You forgot the stern faces to the camera. “Feel something!”
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Oh well… thanks. Speaking of which could you find how much stuff was lend-leased to India. I can’t find it in the british archives (well… those that are online) and american ones. Actually nm. I will ask you when I am done with the uh… script.
It is still better than Sparty’s thinly veiled anger.
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Fuck off you sick bastard.
What’s with the angry tone?
I don’t like it when people defend evil colonial empires.
Explanations are not defenses, necessarily speaking. I can explain the Biscari massacre. That doesn’t mean I get to defend it, because it’s still a horrible event.
He’s not explaining it, he’s defending it, when he brought up ‘agendas’ I knew he was selling bullshit in defense of the evil british empire.
Agree. I have not painted the entire picture. There was racism by the Brits, floggings,segregation etc etc. But to say they were intentionally starving their own people is bollocks. You want short version? Here is how it goes. There is a rail shortage, hoarding, black market, rapid inflation, no rice from Burma, a cyclone that destroys the crops, workers who are poor can’t afford food. So does the government react immediately? Well… no. Remember that the provincial government of Bengal hasn’t resigned. So they do nothing. And censor the thing. To say just bengal starved is bollocks, the entirety of India (aka pakistan, bangladesh, India) would starve. Bengal was the worst affected. Tranvancore too starved and that was a princely state. So… do the British still play a part?
Oh… also. The agriculture state was fragile. What do I mean by that? Well… It mostly depended on the monsoon. (Still does). If it arrives late, you’re screwed. If it arrives early. You are screwed. If it arrives on time but rains a lot, guess what? You are screwed (unless you are growing rice), and rains less you are screwed.
You also didn’t have a lot of fertilisers then. So… see the problem here?
Plus… famines did happen. Even in 1939 in punjab. So did the British starve them then too?
Is it bad? Yes. Are the british bad? Yes. You don’t get to be largest empire in the world without doing bad stuff. Are they evil? Yes. But in this war, there is a bigger evil.
Oh… in case you ask. Yes, Bengal famine is hotly debated till date. But most agree… that it was not deliberate unless you read some book that says the Churchil hated the Indians and did it a part of some secret war. It is a shame 3 Million died. 3 Million that weren’t on the frontlines and just went about doing their work. There could have been far far fewer deaths but the government didn’t do anything ASAP. It did do somewhere in 1943 by setting up Free Kitchens but the damage was done.
Speaking of agendas. I was referring to Sparty’s comment on WAH (I have forgotten the number) where he says 3 of the big powers are starving their own people (USSR, GB, USA).
Ok let us entertain the idea the Churchill is starving India. Wouldn’t you think Roosevelt would have written a letter to Churchil condeming the action? Stalin? The rest of the Commonwealth? After all India is the crown jewel of the British empire. If they can do it there, What is stopping them from doing it elsewhere? And can we find such letters? No, as far as I am aware.
You are allowed to have whatever opinion you have of me. But my advice is to not get caught up in emotions. Think, analyse and then come to a conclusion. Don’t jump to it as 9/10 times it is wrong. I am speaking from personal experience.
Oh yeah. I forgot. I wasn’t colonised just by the Brits. You also had the french (the city of pondicherry) and portugese(goa and the daman and diu inslands) too. But 99.99% of India is under British colonial rule.
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Source: Der Sturmer.
Launching area for rockets hit
U.S. heavies strikes at Pas-de-Calais bases
SHAEF, London, England (AP) –
U.S. heavy bombers 500 to 700 strong hammered Hitler’s rocket-bomb launching area at Pas-de-Calais today as more of the pilotless explosives hurtled over into England, and other big Allied planes struck heavily at German air bases in southwestern France.
Fighter-bombers, attacking at the rate of one a minute, drove home a three-ply assault in direct support of the invasion forces. One wave pounded trapped German forces on northern Cherbourg Peninsula.
Another battered communications routes to the southeast over which the Nazis were trying to reinforce their armored divisions in the Tilly-Caen sector. The third stream bombed the area north of Paris, disrupting enemy reinforcement lines.
