United States of America – Page 3

The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

In 1932, in Cavendish University, J. D. Cockcroft and E. T. S. Walton bombarded lithium with protons from a particle accelerator. The protons caused the lithium atom to split. Many scientists realised that if they continued to split uranium and plutonium atoms, with the protons from one atom splitting another and the process repeating in a process called fission, they could make a new source of energy. However, with this power, the results could also be used for much more sinister means.

August, 1939. About a month before the outbreak of WW2, Albert Einstein, a highly accomplished scientist who discovered the theory of relativity (E=mc²) sent a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, then President of the United States, on a highly serious matter. Einstein believed that the Germans were working on a super weapon, a super weapon that would harness the power of Cockcroft and Walton’s work and make a fission bomb, that could wipe cities off the map. Despite being a pacifist, Einstein believed that such a weapon would be better in the hands of the Americans than the Germans. By October of 1942, two months before American entry into the conflict, the development of an atomic weapon was granted by FDR. A group of hundreds of scientists all were called upon by the US government to assist in the development of the technology.

One of the top scientists on the project, who led the scientific research and design of the bomb, was Dr J Robert Oppenheimer. He graduated in chemistry from Harvard and got a doctorate in physics from the University of Gottingen in Germany. He learned a lot about quantum physics, a field that was not that expanded in the US.

One of the most notable German physicians was Werner Heisenberg, who thought of the famous Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Many believed that Heisenberg was working on the German Nuclear bomb.

Back to Oppenheimer, he joined the faculty of the University of California, where he expanded the field of Quantum Physics in the United States. He even partially discovered a black hole in 1939. He was considered to be one of the greatest minds in Atomic Research, the kind of man that the US was after. Him, as well as many other notable scientists such as Richard Feynman, Edward Teller and Isidor Isaac Rabi, were gathered in Los Alamos, a remote part of the New Mexican Desert where a small town was built in order for the scientists to do their research.

The project, named the Manhattan Project, was worked on for months on end. The first contained chain reaction occurred in a secret lab under a Chicago University football stadium. The theory’s were now fact and the development of the bomb begun. During the time creating the bomb, Italy fell after an allied invasion and a small civil war. The Axis powers were on the ropes and the President, now Harry Truman after the death of FDR on April 12th of 1945, was confident that this bomb would be the final push to end the German War Machine. However, it ended a lot sooner than expected.

On the 21st of April 1945, the Soviet forces entered Berlin. Only 9 days later, Hitler fed cyanide to his wife, Eva Braun, and shot himself in his bunker in Berlin. 2 days later, Germany surrendered. 2 out of the 3 major Axis powers were out of the war as well as the bomb’s target. Truman began to reconsider the target. He had been bombing the Japanese for months on end and he believed that a mainland invasion of Japan would only cost more American lives. With the Soviets beginning to invade Japanese occupied Manchuria, he decided what to do.

On July 16th 1945, in the middle of the New Mexican desert, a fireball erupted. The infamous Trinity Test had been conducted. The bomb worked. Around a month later, in the city of Hiroshima, Japan, the first bomb was dropped.

Buildings were instantly turned to rubble and people were vaporised on the spot, leaving only their shadows on the pavement. Those who weren’t immediately killed suffered from radiation sickness for years afterwards. 3 days later, another bomb was dropped, this time on Nagasaki, another nearby city. Anywhere between 150,000 and 246,000 people were killed in the bombings, the majority of which were civilians. The Japanese issued surrender on August 15th, with the surrender taking effect on September 2nd. World War 2 was over, lasting 6 years and 1 day.

After the bombing, Oppenheimer became and advisor to the United States Atomic Energy Commission, where he strongly advocated for international control of nuclear power in order to prevent a nuclear arms race with the Soviets. After the testing of the first Soviet nuclear bomb in 1949, Oppenheimer was suspected of allowing Russian spies into Los Alamos due to his communist ties. Oppenheimer eventually had his security clearance revoked in 1954 and was shunned from the government until 1963, when Lyndon B Johnson awarded him the Enrico Fermi Award.

