took place this week in the war, on Monday 18 March. Only Franco was missing from the mix. Snow was falling in the Brenner pass as the Fuehrer’s train rolled to … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 11–17 March 1940: The Duke & Josephine

Posted on March 13, 2012 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, on 15 March 1940 in Chicago, American jazz composer and pianist, Duke Ellington, recorded Concerto for Cootie, which he dedicated to his trumpet soloist Charles ‘Cootie’ Williams. Ellington and his band were at the height … Continue reading →

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In the news: Former Fusilier unearths bomb in garden

Posted on March 12, 2012 by secondbysecond

Former Royal Fusilier, Arthur Amphlett, got more than a spadeful of trouble when, according to the Coventry Telegraph (12 March 2012), he unearthed the tail end of a WW II German bomb in his vegetable patch. Friend Jenny Keen wanted … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 4–10 March 1940: The Deuxieme Bureau & The Heroes of Telemark

Posted on March 8, 2012 by secondbysecond

This week in the war, on 9 March 1940 and with the agreement of Norwegian authorities, a team of Deuxieme Bureau (French Military Intelligence) operatives took possession of a stock of heavy water at the Vemork Norsk Hydo plant (shown … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 26 Feb–3 March 1940: Sumner Welles

Posted on March 1, 2012 by secondbysecond

On 1 March 1940, United States Secretary of State, Sumner Welles, arrived in Berlin. This was his first visit to one of the belligerent nations. He had just visited Mussolini in (neutral) Italy and would be going on to London and … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 19–25 February 1940: Arbeit macht frei

Posted on February 21, 2012 by secondbysecond

On Wednesday 21 February 1940, with the concurrence of SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler, work began to convert a former army barracks in the small Polish town of Oswiecim—or, to use its German name: Auschwitz—into a concentration camp. The famous ‘Arbeit macht frei’ (‘Work will … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 12–18 February 1940: The Navy’s Here

Posted on February 14, 2012 by secondbysecond

The Navy’s Here was a popular song written early in the war by British songwriters, Ross Parker and Hugh Charles. They wrote it to commemorate the so-called Altmark Incident which took place in Jossingfjord, Norway, on the night of 16 … Continue reading →

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This week in the War, 5–11 February 1940: Pinocchio

Posted on February 8, 2012 by secondbysecond

On 7 February 1940, the Walt Disney animated movie Pinocchio opened in theatres across the United States. The film is named for its wooden puppet hero who is promised by a fairy that he can become a real boy if, among … Continue reading →

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