World War II in Colour 4: Hitler Strikes East

There episode explores the war in Russia.  Hitler had forged an alliance with Stalin, but all along he intended to expand the Nazi empire in this direction.  Stalin had forged the deal, knowing that Russia was ill prepared for an all out war.
Hitler's attack on Russia had three movement, north towards Leningrad, center towards Moscow, and south towards Stalingrad.  The early part of this attack showed the effectiveness of blitzkrieg, as the Russians melted away.  However the attack to the south got bogged down.  All of the attacks were slowed as they had to deal with hundreds of thousands of prisoners.  The tank commanders wanted to move on to follow up their advantage.
Hitler made a crucial error.  As they were driving towards Moscow, and where sure to enter the city in just a few weeks, he diverted his panzers to the south, to follow up gains there.  They surrounded Kiev.  However then several times the tanks were moved back and forth, and only after precious time was lost did they finally refocus on Moscow.  The still advanced, but eventually were stalled by the weather.  It got so cold the tanks wouldn't start, nor would they function properly.
Russia on the mean time used this time to prepare a counterattack.  After Stalin assured through his espionage efforts that Japan was not going to attack Russia in Siberia, he repositioned half a million men from Siberia towards Moscow using the Siberian Railroad.  5 December the Russians counter attacked, with some gains.  Hitler ordered that the Germans go into a defensive mode.  The German generals wanted to fall back to consolidate their lines.  Hitler would not give permission, and replaced his generals.  Thousands of German troops were surrounded.  They could have escaped but were ordered to hold.  A Panzer attack to free them proved unsuccessful.  Consequently 200,000 German troops were surrendered, and marched into Russia.  Only 5000 would ever return to Germany.  
In the south, Hitler became determined to take Stalingrad at all costs.  They actually made significant progress, however again a Russian counter attack would leave them vulnerable to capture and only through a sound rear movements were they able to escape.  This was the end of offensive movements by the Germans in Russia, and from there it was always falling back towards Germany.  Of support for the Russians was a new tank which was just as good as the Panzer, and also their rockets, and finally they were able to manufacture air planes.  Initially the Germans had control of the skies, but that would change.

Book Review: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; An AmericanSlave

Written by himself, Introduction by Peter Gomes, Afterword by Gregory Stephens, Signet Classics, New York 2005, originally published 1845.

This book is a must read to understand American history and slavery.  I have read books about Frederick Douglass, but never his own word.  He tells an exciting story of his own thirst for freedom, which was not to be denied.  A mistress gave him a thirst for reading, and he used that to learn to read, even if it meant tricking the neighborhood boys to teach him.  An early climax is when Douglass stands up to his slave runner, and tells him no more.  They scuffle for some time, but Douglass escapes the beating.  He makes an excellent point about religion and how a man of religion could tolerate such treatment.  How could a Christian go to church and profess piety, and then starve, abuse, beat and misuse their fellowmen.  I think we all need to reflect on being better people and better Christians.

As I said excellent autobiographical book.  Of course Douglass lived many years after writing this book, so we miss most of his life, but this book is about slavery, and was very useful to the abolitionists.  It is also useful today to provide a glimpse of conditions amongst the slaves.
Click here for a story about Frederick Douglas learning to read and write.
And click here for a biography of Frederick Douglas.

World War II In Colour 3: Britain at Bay

This is the story of the battle of Britain in this continuing documentary of WWII using colorized film from the war as well as maps and narration.  This battle Winston Churchill predicted would be Britain's finest hour.  The British defenses were stretched thin after the forced retreat from Dunkirk.  They also had to leave much material behind, and so their men where mostly armed with rifles.  However the established a home guard with over a half million volunteers.
Without the use of radar it would have been their last hour.  The radar gave the Britons just enough advantage so they could meet the threat from the Luftwaffe, German's air force.  The normal German tactic of Blitzkrieg was not helpful here.  It was impossible to get his tanks and troops across the English Channel unless he controlled the waterway, or at least had air superiority.  He was unable to establish either, and the possibility of invasion did not present itself so he had to look elsewhere.

Documentary Review: Battle of Britain: The Real Story (2010)

This is an incredible story about the Battle of Britain.  This battle is thought to have been a one-sided affair with Germany having many more aircraft.  However the English had control of the seas and the English Channel.  The battle wasn't as one sided as perhaps supposed.  At first the German air force attempted to attack the British navy from the air.  However there was enough resistance from fighters on the island to help Britain maintain control of the English Channel.  They would also launch attacks against the airports of the Luftwaffe, which kept some of them pinned down not attacking England.  They were made more effective by the use of a new technology, radar.  The attack then changed focus to the Royal Air Force an the radar installation.  Not enough credit was given by the Germans to the radar, and more attack there may have had an effect.  The attacks on the runways was very effective, although the airports remained in service.  A bit more concentration and the Royal Air Force may have been driven from the sky.  However, inadvertently a German plane accidentally dropped its bombs on London.  Winston Churchill ordered a retaliatory bombing of Moscow.  Hitler then lost focus, and the German air attacks began to focus on London civilian targets, rather than the air force.  This film contends however that the Luftwaffe was not very effective against the grass airfields in the first place.  It also contends that different methods of counting the number of planes in a squad.  the number of British planes was greatly underestimated.  As a result, the german airplane superiority began to ware down after repeated attacks.  They were not able to establish air superiority, and the invasion of England did not happen.