Many scholars today still wonder if the use of nuclear bombs on Japan was necessary. Some say that Japan would’ve surrendered regardless and that the bombing was merely Truman showing the power of the United States. No matter what you may think of the ethics of the bombing may be, the impact of the bombing was undeniable, with many people fearing nuclear annihilation due to rising tensions between nuclear powers, a fear that began in the 40s and is still very prevalent to this day.

A military parade in North Korea in present day, showing off North Korea’s nuclear warheads

Liberation of the Concentration Camps

When we went to Nohra, […] we took a day trip into Buchenwald. […]It was just unbelievable to see. You couldn’t—there was so much of it, you couldn’t grasp at all. We just see these people standing, you see the bodies. You see the ashes. You see the ditches. It’s just—I can’t really describe it to tell you, you know, how horrendous it was to see these people treated like animals. You might see even worse than that.
Andrew Kiniry, 45th Evacuation Hospital, describing when the 3rd Army liberated Buchenwald

As the allies advanced from the West and the Soviets from the east, many expected to see the remnants of training camps or POW camps. What they found was beyond their wildest nightmares.

What they found were thousands upon thousands of men, women and children, all on the brink of starving to death, who had been left abandoned in fences like cattle. Not only were these people but specific groups of people. Some were disabled, some were gay, some were slavs. But the most notable among these groups of people were the Jews. The soldiers thought they had seen the worst of it but they were very wrong.

They found large gas chambers, in which the prisoners would be put inside, under the pretence of having a shower to cleanse themselves. Then, Zyklon B, a pesticide, would be poured in through the showers. Deaths could take anywhere between 3 minutes to 30. The bodies were then dragged out and burnt in ovens nearby. The specific targeting of Jews was called Germany’s “Final Solution”, which involved the eradication of the Jewish population from Europe. This was known as the Holocaust, but many Jews today prefer to call it the Shoah.

Over 5.7 million Jews were killed in the concentration camps. Others killed included 2-3million Soviet POWs, 1.9 million Poles, 1.5 million Romani, 250,000 disabled people, 170,000 Freemasons, 25,000 Slovenes, 15,000 homosexuals, 5,000 Jehovahs witnesses, 7,000 Spanish Republicans as well as countless others. Over 17 million people died due to the concentration camps alone.

The survivors were liberated, many only to find that their homes had been repossessed. Many Jews sought shelter in Palestine whilst others stayed in Europe, where relentless persecution still occurs to this day. To this day, people still deny these events happened, either that the statistics are overestimates or that such things never occurred and is simply a victim complex made by Jews. Many cite the Holocaust as the greatest humanitarian tragedy in history.

John F. Kennedy and the PT-109

John F. Kennedy was, in 1941, a young up-and-comer in the political and law world. His father, Joseph Kennedy, was appointed as the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom by Franklin Roosevelt. Once World War 2 had begun, Joe spoke on this, saying that “Democracy is finished in England. It may be here [in the United States]” and was forced to resign his position due to the controversy around this statement. Due to his father’s position in government, the young John travelled all across Europe, accompanying his father on diplomatic missions during the lead up to the war. During this time, he wrote his thesis for Harvard, on Neville Chamberlains appeasement methods with Adolf Hitler. The thesis was published and, as one of the first sources of information about these events, quickly became a best-seller. Kennedy was adamant that the US must intervene in the war, opposing his father’s beliefs.

He attempted to join the Officer Candidate School, but wasn’t allowed in due to his physical health, which may have included the chronic back pain that he may have had since he was very young. Eventually, he was assigned to the United States Naval Reserve, commissioned to ensign in October of 1941.

Once Pearl Harbour was attacked by the Japanese, the US was thrust into World War 2. In January of 1942, Kennedy was assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence field office in Charleston. Kennedy had wanted to command a Patrol Torpedo Boat but believed that he would be stopped from doing so due to his medical conditions. His father ended up falsifying medical records and convincing PT command that his son’s presence would bring good publicity. He completed his sixth months training and was assigned to the PT-101. Not wanting to be stuck in the Panama canal, Kennedy convinced the Massachusetts Senator to assign him to the South Pacific in order to get some real combat action. By April 1943, he had been assigned to the PT-109.

