European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 7, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Denmark Baltic sea North sea great Britain Germany Frankfurt w Prague czech Ftp Danube i Vienna Innsbruck Basel Switzerland Ligurian sea the Battlefront on 1945 the Battlefront on 1945 Allied advances Allie held territory 1945 Adriatic sea a Day unlike any other by Lee Mitgang associated press it ended 40 years ago on a Day when the new York giants led the National Oklahoma and life with father were on and John Hersey won a pulitzer prize for his world War ii novel a Bell for May president Harry Truman and prime minister Winston Churchill proclaimed it be in the War in the Pacific would rage on nearly five More but to the delirious throngs in times Square and every big and Small town in be Day meant no More Black Brown shirts or world War n had begun 5vfe years on when almost 2 million German troops swarmed across the polish Russia attacked from the two Days later Britain and France declared War on but Poland fell in just 30 German for lightning instantly entered the vocabularies of All the worlds world War just a but an really produced some of the most heroic and most barbarous events in human the toll in lives has been estimated As High As 50 the soviet Union alone lost 20 the germans nearly 5 the japanese 2 the British and French each had half a million the United states about the passage of 40 years has scarcely diminished the names and the mind can still picture londoners huddled in air raid or Hitler exhorting human seas of swastikas and Brown shirts to acts of collective the bulldog the strutting Chiang Glenn Betty Bob and War Bond Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid bergmans Airport runway Farewell As they sacrificed love for the larger cause of Allied Victory in 1943s Oscar Winner hitlers Jig for Joy upon learning of the fall of the Day of Pearl Tokyo an american Flag at iwo Anne the living skeletons and the 6 million King Christian of Denmark leading fellow Danes in wearing yellow stars of David to try to shield danish the roots of world War Many historians stretch Back to the 19th Europe was convulsed by the birth of modern nationalism and the Rise of an intense artistic and intellectual German romanticism in its most extreme glorified death and War above j others cite the treaty of the pact that enacted world War i planted the seeds of the it virtually disarmed enumerated a Long list of crimes dating Back 50 and forced Germany to cede territory to Poland and it called upon Germany to pay the victorious allies 20 billion Gold Marks to make up for War by humiliating a Defeated Germany and destroying its Economy with harsh the treaty left germans Ripe for the dictatorship of Adolf an who in 1933 promised a return to Germany former National half a world with the Western world distracted by the great Japan invaded and conquered Manchuria in by Imperial Japan had occupied the Island of Formosa later called Taiwan and territory in Mainland China including Shanghai and the seeds of War thus found Fertile soil in the nazism seized every aspect of German and while the world looked Germany Italy attacked and conquered Ethiopia and and Hitler in 1936 regained the territory lost to France at that year Germany and Japan signed an anticommunist a year Italy signed As the Axis Alliance was in Hitler annexed Czechoslovakia was next sold out by British prime minister Neville Chamberlain in the vain Hope of preserving peace by appeasing Francisco a nazi Rose to Power in 1939 after the bloody three year Spanish civil seven Days before nazi armies marched into Poland in Hitler and russian dictator Josef Stalin signed a no aggression pact a stunning about face by the who months earlier had been talking to Britain and France about an Antinazi the two dictatorships would eventually carve up Poland Between All the the United states Clung to its two decade old on Harry James and his orchestra played at the new York worlds mens suits went for a prime rib of beef for 25 cents a the Goldbergs played on on that hitlers armies stormed into the world had Slid into War once november Russia attacks Finland it is expelled from the league of nations a month Britain and France seriously consider War a Amsl the soviets to Aid for the next six a strange Lull sets in the phony great Powers take up positions similar to those in world War arms along the Maginot the germans on the Siegfried in British and French navies blockade German ports As they did in War but in Germany is in far better shape economically strategically to weather any such 1940 March finnish defences collapse and the sues for peace with the apr the phony War ends As nazi sea and air forces attack Norway and Copenhagen Falls in 12 germans eventually Indian a puppet in Vidkun whose name becomes synonymous with nazi Mav with the invasion of Chamberlain and his policy of appeasement Are replaced by Winston who fells his Pruisn countrymen i have nothing to offer but tears and germans invade the Belgium and fall in five on Mav King Leopold of Belgium the nazis also drive deep into the bulk of the British i be and Force and what was left of the French army More than soldiers with their backs against the English Channel Ware carried Safiev to England from Dunkirk in a ragtag Fleet of More than 800 air Force provides air cover for the the first British Victory Over the German from left German and Allied delegates sign the German surrender an american Soldier hugs an English woman in London on be Day americans and russians shake hands Over a broken Bridge in on april British troops patrol in february a photo june 10 Italy ii Benito declares War against France and the hand that held the Dagger has struck it into the Back of its says president Franklin june 22 in a Railroad Carat the site of Germany surrender in world War French delegates accept German terms for a puppet government at Vichy is headed by marshal Philippe in less than a nearly All of Western and Central Europe has fallen into Axis july the Battle of dubbed operation sea lion by thousands of German warplanes Blitz As far North As and the nazis try to blockade British september a desperate Britain concludes the lend lease pact with the United americans Send food and other supplies to Britain in Exchange for 99year leases of naval and air bases in British Commonwealth Britain endures More than a year of Savage air which finally subsides in june 1941 when Germany begins its thrust into