Documentary Review: World War II In Colour 2: Lightning War

Lightning war refers to a tactic employed by the Germans.  Blitzkrieg, or lightning war referred to moving fast with armored columns, bypassing the strongest positions, and letting the infantry follow and mop up.  Such was the strategy used by the Germans in Poland in 1939.  Germany used its superiority in air power and in tanks to take territory quickly.  And so it was that Poland was conquered quickly.  With this the British and French troops prepared for invasion of France, thinking the Germans would use similar tactics to the invasion in WWI, through Belgium.  In this they were fooled.  First the Germans attacked north rather than into France.  They conquered Norway, and then other Scandinavian countries, one after the other using similar tactics.  When it came to France, the expected attack was along the coastal areas.  However Germany attacked with their panzer division south and just north of the heavily defended areas considered impenetrable.  The attack was not expected over the rough terrain.  The German's were able to get behind the French and English forces, forces them back so as to avoid being cut off.  German air superiority again played a key roll.  The French and British armies were able to fight their way to Dunkirk, but there they were cut off.  The only hope for the forces was removal.  Churchill mustered a flotilla of any available vessel, but these were kept from the port by the many dive bombers.  He then recruited even smaller vessels who could go and gather the men, and take them to the larger vessels for transportation to Great Britain.  In this way the British Arm was save, as well as many of the French.   However the country of France was lost, and the Germans marched almost unopposed into Paris.

Documentary Review: Civil War: America Divided: Two Nations

This documentary does a good job of explaining just how divided the country was before the Civil War.  The Mexican American War proved a training ground for Civil War officers.  However it resulted in a dilemma, What to do with the territory gained as a result of the war.  This territory covers California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, most of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.  Should the territories by slave or free.  Kansas was one of the places where this decision turned bloody.  John Brown took advantage of the situation to carry out bloody murders.  However Southern sympathizers, many from Missouri, performed their own acts of bloodshed.  John Brown found he took his act too far when he attacked the arsenal at harper's Ferry.  He was captured and hung.  two of his sons died in their capture.  The election of 1860 was really a two part election.  Abraham Lincoln  (Republican) and Stephen Douglas (Democrat) competed in the North.  John Bell (Constitutional Union) and John Breckinridge (Southern Democrat) campaigned in the South.  Lincoln won by taking the entire North.  He was not even on the ballot in many Southern states.
His election spurred the South to action, and many states seceded even before Lincoln took office.  The stage was set for war.

Documentary Review: The Murder of a President: American Experience (James Garfield)

This PBS WGBH documentary tells the story of James Garfield.  This is a look at the life of James Garfield, and more particularly his murder.  Garfield started in poor circumstances.  His father died when he was young.  His mother gave James her life savings and he enrolled in school.  He stayed in school by working for the school, an after a couple years was so bright he was serving as a teacher.   After school he married Lucretia Rudolf.  He served in the Civil War, and in fact while in the war was elected to congress.  He would serve in congress until he was nominated for the presidency.  He had risen in congress, and had been elected to the senate when he was nominated for the presidency.  His nomination  for the presidency by the Republican convention of was not planned.  In fact he was managing the campaign of John Sherman, and gave a speech at the convention in his support.  However he was selected on the 36th ballot as an alternative to the three candidates, Ulyssis S. Grant, Sherman and James G. Blaine.  Both Sherman and Blaine turned their support to Garfield.  Chester A. Arthur was selected as the vice presidential candidate.  He was important as he was from New York and part of the political machine of New York Senator Roscoe Conkling.
In those days the party did the campaigning, and Garfield did not do much campaigning.  He did reach out to Conkling and gained his support.  New York was key to winning the election.  In the general election General Winfield Scott Hancock ran on the Democratic ticket.   The race was close in the popular count, with less than 10,000 votes separated the candidates, however in the electoral college the difference was much greater.  Garfield took key states of New York and Indiana, while Hancock took the South.
In Garfield's early days as president he worked to make appointments.  James G. Blaine was selected for Secretary of State.  On appointment not made was that of a member of Conkling's political machine to the New York Customs House.  This was a very lucrative position at the time, with considerable power due to the government being financed by tariffs.   Conkling would resign from the Senate in protest, but when he wasn't reelected as he thought, much of his power was lost.
Another person who felt he was deserved appointment was Charles J. Guiteau.  He was an individual with had worked on the periphery of the campaign, and had published a speech in favor of Garfield.  However no appointment was coming.  At this point Guiteau felt God told him to kill Garfield, and then another person would become president.  He expected to be a hero.
Knowing that Garfield was to travel by train to visit his ailing wife who was convalescing in New Jersey, he took a gun to the train station and waited.  Garfield was shot twice, in the arm and in the back.  The bullet in his back lodged in his abdomen, and was never removed.  Worries about germs had been studied, but not applied in this case.  Doctor Willard Bliss took control of his treatment.  he would not hear any criticism of his methods.  Garfield improved for a time, but then infection set in.  Even Alexander Graham Bell was called in to locate the bullet with a new metal detector.  Bell detected the bullet was not where presumed, but Bliss would not hear this.  Garfield's wife had returned from New Jersey to be with her husband.  However in the end, they both traveled back to New Jersey, with tracks laid to the door of their home, where the president could die on the sea shore.  He was shot July 2 and passed away September 19, 1881.
Still after the assassination of President Lincoln, Garfield had no  guard.  In  fact not even Garfield felt a guard was needed.
One of Garfield's passions was to assure the rights of the Black population.  He wanted to work to guarantee them the vote, as well as an education.  Arthur would become president, and would stand up to Conkling and not appoint him to the Customs position in New York.