LIFE1936-1948

The May 8, 1944, edition of LIFE has a frank and pessimistic article about the failed raid on the town of Dieppe in August, 1942.   Six thousand men, mostly Canadians, walked into “an unmitigated disaster for the Allies.”  “The Germans turned out to be fantastically stronger than the British had expected.”  Even though the British had complete control of the air, “The plain fact was-and is-that direct assault upon a well-defended enemy coastline, is just about the most difficult undertaking in the books.”  Darkly, the article states that, “We have learned much from Dieppe.  But so have Nazis who have been strengthening their defenses ever since.”  Several pictures of captured or dead Allied soldiers are included.  We all know that less than one much later, June 6, 1944, D-Day, the Allies launched the invasion of Europe in Normandy.  The purpose of this article was to communicate to the Nazis that the Allies were plenty worried about the invasion and our resolve was shaky,  as we were about to confront Germany again on the beaches of Europe.  While we don’t know if the article influenced German behavior, we do know that  nearly 160,000  Allied stormed ashore  and began their successful liberation of Europe.  Taken in the context of previous WW II articles about Allied battles that appeared In LIFE, this was the first one that was overtly gloomy.  The US Government, in an effort to build morale on the home front, screened discouraging news and likely would not have permitted such an article unless they were trying to confuse the Germans.

The Hitler Youth was an organization created upon Hitler’s assumption of power in 1933 and grew to 8 million boys by 1939. It’s purpose was to indoctrinate boys about the superiority of Germany and the Aryan race, and Germany’s need for living space. It also served to develop absolute devotion to Adolph Hitler and to harden boys to become future soldiers. In the late 1930’s it became compulsory for boys age 10 and older to join. By 1943 Germany began enlisting boys ages 12 and above into active duty. This article from Oct. 8, 1945, says that “those who were the equivalent of American high school seniors were taken into the army and the two classes below them were taken into the antiaircraft defenses.”  Thousands of these boys became prisoners in the last months of the war and reeducation camps, the “Baby Lager” as the inmates called it, were set up to teach them democracy and standard high school courses that they had missed when schooling stopped in 1943. At this camp near Compiegne in France the teachers were non-Nazi prisoners. The aim was to let the enemy work out it’s own reeducation as much as possible. The boys went to school three days a week and worked three days a week. The bugler, instead of playing taps, played Brahm’s Lullaby.

So-called “budget” furs were being introduced in 1940 including this wolverine coat on the cover…it never caught on. By late 1940 the shipyards of England and Germany were in a desperate race to build the most ships. If Germany had been successful in their bombing of the shipyards of England and Scotland they would have won the Battle of Britain. The Germans were focusing on submarine construction to sink the ships. With the loss of the French navy to Germany, England came very close to losing the race. But Hitler was setting his sights on Russia and under appreciated the impact that submarine warfare was having on British control of the sea. Meanwhile, in New York Harbor, the world’s largest and fastest liner, the Queen Elizabeth, had it’s luxury interior ripped out and refitted with long bunk rooms to be used as a troop carrier. In March, 1940, the ship was sneaked out of England to New York.

While Tom Harmon was solidifying his legend at Michigan as America’s greatest football player in the fall of 1940, Britain began evacuating it’s children as Germany bombed London and other key areas. America offered to take up to 200,000 children but the sinking of an evacuation ship in September, 1940, cost the lives of 77 British children. As a result, only about 3,000 made it to America, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. The rest were sent to the English countryside. Harmon went on to serve in the Army Air Corps, was shot down twice, and was awarded the silver star and purple heart. He did some acting and then launched a long career in sports broadcasting.

Norway had just been invaded by Germany in the spring of 1940 and everyone was wondering what would happen to Sweden. As it turned out, Sweden remained neutral during the war, was never invaded, and was able to get through it much like Switzerland…trading with the Axis (iron ore and ball bearings) and avoiding death and destruction. In return they received various German manufactured goods. Sweden was surrounded on all sides by Germany and it’s allies and had a military that was of no great threat to anyone, which was a result of almost 200 years of neutrality by Sweden. Germany also blockaded Sweden forcing it to deal only with the Axis.