Napoléon Bonaparte

Napoléon Bonaparte was a general most famously known for his status as emperor after the French Revolution. He was born on Corsica, south of France, and went to military school as a child. He eventually progressed to general, but refused to do certain tasks and to move to certain places, leaving him in a very poor financial state. But when Napoléon successfully stopped a renegade group of Royalists advancing through the streets of Paris in 1795, he became rather well known and was elevated to commander. It was also directly after this battle that he met Rose de Beauharnais, better known as Joséphine. Following his success in Paris, he was given charge of the army in Italy, as a result of the war between France and Austria. Napoléon won with the Italian campiagn and also managed to get Austria to sign a treaty, at which point, when he came back to Paris, he was hailed as a hero.
Napoléon wanted more, so he set out to Egypt, and after initial success, he and his big army were defeated by the English Navy at the Nile, as well as by a pandemic that spread throughout the soldiers. He received news of Paris, which was in trouble politically speaking, and decided to surrender Egypt.
When he returned, he was talked into overthrowing the government to instigate a new one by Abbot Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, who wanted the return of Jacobinism (radical left-wing). Little did he know that Napoléon then decided to make a coup-d'état in a coup-d'état. He successfully pulled it off, and broke apart the Directory, putting in its place the Consulate, electing himself as First Consul in the process.
Napoléon stayed First Consul for almost four years, during which he fought some more with the Austrians, and signed treaties with them once again, revised the educational system, was proclaimed as First Consul for life, and established the Legion of Honour. In 1804, he was named Emperor of France, and some months later, crowned himself in the presence of the pope.
He immediately started to fight all over in Europe, mainly against the Austrians and their allies, effectively breaking their alliance. These countries included Russia, Austria and Portugal, as well as several other small countries. The end strike to the allied countries was given in Austerlitz, Austrian Empire (modern day Czech Republic).

Joséphine de Beauharnais

After so many victories, Napoléon needed to control his newfound Empire, and thus named members of his immediate family as rulers of various places. Prussia and Russia united to take on Napoléon, but he also beat the two, having Russia sign a treaty.
But Spain, already conquered, also decided to stand up to France. The British joined the Spanish, and together they managed to wore out Napoléon's army. Although he often won small battles, supplies and men were starting to get low.
Russia became lax with the treaty rules, and so Napoléon decided to invade them. This was a very long battle that ultimately ended in Moscow. Moscow had been abandonned by the Russians, but during the night, while the French occupiers were sleeping, the city was burned down. Napoléon then surrendered Russia to attend to matters in France.
Encouraged by the defeat, Prussia joined with Austria, Sweden, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal. There were many battles all over Europe, but it all ended when France was forced to surrender after a battle in Paris, and Napoléon had to abdicate his power.
Louis XVI's brother, Louis XVIII, resumed the monarchy, and Napoléon was sent to Elba, an island off the Tuscan coast, along with his family, and was paid a pension. But he didn't like losing his power, so he escaped from Elba and walked all the way to Paris, picking up soldiers and peasants along the way who wanted the return of their beloved Napoléon, for yes, Napoléon was mostly able to gain so much power because the public absolutely loved him. He arrived in Paris and enjoyed one hundred days of his power back, until he was defeated by the British in Waterloo. He abdicated his power again and hoped to be left alone in Paris, but fearing that he would pull another similar stunt, he was exiled in 1815 to Saint Helena, an island in the Atlantic ocean 1,870 km from the west coast of Africa. He never again tried to gain power, and died on Saint Helena in 1821. After numerous theories of arsenic poisoning, it was ruled that he died of stomach cancer. Supposedly, his last words were "France, armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine" (France, army, head of the army, Joséphine).
He married Joséphine in 1796, while he was 26 and she was a 32 year old widow. Both of them had affairs, but while Napoléon's mistresses produced heirs, Joséphine never did. Napoléon ultimately decided to divorce for that reason and married Marie Antoinette's niece, Marie Louise who gave him a son, who died in 1832. Marie Louise did not join Napoléon in exile.

Share on Facebook

King Louis XVI

The French revolution may seem daunting and complicated, but in reality, it is quite simple, you need only look at it in the right way. Let us start from the very beginning:
Marie Antoinette was an Austrian princess, and she was set-up in an arranged marriage with the French King's grandson, Louis, in order to ensure the peace between both empires. Louis was a shy young man when he married, easily influenced and with not much wit. He couldn't make up his mind, had no particular opinions, and kept a daily diary in which he wrote what he caught when out hunting. Many said at the time and they still do now, that he was not king material, what with his gentle nature and modest tinkering and manual work abilities. What he loved doing the most was hunting, followed by locksmithing, and let's not forget his huge appetite.
One her side, Marie Antoinette was an energetic teenager, still seeing life in pink. She was frivolous and didn't much care for important matters such as state problems or running a kingdom. She enjoyed theatre, playing, walking about in the gardens, and starting fashions. She had opinions, but mainly about fun things.

Marie Antoinette

When these two people married, there was a mixed reaction. The French people didn't like the idea, as they still had bitter feelings about Austria, which had dragged them into a war because of their alliance. Others were rejoicing at the idea, at the fortification of the French-Austrian alliance. Louis and Marie Antoinette weren't happy however. Louis' shy nature led him to mostly ignore his wife, and spend his time hunting. Marie Antoinette sought refuge in luxuries and plays. It is reported that only after seven years of marriage did they consumate it. The long period without an heir made the people dislike Marie Antoinette a little bit more, thinking of her as barren, when in reality, it was Louis' indecision.

Chateau part of Petit Trianon

The revolution stems from hatred and people having had enough. They encased many things, which filled up the bucket little by little, until finally it overspilled. The biggest event responsible was the financial crisis. When Louis became King, France was already in deficit after the Seven Years War, and taxes were brought up to make up for the loss of money. But I'm sure you know, the taxes were brought up for the poor, the peasants etc. For the nobles and the clergy, their taxes were reduced and almost null. The people of France were eventually so poor from all the money going to the King that they couldn't afford bread anymore. One thing to note about the French, they love their bread, and can't live, or eat, without it. Many finance ministers came and went, and most notable among them, Jacques Necker. Necker, realising the severity of the situation, proposed a new tax plan that took more money from the nobles and clergy and less from the poor, as well as reducing the power of the Parlements, a kind of legislature. He was fired. The next minister proposed only the taxes part of the plan, and was also fired. It's no surprise that France went into more of a depression, since the poor no longer had any money to give to taxes. This was the biggest trigger for the revolution, but there were other smaller matters, such as the Queen's Petit Trianon, her own personal chateau equipped with a make-believe farm featuring real farmers in action. This chateau caused anger for two reasons. The poor farmers believed it an insult that the Queen amused herself seeing the farmers working about, and sometimes participating in milking or other such things. The second reason goes back to money. Trianon, originally for Louis XV's (Louis XVI's grandfather) main mistress, Madame de Pompadour, was renovated and remade with the money of the state, making the deficit even worse. Not to be excluded from the list is the notorious affair of the necklace, resulting in Marie Antoinette having the reputation of a money-spending slut, responsible for everything that was wrong. Indeed, although it was a case of wrong-place wrong-time, Marie Antoinette was blamed for all the troubles, and was non-affectionately referred to as "L'Autrichienne" (The Austrian, feminin form).

Estates General Meeting

But enough about why, let's move on to the how. As a last solution to the money crisis, the King reinstated Les États-Généraux (Estates-General) in May 1789. Constituting of a general assembly representing the three types of people, noble, clergy and the common folk, Les États-Généraux were left to come up with and decide on an idea for the depression. Once the people, that is, the Tiers État (Third Estate) gained a little power, they realised how powerless they still were against the monarchy ruled by the rich, the clergy, and royalty. They started meeting internally to discuss things without the full États-Généraux, going with the name of Les Communes (the Commons), until finally breaking away from the États-Généraux to become L'Assemblé Nationale (National Assembly). They mainly broke away because of the voting system that would be used in the États-Généraux. Originally, each member of the estate would get one vote each, and there were twice as many people in the Third Estate (renamed to National Assembly) than in the First Estate (clergy) or the Second (noble). But the policy was changed last minute and the votes became one per estate, meaning a vote out of three. The National Assembly did not like that.

