70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II

Today at 0445 (0245 GMT) marked the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, when the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire upon a fort in Danzig (now Gdansk) Poland, while German armed forces crossed the border. Two days later Britain and France declared war upon Germany.


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In the following six years it is estimated that over 60 million people lost their lives from coutries around the world, in what became the most destructive conflict in human history.

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World leaders met today in Poland to commemorate this event.
An event that should never be forgotten.

I'll leave you with the intro to the classic The World at War television series, which 30 years on has yet to be bested.

The day the soldiers came....

reply to post by Kram09


Well done Kram09 for raising this.
It is certainly something that must never be forgotten, the lives that were laid down for our liberty.

I'm just imagining how it must have felt to have lived on this day 70 yrs ago, the uncertainty and fear of what was happening and what would happen ??

reply to post by uk today


Thanks for the reply. At least someone replied to the thread!

Yeah true, it's difficult to imagine what it must have been like for people involved in the conflict, whether fighting or not.

I was surprised a thread like this hadn't been made already. I didn't see one and i searched for one.

Great post on an event that still shapes our world today. The war radically changed the world, it let to the militarization of the West and the (then) USSR and introduced the cold war. We are still directly in the slipstream of WW2, unfortunately many, if not most people view it as some long ago event that has little relevance today. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It was also the last of the age old attempts to conquer the world by military force and was so catastrophic that the idea has been unthinkable since. With every passing year, the horror recedes making it possible that some psychopath will try it again, once again plunging the world into unprecedented destruction.
We MUST heed the lessons of history.

reply to post by OldDragger


Agreed!

I mean, i know it has become a bit of a cliche now, but the old quote from George Santayana "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it," is as relevant today as it ever was.

I am actually reading a book on the Second World War right now.
I felt it was appropriate

Although there are still quite a few veterans around from the Second World War, eventually they too will pass away just like the last fighting veterans of the First World War recently did.

Unfortuatly this thread will get lost in the alien, NWO, shape-shifting, Obama hating nonsense. I have often thought that most conspiracy fans are simply like fundamentalists, acting upon faith and emotion rather than reason or logic. That makes them irrelevant, having zero effect on events while allowing them to feel part of some special club with special knowledge.
I would encourage you to read more history of the war, The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich by Shirer is vital, there are hundereds of fascination books to read, I think you will find the true stories infinitly more intersesting than NWO and NAZI flying saucers stuff. Thanks for posting something intelligent!

reply to post by OldDragger


Yes i have wanted to read The rise and fall of the Third Reich. It is on my Amazon wishlist along with 206 other history books i want to read.

Its a little ridiculous. I currently have 32 history books waiting to be read. I guess i am a little obsessed but oh well. When it comes to World War II especially, i can't get enough. I find it fascinating.

reply to post by Kram09


My grandfather fought in WW2-----he was at ANZIO.

He never really discussed it much, but I do know that on his 21st birthday he was being pursued by a sniper.

He was wounded in the leg, but survived.

These men are the true heroes---it annoys me when sports personalities and the like are called it.

To understand the future we must certainly turn to the past.

reply to post by uk today


Wow, that's really interesting.

That's the thing quite a few survivors especially from the First World War also never spoke of what they saw.

For example Harry Patch the First World War Veteran who died fairly recently, he was 100 when he first opened up about what he had experienced.

The question is why did they have to do it.
Else we learn nothing.

How many secrets on the whys are withheld.
There was a TV spot yesterday on Pres Wilson not claiming German
involvement in the exploding of American munition factories.
And that rocked New York City more than 9/11/01.

reply to post by Kram09


The First World war must have been like Hell on earth ----fighting in those trenches.

I don't know too much about it to be honest, but I watched a movie once "All quiet on the Western front " which was WW1.

I guess a lot of veterans and survivors just maybe want to block out the horrors that they faced.

I was born eight years after the end if the war, it was still very dominant in everyday activities. My father was B-24 nose gunner, my neighbors were a P-51 pilot, a Marine, USN etc. All went to college under the GI Bill. Probably none of them would have gone to school otherwise.
My barber had a Luger and a helmet he took from an unfortunate German on display, other neighbors included two Wehrmacht veterans. When I was very young we lived in a triplex, our neighbors Max and Rose wore their Buchenwald tatoos the rest of their lives. I remember B-17's, tons of DC-3's, even P-51's and a Dauntless at local small fields. War surplus stores were still brimming with war stuff. The navy came to visit with Fletcher class destroyers.
The thing most everyone had in common was the war, what they did during it, even for women.