The PT-109 was a 80 foot (20m) long patrol torpedo boat. It had 3 twelve cylinder, 1,500 horsepower engines, and had a top speed of 41 knots (76 km/h or 47 mph). It was fitted with four 21-inch torpedoes and a 20mm anti-aircraft gun and four .50 calibre machine guns but was not equipped with a radar. At the start of the ship’s deployment, it had a crew of 15:

Lieutenant and Commanding Officer John F. Kennedy
Executive Officer Leonard Jay Thom
Quartermaster, cook and signalman Edgar E. Mauer
Radioman John E. Maguire
Gunners Raymond Albert, Charles A. Harris, Harold W. Marney, Maurice L. Kowal, Edmund T. Drewitch, Leon E. Drawdy and William Johnston
Motor Mechanics Gerald E. Zinser and Patrick Henry McMahon
And Torpedomen Raymond L. Starkey and Andrew Jackson Kirksey

The crew of the PT-109. Top row left to right are Al Webb (friend and not a crew member) Leon E. Drawdy, Edgar E. Mauer, Edmund T. Drewitch, John E. Maguire. Bottom row left to right are Charles A. Harris, Maurice L. Kowal, Andrew J. Kirkesy, Leonard J. Thom, and John F. Kennedy.

In June of 1943, Drewitch had to be discharged after an injury occured when a depth charge was dislodged and landed on his bunk bed. Kowal and Drwady were both injured in July during an attack from Japanese Aircraft.

By the time of the 109’s final mission, there were 13 men aboard, as George H. R. Ross was assigned after his boat was destroyed and was an observer aboard the boat. A 37mm gun was lashed down to the front of the boat in August.

On the night of August 1st, fourteen PT boats, including the 109, were assigned to Kolombangra, an island in the middle of the Solomon islands, where 4 Japanese destroyers were alleged to appear, carrying food supplies and 900 Japanese soldiers to the Japanese Garrison on the island and were set to pass through that night. Their orders were to repel or block the Japanese advance to the island. 24 torpedoes were shot from 8 of the PTs and not one hit the convoy. The entire convoy arrived unscathed at the Naval Base in Kolombangra, due to attacks taking place at night and radio silence being enforced throughout the PTs

The region that the PTs were assigned. The naval base is stationed on the south of the island and was coming south through the Vella Gulf

At around 2:27 am, Kennedy spotted a Japanese destroyer, the Amagiri, returning from the base, heading north, straight at them. Kennedy decided to turn the boat to attack the destroyer with a torpedo and the newly mounted 37mm. Ross was assigned to the 37mm but he unfortunately suffered from night blindness, meaning that the could not effectively attack the boat. Within the next ten seconds, the 109 began to turn to the starboard side, with the Amagiri being commanded to match the turn.

The collision path of the two boats, graphics by Historigraph (YouTube)

After having made a sharp right turn to avoid a potential collision, the PT-109 was rammed by the Amagiri and split in half. A large fireball erupted from the 109, rising to around 100ft (30m) in the air. Some of the oil that had spilled from the boat had ignited the surface of the water. Kirksey and Marney were killed instantly, whilst McMahon was burnt from being thrown into the flaming water.

The 11 survivors clung to the side of the bow, that had not yet gone under water. They drifted south, down the Vella Gulf. Eventually, Kennedy decided that they needed to reach land before another destroyer found them or the bow sunk. The two largest islands wither side of them, Kolombangara and Ghizo were, at the time, occupied by Japanese forces. Kennedy decided to go to the small Plum Pudding Island, about 3.5 miles (5.6km) south west of their position. Unfortunately, McMahon was unable to swim, as well as two others who had been badly injured during the crash. Kennedy decided to make a raft out of a spare piece of drift wood, broken off from the boat. He then loaded two of the injured men onto the raft, whilst he hoisted McMahon onto his back and swam to Plum Pudding Island. They started the swim at 2pm on August 2 and lasted 4 hours.