Taking the Bastille

Jacques Necker urged the King to hold a Séance Royale (Royal Session), which the King planned on doing, but people in his council told him not to try to unify the Estates, but to rather oppose unity on them. The King decreed that they could not meet on their own, and as is to be expected, the National Assembly did not like that either. They completely broke off to become the National Constituent Assembly. They continued meeting and made it their duty to completely rewrite the constitution, but feared that the King was planning on forcibly removing them using the foreign soldiers that were arriving into the country. They decided to act before Royalty and set their eyes on the Bastille (prison) which contained big amounts of gunpowder. By this time, the revolution was set in motion, and there was chaos and looting everywhere. The National Constituent Assembly as well as many commoners stormed the Bastille on the 14th of July 1789, now become the national holiday of France. After storming the Bastille and killing many people in it, although there were only nine prisoners, the mob went around town parading various heads of important people on sticks. The mob was aided by most of the French Guard, which was on their side. The King was alarmed at the violence, and backed down on the Assembly.
A great fear had spread throughout France after the Bastille. The nobles were afraid of the peasants and thus fled to other countries, and the peasants were afraid the nobles were trying to bring war to France by summoning foreigners. A little more than a month after the storming of the Bastille, the National Constituent Assembly created the Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen) and abolished feudalism. The King's absolute power was also reduced to simply saying yes or no to ideas voted by the Assembly, called the veto.
During all that time when the people of France gained more power than the King, the debt had only worsened, which brought on the march of the women on Versailles. They first marched to the Hôtel de Ville, the Assembly's HQ, but when their cries for bread and an end to royalty powers were ignored, they marched to Versailles, where they demanded the royal family to move to Paris to a less luxurious lifestyle in accordance to the deficit and shortage of bread. They had brought with them several guns and weapons, and as they pushed through, many guards were killed. Eventually, the King agreed to move, finally and completely making the Assembly legal.
Later, there was a problem with the church, and the pope. When everyone became citizens and equals (not yet done chronologically), the clergy were also starting to be voted on, denying the authority of the pope. This caused even more riots with the ones obsessed with religion. They began calling themselves Royalists because they wanted the King and monarchy back, and with it, their church. These people, mostly from Brittany, became known as the Chouans, and started a war from within France.
Besides all these hiccups, the constitution was slowly being rewritten from scratch, and everything was almost going smoothly, with various new laws and codes that seemed in the favour of a citizen. Even the freedom of the press was granted. But everything metaphorically crashed when the King tried to runaway, not liking where the revolution was going. He was captured thirty kilometers away from his home in Paris, along with his wife and children, after which his home, which had already been like a prison, was actually turned into one. The family was placed under constant surveillance and they weren't even allowed to stay long in their garden.

Maximilien Robespierre

The Assembly still preferred to have a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic, so the King was kept for an image, but soon he posed a threat. In the eyes of the people, he was dangerous and could call on his wife's family to wreak war on France. George Danton and Camille Desmoulins gave big and impressive speeches, rousing up the public in the favour of a republic. The Assembly, still wanting a sort of monarchy, ordered their municipal police to control the crowds, resulting in deaths and the end of free speech. Danton fled to England while Desmoulins went into hiding. In addition to everything happening, Austria also warned France to stop its sillyness and reinstate the King or else.
Although the Assembly had tried to run the country, everything fell apart and broke up, leaving the treasury even emptier than before, not to mention the completely messed up army and navy.
In 1792, the Paris Commune, self appointed new government, attacked the King's home in Paris and took him prisoner, while also sending gangs into prisons all over to kill the prisoners in their cells, now known as the September Massacres. The Assembly had become so feeble that they were practically pushed away, and once the Paris Commune became the official new government, they started by decreeing a republic. Once done, Austria was evidently angered, but France declared war on them before they could, and so began a war on multiple fronts. An inner war with the Chouans, a political war with the monarchists and royalists, and war with almost of all Europe who didn't want the revolution disease to pass around to their own kingdoms.
Maximilien Robespierre delivered a speech that would define the fate of the King's trial, stating that if the King, now completely useless, was allowed to continue to live, he would be a constant threat to the Republic. On the 15th of January 1793, Louis was voted guilty of conspiracy and attacks on public safety, and was guillotined on the 21st of January.

The Guillotine

Now things were really in the gutter. The war on both fronts wasn't being won, the deficit was still getting worse, and anybody simply suspected of treason, whatever that meant, was guillotined almost immediately by the Committee of Public Safety. This period is known as La Grande Terreur (the reign of terror). Robespierre, the one so fervent for the death of the King, became an important leader of said committee, and was mostly responsible for sending people to the guillotine. The Queen was also subject to the guillotine, but not before her children were taken away to be 're-educated'. Even Danton and Desmoulins (and his wife) were subjected to the guillotine, although they had previously been best friends with Robespierre, who allowed their execution. Eventually though, in the need to create a perfect republic, the republic soon started turning into a dictature by the hands of Robespierre and his committee. Anyone opposed to them, and therefore to the republic, was executed, almost without trial. The entire Convention, comprising of the entire government, retaliated and in turn guillotined Maximilien Robespierre along with many others who were turning the republic into a dictature. With the end of Robespierre came the end of the reign of terror, but not the end of the problems. The country still had no money, and was still in a war and remained so for a year, until along came Napoleon and his ambitions and army, but that is for another post.
But it is sad when you think about it; in the beginning, all the commoners wanted was some bread...

Share on Facebook

Contents for World War II

1. World War II – Part 1
2. World War II – Part 2
3. World War II – Part 3

Nazis parading in Paris

Once France had been taken over, Paris became a sort of holiday resort for soldiers, where they went and became tourists and could relax from the stress of war. Many Parisians simply ignored them and carried on as before, although there was a minority of those that sabotaged telephone lines and the such to hinder the German army. However, the government complied to Hitler's rule, and soon Jews in France were prosecuted and banished just like in all the other countries invaded by the Nazis.
Hitler was then in control of almost every big city in Europe. All that was left was the ever resisting London and England. In August 1940, Germany began what was known as Unternehmen Seelöwe, or Operation Sea Lion. Operation Sea Lion was an elaborate plan that resulted in the defeat of Britain, and the plan started with air attacks to weaken and ultimately destroy the Royal Air Force so as to have air superiority for the next attacks which would deliver the falling blows.

London bombings.

At first, the air raids were solely for British bases, but over time, the attacks were concentrated on London, changing the plan to strategic bombings. These bombings on London were carried out solely to wreak havoc on England's financial and economic state, not to mention the morale of the population. It is around this time that all the children of London were sent to the countryside, which was not targeted as much as the bustling London town. At this point, the English required a lot of new equipment, which the Americans, who were still officially neutral, were making and shipping out to them. As part of the England invasion plan, Germany placed the famous U-Boats, powerful submarines, all over the Atlantic Ocean, with orders to destroy all shipments passing through. This operation became a success and England was running out of ideas and resources. Hitler, content with his progress and his submarines, noticed at the same time an imminent problem. America. America had the resources, the money, and the man-power to attack. The Nazi army needed more equipment to successfully thwart such an attack. Hitler decided the time to take over Russia had come. Although it wasn't ideal for him to fight from two sides of his Reich, he felt that Russia was the answer to the war. With Russia fully his, he could destroy England once and for all and attack or defend an attack from America. The operation was named Operation Barbarossa.
The operation was delayed when Hitler went to the aid of Benito Mussolini, who had tried to lead his own independent war into Africa but was being beaten. To assist Mussolini, Hitler sent his best general, Erwin Rommel, and a small army to fight alongside him. Starting in February 1941, Rommel's first intent was to ensure Italy's continued occupation of Libya. However, starting in March, the Germans decided to use the opportunity to advance on North Africa. As such, Operation Barbarossa was indefinitely delayed. The Nazi Army advanced through Libya on to Egypt, but was blocked and pushed back from Cairo. Subsequently, the Germans were defeated by the Allies and returned to their more pressing matters.
On the 1st of May, as per tradition, in Russia, a great military parade was held in Moscow. In this particular parade, Stalin wanted to impress Hitler, and so the great majority of the riches of the Soviet Army were put on display. Although Stalin had heard rumours of an attack against him, he refused to believe Hitler would break the truce so soon. Nazi generals were invited to the parade, and on seeing the impressive military equipment, Germany would claim that Russia had decided to attack first, but Germany acted before they could. Operation Barbarossa was finally underway.

Rudolf Hess

As a little history sidenote, meanwhile, in England, an especially fanatic fan of Hitler attempted to make England an ally so that Hitler could attack Russia more freely. Rudolf Hess, a renowned pilot, crash landed in Glasgow, Scotland on the 10th of May 1941, and claimed to have come in peace, to try to come to an understanding. Hess was taken to a hospital for his injuries, under the name Alfred Horn. He asked to see Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton, who was a contact Hess' advisor, Albrecht Haushofer, had met in Nazi Germany just before the war. When Hamilton arrived at the hospital to see the mysterious man who wanted to talk with him, Hess revealed his true identity and was immediately reported to Winston Churchill, who placed Hess under arrest. No deals were ever made between England and Hess, supposedly representing Germany. Instead, Hess was placed in the Tower of London. He remained there until the 20th of May, when he was transferred to the Maindiff Court Military Hospital, Abergavenny, Wales for treatment for insanity. He was declared of unsound mind but still guilty of crimes against peace and was given a life sentence. He died on the 17th of August 1987, at Spandau Prison, West Berlin, aged 93. He died of a suicide by hanging.

Germany attacking Russia.

On the end of that sidenote, let's return back to Operation Barbarossa. On the 22nd of June 1941, at 03:15, Germany, without a declaration of war, attacked Russia. The initial attack was comprised of multiple offensives. Germany bombed major cities in Russian-occupied Poland, as well as grounded troops making their way through Russian territory. The troops were comprised of Germans, Romanians, Hungarians, Slovakians, Croatians, Italians, and Norwegians. The attack spread out in three different directions: to the north, towards Leningrad, modern-day St. Petersburg, to the center, towards Moscow, Stalin's base and capitol, mainly for political reasons, and finally to the south, towards Kiev and the Ukraine for economical reasons.
The attacks were so well carried out and were so surprising that within the first hour, major damage had been dealt to the Soviet army: 1500 grounded planes were destroyed, while 400 were shot down in air combat.

Nazis on a dirt road in Russia.