november Hungary and Romania loin the  in nazis begin herding More than jews into the newly created Warsaw where they live in appalling they Are later sent to death 1941 january with America rapidly shedding its Roosevelt makes his famous four freedoms speech Freedom of Freedom of Freedom from want and Freedom from Congress responds by increasing economic Aid to March Bulgaria and Yugoslavia loin the april May greek resistance collapses and germans occupy hoisting a Swastika at the Mav British and German vessels fight fierce Battles across the Atlantic for control of vital sea in one climactic British warships Hunt Down and sink the German battleship Mav 10 Rudolf hitlers files Solo to hoping to reach a negotiated peace with the forty four years Hess remains in Spandau prison in West june 22 3 million German troops open a front against by Britain and Russia have signed a Mutual Aid August Roosevelt and Churchill meet at sea near Newfoundland and sign the Atlantic a Lount declaration to end nazi tyranny and a further sign of americas emergence from september Kiev Falls to the the russians lose half a million people in the and Victory costs the germans the nazis begin a siege of Leningrad that lasts until the Winter of by nazi troops have advanced 600 Miles into but the russian Winter halts the and the soviets counterattack almost the resources expended by the nazis in Russia ease pressure in the West and help Allied efforts in the Middle East dec 7 the japanese launch a Surprise attack on Hong the a Day the United states and Britain declare War on 11 Germany and Italy declare War on the United 25 British forces in Hong Kong surrender to 1942 january Japan captures 15 Japan takes Singapore Churchill Calls it the worst defeat in British March american naval Power is gutted in the Battle of the Java the Way is Clear for Japan to conquer much of the East that Federal authorities begin rounding up japanese americans into internment the Roosevelt administration says its trying to head off possible May june naval victories in the Battle of the Coral sea and at Midway head off the invasion of Australia by destroying much of the japanese Fleet in the British and warplanes begin saturation bombing of Cologne and other German Industrial the germans begin a summer offensive in Sevastopol and by september Hitler is predicting Victory on the Eastern August americans establish a beachhead at Guadalcanal in the Solomon 23 the tide in Africa turns decisively in Allied favor As British Bernard Montgomery drives the German forces commanded by Erwin the desert from Al Alamein and halt the nazi drive across november with the nazis spread thin in the russians begin a Winter 8 american and British forces land in French North Africa operation 1943 february German troops in Stalingrad surrender in one of the epic Allied victories of the apr 19mav 16 the few thousand remaining jews in the Warsaw ghetto stage an armed uprising against nazi the skirmish ends when is troops blow up the ghetto Mav with the capture of Tunis and the allies drive the Axis Powers out of North leaving Italy open to summer soviet armies gradually drive Back the nazi helped by Allied bombing of German factories and shipments of thousands of planes to july 25 with half of Sicily in Allied hands and Rome being Mussolini ending 21 years of 3 allies Cross the Straits of Messina and land in Southern november the germans Are in full Retreat in the the soviets regain much of their most Fertile 1944 january february the allies land More than troops in Italy at Anglo but meet fierce German june american units enter june 6 British and forces commanded by Dwight Eisenhower launch the greatest amphibious operation in Landing troops at prance by the allies have an army of a million men same an attempt to assassinate Hitler Falls partially 4 Otto Frank and his hidden two veers in a House on Amsterdam Prinsen Bracht Are arrested by the dutch Nail who leave behind his daughters clothbound later published As the diary of Anne a photo August soviets announce the first discovery of a nazi death Camp in where More than a million jews and others were 26 German forces in Paris american forces Parade up the champs 2 the allies liberate october forces led by Douglas Macarthur move o recapture the sinking Many japanese soviet troops Cross into Hungary and drive toward 15 Glenn Leader of americas most popular swing band before the War and now director of the army air forces disappears on a flight from England to his body is never 1625 the Battle of the the last great German tank offensive in the costs the nazis nearly planes and More than 500 Only the Rhine River remains As an obstacle to the heart of by years americans recapture the 1945 12 despite stubborn German the russians drive into Poland and seize Warsaw and other Maior 7 an ailing Roosevelt meets Churchill and Stalin at Yalta to plan the defeat of Germany and draft the outlines of March 7 americans Cross the shortly russians reach february March the bloody struggle for iwo Elma gives the allies a base within striking distance of the japanese of marines in the Are killed or March american forces invade the fiercest struggle of the Pacific by More than americans and japanese Are Kamikaze planes inflict heavy damage to the Victory is followed by a massive air offensive against japanese cities and the Rem Nants of the japanese Anne Dies of typhus at the Bergen Belsen death two months before us april 12 Roosevelt Dies of a cerebral Haemorrhage at age 63 in warm vice president Harry Truman succeeds him As april the German army in Italy surrenders Mussolini is killed trying to escape anti fascist april 30 Hitler and his Eva commit no bodies Are Ever nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels likewise kills Mav i with Berlin under German radio announces Hitler is Mav 7 German army chiefs go to Eisenhower Headquarters at a red schoolhouse at reims and sign a Mav i Truman proclaims the end of the War in july 2 Churchill and Stalin meet at Potsdam to discuss peace the allies also Issue an ultimatum to Japan warning of its Complete destruction unless it unconditionally Japan rejects the 6 the first atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima Are i the soviet which agreed at Potsdam to Ion forces with the United states in the Pacific if Japan didst declares War on 9 a second atomic bomb on 2 the japanese formally surrender on the battleship Missouri Vij Page 14 the stars and stripes May the stars and stripes Page 15