Eventually, Kennedy with McMahon on his back reached the northern tip of the island, with the other 9 survivors arriving a little behind. The nearby American naval base at Rendova had received word of the 109’s crash but due to the size of the fireball reported believed that there would be no survivors so no rescue attempt was made. However, American coast watchers on Kolombangara had seen the wreckage of the bow drift down the gulf, who sent out the message to look out for any survivors

Both Kennedy and Ross swam out relatively far off the coast of the island on separate occasions. Both times came up fruitless. The crew had now been stranded for 2 days and were beginning to get hungry and thirsty. Kennedy organised the group to swim a mile (1.6km) south to the larger island of Olasana in search of supplies. Upon arrival, there was no fresh water and nothing to eat but unripe coconuts. That night, the weather worsened, meaning that they could not travel to another island in search of supplies

The next day, Kennedy and Ross swam half a mile over to Naru Island, finding an abandoned wreckage of a Japanese Barge upon their arrival, where there was food, water and other various supplies, including a small canoe. Meanwhile, a patrol boat of Solomon Natives, on the orders of the coast watchers, were investigating the barge from the water and saw Kennedy and Ross aboard the island, heavily sunburnt. Believing them to be the survivors of the barge, they decided to turn away from Naru Island, heading north to Olasana for some water. They passed by the beach, spotting the rest of the heavily sunburnt crew, believing them to also be Japanese. However, Thom’s distinct blonde beard made them realise that they were not Japanese.

The scouts informed the coast watch of the survivors, who immediately organised food and provisions to be sent over to the crew. A torpedo boat was then deployed to rescue the crew and brought them back to the base on Rendova. Battered, bruised but breathing, the crew had made it home.

The much more seriously injured crew were treated while the rest were reassigned to other PT boats. Kennedy would later go on to tell this story of survival whilst campaigning for Senator of Massachusetts and President of the United States.

A campaign parade for JFK’s 1960 Presidential Campaign

The Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart, one of, if not the most famous woman in the world. She was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane, the first time she was accompanied by 2 male pilots who flew the plane however the second time, in 1932, she flew solo and almost died multiple times but managed to make it over the course of just two days, only being the second person to do that trip. Just a reminder only this took place almost 30 years since the invention of flight. She flew from LA to Newark without refuelling, setting a world record for longest distance flown without refuelling once. She was also the first female pilot to complete a nonstop transcontinental flight. She was nicknamed the Babe of the Sky, and rightfully so, there was nothing she couldn’t do. That was until the fateful year of 1937.

On May 21st 1937, Amelia Earhart took off with navigator Fred Noonan, a heavy drinker but very skilled aerial navigator, from Oakland, California in a modified twin engine Lockheed Electra L-10E. This was her second attempt, since her first was short lived after she crashed during her take off at Honolulu in Hawaii. If this mission was accomplished, she would be the first pilot, man or woman to circumnavigate the globe, not only boosting her already incredibly high popularity but also helping the finances of her family.

She, along with Noonan, were useless when it came to wireless code. This made her throw her CW Transmitter, a telegraph code key, off the flight, saying it would be “dead weight.” with just her and Noonan on board. They flew for 42 days, 2 days over their ETA for when they would finish. That date was July 2nd of 1937, at 10 am local time, when they prepped to leave Lae in New Guinea with full tanks of fuel, modified to carry 119.8 gallons instead of the usual 24 gallons, with only 7,000 miles until her final destination of California and a planned stop on Pacific Island of Howland, taking about 18 hours.

The Radio Operator at Lae, Harry Balfour, planned for him and Earhart to send transmissions to each other every hour, later noting that headwinds were stronger than thought to be that day, sending 3 transmissions of his findings, none of which appeared to be received. For those non aerial enthusiasts, like myself, high headwinds effect plane speed, gas consumption and length of flight.

Earhart’s previously blocked transmissions reported her speed, 140 knots or 161.1 miles per hour, and her altitude, 7,000 feet and that everything was fine. Her next transmission stated she had climbed 3,000 feet to 10,000 feet, believed to be to avoid cloud cover or mountains, but would also use up fuel. These transmissions, as I said earlier, were delayed but by this point, an experienced pilot such as Earhart would’ve noticed the headwinds by this point. As they neared the island, it is possible the plane was only on 97 gallons of fuel, which would get you about 1200 kilometres.