As the Germans advanced smoothly, the people of Russia had no idea what to do, and could not to turn to Stalin for orders, as Stalin had effectively disappeared and was nowhere to be found. Soon the Germans reached the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), and were treated as heros come to liberate the citizens. In their minds (citizens), anything was better than the strict Stalin rule, and the cruel Russians, who just before abandoning the area to the oncoming Germans and retreating, had killed off all anti-communists held in prisons. Bouquets of flowers and food greeted the soldiers in every Baltic town. The only ones to suffer from this invasion were the Jews.
Meanwhile, on the center attack, although meeting much more resistance than to the north, the German army advanced well. It was only truly slowed down when it encountered the Russian terrain. With no roads or asphalt, the huge tanks, motorbikes and vehicles advanced on crude dirt, which dusted up in the wake of the vehicles. This thick dust clogged pipes, motors, as well as penetrated into the soldiers' eyes, noses and mouths. As they advanced, the heavier trucks and tanks, containing essentials such as ammunitions, food and fuel, had an even harder time advancing through the vast countryside. There were no villages within hundreds of miles, and the most important problem the Germans were faced with was the Russians fighting back for their land. However, the Nazis remained the stronger of the two, and before long the Soviets that were left began retreating. On the 3rd of July 1941, Stalin remade an appearance and spoke to his people. He called out the brutality of Nazi Germany and its fascist nature and relocated his weapon-making factories as well as the workers well into the east of Russia, into the Ural Mountains. He also gave the order for everyone, all farmers and country folk to leave and retreat towards the center of Russia, burning their entire villages as they left so as to leave nothing to the Germans passing through. But the Germans still passed through, and arrived at Smolensk, the final large city before Moscow, mid-June. The battle for Smolensk would prove a difficult one, with the Russians still fighting refusing to give themselves up. Those that did survive the take-over of the Germans retreated into the surrounding forests, where they were joined by fleeing citizens and farmers. This renegade team of Russians would become a thorn in the Germans' side, with the assassination of traitors and the hijacking of German communication lines and train tracks. Hitler, on his side, ordered for anyone simply suspected of foul behaviour to be killed. This created a huge number of losses for both sides.

The concentration on the Ukraine.

With the capture of Smolensk came a number issues. Operation Barbarossa was greatly delayed, and most Nazi generals believed it to be because of the three branches of attacks. The generals, almost tasting Moscow, wanted to concentrate on pushing towards the center. Instead, Hitler concentrated his army on the southern division, towards Ukraine's food industry, to shatter Russia's economical state as well as to provide food for the army which had slowly been becoming famished due the burning remnants of villages that provided nothing.
This change of course also allowed the Germans to surround a pocket of Soviets that were holding their ground, thus capturing approximately 600,000 Russian soldiers at once, on the 19th of September 1941. One of the largest such captures in recorded history, although no special mesures to take care of the prisoners were taken, and most died of starvation.

Executions at Babi Yar.

As with the Baltics, the Ukrainians thought of the Germans as liberators. The Ukrainians were anti-semite, and the hate crimes against Jews increased as the Nazis approached. With the succesful invasion of Ukraine, many citizens willingly converted to and supported Nazism, but Germany did not take the opportunity to make a loyal ally. Instead, upon the arrival of Hermann Goering, the second in command in the Reich, in the Ukraine, all capable workers were immediately put to work, while those who couldn't were simply ignored. Put simply, Ukrainians were made into slaves until they all died off. Georing along with his colleague, Alfred Rosenberg, were in charge of instigating the exploit of the Ukraine.
For this next part to make sense, allow me to return to 1939. In 1939, the Einsatzgruppen was created. This squad was in charge of the mass killings, mostly of Jews. Most groups were shot to death, but this timely and hard to manage, so more convinient ways of purging were sought for. At one point, each Jew to be killed off was given a shovel and each had to dig his/her own grave. Jews were still shot, but shot as they were already lying in their graves. However, this took too much time, so mass graves were built and the defenseless Jews thrown into the holes were shot. Still, this was hardly convient. In the Babi Yar ravine, close to Kiev, 33,771 Jewish men, women and children were shot to death between the 29th and 30th of September 1941.
However, Himmler, in charge of the purge, did not like the previous methods, and asked his subordinates to find something less messy. A year later, the gas chambers were ready for use.

Concentration on Moscow.

To get back to the invasion of Russia, with the capture of the Ukraine, the Germans in the north, moving towards St. Petersburg, had also progressed. Once they had reached the city, it was decided that no further advancement would be made. The city could be captured more easily using artillery and causing a famine, then to actually barge in. With this, the full concentration on Moscow seemed irresistible. To the delight of his generals, Hitler ordered the army to move on to the capitol. The victory seemed almost inevitable, until the realities of the Russian landscape hit the German army in the face. With the arrival of autumn came the autumn rains, which transformed the hard dirt into even harder mud. Mud that sucked up everything and prevented even the best tanks from moving properly. The army slowed down so much that it only crossed five to ten kilometers of terrain a day. However, Lady Luck shined once more on the Nazi army when the autumn gave way to the winter, allowing the mud to freeze over, creating an easy to travel land. But with the winter also came the below freezing temperatures and snow. The Germans sent into Russia were equipped for a Blitzkrieg battle, supposed to last only four months. None of the soldiers were clothed enough to withstand the harsh Russian winter. At this point, every single village meant the difference between life and death. As well as those that suffered frost-bite, those that died of cold, there was also a spread of dysentery. However, taking off a single layer of clothes, even to go to the toilet, could mean death. In addition, lack of hygiene, of proper rest, of heat and of malnourishment brought on further diseases, such as typhus. Regardless of all that, the army somehow managed to get within thirty kilometers of Moscow.
They reached the outskirts of the city on the 7th of November 1941, and while the Soviet army held the Germans at bay, Stalin ordered the annual parade celebrating the revolution to take place.

A German tank stuck in the snow.

While Stalin rallied his troops and men with a speech during the parade, the Germans were held at bay by an army of Siberians. These Siberians came well prepared and well equipped for the cold and snow. They had suitable white clothing, camouflaging in the snow, and used mainly skiis and sleds as transport, as well as tanks. Georgy Zhukov, a Russian general, was in charge of the defenses, but in addition to a defense, Zhukov also wanted to attack. He ordered the Siberians to surround the Germans invading Moscow. The offensive started on the 5th of December and on the 7th of January 1942, with considerable losses and soldiers made prisoners, the German army was forced back approximately 200 kilometers from Moscow.

Images from:

Nazis in Paris

London Bombings

Mussolini

Rudolf Hess

Dirt Road

Babi Yar

Stuck in Snow

Others are from Apocalypse.

Share on Facebook

Usually the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Jack the Ripper.

I am sure I don't need to tell you who Jack the Ripper is, but just in case, he is the unidentified serial killer who 'ripped' prostitutes, or rather, gutted them, during the year of 1888 in a very poor area of London. But why do you know this nickname for a relatively common serial killer? Why is he still known to us today? He only (supposedly) killed five women, four of them being completely useless people who didn't know what to do with their lives anymore. Many more were killed in more atrocious ways, and he is not the only serial killer to have not been identified. I myself do not know exactly why he is still famous. Perhaps because of the appeal of the name? He most certainly was not the first serial killer, but perhaps he was the first to taunt the police with letters and pieces of his victims. In a time when madness and mental illnesses were still being discovered, there was sane, and insane. No one could do those murders and then be egotistical enough to brag about it to the police and the entire world. Before I start relaying the facts about what happened, there are many ideologies that form when people think of Jack (I'll refer to him as such, 'Jack the Ripper' is too long for continuous use). These ideologies are wrong and lead to pseudohistory and legends. The first main concept most people have is that Jack killed beautiful young women who were innocent, apart from their prostitution. This couldn't be further from the truth. All victims, apart from the last one, so the first four women to be killed were in their forties, never bathed, drank their money away, smelled putrid etc.

What Jack supposedly looked like according to one witness.

These prostitutes, Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, and Catherine Eddowes, left their families and husbands to pass their days drinking, but drinking leads to debt, and so they found themselves homeless, living in the most horrible place in London, Whitechapel district. In order to continue drinking, they became prostitutes, and if you wonder who would possibly want to sleep with such foul-smelling and foul-looking women, then consider the fact that most of them worked for as little as a piece of stale bread.
In the original police file, eleven murders were attributed to Jack, but murder was common, especially in the impoverished and criminal Whitechapel, and that is why only five of the eleven are thought for certain to be of Jack. On the 31st of August 1888, Friday, at 03:40, the body of Mary Ann Nichols was found by a cart driver, Charles Cross in front of a gated stable entrance in Buck's Row (modern day Durward St.). Her throat had been slit to the bone, and it was only once back in the morgue that the extreme lacerations around her abdomen were made obvious. The case's surgeon, Henry Llewellyn, had this to say at the inquest:

I found the deceased woman lying flat on her back. [...] She had severe injuries to her throat. [...] I told the police to take her to the mortuary, and I would make another examination. About an hour later I was sent for by the Inspector to see the injuries he had discovered on the body. I went, and saw that the abdomen was cut very extensively. [...] Five of the teeth are missing, and there is a slight laceration of the tongue. On the right side of the face there is a bruise running along the lower part of the jaw. It might have been caused by a blow with the fist or pressure by the thumb. On the left side of the face there was a circular bruise, which also might have been done by the pressure of the fingers. On the left side of the neck, about an inch below the jaw, there was an incision about four inches long and running from a point immediately below the ear. An inch below on the same side, and commencing about an inch in front of it, was a circular incision terminating at a point about three inches below the right jaw. This incision completely severs all the tissues down to the vertebrae. The large vessels of the neck on both sides were severed. The incision is about eight inches long. These cuts must have been caused with a long-bladed knife, moderately sharp, and used with great violence. [...] There were no injuries about the body till just about the lower part of the abdomen. Two or three inches from the left side was a wound running in a jagged manner. It was a very deep wound, and the tissues were cut through. There were several incisions running across the abdomen. On the right side there were also three or four similar cuts running downwards. All these had been caused by a knife, which had been used violently and been used downwards. The wounds were from left to right, and might have been done by a left-handed person. All the injuries had been done by the same instrument.

