WWII in real time

Soviet troops are flooding across Caucasus, encircling Italian & Hungarian armies & isolating Germans in Stalingrad. https://t.co/geZfMS8ZCH

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US President on Allies' "unconditional surrender" demand: "It does not mean the destruction of the population of Germany, Italy, or Japan, but it does mean the destruction of the philosophies in those countries which are based on conquest & the subjugation of other people."

President Roosevelt, eager to keep Stalin happy, has overruled a hesitant Churchill by ruling out any negotiated peace with German & Japan.

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After a week's conference in Casablanca, Allied leaders, led by President Roosevelt & Prime Minister Churchill, have announced that they demand "unconditional surrender" from the Axis powers. https://t.co/r7uufXMzKD

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“Stalingrad is conquered!”German Ministry of Propaganda orders the destruction of never-issued posters produced six months ago, in anticipation of Axis victory at Stalingrad. https://t.co/Hc5nG2dZ0Q

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German newspapers have started to print pessimistic news about the situation on the Eastern Front, describing Stalingrad as a “defensive battle”. Nazi columnist Karl Megerle writes: “For the first time in this war, Germany faces reverses of a certain importance."

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At Allied war council in Casablanca, US President Roosevelt meets Sultan Mohammed V of Morocco, asking: “Why does Morocco, inhabited by Moroccans, belong to France?” Promises: “When we've won the war,” USA will not “further imperialistic ambitions.” https://t.co/3eWH4x3veC

8th Army have travelled 1400 miles from El Alamein to Tripoli in last 80 days, along rocky single coast road, carrying almost all water & fuel with them. Men carry 50lbs of food each, plus weekly ratio of 50 cigarettes & 2 packs of matches. https://t.co/QtzMy7DYIZ

Mussolini’s dream of a new Roman Empire stretching across North Africa is dead. Little is left but vanity monuments: like “Marble Arch” in the Libyan desert, 31-metre triumphal arch in Roman Travertine stone. https://t.co/YxbfL6bepa

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British 8th Army are parading in Tripoli, after Italian governor surrendered the city, & the colony of Libya, to the Allies. Fascist Italy’s North African empire is dead. https://t.co/MtUEPZh5If

Papua is the first definitive Allied victory against the Japanese on land. Battle has raged in the territory for 6 months, with 2000 Australians & 600 dead, & 13,000 Japanese dead or taken prisoner. https://t.co/isWbz9QvWz

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Japanese troops have finally been driven from the island of Papua; Australian & US forces have captured Sanananda, where last remnants of Japanese army, starving & disease-ridden, held a network of bunkers. https://t.co/I5b0K14Gf1

Nazis are meticulous in recording numbers of victims arriving at death camps, partly for accounting purposes: SS pays German Railways a third class fare for every prisoner transported via the Holocaust trains. Children under four travel free.

British cryptanalysts do not realise significance of report: telegram refers to “special treatment”, not killing, & lists death camps only by initial: L (Lublin), B (Bełżec), S (Sobibor), T (Treblinka). Evidence of genocide of the Jews of Poland is filed in secret UK archives.

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British codebreakers at Bletchley Park have deciphered an intercepted message to Himmler, head of the SS: the “Höfle telegram” contains detailed statistics on number of Jewish victims killed in 4 Nazi concentration camps last year. 1,274,166 people were murdered. https://t.co/qnJU6kyCJ6

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Sandhurst Road School, in London, has been hit by 500-kilo German bomb during a daylight Luftwaffe "terror raid". 38 children & 6 teachers have been killed, 60 more injured- many buried under rubble for hours while desperate parents clawed at the ruins. https://t.co/TJIHw9cCTu

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German authorities have called in Wehrmacht troops to crush the outbreak of armed Jewish resistance in ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw; in face of Jewish fighters equipped with pistols & burning bottles of gasoline, SS have fallen back.

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US bombers have hit a Japanese convoy off the coast of Burma, sinking transport ship Nichimei Maru. Americans are unaware 985 Dutch prisoners are onboard, over 50 of whom die to Allied air strike. https://t.co/wg6Svejgdx

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Japanese forces are preparing to evacuate from Guadalcanal, after repeated offensives have failed to break American positions on the island; New York Times map shows the growing Allied strength in the Pacific: https://t.co/oeAKXsQZ6i

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In retaliation for bombing of Berlin by RAF, 118 Luftwaffe planes are raiding London for the first time in 2 years, diverting desperately needed aircraft from the Eastern Front. 23 Londoners were killed by falling shrapnel from British anti-aircraft guns.

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