U.S. heavy bombers slashed at rocket installations after a night assault by the RAF, in which one plane was lost, and a raid in the same area Sunday by big U.S. bombers.
Other formations hit airfield targets including Bordeaux-Mérignac, Cazaux, and Corme-Écluse near the coast west of Cognac.
A rare stretch of bad June weather was still hampering air operations.
Deception fails
Fighter-bombers blasted to pieces one concentration of several hundred Germans. Col. Donald Blakeslee’s U.S. Mustang group saw what looked like a big procession of citizens out for a ride in horse shays, but when the pilots “buzzed” the cavalcade for a closer look, German soldiers dived for cover. The ammunition-loaded “shays” were sent up in a string of firecracker explosives while horses scampered across the fields.
The Germans are apparently making increased use of horse-drawn vehicles, indicating perhaps a shortage of motor vehicles or necessity of using horses to go over or around battered roads.
More than 1,300 U.S. heavy bombers hammered oil refineries and storage points in the Hamburg area and three enemy airdromes in Northwest Germany yesterday, while 250 other heavy bombers pounded the Pas-de-Calais area.
The Germans hurled more winged bombs at southern England today, carrying their attack with these new weapons into its fifth day.
Although the German threw up a flak barrage described as one of the heaviest yet encountered, not a single enemy fighter arose to challenge the mighty U.S. aerial fleet which struck into Germany yesterday. About 500 U.S. fighters accompanied the heavy bombers.
Only two German aircraft were sighted all day yesterday by U.S. 9th Air Force Thunderbolt, Lightning and Mustang pilots, who made more than 1,000 individual flights.
Japs repulsed in assault on Saipan
Powerful blows being struck over wide area of South Pacific
USPACFLT HQ, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (AP) –
U.S. soldiers and Marines, fighting their way through hot cane fields halfway across Saipan Island in the Marianas after repelling Japanese assaults by tanks and by landing craft, drove down toward the island’s principal harbor and naval base at Magicienne Bay today.
Slightly more than 100 miles southward, U.S. warships bombarded Guam heavily for the first time in the war. Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, in announcing that this former American base had been shelled last Thursday, gave no indication as to whether an invasion was in prospect.
Fifteen hundred miles to the south, just below the equator, Mitchell medium bombers and escorting P-38 fighters temporarily neutralized Japan’s last remaining effective air base in New Guinea. They destroyed 50 enemy planes at Sorong and sank five enemy merchantmen and half a dozen smaller vessels.
Nimitz also announced that Army Liberators and Navy Venturas bombed Matsuwa, Paramushiru, Shimushiru and Shumushu Islands in the Kuril chain Wednesday and Thursday and shot down one of 34 intercepting planes.
Hit other islands
Radio Tokyo reported that hundreds of bombers and fighters attacked two islands in the Kazan group, 750 miles northwest of Saipan, Friday. U.S. planes raided the Kazan and Bonin Islands for the first time on Wednesday, destroying 47 Japanese planes and sinking or damaging more than a dozen ships or small watercraft.
The Saipan beachhead established by Marines, with the support of Army infantry units, at last reports extended from Agingan Point on the southwestern tip, where the Americans landed last Wednesday, five and a half miles up the west coast almost to Garapan, the island’s largest town.
Japanese units strongly counterattacked with tanks before dawn Friday, after the Yanks had pushed north and east for two miles and captured the coastal village and airstrip of Charan Kanoa and the inland town of Hinashisu, more than halfway across the island.
Holding staunchly, the Americans forced the enemy back, inflicting heavy casualties and knocking out 25 Nipponese tanks.
Early Saturday, the Japanese attempted new tactics, a landing assault south of Garapan.
Troop barges sunk
Headquarters said the attempt was smashed and 13 troop-laden enemy barges destroyed. There was no indication whether the barges came from Saipan (where an estimated 30,000 Japanese are entrenched) or from Tinian Island three miles to the south.