Mortuary photo of Mary Ann Nichols

Although it is unreliable to assume the killer was left-handed, it was fervently believed and still is to this day. On the 8th of September 1888, at 06:00, the body of Annie Chapman was found by market porter John Davis, resident number 29, in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields (modern day carpark; imagine parking your car in the place where a woman was murdered by Jack...). A witness, Elizabeth Long, came forward and stated she had seen Chapman talking to a man around 05:30 just beyond where her body was found. This witness provided the first description of Jack the Ripper: over forty, a little taller than Chapman, dark complexion, of foreign, "shabby-genteel" appearance with a deer-stalker hat and a dark overcoat. The deer-stalker hat and the overcoat would become the trade symbol of sorts to identify Jack in later fictional works. Dr. George Bagster Phillips, the police surgeon, described the body as he had seen it in the street at the inquest:

[...] The left arm was across the left breast, and the legs were drawn up, the feet resting on the ground, and the knees turned outwards. The face was swollen and turned on the right side, and the tongue protruded between the front teeth, but not beyond the lips; it was much swollen. The small intestines and other portions were lying on the right side of the body on the ground above the right shoulder, but attached. There was a large quantity of blood, with a part of the stomach above the left shoulder. I searched the yard and found a small piece of coarse muslin, a small-tooth comb, and a pocket-comb, in a paper case, near the railing. They had apparently been arranged there. [...] The throat was dissevered deeply. I noticed that the incision of the skin was jagged, and reached right round the neck. [...] There was a bruise under the clavicle, and there were two distinct bruises, each the size of a man's thumb, on the fore part of the chest. [...] The throat had been severed. The incisions of the skin indicated that they had been made from the left side of the neck on a line with the angle of the jaw, carried entirely round and again in front of the neck, and ending at a point about midway between the jaw and the sternum or breast bone on the right hand. There were two distinct clean cuts on the body of the vertebrae on the left side of the spine. They were parallel to each other, and separated by about half an inch. The muscular structures between the side processes of bone of the vertebrae had an appearance as if an attempt had been made to separate the bones of the neck. There are various other mutilations of the body, but I am of opinion that they occurred subsequently to the death of the woman [...].

Mortuary photo of Annie Chapman

Chapman's throat was slit, just like the first victim, and also like the first victim, the mutilations were carried out after death. It was with this victim that the idea that Jack was a doctor arose. At the time, this caused a great scandal, for doctors used their hands to save lives, not destroy them, but in more modern times, the doctor idea seemed more appealing. What way to make a serial killer infinitely more creepy than to make him a doctor (German doctors work best, especially if they are Nazi, but Nazism wasn't invented yet, and Jack wasn't German (or was he?!))? With this second murder, London was placed in panic and everyone and anyone could be Jack. Whitechapel, densely overcrowded, was filled with Jew and Irish immigrants, butchers, and many more people who used knifes in their profession, all of which were questioned by police and harassed by lynch mobs.

The police and newspaper agencies received hundreds of letters by this time. People writing to offer advice, people writing to criticise the police's ineffectiveness, but most importantly, people writing to brag about their murders. Eventually, the Police ignored the letters; they would receive up to one hundred letters of people claiming to be Jack daily. Then, on the 27th of September, a letter arrived which read as such:

Dear Boss,
I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck.

Yours truly
Jack the Ripper
Dont mind me giving the trade name
PS Wasnt good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands curse it No luck yet. They say I'm a doctor now. ha ha

Copy of the Dear Boss letter, page 1 of 2.

This letter didn't actually attract any attention and was no different to the other hoaxes, grammatical errors included, but when the next victim was found with a severed earlobe, the Police took special interest in the letter. It was dated on the 25th of September, but was postmarked on the 27th and sent to the Central News Agency, which had a bit of a reputation of spurning far-fetched stories. But the panic London was in dissipated any doubts they may have had about the letter, for when you think about it; yes, one ear was cut later on, but the writer says he will cut both off and send them to the police. No ears were ever received. This letter, referred to as the Dear Boss Letter, was also the start of the nickname we now use today. Before, Jack had simply been called the Whitechapel murderer. If the letter was indeed written by the man/woman responsible for the murders, then it was awfully egotistical of them to name themselves, don't you think? The Central News Agency kept the letter for two days before it was forwarded on the 29th of September to Scotland Yard. After the murders, the Police revealed this letter was a hoax made by a journalist, a certain Tom Bullen, but this statement wasn't properly spread out throughout the newspapers, and thus was born the taunting, letter writing legend of Jack the Ripper.

Mortuary photo of Elizabeth Stride

However, there are still those who think this could in fact be written by Jack himself. The Dear Boss letter disappeared a short while after the investigation was finished. Like many other items that disappeared from Police files, it is believed they were taken by officers wanting to keep souvenirs. The letter was returned anonymously in 1987.

On the 30th of September 1888, Sunday, what is referred to as the 'double event' took place. Two prostitues were killed on the same night, each within moments of each other. The first one, Elizabeth Stride, was discovered at 01:00 by Louis Diemschutz, a steward, in Dutfield's Yard, Berner Street (Modern day Henrique's St.). The last witness to see her, that came forward, said he had seen her with a man wearing a hard felt hat carrying a package about 45cm in length. Dr. George Bagster Phillips, who also attended to the Annie Chapman murder, said at the inquest:

[...] The throat was deeply gashed, and there was an abrasion of the skin, about an inch and a quarter in diameter, under the right clavicle. [...] On neck, from left to right, there is a clean cut incision six inches in length; incision commencing two and a half inches in a straight line below the angle of the jaw. Three-quarters of an inch over undivided muscle, then becoming deeper, about an inch dividing sheath and the vessels, ascending a little, and then grazing the muscle outside the cartilages on the left side of the neck. The carotid artery on the left side and the other vessels contained in the sheath were all cut through, save the posterior portion of the carotid, to a line about 1-12th of an inch in extent, which prevented the separation of the upper and lower portion of the artery. The cut through the tissues on the right side of the cartilages is more superficial, and tails off to about two inches below the right angle of the jaw. It is evident that the haemorrhage which produced death was caused through the partial severance of the left carotid artery. [...] Teeth on left lower jaw absent. [...]

Since Stride did not have any abdominal 'ripping', it is often speculated whether or not she was actually a victim of Jack, but it is widely believed she was, but Jack was interrupted and couldn't complete his kill, whence the next murder made immediately after.
Catherine Eddowes was found at 01:45 in the south-west corner of Mitre Square by Edward Watkins, a policeman. D. Frederick Gordon Brown, who carried out the post mortem noted in his report:

The body was on its back, the head turned to left shoulder. The arms by the side of the body as if they had fallen there. Both palms upwards, the fingers slightly bent ... Left leg extended in a line with the body, The abdomen was exposed. Right leg bent at the thigh and knee ... The throat cut across ... The intestines were drawn out to a large extent and placed over the right shoulder - they were smeared over with some feculent matter. A piece of about two feet was quite detached from the body and placed between the body and the left arm, apparently by design. The lobe and auricle of the right ear was cut obliquely through. [...] The face was very much mutilated. There was a cut about a quarter of an inch through the lower left eyelid, dividing the structures completely through. [...] The tip of the nose was quite detached from the nose by an oblique cut from the bottom of the nasal bone to where the wings of the nose join on to the face. A cut from this divided the upper lip and extended through the substance of the gum over the right upper lateral incisor tooth. About half an inch from the top of the nose was another oblique cut. There was a cut on the right angle of the mouth as if the cut of a point of a knife. The cut extended an inch and a half, parallel with lower lip. There was on each side of cheek a cut which peeled up the skin, forming a triangular flap about an inch and a half. [...] The throat was cut across to the extent of about six or seven inches. [...] The large vessels on the left side of the neck were severed. The larynx was severed below the vocal chord. All the deep structures were severed to the bone, the knife marking intervertebral cartilages. [...] All these injuries were performed by a sharp instrument like a knife, and pointed. [...] We examined the abdomen. The front walls were laid open from the breast bone to the pubes. The cut commenced opposite the enciform cartilage. The incision went upwards, not penetrating the skin that was over the sternum. It then divided the enciform cartilage. [...] The abdominal walls were divided in the middle line to within a quarter of an inch of the navel. The cut then took a horizontal course for two inches and a half towards right side. It then divided round the navel on the left side, and made a parallel incision to the former horizontal incision, leaving the navel on a tongue of skin. Attached to the navel was two and a half inches of the lower part of the rectus muscle on the left side of the abdomen. The incision then took an oblique direction to the right and was shelving. The incision went down the right side of the vagina and rectum for half an inch behind the rectum. [...] An inch below the crease of the thigh was a cut extending from the anterior spine of the ilium obliquely down the inner side of the left thigh and separating the left labium, forming a flap of skin up to the groin. The left rectus muscle was not detached. [...] The intestines had been detached to a large extent from the mesentery. About two feet of the colon was cut away. [...] The left kidney [was] carefully taken out and removed. [...] I believe the perpetrator of the act must have had considerable knowledge of the positions of the organs in the abdominal cavity and the way of removing them. The parts removed would be of no use for any professional purpose. It required a great deal of medical knowledge to have removed the kidney and to know where it was placed. Such a knowledge might be possessed by some one in the habit of cutting up animals. I think the perpetrator of this act had sufficient time, or he would not have nicked the lower eyelids. [...]

