Infinite Wisdom

"MEIN FUHRER. THE SIXTH ARMY HAS KEPT FAITH. WE HAVE FOUGHT TO THE LAST MAN, LAST BULLET, AS YOU ORDERED. WE HAVE NO MORE ARMS, NO MORE AMMUNITION. NO MORE FOOD. THE FOLLOWING DIVISIONS HAVE BEEN TOTALLY WIPED OUT: 14TH, 16TH AND 24TH PANZER DIVISIONS; 9TH FLAK DIVISION; 30TH MOTORIZED DIVISION; 44TH, 71ST AND 176TH INFANTRY DIVISIONS; 100TH RIFLE DIVISION. HEIL HITLER! LONG LIVE GERMANY!"

La Triviata

• Evidence suggests that if Hitler had succeeded in conquering Britain, he planned to move Nelson's Column to Berlin.
• In December 1942 and January 1943, the men of the US-Canada First Special Service Force were trained in ski and mountain warfare by specialists from the Norwegian Army-in-Exile.
• An inveterate film buff, Adolf Hitler saw some movies many times, including The Grapes of Wrath and King Kong, which reportedly was his favorite picture.
• Between mid-1939 and the spring of 1945, about 17.3 million German men were called up for service in the German armed forces – Army, Navy, Luftwaffe, and SS -- joining the approximately one million already on active duty by mid-1939, of whom some 5.3 million – c. 29 percent – died in the course of the Second World War.
• At the Stresa Conference, on April 11, 1935, Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini’s suggestion that Britain and France join him in taking more decisive action against German violations of the Treaty of Versailles was rejected as being too belligerent.
• During the 1930s, Nazi propagandists sometimes distributed films of Americans dancing to “depraved and savage Negro rhythms” to illustrate America’s decadence, until they discovered that the propaganda inspired some young Germans to form their own combos, which then had to be suppressed.  
• During World War II, the German armed forces recruited some 400,000 women to serve as military doctors, nurses, and other medical workers, 160,000 more for service in anti-aircraft units, and possibly as many as 340,000 others serving in various auxiliary capacities, such as communications and clerical personnel; most of whom, although they usually served uniformed, were technically never actually in military service.
• Fluent in German, President Franklin D. Roosevelt read Mein Kampf in the original, and later wrote corrections in the margins of an English translation that is among his papers.
• Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg (r. 1964-2000) served as an officer in Britain’s Irish Guards during the Second World War, fighting in the Battle for Caen, the liberation of Belgium and Luxembourg, and the Battle of Arnhem, and in 1984 was appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment.
• When the new airship LZ-129 was completed in early 1936, the Zeppelin works proposed naming her Adolf Hitler, but in an uncharacteristically humble moment Der Führer demurred in favor of Hindenburg. 
• In 1942 alone, Hollywood produced more than 70 motion pictures about the threat of Nazi sabotage, the most notable of which was probably Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur, with Priscilla Lane and Otto Kruger, and starring Robert Cummings, who shortly joined the Army Air Forces and served as a flight instructor.
• In the course of the Second World War, Winston Churchill sent Franklin Roosevelt 1,161 written messages, and received 788 in reply.

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