A ship next to Howland Island, called the Itasca, transmitted communications with Earhart. 14 hours and 15 minutes into the flight, Earhart sent a message to the Itasca about “cloudy weather” They were very close, so Earhart, in one of her last transmissions with the ship, said “We must be on you but cannot see you.” She then later said, “Gas is running low.” The final words heard from Amelia Earhart at 8:43 am are as follows “We are on the line 157, 337. We will repeat this message. We will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait.” The line 157, 337 is past Howland Island. She was also described as frantic in her final words.

As you probably guessed, Earhart never landed on Howland Island. As such, the Itasca search the waters northwest of the island. Soon, USS Colorado joined the search in the south and USS Lexington in the northeast. The ships search finished on July 18th. To this day, the Electra, Noonan and, most importantly, Earhart have never been found. Now, it’s time to get the tin foil hats, because it’s time to look into some theories as to what happened.

Theory #1

The first is the most widely accepted and simple one, that the Electra ran out of fuel and crashed in the waters around Howland Island. Sceptics of this theory say that with that amount of fuel, the plane should’ve flown for 24 hours instead of Earhart’s recorded 20, but due to headwinds, it caused more fuel consumption and according to the Jet Propulsion Centre said her plane was out of fuel when she vanished. This was caused by the aforementioned headwinds and the 3,000 foot climb. The waters around Howland Island are 18,000 feet deep and in 2002, when Nauticos launched an investigation, searching a 2,000 square nautical mile radius, in 15 years, they found nothing, using sonar mapping to search the seabed floor.

Theory #2

The second theory is that she became a castaway at Gardner Island, now called Nikumaroro, which is only 350 nautical miles south from Howland. The island is along the 157, 337 line. Two years later, a British Colonial Officer, Gerald Gallagher, found campsite remains on Nikumaroro. He also found a sextant, a tool used to determine latitude and longitude on aircraft, and the remains of a skeleton of a human, which were analysed by physician, D.W. Hoodless, who determined they belonged to a man who was short, stocky and a of European background, which could be neither of the 2. Unfortunately, after this, the bones were disposed of, preventing DNA analysis in the future.

But, The International Group for Historical Aircraft Recovery, or Tighar for short, determined that it could belong to a just above average height woman of European descent. Amelia was 5’7”. The director of Tighar said that the reason that only partial bones were found there was because of the coconut crabs that live on the island, which have special claws designed for cracking, you guessed it, coconuts. They can also grow up to 3 feet long and are the largest anthropoids on land.

He also saw a photo taken in 1937 from a British ship at Nikumaroro of, what appears to be, landing gear from Earhart’s plane. Several transmissions believed to be that of Earhart’s. we heard in the week following the incident and all of them coincided with low tide. Teenage Radio operator, Betty Klenck, heard on her shortwave radio, “This is Amelia Earhart. Help me!”, a female voice arguing with a male voice and “Water’s knee deep! Let me out!” She listened for 3 hours and recorded everything. Her father reported it to the coast guard, who didn’t pay attention to it, since this was happening all over the world in the days following the vanishing.

The director of Tighar found, in 1991, a partial rubber soul of a shoe, branded “CAT’S PAW RUBBER COMPANY USA”, the same type of shoe Earhart was wearing at the time of the flight and in a photo taken in Indonesia shortly before her disappearance. But the sole was a size 9, too big for Earhart’s 7.5. He also found a 19 inch by 23 inch plate of aluminium, believed to be from the tail of Earhart’s plane. However, veteran pilot, Elgen Long says otherwise, saying there is no chance of it being as such, and so did a Lockheed employee who made the Electra. Planes flew over Nikumaroro in search of Earhart and saw nothing on the island.

