While Japan had announced its surrender on August 15, a more formal process occurred on September 2, 1945.
On September 2, 1945, formal surrender occurred aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. While the UK and Commonwealth countries (but not India) consider August 15 to be V-J Day, the US commemorates this on September 2. China, Philippines and Taiwan are the last to commemorate this on September 3.
The Corona Virus pandemic may well be the worst disaster since World War 2. So it is useful to look back 75 years to the closing stages of the war in Europe.
28/04/1945: Mussolini, his mistress and other Fascist leaders killed by Italian partisans.
Hitler marries Eva Braun.
29/04: Hitler writes his will, designating Admiral Karl Donitz as his successor.
30/04: Hitler and Eva commit suicide.
01/05: Goebbels and his wife commit suicide. They also murder their 6 children.
02/05: The Battle of Berlin ends in a decisive Soviet victory.
04/05: The bulk of German armies surrender at Luneberg Heath in the Netherlands.
A relatively unknown story from World War 2.
The basic information is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrersonderzug\
More details here, including a 50-minute documentary:
https://www.wearethemighty.com/history/hitler-train-amerika-ww2?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1
World War 2 inspired much patriotic art in the forms of films and music. Germany and the Nazi cultural and propaganda corps specialized in this, with films such as “Triumph of the Will” and “Olympia 1936” which are still being studied as masterpieces of propaganda.
Then there was the German anthem which started with “Deutschland uber alles, uber alles in der Welt” which naturally sounded ominous to other countries. And there were outright Nazi songs such as the Horst Wessel song.
Naturally, the anthem (for West Germany and now united Germany) was changed to something more innocuous and other songs were banned (along with “Mein Kampf”).
There were also some purely military songs which also earned a bad name, even though they were not really propagandist or supporting the Nazi ideology. Like this song of the tank-men of the Wehrmacht Das Panzerlied (or “The Tank Song”).
This version sees an attempt to sing the English lyrics:
Note the fanatical element in the last few lines (say from 2:20 onwards).
A weird Japanese version is included here only because it includes the German and English lyrics in full:
Note the element of fanaticism in the last few lines (around 3:00 onwards).
This became better known in the English-speaking countries through the 1965 Hollywood film “Battle of the Bulge”:
Here, it is the first stanza repeated 4 times rather than the entire song.
Note the commander played by the versatile Robert Shaw, whose last major role was that of the veteran shark-hunter in “Jaws”. And the orderly Hans-Christian Blech, one of many German actors who specialized in roles of soldiers and junior officers (as in “The Longest Day”).
As years passed, it was still sung by the West German and later united German army (besides versions in other languages in countries such as Italy and Chile). Recently the defence ministry had it deleted from the official song book although it was not banned.
It seems that a number of clips of this song have been removed from Youtube in recent years as it had become popular among Nazi supporters.
And finally, here the instrumental version by a Japanese orchestra a few years ago. The Youtube comments have a number of snide remarks about the Axis coming together again:
Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerlied
There is now talk of large-scale detention camps in various parts of India, like here:
which is uncomfortably close to places like this:
This sign was not only at Auschwitz, but at several similar camps.
And who invented the idea of concentration camps? Not Hitler and his pals.
This little video explains further (though you can always look up further references about the conduct of the Boer War).
Today (September 3) marks the 80th anniversary of Britain and France declaring war on Germany. We look back on a song which was popular among the armed forces of Germany as well as Britain.
The story in brief is here:
And you can see more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili_Marleen
While Marlene Dietrich had moved to Hollywood before the war, she later made it her signature song:
And Britain’s iconic singer of those days sang the English version:
In years to come, this was invariably sung at British-German war reunions.
Footnote: Vera Lynn (born 1917) lived up to 2020.
By now you know all about the heroic (?) deeds of the INA in East Asia. But you would not know about the Indians who fought in Hitler’s SS. The SS was not really racist-it had units from much of the Commonwealth, even a British unit as well as numerous non-Aryans from all over.
The main reference is:
though I am summarizing the main points below:
India: 2,500 in the
Indisches Freiwilligen Infanterie Regiment 950 or “Tiger Legion” This is described in some detail (including Netaji’s role) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Legion
Stranger still was the story of the Britischer Freikorps in the SS (which had a peak strength of 27, not enough for a platoon).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Free_Corps
This was indeed so obscure that few people in Britain had heard about it until the publication of the popular novel “The Eagle Has Landed” in the mid-70s. But it does not seem to figure in the movie.
The British government did, indeed, execute a few individuals such as William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) and John Amery for participating in broadcasts for Germany’s Ministry of Propaganda (headed by Herr Goebbels). But the irrelevance of the British Free Corps meant that nothing much happened to them.
Also see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-jHuqkZzOw
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