Post post-mortem photo of Catherine Eddowes

Catherine's murder further pushed the belief that Jack was a doctor, butcher or slaughterer, and people of those professions, not so much doctors, but butchers and slaughterers living/working in Whitechapel had a hard life during the murders. They were constantly interviewed by police, and attacked by mobs of scared people. One particular mob that was created named itself the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. It has headed by George Lusk and was comprised mostly of radicals who believed the Police was too inefficient. The committee hired private detectives, made their own investigations, and patrolled areas at night in an attempt to either catch or prevent Jack from killing again. The Police mostly saw the Committee as a bother. A fragment of Catherine Eddowes' bloodied apron was found at 03:00 in the doorway leading to Flats 108 and 119, Model Dwellings, Goulston Street, Whitechapel. On the wall alongside the apron was an inscription, written with chalk. It contained an anti-semitic message, and out of fear of a revolt or an uprising, The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Charles Warren, had the message erased. It is believed the message went somewhere along the lines of "The Juwes [sic] are the men that will not be blamed for nothing". The handwriting of the description was different to that of the letter, leading many to believe the apron and the message coinciding to be a coincidence.
On the 1st of October, the Central News Agency received a postcard postmarked on the same day with the same writing as the Dear Boss letter. The postcard, ripe with even more spelling mistakes than the previous message, had this text:

I was not codding dear old Boss when I gave you the tip, you'll hear about Saucy Jacky's work tomorrow double event this time number one squealed a bit couldn't finish straight off. ha not the time to get ears for police. thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again.
Jack the Ripper

As with the Dear Boss letter, the postcard, Saucy Jacky Postcard as it is known, disappeared from Police files. It still has not been recovered. No more was heard of Jack until George Lusk, the leader of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, received the third letter suspected to be from the actual killer. This one, nicknamed 'From Hell', contained a little something extra, that is, a piece of a kidney. The message that accompanied the kidney read as such:

From hell.
Mr Lusk,
Sor
I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman and prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer

signed
Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk

Saucy Jacky postcard

This letter is seriously considered as an actual work of the killer for many reasons. The first is the kidney, but such a piece could come from anywhere, although the doctors at the time and later on deemed it to be a human kidney. Whether it was Catherine Eddowes' is still unknown. But there are other more subtle hints. The letter was not signed 'Jack the Ripper', differentiating it from others at the time. The level of literacy is also considerably lower than that of the Dear Boss and Saucy Jacky letters, although many scholars argue this was done on purpose on account of the included silent 'k' in knife, and the silent 'h' in while and when. George Lusk initially thought the kidney part preserved in ethanol was a prank carried out by medical students, but he eventually turned over the letter and body part to the police. The From Hell letter and the kidney half disappeared like many more pieces of evidence, and were never recovered.

Mary Jane Kelly crime scene photo

The final victim to be credited to Jack was Mary Jane Kelly. Unlike the previous four, Mary Jane was young and thought to be pretty, although her past is very obscure. She is reported of saying that she was born in Limerick, Ireland, and married a coal miner named Davies in or around 1879. He was killed in a mining accident a few years later, at which point her prostitution career is thought to have begun. She often referred to herself with the French name Marie Jeanette, but everything we know of her life is from what she claims, and no documents either corroborate nor deny her story. In fact, so little is known about Mary Jane Kelly that there are even debates on her hair colour.

She was found on the 9th of November 1888, the annual Lord Mayor's Day, at 10:45. She was found by Thomas Bowyer, an assistant of her landlord, in her apartment, 13 Miller's Court, 26 Dorset Street, Spitalfields. She had a small single room furnished with a bed, a table and three chairs. Browyer, who came for the late rent, looked through a hole (previously there) in the window pane when no response to his knocking came and pulled back the curtains inside to see Kelly's body on her bed.
Kelly's murder was by far the most sadistic out of all the murders accredited to Jack. Dr. Thomas Bond carried out the autopsy, and he can tell you why Kelly's murder made most of the Constables who had seen her regurgitate:

The body was lying naked in the middle of the bed, the shoulders flat, but the axis of the body inclined to the left side of the bed. The head was turned on the left cheek. The left arm was close to the body with the forearm flexed at a right angle & lying across the abdomen. the right arm was slightly abducted from the body & rested on the mattress, the elbow bent & the forearm supine with the fingers clenched. The legs were wide apart, the left thigh at right angles to the trunk & the right forming an obtuse angle with the pubes. The whole of the surface of the abdomen & thighs was removed & the abdominal Cavity emptied of its viscera. The breasts were cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds & the face hacked beyond recognition of the features. The tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone. The viscera were found in various parts viz: the uterus & Kidneys with one breast under the head, the other breast by the Rt foot, the Liver between the feet, the intestines by the right side & the spleen by the left side of the body. The flaps removed from the abdomen and thighs were on a table. [...] Postmortem examination: The face was gashed in all directions the nose cheeks, eyebrows and ears being partly removed. The lips were blanched & cut by several incisions running obliquely down to the chin. There were also numerous cuts extending irregularly across all the features. The neck was cut through the skin & other tissues right down to the vertebrae the 5th & 6th being deeply notched. [...] Both breasts were removed by more or less circular incisions, the muscles down to the ribs being attached to the breasts. The intercostals between the 4th, 5th & 6th ribs were cut through & the contents of the thorax visible through the openings. The skin & tissues of the abdomen from the costal arch to the pubes were removed in three large flaps. The right thigh was denuded in front to the bone, the flap of skin, including the external organs of generation & part of the right buttock. The left thigh was stripped of skin, fascia & muscles as far as the knee. The left calf showed a long gash through skin & tissues to the deep muscles & reaching from the knee to 5 ins above the ankle. [...] The Pericardium was open [...] & the Heart absent. [...]

Mary Jane Kelly crime scene photo from other side of the bed

Could you imagine walking into a little room and seeing so much blood, and pieces of flesh strewn all over the place, on the walls, on the tables? I doubt you could. I can't do it myself, even with the help of crime scene pictures. Most people agree on the fact that Kelly's was the worst of the murders for the simple fact that Jack had all the time he wanted. If all he needed was five minutes to hack up Catherine Eddowes, imagine what he could have done with a couple hours, safe from the dangerous open street. It was thought that Jack posed as a client, as he supposedly did for all his victims, and Kelly had a reputation of bringing clients to her home.

Now, for the part you have all been waiting for, who was Jack the Ripper? The answer is simple enough; no one knows. Plenty claim to know, but they are all just theories. There is always an inconsistency or worse, a 'maybe'. Possible suspects include a deranged doctor out to experiment, a man who has a deep loathing for prostitutes, the Queen's grandson, people working for the Queen trying to cover up the fact that the prostitutes were blackmailing the royal family, a policeman etc. There are too many to list, and none can ever be fully accepted as truth. So, in stead of saying whether I think it was the doctor or the policeman, I propose a new theory of my own. We know that everything about Jack is a great big 'maybe'. What I believe is that there was no Jack the Ripper. There was no serial killer. Firstly, the name Jack the Ripper came from a letter that is generally thought of as a hoax written by a journalist. What I think happened is that one man/woman had a huge moment of anger and cut up the first victim. Possibly they attacked the second one too. But then, as London was in panic and everything was blamed on Jack the Ripper, all the crazies and sadists out there started doing their own things unnoticed hence the vast descriptions, M.O.'s, and evidence in general. The police always found a way to blame things on 'Jack' anyway, so why not go all out? But eventually, the murders became too high profile for most of the killers of London, so they eventually stopped, one by one, marking the end of the Ripper era. I believe my theory makes sense, but unfortunately, like everything else out there, it is just a theory and can be refuted. Who do you think it was?
As a last parting fact, did you know that there is no wax statue of Jack the Ripper in Madame Toussauds' Chamber of Horrors part of her Wax Museum in accordance to their policy of only displaying figures whose faces are known?

References:

Mary Ann Nichols Inquest

Annie Chapman Inquest

Elizabeth Stride Inquest

Catherine Eddowes Post-mortem

Mary Jane Kelly Post-mortem

The Letters

Pictures have been public for years and I took them from someone who had taken them from someone etc.

Share on Facebook

An engraving of what the Beast was supposed to look like, made in 1765.