U.S. warships shelled the island in support of the invasion. The fighting line at last reports skirted the western edge of the 3,600-foot Aslito Airstrip and was less than three miles from Magicienne Bay on the east coast.
Among the warships protecting the U.S. force on Saipan was a World War I destroyer converted into a destroyer transport. Nimitz said this warship, unaided, sank five enemy coastal freighters. Twenty-nine survivors were captured.
Churchill: Victory is closer
Predicts full success will come this summer
London, England (AP) –
Prime Minister Churchill, in a speech delivered at the Mexican Embassy four days ago and permitted to be published only today, said the months of this summer may “bring full success to the cause of freedom.”
He said the invasion of Normandy was a great tactical surprise to the Germans who did not know it was coming until they saw the ships and:
It may be that events will occur in the next few months which will show us whether we are soon to be released of the curse which has been laid upon us by the Germans.
The invasion was launched “in full accord” with the Russians and the decisions reached at Tehran, he added, “and although the execution of the plans adopted there is far from being complete, it is being steadily unrolled, the months of this summer may be the victories of this Allied campaign bring full success to the cause of freedom.”
Touching on political aspects of the war, the Prime Minister said efforts were being made “to achieve permanent cooperation and to build up an organization after which this war will strengthen the bonds between all our nations and will succeed in preserving peace.”
He said:
We look forward to the future in which the rights of small nations will be upheld and protected and in which the strong will use their power under the law for the protection of the weak.
Two earthquakes hit Los Angeles
Shocks yesterday were strongest since those of 1933
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150 injured as trains sideswipe each other
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German Red Cross cars suspicious
An Allied airstrip, France (AP) –
U.S. fighter pilots grew suspicious today of the relatively large number of vehicles behind German lines bearing Red Cross markings.
Pilots said the Germans either have an abundance of wounded or are traveling under false colors.
Lt. David Fuller of Warehouse Point, Connecticut, said:
About eight out of every ten vehicles we sighted had a big Red Cross on them. That seems an unusually high percentage to me.
Pilots meticulously avoid firing on automobiles with Red Cross insignia. The only way they can make sure they are genuine is to drop low while flying 300 miles an hour or more. This is dangerous with flak batteries around.
Yank-held beach becomes France’s busiest seaport
On a U.S.-held beach in Normandy, France (AP) –
This has suddenly become France’s busiest port.
More shipping was landed here Sunday and sent into U.S. lines then passed through Cherbourg during an entire month of normal operations.
And still it is pouring in. Liberty ships, LSTs (Landing Ships, Tanks) and converted ocean liners lie offshore by the scores with their umbrella of barrage balloons.
Their cargo bears a simple stenciled codeword for their destination. To thousands of sailors and soldiers who toil here day and night this beach is their temporary hometown. All it needs is a Chamber of Commerce.
There are no houses – just tents and foxholes.
The foxholes with boards and dirt thrown over the top are more desirable residences. The canvas G.I. tents aren’t flak-proof. Jerry comes over as soon as it gets dark and trigger-happy gun crews on the ships offshore join with the anti-aircraft lads on the beach in an ack-ack show rivaling London’s.
“There have been more killed and hurt from falling flak than from bombs,” said Lt. Col. William Hunnel of Buffalo, New York, director of operations for the Army transportation outfit at headquarters here.
One raider came in too low last night.
“He must be bucking for a sergeant or something,” said Pvt. A. M. Pollock of Brooklyn, New York, as the German plane flew threw a field of tracer fire.
A minute later, the flaming plane started a long drive into the sea.
German fortifications attract the most interest. Elaborate oil paintings on the walls of a tunnel alongside a gun show the beach and landmarks with the exact range noted alongside. The gunners didn’t have to be able to read to operate an 88mm gun.
Inside the tunnel under about 40 feet of earth are thousands of rounds of 88mm ammunition. The big shells were stored like bottles of wine. They are 1943 vintage. Four Germans still lie sprawled in front where the U.S. Rangers killed them on D-Day.
