January 16, 2003

Time marches on, as do the Nazis

It is 8 January, 1940, and the war continues in the bitter cold of Finland. The Finnish celebrate their first victory over the starved and freezing Russian troops.

It is 10 January, 1940, and a German plane crash-lands in Belgium. Papers recovered from one of the passengers turn out to be the plans for a German invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. The invasion is scheduled to begin 14 January.

It is 9 February, 1940, and the Russian forces in Finland launch a fresh offensive. The Allied forces debate sending aid to the Finnish. On 17 February, Russian troops break the Mannerheim line. The better-trained and -equipped Finnish forces are broken by 16 days of continuous bombing and retreat to a secondary line 10 miles back.

It is 10 February, 1940, and the Reich Protector of Bohemia-Movaria orders all Jewish-owned business to close down. Jews are also ordered to sell all jewelry, gold, platinum, silver, and works of art.

It is 4pm, 22 February, 1940, and Buddhists the world over touch their foreheads to the floor while facing Lhasa. The new Dali Lama, a five-year old boy, has been enthroned.

It is 15 March, 1940, and after holding out for three and a half months, Finland finally capitulates and signs a pact with Moscow.

It is 9 April, 1940, and Germany claims its share of Scandinavia. Denmark and Norway are attacked by second-rate Nazi *reservists*. Denmark falls in *24 hours*. Olso is taken in four days, and fighting moves to the mountains. Naval battle rages in the North Sea. The Allied troops counterattack on the Norwegian coast on the 19th of April but are repelled by the 30th, leaving the Norwegian resistance to fight to good fight on their own.

It is midnight, that same day (30 April, 1940). After spending the day forcing Jewish women to dance naked and burning down the synagogue, the SS seals off the Warsaw ghetto. 160,000 people are forced into 32,000 one-room apartments, only 700 of which have running water.

 

Ten days pass.

 

It is 10 May, 1940, and the German assault is unleashed to the west. The Blitzkreig --- the lightning-fast assault by bombers from the air, tanks from the ground, and paratroopers all around --- tears through Holland and Belgium like tissue paper. Holland falls in 4 days. Belgium loses 75 of their land in that time. The remaining Belgium forces, along with the 500,000 British soldiers currently on the north coast of France, are surrounded on all sides and backed up against the freezing waters of the Channel. France, shocked by the complete irrelevance of the Maginot Line, prepare for a German assault into the heart of their country.

Ten months after their invasion of Poland, half of Europe lies under the control of the Swastika. Austria was absorbed without a murmur. Czechoslovakia, betrayed by the British, was sacrificed to Hitler's ambition. Poland was divided between Russia and Germany like a roast pig. Denmark and Norway fell without barely scratching the massive German war machine, and the combined forces of the Dutch, Belgium and British forces now lie cornered and vulnerable. France, it seems to everyone but the French, must fall shortly. When that happens, almost every country west of the Danube (except Britain) will live under a Fascist regime, while everyone east of the Danube lives and dies by Stalin's whim.

 

It is 25 May 1940, and you all receive a telegram. You're needed.

Posted by jon at January 16, 2003 12:40 PM
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