The Beast of Gévaudan is the name given to the alleged animal responsible for many deaths occurring in the Gévaudan region of France, modern day region of Lozère, from the 30th of June 1764 until the 19th of June 1767. The Beast attacked in between 88 and 124 people by savagely chewing at their throats. Most of the victims attacked were killed, some even partly devoured, but just enough survived to have a concise description of the Beast. It was larger than a wolf, had reddish fur through which bullets seemed not to pass, an elongated snout, a large black tail that was described as sweeping everything in its path, and a line of black fur running from the top of its head all the way to the tip of its tail. It also had a very large jaw adorned with multiple sharp teeth and a few of the victims described hoofed feet rather than claws. Other physical descriptions included that the Beast was higher in its rear than its front, and would often walk on its hind legs, jump onto a victim, hug them with its front paws and from there rip their necks out. The Beast also had a particular personality. Most of the victims were women and children, while most of the men belonged to the hunting crews tracking the Beast. All the attacks were during the day, and if the Beast sensed any danger, it would immediately back away from an intended prey, and if no danger actually came, the Beast would go back to the prey.

Young herders defending themselves against the Beast using their bayonets.

Although there were probably more victims before, the first one to be recorded was Jeanne Boulet, a fourteen year old girl, on the 30th of June. The second victim to be recorded was on the 8th of August, another girl also aged fourteen. After those two, it seems the victims were too numerous to be really marked properly thereafter. The farmers of the area were very poor, and since no one had heard news of the Beast yet outside of the area, they had to protect themselves however they could. They made bayonets out of knifes and canes, and the women and children tending to the herds in the mountainsides were grouped in much larger numbers than before. Eventually, the rest of France was aware of the Beast, mostly by word of mouth at first. Étienne Lafont, the syndic of the diocese of Mende, was the first to offer concrete help. He participated in and heled organise hunts, but he quickly saw that more power and definitely more guns were needed. He informed the governor of the province, Count Montcan, who in his turn informed the Captain Duhamel who began the military hunt for the Beast using his Dragoons (infantry soldiers travelling by horse). By this time the entirety of France knew of the Beast, and it had stopped being a casual piece of news. It was now breaking news. Keep in mind that in those times, printing was expensive, and so only the richest of rich could afford a subscription to a news journal. As such, the King also knew about it and granted his permission for the Captain to hunt the Beast using military measures. One can expect that when the Captain first arrived in Gévaudan, he was slightly full of himself and looked down on the peasants who weren't even capable of catching a single wolf, for that is what most people thought the Beast was, simply an oversized wolf. Most people outside of Gévaudan rather, because the farmers who actually suffered from the Beast were used to wolves, and all who saw the Beast or who saw the aftermath affirmed that the Beast was most definitely not a wolf. Regardless, Captain Duhamel set out for the hunt of a wolf on the 15th of September 1764, mobilising peasants to help. Time  passed but Duhamel still had not captured the Beast, which continued to attack. On the 7th of October the Beast attacked a young cowherd tending to his cattle. At the same time, hunters not involved in the chase of the Beast came out of the woods and saw the Beast trying to attack the boy, who had taken refuge amidst his cows. The hunters shot at the Beast who ran away into the forest, but not before it fell twice from the injuries it had sustained. Captain Duhamel continued his hunts, but as a result of his constant failures and the fact that the ones to injure the Beast were not in his employment, on the 15th of December, the Estates of Languedoc, a provincial assembly, put out a price on the Beast's head, now attracting even more hunters to track it down. By January and February, the people of Gévaudan were complaining about Captain Duhamel and his dragoons, who did not behave nicely nor pay their rent, not to mention their failures concerning the beast. The King Louis XV promptly sent in Denneval, a wolf hunter reputed to be the best in France with a 1200 killcount.

The Beast attacking a woman.

Denneval and his son arrive in Gévaudan in March 1765. Both of them wanting Duhamel out of the picture, he and his dragoons were sent away to make way for the newest hero who would deliver the people from the terrifying Beast. The first organised hunt happened a month after their arrival, and while they were searching for it, the Beast became known across Europe, and most of the foreign countries, especially England, mocked the French for not being able to kill a single simple animal. At the same time, the bishop as well as officials of the area received a massive amount of mail from people giving eccentric solutions to the Beast problem.

On the 1st of May, the Beast was killed. It had tried to attack a young shepherd. From the windows of his home, a man, Marlet, saw the Beast advancing on the boy and rushed out to help along with his two brothers. The three men together managed to shoot and kill the Beast. There was a celebration and plans for parties, until, however, the very next day, a new victim was made. Denneval and his hunting troops continued to search, until the Marquis Pierre-Charles de Morangiès wrote to syndic Étienne Lafont about Denneval's ineffiency. More as a way to get things over with than to help people, the King sent the captain of his hunting squad, so to speak, François Antoine. Antoine and Denneval joined forces for a while, and Antoine brought royal guards, royal hunting teams and several servants to the table. Their forces weren't joined for long however, when neither could agree on the manner with which the hunts were carried out. The King ordered Denneval to stand down, and Antoine began searching for what he ardently thought was a simple wolf. On the 16th of August, while on a certain hunt, a couple of men working for Antoine asked a family of locals, the Chastel's, helping with the hunt, whether the land they were about to ride on was safe of bogs and swampy areas. The father and his two sons assured them it was and watched with amusement as the men rode in and got stuck in a swamp. The pranked victims complained to their leader and on Antoine's order, the three jokesters were put in prison for the duration of Antoine's stay in Gévaudan. He gave the order that they were not to be released until four days after he and his troops had vacated the area. Many theories surrounding the fact that the Beast may have been trained by an assassin use the fact that the attacks were a lot less regular whilst the Chastel's were in prison, further complementing the idea that the family was somehow involved with the Beast.

Antoine killing the Beast

Sometime in between the 20th and 21st of September, Antoine was tipped off that a large wolf, possibly the Beast, had been sighted in an area previously untouched by the Beast. He surrounded the woods it was meant to be in and shot at the Beast as it was lunging towards him. It fell momentarily but got back up to continue attacking Antoine when a guard, Rinchard, shot the killshot into the Beast. Antoine described it as no more than a wolf and almost immediately brought it to Paris to show to the court. The entire world heard the news, and all of France forgot about the Beast. It was now dead. Antoine stopped briefly in Clermont-Ferrand to taxidermise the Beast, and arrived in Versailles on the 1st of October. The attacks started again in January of 1766. Gévaudan had lived for about two months in peace until victims started appearing again. This time, they received no help from the King or anyone else, for the Beast was dead. Not even journalists were interested in the affair thereafter. The attacks multiplied in March, and the nobles of the area realised that their letters weren't passed on to the King anymore. Many attempts were made to stop the Beast, include placing bodies of dead animals stuffed with poison in the Beast's known paths. However, none of their methods were efficient and the Beast continued killing throughout the year. Witnesses at the time wrote about how its pattern changed during the year too. As opposed to the audacious attacks it first carried out, during 1766, it seemed much more prudent and took less risks.

Antoine displaying the 'Beast' to the French Court.

In the beginning of 1767, the murders calmed a little but regained their steadfast pace come spring. The people of Gévaudan just didn't know what to do anymore. The only option left seemed to be prayer. However, when a sighting of the Beast was reported to the Marquis, he and other able-bodied men set out after it, among them was Jean Chastel, the father of the Chastel family, who had long since been released from prison. Chastel reportedly saw the animal pass by him and shot it multiple times until it died. It was taken to Paris to show to the King, but had not been taxidermised and was in an advanced state of decomposition. An audience with the King was refused, and the Beast was simply buried somewhere in the gardens. The actual death of the Beast is attributed to Chastel, since after him no more attacks happened.

Representation of a Mesonychid.

As for the real question, what was the Beast of Gévaudan? Some say it was indeed an oversized wolf, some of the more imaginative say it was an animal under the command of a man, others an exotic animal such as a lion or a hyena escaped from a zoo. Cryptozoologists, who find the Beast of Gévaudan particularly entrancing, believe it to be some remaining ancestor of a Mesonychid, a large hoofed carnivore that (officially) became extinct some 23 to 34 million years ago. Some even believe it was no animal, but a crazy, murderous sadistic man who occasionally ate his victims. This theory might prove why three beasts were all supposed to be the dead Beast. I personally believe it to be a vampire were-donkey. Vampire, to account for all the blood drank, for yes, many of the dead victims had their blood sucked, were-wolf to account for the day attacks and the huge mouth full of fangs as well as the large size. And finally, a donkey, a red donkey, because of the fur and black stripe running down its back. Not to mention the donkey's tail, which, with were-wolf venom, would become very much enlarged. So a donkey was bitten by a were-wolf, creating a were-donkey, and this were-donkey was changed by a vampire into a vampire were-donkey. Unfortunately, the mysterious affair of the Beast must not have been all that fascinating to people at the time, because no effort was made to preserve the bodies of all three Beasts, so all we have to go on today are accounts and witness reports, as well as a few sketches.

Share on Facebook

Suzanne first started writing in 1991 when she worked with children's television shows. She worked on popular series as well as being the lead writer for the series Clifford's Puppy Days, before she met children's author James Proimos who inspired her to start writing books for children too. Her first published book was Gregor the Overlander (2003), which was succeeded by Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane (2004), Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods (2005), Gregor and the Marks of Secret (2006),  and Gregor and the Code of Claw (2007). A year later, Collins progressed a little in the age group and released The Hunger Games, a book for young adults rather than children. The book was immediately received well and over the next two years, two sequels were published, Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010), respectively. No more books were published since then. Collins' fame was further accentuated however, when a movie for her Hunger Games trilogy was planned. The movie is currently in production and will come out on the 23rd of March 2012.