The signs of fierce battles on the beach are rapidly disappearing.
Twenty bulldozers are busy clearing roads. A detail of prisoners is collecting stray pieces of clothing, helmets, and canteens, and sorting them into huge piles. Trucks haul them away for salvage.
Road signs have gone up. Yank MPs keep the traffic moving on the right side of the road, instead of the left.
Essary: Recalls agony of peacetime Channel crossing
Getting past French columns ordeal for veteran travelers
By Helen Essary, Central Press columnist
Washington –
The weather and the Channel tides timed the invasion of France, Allied chiefs explain. Crossing the English Channel is regarded by many people as the most disagreeable experience any traveler can have, said President Roosevelt the other day. The sea moves fast there. The waves roll high and the winds blow strong. There were tens of thousands of men to be got across the water and landed on enemy territory on the shores near Cherbourg, Le Havre and Calais, Mr. Roosevelt added.
I used to think I was landing on enemy territory even in those jolly old pre-war touring days when I tottered off the Channel boat at Cherbourg, Calais or Le Havre. Those fierce able-bodied French females who pushed me around the customs office – especially at Calais – made me feel unwanted on French territory (this is definitely an understatement).
There was no Parisian chic about these ladies. They wore no stays to bind their physical proportions. Their smacked back “cheveux” were not done according to the “dernier cri” of the Rue de Rivoli. Their broad denim aprons had not been created by Paguin nor any other couturière.
But how those women could wave their arms and yell and shove. I suspected them of being descendants of Madama La Farge, whom Charles Dickens pictured knitting in a Paris square as Le Guillotine lopped off the heads of the aristocrats.
When the news of the Nazi invasion of France startled the world four years ago, I wondered how Hitler’s warriors could have got past those custom house grenadier-esses. Bucking the French customs with their assistance was a trial to break the stiffest backbone. You always knew you were going to lose your luggage.
You knew the train on which you had a compartment (suspicious word) would leave without you because you were certain to be the last to escape from this landing madhouse.
You went stumbling up and down steps, across cobblestones – there always seemed to be so many cobblestones – across railroad tracks at the heels of strange, foreign characters. These characters fought over your bags and suspected you of concealed American cigarettes and typewriters, whose shouts you could not understand regardless of the opened Phrase Book for Travelers you held in one hand. With the other hand, you clutched an umbrella, a “lightweight” coat, a paper parcel of silver spoons you had “picked up, my dear, at one of those adorable, open-air markets in London,” a mile of colored tickets, your passport, your landing card, your pound note for which you were sure you were not going to be paid your francs’ worth at the ”exchange” wicket, and your Paris-Herald without which, if you were a true American, you never traveled for fear you would not know the “rate of exchange.”
The heavy fear of the things you had to have in order to land in France was sometimes more than an uncultured American could cope with. Especially if the wind over the Channel was blowing extra strong, I once saw a harried nervous lady tourist drop her purse and her passport over the side of the boat into the sea. The French authorities would not let her off the boat without identification. She may be there yet for all I know.
Those Channel tides were exciting and fun if you were not rocking about on their uncanny crests, so to speak. I spent a season at a small and elegant Channel resort – “Bexhill-on-Sea.”
Near Boulogne, where many of our soldiers landed on the French side, many of the beaches were sandy.
I spent one night at a spot where the swimmers, Gertrude Ederle and others, were in training. After a dinner of langouste (lobsters without the big claw), I had taken myself to bed in a many-windowed room facing the Channel.
All night long, a towering lighthouse twirled its beams across my poor face. When I had finally got to sleep, I was awakened by the noise of the tide rushing in. At low tide the beach had stretched out as wide as two blocks, it seemed to me, but now I could hear the sea charging about under the foundations of the inn. And I thought how sad it would be if I were washed out to sea in this unknown land without a friend to identify “body of drowned woman washed up on shore” like the captain’s little daughter in “The Wreck of the Hesperus.”
Bill to increase veteran benefits
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