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Second World War tweets from 1940 Profile picture
@RealTimeWWII
Aug 18, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, is touring the German-controlled USSR, viewing Nazi efforts to eliminate "subhumans". He's asked to see his first "shooting operation". Image
For Himmler's inspection, SS Einsatzgruppe B pick 100 Jews from Minsk to be shot. Among them, Himmler spots a young blond boy. Himmler: "Are you sure you're a Jew?" Boy: "Yes." "You have no Aryan ancestors?" "No." "Then I can't help- I did all I could." All shot.
Karl Wolff, Himmler's adjutant (right), accompanies SS chief to mass shooting: "He'd never seen dead people before. He stood at the edge of the open grave- & got brains splashed on his face & coat." Image
Himmler, pale & heaving, is shocked by brutality of mass killing. He orders research on more "humane" methods of execution, less traumatic to SS executioners. More: holocaustresearchproject.org/einsatz/himmle…

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More from @RealTimeWWII

Second World War tweets from 1940 Profile picture
Aug 10, 2023
For the last day, the Japanese cabinet have been locked in fraught debate, interrupted by news of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria & of a second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Senior ministers are split on whether to surrender.
War Minister Korechika Anami tells cabinet that a captured US pilot has "admitted", under torture, that USA has 100 atom bombs ready to hit Japan. However, he still opposes surrender: "Would it not be wondrous for this whole nation to be destroyed like a beautiful flower?" Image
Deadlocked Japanese cabinet appeals to Emperor Hirohito in an Imperial Conference (Gozen Kaigi): to decide whether to offer unconditional surrender to Allies, or fight on to destruction. Image
Read 4 tweets
Second World War tweets from 1940 Profile picture
Aug 6, 2023
US bomber plane Enola Gay has dropped "Little Boy", the American atomic bomb, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It explodes with force equal to 15 kilotons of TNT. Image
The atom bomb detonates 1968 feet above Hiroshima. In less than one second, a 900 foot wide fireball blasts the centre of the city, vaporising hundreds of people without trace, & killing thousands more in seconds. Image
Hiroshima bomb sends out a blast wave of light & heat that travels at 2 miles per second, evaporating human bodies. Some of the dead leave shadows burned into the ground, their surroundings bleached white by atomic fire.
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Read 6 tweets
Second World War tweets from 1940 Profile picture
Jul 30, 2023
Cruiser USS Indianapolis has been torpedoed & sunk by Japanese submarine near Guam. She was returning from a top-secret mission to deliver the "Little Boy" atomic bomb to a US Pacific airbase on Tinian Island, where it will be flown to its target: the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Image
Hull rent by two Japanese torpedoes, the top-heavy USS Indianapolis sinks in 12 minutes. ~300 crew go down with the ship, 890 are adrift, without US Navy's knowledge, with slim hope of rescue. It's the worst single disaster in the history of the US Navy. Image
USS Indianapolis's sinking has not been noticed by US Navy- who did not investigate when cruiser failed to arrive today at Leyte island. 3 radio stations ignored her final SOS call, leaving 900 survivors adrift at mercy of dehydration, sunstroke & shark attack.
Read 4 tweets
Second World War tweets from 1940 Profile picture
May 30, 2023
US General Staff have approved plan for Operation Downfall: the invasion of Japan, beginning in November of this year. Over a million Allied casualties are expected. Image
Allied plan for the invasion of Japan begins with Operation Olympic, amphibious assault on the southern island of Kyūshū- with 14 Allied divisions, 42 aircraft carriers, & 400+ more warships. Kyūshū will act as staging post to invade rest of the Home Islands of Japan. Image
Based on the American experience during still-ongoing assault on Okinawa, US planners expect invasion of Kyūshū to face fanatical resistance: they predict ~267,000 US deaths, with over 10 million Japanese casualties. Image
Read 4 tweets
Second World War tweets from 1940 Profile picture
May 29, 2023
US Army Private Kurt Vonnegut, recently released from a German prisoner of war camp after 6 months, writes home, describing his captivity in Dresden- when it was bombed by the Allies. Image
After being taken prisoner during last December's "Battle of the Bulge", Kurt Vonnegut was taken to a work camp in Dresden: "Under the Geneva Convention, Officers & NCOs are not obliged to work when taken prisoner. I am, as you know, a Private." Image
Vonnegut: "On February 14th the Americans came over, followed by the RAF. Their combined labors killed 250,000 people in 24 hours." Kurt & his fellow American PoWs were sheltered by being imprisoned in an underground meat processing plant, Schlachthof Fünf (Slaughterhouse Five). Image
Read 4 tweets
Second World War tweets from 1940 Profile picture
May 16, 2023
Last battle in Yugoslavia, at Poljana, as 30,000 Germans & their fascist collaborators try to fight their way past the partisans & escape to Austria. Croatian Ustaše & Serbian Chetniks, who have aided Nazi occupiers, hope to surrender to British rather than face Communists. ImageImage
Ustaše fascists were so brutal in their pogroms against Serbs & Roma, even their Nazi allies have condemned them; SS head Himmler criticised the "bestial atrocities" of Croatian fascists. Image
After a bloody clash with Yugoslav partisans & 100s of fascists dead to artillery shelling, British tanks arrive to block any attempt to escape to Austria. The column of fleeing Croats & Chetniks surrenders, to face brutal reprisals by Communists. Image
Read 4 tweets

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