Suzanne, as of this moment, is living with her husband, Cap Pryor, their two children, Charlie and Isabel, and two feral kittens that happened to wander into their garden and were adopted, in Connecticut.

Share on Facebook

Contents for World War II

1. World War II – Part 1
2. World War II – Part 2
3. World War II – Part 3

Screen shot taken from the Apocalypse episodes I am watching. The Germans' plan to invade France.

The end of the Phoney War came in April 1940, when the Germans invaded Denmark and Norway, simply to conserve iron ore shipments from Sweden, which the Allies had planned on interrupting. While Denmark submitted to invasion immediately, Norway, which had help from the Allies, was taken over in two months. The unhelpful aid the British sent to Norway led to the dismissal of Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister, and he was replaced with Winston Churchill. However, those invasions aren't really considered as the end of the Phoney war. The real end came when the Germans initiated the invasion of France, as well as Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg by association. Hitler had devised a grand plan to take out the ultimate vengeance on France. He would directly attack Belgium, and push forward through it, just as had been done in 1914 during the previous war. But this attack would just be a diversion, while his real armies would cross the Ardennes forest and circle back towards the sea to surround the Allies fending off his dummy army in Belgium. Hitler put his plan into motion and to his utmost glee, he saw that French General Maurice Gustave Gamelin concentrated his best armies in Belgium to counter the Germans. Gamelin was so sure that the Germans would re-use their World War I attack that he had already devised a plan while waiting in the Phoney War. Hitler outsmarted him however, and sent his troops to cross the Ardennes, which had been deemed uncrossable with tanks, which explains the poor defense it had. The Allies had not calculated the sheer power of the modern tanks the Germans possessed, and so, they progressed smoothly through, simply knocking down the trees in their way. At the same time, Hitler avoided using air attacks on the Allies fighting in the trap so as to encourage them to go deeper in Belgium.

Benito Mussolini

It is after the Allies moved to defend their border that people living in Belgium, which was still neutral as Germany was invading it, and Luxembourg evacuated. The firsts to leave were the ones better off, who had cars and similar modes of transportation. However, everyone leaving the country was first searched in fear of the Fifth Column. A fifth column, in general, means a minority trying to take down a large majority, such as a nation, from the inside. In this case, the Fifth Column is used to describe native French working for the Germans. In retrospect, there was also what could be considered another Fifth Column in Germany; Germans working for the Allies. The term 'fifth column' and its meaning was first used by the Nationalist General Emilio Mola during the 1936 to 1939 Spanish Civil War. As his armies were approaching Madrid, a radio message was broadcasted informing his supporters that the 'four columns' would be backed up by a 'fifth column', which was in fact a group of Mola's supporters trying to destroy the Republican government from within the government itself.
As the German army moved successfully out of the Ardennes and towards the sea, it was too late for the trapped Allies to do anything else than to fight to the death or retreat to the sea. The Allies army retreated to Dunkirk, and awaited help. Churchill ordered for every capable vessel, including yachts and private boats to go to their aid. On his side, Hitler ordered his air force to start attacking once again, and many boats were sunk as they were carrying soldiers away, more specifically, 6 British destroyers sunk, 3 French destroyers sunk, 19 destroyers damaged, 9 large boats sunk, and over 200 smaller ones equally sunk, while the same amount was damaged. In the end, 198,229 British soldiers and 139,997 French soldiers were evacuated in a period of nine days, with 850 boats in total. Along with the loss of boats and sea vessels, all the heavy equipment and machinery had to be abandoned, and the loot was left for the Germans, who were quite happy with what they had gained. Among their spoils were 2,472 guns, more than 75,000 short tons ammunition, 162,000 short tons of fuel, not to mention almost 65,000 vehicles and 20,000 motorcycles.

A map showing how France was divided. Taken from Wikipedia's page "German military administration in occupied France during world war II"

On the tenth of June 1940, France was hit by another blow when Italy suddenly began invading France, immediately after declaring war on both France and England. Benito Mussolini, Italy's dictator, credited with the creation of dictatorships, wanted to primarily expand the Italien companies in North Africa by demanding control of pre-existing English and French colonies. His secondary objective was to kill a few of the enemies in order to be in good standing when Hitler gained more power. Considering the superiority and the success of the German army at the time, it is no surprise that Mussolini was making plans for after Hitler's obvious ascension. However, Italy's army was far from ready for war, and so it didn't have much impact on France. Although not much of an impact was all that was needed.
Italy's first offensive was through the water, but they managed soon enough to cross on to the land. They attacked both by advancing through the Alps and along the Mediterranean coast in the direction of Nice. They enjoyed a limited amount of success, and their inability to cross the southern part of the Maginot Line was partially obscured when France surrendered to Germany on the 22nd of June 1940. The Italien invasion was not very great, with the Italiens suffering from more losses than the French. The Italians lost 631 men, 2,361 wounded, 616 missing and 2,000 frostbiten, compared to the 40 killed, 84 wounded, and 150 missing for the French Army (against Italy, while the losses were much greater up north where the Germans were attacking). Regardless of their almost useless invasion, France was split up in between Italy and Germany, although not equally. Small bits on the lower east coast were occupied by Italy, while Germany took hold of more than half of the top of France. The remaining bottom was declared a free area, not yet conquered. Paris, along with many of the big cities officially occupied by the Germans, knew when they should give up, and to avoid the destruction of Warsaw, they declared themselves 'ville ouverte'.

Philippe Pétain

This period in the war, from the moment the Germans attacked to when the French surrendered, is known as the Blitzkrieg, translating as the Lightning War. Blitzkrieg is also a war tactic which includes constantly attacking and surprising your enemy, and never giving them time to breathe or to figure out what's happening.
Many things worth noting happened when Germany moved into France. The first thing to be done, was to climb the Eiffel Tower and replace the French flag with a Nazi one. Many documents giving the names of spies, jews and other enemies of state were seized, and the original Treaty of Versailles, the very document that sealed the miserable defeat of Germany in the first war was immediately sent to Hitler. To this day, the treaty's whereabouts are unknown, and whether or not it was destroyed is also unknown. No one is really sure if Hitler ever received it at all.
Another major thing that happened during France's defeat, the entire government fled Paris and settled in Bordeaux. France's defeat was also the beginning of racism in the Nazi regime. What remained of the French army was captured, and a particular focus was paid to the Negro soldiers coming from French colonies. German news broadcasters and Nazis shamed the French for their degeneration, for using their slaves in their wars. Footage of the Negroes dancing rhythmic dances from their home tribes were especially broadcast, along with messages such as: The Allies claim to be the fighters of culture against our barbarism, but look at the 'culture' the Allies are really a part of. From then on, not only the Jews were hated. The first signs of this racism is when almost 3 thousand Negro soldiers are shot after having had surrendered.

General Charles de Gaulle

And possibly the most important event to happen with the defeat of France, is the sudden change in power. Although France had surrendered, not all of it had done so, and so the Germans continued fighting and pushing down into the south of France. The head of government, Paul Reynaud, is forced to leave his position because of incompetence thus far, and he is replaced by Philippe Pétain, who immediately sets out to take action. His action is to have the French and the Germans sign an armistice, in order to completely stop the fighting that France can no longer endure. Hitler and the Germans rejoice at this complete defeat. However, while this complete surrender came on the 17th of July 1940, on the 18th of July 1940, the General Charles de Gaulle takes a stand against the armistice. A few days later, he releases a speech of his own stating that he believes the French should continue to fight alongside their allies.
On the 22nd of July however, Hitler arrives at Compiègne, a small town in nothern France, almost directly above Paris. There he sets up a scene for the signing of the armistice in the same very train in which the Germans signed an armistice in the first world war. The train, transported back to Berlin, would end up blown apart when Hitler realised his defeat very late in the war. Hitler's ultimate revenge against France was complete.

Share on Facebook

Contents for World War II

1. World War II – Part 1
2. World War II – Part 2
3. World War II – Part 3

Adolf Hitler

World War II started in 1939. To help me understand the scope of it, I watched French mini tv series Apocalypse, La 2ème Guerre Mondiale, composed of six episodes. The first episode centers on how and why a worldwide war actually started. The true beginning of the war can be considered as 1933, when Hitler and his armies slowly take over Germany using intimidation, demagogy and the bitter feelings many war veterans still held over the loss of the first World War. On the 30th of January 1933, Hitler's rise to power was made obvious when he was elected as Chancellor. Nazism had become so powerful that those against it could no longer oppose it, or unify themselves against it, and thus a dictatorship was installed. Keep in mind that this dictatorship was not fully forced on Germany, many people looked up to Hitler, who had an uncanny ability of appealing and talking to audiences.

This symbol represents Nazism, although the cross, known as a swastika, has existed in Asia and Eastern cultures since Ancient times.

