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Show Serving Time rutS) r::;v. "this ISA FINEV '' j'''iTV 1 A WHOLE LIFETIME j lli The Germans divided France Into two portions, two-thirds occupied occu-pied by German troops, and a third "independent" and directly under Marshal Petain, who was much under un-der the influence of a politician who always wore white neckties swarthy Pierre Laval. Alsace-Lorraine was annexed directly to Germany, Ger-many, who had lost it in 1918. Bits of the French navy clashed with the British navy twice: once at Oran in Algeria, and n second time at Dakar, in West Africa. Meanwhile, a minor French general gen-eral named He Gaulle a tank expert ex-pert escaped to England, and organized or-ganized a group known as Free Frenchmen, to carry on the war by pestering the Germans and the allegedly al-legedly "pro-German" Vichy government gov-ernment De Gaulle had the special spe-cial ear of Churchill. De Gaulle planned the unsuccessful Dakar operation, op-eration, .and his agents were active In various other French colonics. French Premier Henri Petain in a surprise move ousted Pierre Laval from his cabinet and appointed In his place Pierre-Eticnne Flandin. Anxious to know what the conquered enemy was doing. Germany immediately imme-diately sent Ambassador Abetz to investigate. BATTLE OF BRITAIN Following the British defeats at Narvik. Norway; Dunkirk, Flanders; Flan-ders; and Dakar, West Africa, the British isles took an increased hammering ham-mering from the German air force, nicknamed the Goering flying circus, cir-cus, or G. F. C. The following ports took special aerial delugings: Liverpool, Liver-pool, Bristol, London, Southampton, Plymouth, for the Germans wished to disrupt the war-supply traffic with America, which entered these harbors. har-bors. The Germans also attacked the two English "Detroits" of Birmingham Birming-ham and Coventry. The courage of the British proletariat, particularly in the miserable east end of London, was astonishing. Something like 15 per cent of London was hit and British industrial production dropped (according to British figures) by 40 per cent. More dangerous than the Goering flying circus were the German submarines, sub-marines, still known as U-boats. In the closing months of 1940, these under-sea monsters hunted in packs against the British merchant convoys con-voys from America. The British ship losses began to sky-rocket, and Churchill said openly that he feared the subs more than the planes. German Ger-man surface raiders and seaplanes aided the U-boats, and sinkings began be-gan to approach the top-figure of hectic April, 1917. In the midst of this crisis in December, Lord Lothian Lo-thian died the British ambassador to the United States. U. S. DEFENSE Following the French collapse of June, a veritable fever swept over the United States. It was called, by some, a needful awakening. It was called, by others, a contagious hysteria. It affected high and low, and reached to every corner of the country. "God Bless America" resounded re-sounded everywhere, and the local interventionists were especially loud in their linking of the British. William Wil-liam Allen White, of Kansas, a veteran vet-eran liberal journalist, headed an extremely influential committee "to defend America by aiding the allies." al-lies." It succeeded, behind the scenes, in helping to engineer the exchange of 50 "over-age" American Ameri-can destroyers, for a row of American Amer-ican naval and aerial bases on British Brit-ish New world possessions. The bases were to be held by the U. S. on 99-year leases, and they includ- ed: Newfoundland, Bermuda, Bahamas, Baha-mas, Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia, Trinidad, and British Guiana In South America. Our army and navy at once set about the fortification of the newly acquired bases. This was not all: it was decided that the U. S. possess two navies Atlantic and Pacific instead of one. We had 15 battleships, for example, and 37 cruisers; but we were to have no less than 32 battleships and 85 cruisers, before we got done. Also, the first peacetime conscription conscrip-tion in American history was passed in congress. The new conscripts were already being called up, at the close of 1940. Close to 17,000,000 lads, between the ages of 21 and 36, were registered. At Washington, a national defense board was called into being, including includ-ing military experts, labor leaders, and capitalists. The nation's war industries in-dustries were speeded up to top pitch, and congress voted billions for armaments. The President declared de-clared that the British would get a rough 50 per cent of our production. produc-tion. Franklin Roosevelt defeated Wendell Wen-dell Willkie in the 1940 election. The total score was roughly 26,000,000 votes, to 22,000,000. The electoral vote, however, was overwhelmingly overwhelming-ly for the third term, although an estimated three-quarters of the nation's na-tion's press campaigned for the Indiana In-diana utilities lawyer. Willkie stood for the draft, and for "aid to Britain," Brit-ain," but he received most of the isolation vote, and carried the outstandingly out-standingly isolation-minded states in the Midwest. POOR ITALY Italy entered the war just in time to look in on the collapse of France, a la jackal. The Italian troops captured cap-tured one French "city" of 6,000, and another of 3,000 inhabitants. After the battle of France, Italy skirmished with England's Mediterranean Mediter-ranean fleet, while a few Italian fliers appeared over London, and the royal air force bombed Turin and Milan, Italian industrial centers cen-ters for Fiat and Isotta-Fraschini. In September, under General Gra-ziani, Gra-ziani, the Italian Libyan army invaded in-vaded the British protectorate of Egypt and bogged down 80 miles up the coast, in a feeble effort to take the distant Suez canaL Late in October, under Marshal Badoglio's staff work, the Italians abruptly invaded little Greece, from the Italian foothold of Albania. The inoffensive Greeks turned around, and counter-attacked with the greatest great-est success. The British navy, air force, and Australian units came to their aid. The Italians were chased out of Greece, and the Greeks occupied close to a quarter of Italy's restless Albanian colony. Badoglio resigned, as chaos reigned at home. On top of this, the Italian Libyan army took a bad beating in Egypt, and went into retreat with the British Brit-ish in pursuit. The royal navy an the Australians co-operated, and 3(, 000 Italians were captured by mid-December. mid-December. RUMANIA PARTITIONED Rumania was another major victim vic-tim of the year 1940. It was subdivided sub-divided between Russia (Bessarabia (Bessara-bia and the Bukovina); Hungary (northern Transylvania) ; and Bulgaria Bul-garia (the southern Dubrudja). What was left, underwent an Iron Guard revolution, which ousted King Carol and his friend, red-headed Magda Lupescu. Carol's son, Michael, Mich-ael, became monarch. The German Ger-man army moved in, to police the Balkans, establish air bases, and control the Rumanian oil wells. The new Rumanian puppet government, gov-ernment, under dictator John An-tonescu, An-tonescu, joined the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis, so-called. So did Hungary, Hunga-ry, and the little Slovak puppet state which is the rump of what used to be Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, Russia was still on the make, and held the balance of power in Eu rope something that England had held for centuries. Within a year, Stalin had acquired a third of Poland, Po-land, parts of Finland, the three little Baltic states, and a piece oi Rumania, all of which Russia had lost after the first World war. |