Today

[agilis]

Seventy six years ago this morning German troops invaded Poland, starting the Second World War. Two days later, to Hitler's surprise, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. On Sept 17th Hitler's secret ally, the Soviet Union, invaded Poland from the east, destroying any residual Polish resistance. Less than two years later the Russians got their reward from Germany.

We should remember that had the Poles not given their unique and highly secret exact copies of the German Enigma code machines to the British only days before the invasion the Germans might have won the war. These copies, used by people like Alan Turing, enabled the British and Americans to read German messages throughout the war. The Germans never caught on.

 

[THRASH]

Very neat touch of history. God Bless the USA!

 

[Storker]

The movie "The Imitation Game" (2014) gives, despite some inaccuracies and, uh, "artistic freedom" WRT some of the facts, a good story about Alan Turing's crucial role in breaking the Enigma code¹, and also his arrest after the war for homosexuality and ultimate suicide.

Alan Turing, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the 20th century and who probably contributed to the shortening of WW2 in Europe by two to four years, didn't receive proper acknowledgement in the public before the Queen in 2013 chose to pardon him for the "crime" he was arrested for. The biography "Alan Turing: The Enigma" by Andrew Hodges is a fascinating read about his life as a rather openly homosexual scientist in early 20th century England, and was the basis for the movie script.


¹ And no, despite what one might believe after watching the (American) movie "U-571", American forces were not involved in the capture of the Enigma machine from a German U-boat.

 

[letterboy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2_Q9FoD-oQ&feature=youtu.be

G2_Q9FoD-oQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4V2bpZlqx8

V4V2bpZlqx8

 

[wrybosome]

If you haven't read it, I recommend the novel Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson. It weaves multiple stories from WWII and 90's era silicon valley together. Alan Turing is a character along with Marines, hackers, Philippine treasure divers, and priests. Funny and fascinating book

WRT to the Poles, I have nothing but respect. Talk about having bad neighbors.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[agilis]

Turing could not have done a thing without the counterfeit Enigma machine that Poland gave to Great Britain only weeks before being overrun by Germany. The Polish Intelligence Service had been working on creating a duplicate and breaking the code from the early 1930s. In August 1939 the Poles asked the head of Britain's MI6 to fly to Warsaw. He did, and was handed a perfect copy of an Enigma, which went straight to Bletchley Park. Having the actual exact Enigma copy enabled Turing and the other mathematicians to devise a method of breaking the code.

The British kept most details secret well into the 1980s, and also circulated many incorrect versions during the Cold War regarding how all this happened, the reason for so many discrepant versions. Anything published before about 2005 may reflect this intentional misdirection.

Another element to be taken into account are some extreme prejudices that affect Hollywood's ability to display any level of honesty in certain areas. Because so many people get at least part of their sense of history from film there are some bizarre and glaring misconceptions out there, so pervasive that even fact checkers in the publishing world often fall victim.

 

[descent]

The Poles deserve a gold medal for sacrifice, and especially for striking a blow against the Nazis that benefited all humanity.

Norway should get one too.

The Norwegians refused to enter the German political sphere, and resisted the Nazi invasion and occupation. Thousands of men and and hundreds of women lost their lives in a multiyear campaign of sabotage and political assassination against their occupier. This is heroic, but not quite of planetary importance.

While they were doing all this, though, the Norwegians single-handedly carried to conclusion a series of failed Allied plans to derail the Nazi nuclear program. After the raid at Telemark and the loss of the fugitive heavy water, the program never recovered.

Which Allied city would have been nuked first?

 

[Storker]

While they were doing all this, though, the Norwegians single-handedly carried to conclusion a series of failed Allied plans to derail the Nazi nuclear program. After the raid at Telemark and the loss of the fugitive heavy water, the program never recovered.

According to current knowledge, it seems as if the German nuclear program may have been more geared towards energy production than weapons. Anyway, the consensus these days is that it's unlikely that the Germans could have developed a bomb before they'd lost the war, so the Vemork and Tinnsjø actions probably didn't have any decisive role in determining the outcome of the war. So the sacrifice of 37 civilians in the sinking of the ferry carrying the rest of the heavy water for shipment to Germany was wasted. However, according to current military intelligence at the time, sabotaging the plant and the ferry was the only sensible thing to do. The allies just couldn't take the chance that Germany could develop the bomb.

The officer responsible for those actions was Leif Tronstad, who was a professor in technical inorganic chemistry in Trondheim before the war and was central in developing Norsk Hydro's heavy water production plant in Vemork. He was a second lieutenant and participated in the battle of Dombås in 1940, and he got involved in resistance work shortly after Norway was occupied. In 1941 his group was exposed and he had to escape to England, where he lead the planning of the raids in Telemark. Tronstad was eager to participate in the raids himself, but he was considered too valuable and wasn't allowed to go back to Norway until late 1944. He was killed in action in 1945. He was awarded Norway's highest decoration for military gallantry, the War Cross with sword, the Norwegian War Medal, the Defence Medal 1940–1945, the Order of the British Empire, Distinguished Service Order, Chevalier of the French Légion d'honneur, Croix de guerre, and the US Medal of Freedom with bronze palm.

 

[descent]

Regarding Polish heroism during WWII ...

In the summer of 1944, Eisenhower and the British War Cabinet had decided that V-1 and V-2 sites were now the highest priority targets for bombing, above aircraft production, fuel production and ball bearing factories.

Experts began planning the aerial bombardment of Peenemünde. To assign targets, they needed to know which of the many buildings at the site contained valuable assets or personnel.

Two Polish janitors at the research site drew maps and wrote reports describing the purpose and location of major project assets like launch towers and rocket assembly halls, and then fed these secret reports to the Armia Krajowa resistance group (the Polish "Home Army").

The janitors were warned in advance, but they were still unable to escape during the attacks, due to heightened security enforced by the SS, and a lack of air raid shelters for non-essential staff.

 

[agilis]

Regarding Polish heroism during WWII ...

In the summer of 1944, Eisenhower and the British War Cabinet had decided that V-1 and V-2 sites were now the highest priority targets for bombing, above aircraft production, fuel production and ball bearing factories.

Experts began planning the aerial bombardment of Peenemünde. To assign targets, they needed to know which of the many buildings at the site contained valuable assets or personnel.

Two Polish janitors at the research site drew maps and wrote reports describing the purpose and location of major project assets like launch towers and rocket assembly halls, and then fed these secret reports to the Armia Krajowa resistance group (the Polish "Home Army").

The janitors were warned in advance, but they were still unable to escape during the attacks, due to heightened security enforced by the SS, and a lack of air raid shelters for non-essential staff.

The Polish Home Army was extraordinary. Poland was the only nation conquered by Nazi Germany that refused to surrender. It shifted itself to London, where two of its fighter squadrons made a crucial, perhaps even pivotal, contribution to the Battle of Britain. Polish pilots in the RAF outnumber all other volunteers by far. Their graves and memorials dot Great Britain.

The Home Army was the largest and most effective underground fighting force in occupied Europe, bar none. It dwarfed the size of the French resistance. It actually had its own postal service. It retrieved critical parts of V2 rockets that had gone off course and smuggled them to British submarines. It provided the earliest documentation of the Holocaust to the west, and actually coined the term 'Holocaust' during the war.

Soviet political hostility toward the Home Army forced the beleaguered British to downplay its contributions. If you are ever in the vicinity, visit the Polish Military Cemetery at Monte Cassino.