Germans who turned into Nazis wanted a better Germany, and from there a better world, for themselves, of course. Hitler's goals were all written in his book, Mein Kampf, and in it, we can clearly see that more than dominating the world, he wanted to destroy France, mainly because of the humiliation he felt after the first world war, a war in which he had fought. However, equally as important to him, he wanted to preserve the perfect German race, especially favouring blonds with blue eyes. He believed that Jews, who were slowly integrating themselves, were going to 'polute' German genes, and also considering that he was a pathological anti-semite, he started placing Jews in the Dachau concentration camp. The Dachau concentration camp, the first to be created in Germany, was made to harbour all real and potential (socialists, democrats, communists etc.) dangers that opposed to the Nazi Party. The Nazis weren't the firsts to make camps to store unwanted people, similar things can be seen by the Americans for Native Indians, and by the British during the Boer Wars. Once it was realised how useful and efficient the Dachau camp was, more started to pop up everywhere, only this time, especially for Jews.

American troops guarding the entrance to the Dachau Concentration Camp just after the end of war.

Hitler wanted to expand his Reich (trans. kingdom, domain) to all German speaking countries, and so he first turned to his country of birth, Austria. His attention was then placed on Czechoslovakia, modern day Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the Nazi regime was forced onto the country, creating a division. However, Czechoslovakia was protected by England and France, and so, in order to keep the peace, English prime minister Neville Chamberlain and French prime minister Édouard Daladier took it upon themselves to solve the problem with a treaty. They met with Hitler and a controversial agreement took place. The prime ministers agreed to surrender the Sudetenland regions of Czechoslovakia, which were inhabited by Sudeten Germans in exchange for Hitler's solemn word that he would not try to take over any other areas. I think we all know that Hitler did not keep his word.
Six months after the treaty was made, the Nazi army invaded what was left of Czechoslovakia and in doing so gained a lot of power. No longer working under the pretext of reuniting German speaking countries, now with a substantial army behind him, Hitler saw no more need to hold back. England and France, desperate to avoid another war, called on the Soviet Union to help them, regardless of their fears of the communists. The Soviets agreed to help because of a mutual assistance treaty with France.

A screenshot of the first episode of the Apocalypse series depicting the separation of Germany by Poland using Dantzig.

Anticipating such a movement, Hitler moved first and proposed a treaty with the U.S.S.R. in the summer of 1939. Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Foreign Minister of Germany, was sent to Moscow to formally negotiate the treaty. Vyacheslav Molotov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a formal non-aggression treaty. Although named as such, Hitler and Joseph Stalin were the two negotiating. Both the Nazis and the Soviets, and the rest of the world were shocked by the agreement. Hitler, who vowed to destroy communism, signed a pact with the communist Soviet Union. Hitler discreetly told a few of his close collaborators that this 'temporary' peace was only to buy time, and to allow him to further expand his Reich, this time into Poland.
Fearing no interference from the U.S.S.R. or the United States, which declared itself neutral to avoid being caught up in more European wars, Hitler's first objective was to destroy and take over Dantzig, modern day Gdansk. In 1919, as a consequence of losing the first war, Germany was cut through to allow Poland to have an access to the sea, resulting in the seaside Polish town of Dantzig.
On the 1st of September 1939, the first canon to be shot in World War II is aimed at Dantzig. Although Hitler had expected England and France to stay put, the two reunited to discuss what should be done about the situation. Eventually, they threaten Hitler to stop or else. Hitler's reply was to ask them whether a world-wide war was worth a stupid country and town like Poland and Dantzig (paraphrasing). On the 3rd of September 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Thus began World War II. However, the episode I watched goes on further than that, so let's continue.

The Panther Tank was used by the Nazis during the war.

Hitler was shocked when war was declared, as his instincts were wrong, and he was also now faced with very daunting enemies who had vanquished Germany not so long before. Regardless, Hitler adjusted his plans, and continued to invade Poland. On their side, both the English and the French had by no means the necessary equipment and budget to go to war. In France, many of the soldiers who went to war were farmers, and there weren't enough guns to go around, the same with vehicles. Even celebrities had to go to war, most notable among them, Fernandel (survived the war, died of lung cancer in 1971). Neither countries had gotten over World War I. No one, not even the governments who had declared war in the first place, wanted to go to war.

The Maginot Line placed on a map. The Maginot Line is the 'strong fortifications' part of the red line.

France carried out the first offensive three days after declaring war when it attacked Saarland, a small state in the south of Germany. The attack had little more success than driving a few towns and villages away, even if the French had more numbers than the British or Germans, as they had the most outdated military equipment, especially when compared to the motorized tanks and various machinery the Nazi army possessed. The Allies (France, Britain and Commonwealth) were still so desperate to avoid a war that they mostly concentrated on the defensive. The Maginot Line, interconnected cement fortifications armed with tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine guns, etc., running in France along the borders of Germany and Italy, created in retrospect to World War I, was manned. The Line had not been extended to the sea as when it was created, Belgium was a French ally, before declaring itself neutral. To guard the remaining gaps along the french border, French troops were positioned at the end of the Maginot Line, and English troops were used to protect borders all the way to the sea. The English had called upon their Canadian army to supply men.

Rusty remnants of fortifications of the Maginot Line today.

Hitler, to counter the Maginot Line, had the Siegfried Line built exactly opposite the French fortifications. Despite these defensive precautions, the Nazis do not attack France, and rather fear the idea of fighting from two sides of their country. Instead, they concentrated on Poland, which they had been rapidly taking over. On the 20th of September, Hitler gave the order to bomb Warsaw, which had continued resisting, despite being surrounded. This move was intended to be a message to opposing powers rather than to really capture Warsaw. The message brought the appropriate fear among the Allies, and at the same time, it horrified the Americans, although they continued to be neutral. The bombardment of Warsaw also made the French realise how fragile their cities were, and many precautions were taken to protect national monuments from a possible attack. Many pieces of artwork were also scattered around in the countryside for protection.
Meanwhile, Poland was completely captured, and the east side went to the Germans, while the west side went to the Soviets, who helped invade the country. On his side, Stalin ordered for many war prisoners he had obtained to be killed. A confirmed 21,768 Polish soldiers were shot in the head in the Katyn forrest, in Smolensk, Russia. However, an estimated 22,000 is believed to be closer to the actual number. This mass elimination is referred to as the Katyn Massacre.

Part of the Ghetto in Warsaw.

On his side of Poland, before turning his full attention to the Jews, Hitler first 'takes care' of the Gypsies, initially by forcefully sterilising Gypsy women, believing them to not be worthy enough to reproduce, and finally by throwing them into concentration camps, which were by then available everywhere. Now came the hardest decision. Just what would Hitler do with 3 million Polish Jews? Many claim the thought of deporting them somewhere west had struck his mind, as well as the thought of sending them to Madagascar. In the meantime however, before a conclusive decision could be made, a law was passed that all Jews were to wear a yellow star of David, in order to clearly identify them. But, as the outcome of the war became uncertain, actions to restrict Jews as much as possible were taken. It wasn't enough to restrict certain things to the Jews, and so they were placed in the Ghettos, one in every major city of Poland, some Ghettos even with walls dividing the Jewish quarters from the 'normal' ones.

Johann Georg Elser

Hitler travelled himself to Warsaw, and it was there that field marshal Walther von Brauchitsch brought to his attention the problems with the Nazi army. Despite a successful invasion of Poland, the army had been unprepared, and not entirely willing to fight, as well as cases of defiance of authority. Hitler was infuriated with the lack of competence of his army, but still did not doubt its capabilities. He started to plan an attack on the Netherlands, Belgium and France. This plan to attack was criticised by many generals, and it was from that moment on that plans to overthrow Hitler began to formulate.
On the 8th of November 1939, Johann Georg Elser planted a bomb in the Bürgerbräukeller, a large beer hall, in an attempt to assasinate Hitler. Elser was a German anti-Nazi, and had been planning to kill Hitler for almost a year, waiting for his annual speech at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich. He managed to stay in the hall after closing and over time he had hollowed out a pillar behind where Hitler would speak. The bomb detonated as planned, but Hitler finished his speech early to catch a train to Berlin when his flight was delayed due to fog. The bomb exploded thirteen minutes after the departure of Hitler, and killed eight Nazis, while injuring many more.

The Bürgerbräukeller before the bombing on the bottom, and after on top.

Elser was apprehended trying to cross the Swiss border, but it was only once the Gestapo, equivalent of Nazi police, found a postcard of the Bürgerbräukeller and a few bits and pieces that would be used to make bomb that they made the connection between Elser and the assasination. Elser was put in the Dachau concentration camp and died there on the 9th of April 1945 by a gunshot wound to the head when Hitler, clearly seeing the end of the war for him, gave a secret order to eliminate the "special security prisoner Eller", as he was known in the camp.
The only real effect the attempted assassination had on Hitler was to increase his resolution to attack France or die trying. However, he still took back his orders to attack the Netherlands and Belgium and retreated to his house, Berghof, in Obersalzberg, Bavaria, Germany. He stayed there a while, surrounded by his inner circle, among them, a mistress, Eva Braun (explaining how and when they met is another post altogether...), and an architect Albert Speer. Hitler and Speer took long walks in the house's surrounding countryside, and it was also during this time that Hitler developed plans for Berlin. He wanted to call it Germania, and had a large model of the improved city, complete with Hitler Square.
While the Allies were prepared for defense and the Germans were debating their next move, the war was nicknamed the Sitzkrieg (the sitting war) by the Germans, the Phoney War by the British, and La Drôle de Guerre (the funny war) by the French.

Maginot Line on map from here.
Maginot Line today from here.

Share on Facebook