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I've been live-tweeting the Second World War since 2011. If you find this project interesting or enlightening, I'd value your support. Help keep history alive by joining my Patreon:
Second World War tweets from 1941
26.3K posts
Second World War tweets from 1941
@RealTimeWWII
I livetweet the Second World War as it happened on this date in 1941, & for four years to come. Third time's the charm.
Alwyn Collinson, [email protected]
- In Germany, American intelligence officer Richard Helms writes to his 3-year old son, Dennis, on Adolf Hitler's stationery: "The man who might have written on this card once controlled Europe... Today he is dead, his memory despised, his country in ruins." news.lettersofnote.com/p/he-was-a-for…
- The largest armada in history- 5,300 ships carrying 150,000 troops- is now crossing the Channel, heading for Normandy beaches.
- Admiral Dönitz's German government has offered unconditional surrender of all Reich forces on all fronts. The Allies have won the war in Europe.
- German Oskar Speck, who has spent 7 years canoeing across world, arrives in Australia, unaware of the outbreak of war in Europe. He is interned by the Australian government as an enemy alien.
- The Führer is now on a daily experimental drug cocktail, including opiates, methamphetamine, tranquilisers & hormones. Hitler's personal physician, Dr. Theodor Morell, gives him dozens of pills & injections every day.
- As Allied forces advance across Germany, they discover treasures of Europe gathered by the Nazi Reich. One U.S. soldier poses for a photograph while wearing the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire, made in 962.
Readers added context they thought people might want to knowReaders added contextThat is not the genuine crown but the 1915 Aachen replica, the original was hidden in Nuremberg tiara013-wordpress-com.translate.goog/2016/11/03/die… - Thank you to everyone who has followed for the last 6 years. Regular updates will resume on September 1st, as we begin the war anew in 1939.
- After three days of brutal room-to-room combat in Berlin's Reichstag, Red Army troops hoist the Soviet Union's flag over the heart of the conquered German capital.
- US Army Private Kurt Vonnegut, recently released from a German prisoner of war camp after 6 months, writes home, describing his captivity in Dresden- when it was bombed by the Allies.
- American workers urged to "keep punching" & smack Nazis in the face every day:
- American troops on Okinawa hear news of Nazi Germany's surrender, just metres from front lines of the continuing battle against Japanese.
- After a bitter day of battle, Normandy beaches have been conquered, with 140,000+ Allied troops ashore, but at a bitter cost: 4414 Allied soldiers are dead, 5000+ Germans.
- As Red Army closes in on the city, Berlin Philharmonic orchestra gives its final performance, playing Wagner's Götterdämmerung; in between movements, Hitler Youth walk down the aisles, offering the audience of Nazi elites free cyanide capsules.