Theory #3

Another theory is from retired US Air Force Colonel, Rollin C. Reineck, that Earhart was in cahoots with the US Secret service. He states that Amelia had a plan B, that if she couldn’t find Howland Island, she was to land at the then Japanese occupied Marshall Islands, only being 800 miles away from Howland Island. This would let the US Air force scout the Marshall Islands under the guise of searching for Earhart. The citizens of the Marshall Islands say that they saw the Electra crash off the coast of their island. But the plan went south when they were found out by the Japanese and taken as POWs but released after the war. They then took on assumed names, Amelia’s was Irene Craigmile but married to become Irene Bolam. This is thought to be inconclusive, as the real Irene Bolam sued Rollin for the book he wrote on it and the resemblance between Bolam and Earhart is very weak.

An alternate timeline to this theory is that Noonan and Earhart we executed in the POW camps. A general met a group of US Marines in 1944, who were guarding a hangar with Earhart’s Electra inside on the formerly Japanese Island of Saipan. They then subsequently destroyed the plane. At the National Archives, an obscured image of Earhart and Noonan was found, but was proven to be taken in 1935 by two bloggers. Also, given the dire fuel situation, she wouldn’t be able to make it to the Marshalls.

Theory #4

This brings us to our final theory, that Earhart was abducted by aliens. There is basically 0 evidence and the tinfoil hat I mentioned early is very tight on this one but an episode of Star Trek adapted the idea.

All this being said, until her Electra, Noonan’s and Earhart’s bodies or any conclusive evidence to where famous Aviator, Amelia Earhart, might be is found we will never truly know the answer.

The Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression

Throughout the 1920s, stock prices in the United States were rising rapidly, driven largely by speculative investments. People were borrowing money in order to buy shares and stock in companies, and many believed the market would keep rising forever. The problem was that stock prices became vastly overinflated and disconnected from the actual value of the companies. In addition, unequal wealth distribution between the rich and poor was rife. While some were getting richer, the majority of workers weren’t seeing wages grow at the same pace. Additionally, industries like farming were struggling with overproduction and falling prices. The agricultural industry was hit especially hard by a series of droughts, further damaging the economy. With no regulations, banks were poorly managed and the system was vulnerable to mass withdrawals, which would become a problem when confidence in the market collapsed.

On October 22nd, 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, investors started to realise the market was overvalued. Stock prices began to fall rapidly. A panic began to set in, and many tried to sell their stocks all at once. This led to a market panic, and the New York Stock Exchange had to call in bankers to try to stabilise the situation. Despite their efforts, the market continued to tumble. On October 29th, now known as the infamous Black Tuesday, the stock market completely collapsed. There was an overwhelming wave of selling, with nearly 16 million shares traded. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a stock market index of prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States, lost 12% of its value on that single day.

This began the Great Depression, a severe and prolonged economic downturn that began in 1929 and lasted through most of the 1930s, becoming the longest and deepest economic depression of the 20th century. It affected not just the United States but many countries around the world, with devastating social, political, and economic consequences. Unemployment reached unforeseen highs, many families lost their homes and political instability was rife.

In the United States, Democrat Candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the New Deal, a series of programs aimed at providing relief, recovery, and reform. These included public works projects, banking reforms, Social Security, and labour protections. While the New Deal did not end the Great Depression, it helped alleviate some of its worst effects and reshaped the role of government in the economy. Roosevelt is largely considered to be one of the greatest Presidents in US History and fundamentally remodelled the Democratic Party into what it is today.

In the United Kingdom, the Great Depression lead to the rise of Keynesianism, a belief that during times of economic downturn, governments should step in and increase public spending to stimulate demand. This idea became a cornerstone of post-depression economic policy. This was a system that ran strong in the United Kingdom up until 1979 and the radical neoliberalism of Margaret Thatcher.

Clement Attlee, Labour Prime Minister (1945-1951)

In Germany, the Depression led to the rise of the Nazi Party, an extremist far right faction that believed that the previous democratic Weimar Government had led Germany to failure, led by Adolf Hitler. He capitalised on the widespread discontent and promised to restore Germany’s economy. He then used state-led economic programmes to reduce unemployment and revive the economy, whilst also putting much of the blame for the crash on the Jews as a scapegoat. As a result, anti-semitism was widespread in Germany, leading to the ultimate acceptance of state sponsored anti-semitism, such as Kristallnacht and eventually the Holocaust. Hitler later went on to start World War 2, which lead to over 70 million people dying.

Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of Germany (1934-1945)

The German Armistice

By November 1918, German morale was at an all time low. Despite Russia backing out of the war, they were now losing on the Western Front. The Kaiser had abdicated and had moved to the Netherlands, with a new democratic German government taking his place. Erich Ludendorff had resigned and was replaced by Wilhelm Groener. All of Germany’s allies had all either suffered defeat or surrendered. Everyone wanted the war to end but Germany wanted it more than anyone else.

The German government eventually requested that the allies meet to discuss the armistice. They met in Ferdinand Foch’s train carriage, located in the forest of Compiègne. Foch was French General and would be one of the main representatives of the allies.

A carriage of the same design on display in a museum. The original carriage was destroyed by the SS in 1940

They handed the Germans the terms of unconditional surrender without negotiation. They commanded that the German army leave the territories that they had occupied, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Alsace-Lorraine. They also requested a demilitarisation of the Rhineland, an area of Germany that bordered France. They also had to surrender much of their munitions and other army supplies. The Germans had no choice to agree to these harsh terms and the Armistice was signed at around 5am local time on November 11th, 1918, with the Armistice not taking effect until 11am.

During those 6 hours, another 3,000 men died for nothing. The last soldier of the war to die was German, who died not long after the Armistice took affect.

The Borden Axe Murders

In Fall River, Massachusetts, on August 4th, 1892, around 11:10 am. Lizzie Borden heard a strange noise from her house and rushed inside. She ran into the living room to find a horrible sight. She saw her father, Andrew Borden, dead on the sofa with a disfigured face with blood pouring out the side of his head. His eye was split cleanly in two, suggesting he was asleep while he was attacked, and his nose wasn’t there. He was still bleeding, which meant the attack was recent. He had 10-11 whacks in him from a hatchet like weapon.

A censored photo of Andrew’s body found in the living room

The maid heard from her quarters in the attic from Lizzie “Come down quick! Father’s dead! Somebody’s come in and killed him!” Despite this call for help, Lizzie refused the maid, Bridget Sullivan, access to the room, thinking it too painful for her to see her father dead. Bridgette soon came back with a neighbour.

They didn’t know where the stepmother was, Abby Durfee Gray. The last they heard of her was the maid saying that she went out with friends. Lizzie said “Oh Maggie (a nickname for Bridget)! I am almost sure I heard her come in. Check upstairs and see if she is there!” The neighbour and Bridgette soon moved upstairs and saw Lizzie’s stepmother, dead. Abby Durfee Gray had 18-19 strokes with the hatchet and was face down in the bedroom.

It is believed to be the hatchet that killed them was the same one that killed Lizzie’s pigeons a few months prior. There was nothing stolen, nor was there any sign of a break in. The timing of the murders is very peculiar. According to forensics teams, Abby was murdered at around at around 9:00 and Andrew was murdered around 11:00, since Abby’s blood was dry and, Andrew’s was fresh and wet. The maid stated that Lizzie was wearing “an unstained blue dress.” Lizzie was tried for the murder but acquitted of all charges. The strange thing is is that in such a small 3 storey house, nothing was heard by anyone until by Lizzie at 11:10

Suspect #1: Lizzie Borden – Daughter of Andrew Borden and Step-Daughter of Abby Durfee Grey

The primary suspect is Lizzie Borden. She claimed she was in the barn looking for lead sinkers. After the murder, there was a large sum of money given to her, approximately $10 million in modern times. Her answers at the trial contradicted each other such as the fact that she said she put on her father’s slippers before his nap but according to crime scene photos he was wearing boots. A friend of Lizzie’s, Alice, saw her burning a red dress saying that “there was paint on it.” This was not the same dress Bridget described. A local pharmacist claimed she was trying to buy potassium cyanide the day before the murders. This was dismissed in the trial due to the fact that there was just some bad food in the victims on the autopsy report and nothing more. During the trial, the victim’s skulls were admitted as evidence and Lizzie fainted when she saw them. After a year of planning and prepping for the trial, the police only had circumstantial evidence so couldn’t convict her. 90 minutes and she was off scot free. This theory is so popular that there is a rhyme to go with the murders.

Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one.

Rhyme sung about the murders

After her mother died, Lizzie apparently latched onto her father as the centre of her life, becoming a bit of a daddy’s girl before he remarried, an event she felt betrayed by. She often took to petulantly calling Abby “Mrs Borden” and would often leave early at meal times. Mending the relationship with his daughter was clearly irrelevant to Andrew, as he was incredibly strict with Lizzie. Some writers have interpreted the relationship in various ways, extending to him being abusive, and perhaps even sexually abusive, with Elizabeth Engstrom taking a very Freudian approach, with Lizzie filling the sexual desire in Andrew after the death of her mother.

Some have viewed the Borden murders as a feminist liberation from an oppressive patriarchy. Some others have interpereted her as cold, calculating and even insufferable, far from a feminist icon she is sometimes portrayed to be. However, Rafia Zakaria of The Guardian drew comparisons between the relationship with Lizzie and Andrew Borden to the relationship between Ivanka and Donald Trump, who has often been very open about sexualising his eldest daughter, calling her “voluptuous”, a “great piece of ass” and saying that if she wasn’t his daughter, he’d marry her.

The real Lizzie would likely not have recognised herself in many of the books about her, and she certainly never admitted to having committed the murders. It is too bad that recent takes on her story have veered towards the lurid, for there is plenty of contemporary relevance to be found in the feminist appraisals of the story. The same Americans who may choose to pick up a book about her, or even venture to the house on Second Street for a tour, might perceive similar paradigms being played out in the White House, where, with her own office in the West Wing, a daughter plays a similar part to the hilt, with only minor variants from the Victorian script of gentle cajoling and subordination. All while glibly sidelining a stepmother.
Rafia Zakaria “The Lizzie Borden murder industry won’t die – but its feminism has”

Suspect #2: Bridget Sullivan – Maid to the Borden Family

Abby was very strict and sometimes described as mean to Sullivan. She was cleaning the outside of the house and the went to bed when she was awoken by Lizzie’s screams. Where she was sleeping was above where Abby was murdered. Experiments conducted on the house prove that you would be able to hear a thud from a floor below, a sound even more likely to be heard due to the fact that she said she was only half asleep.

Suspect #3 – John Vinnicum Morse – Uncle of Lizzie Borden, Brother of Lizzie Borden’s mother

The theory of Morse being behind the murders was thought of by maths teacher Richard Little who wrote a book on the case called “Cold Case to Case Closed. Lizbeth Borden. ~My Story~” John was not seen from 9:00 until noon. His alibi is that he was down the road visiting a sick relative with the town doctor. However, that very same doctor was looking at the bodies at the time. Morse was sleeping in the room that Abby was found in. Also, Morse may have known about the will. We can tell from the following transcript from Lizzie:

Q: Did you know of your father making a will?

A: No sir, except I heard somebody say once there was one several years ago. That is all I ever heard.

Q: Who did you hear say so?

A: I think it was Mr Morse.

Q: What Morse?

A: Uncle John V Morse
Transcript from the trial

Little also states there was a failing livestock business run by Mr Morse. He also said that he killed the Borden’s with a meat clever, since he was a butcher.

Suspect #4 – Were Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan Lesbian Lovers?

A still from “Lizzie”. Kristen Stewart is depicting Sullivan (left) and Chloe Sevigny is depicting Borden (right)

The fourth theory is 2 people at once. That is Lizzie and Bridget. Many a fan fiction claim that they had a romantic relationship and Abby discovered it. The back up for this theory is that Lizzie confessed she had a crush on a female actor later in life. However, this theory was adapted into the 2018 film “Lizzie” starring Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny as Sullivan and Borden respectively, pushing the theory into the mainstream.

Ultimately, we will never know what happened that fateful day in Fall River. The Borden Murders remain unsolved to this day, but have become a defining staple of the Pre-War America.

Benedict Arnold’s Betrayal, the Southern Campaign and the End of the War

Still currently in charge of Philadelphia, Benedict Arnold had moved into Penn Mansion, which Clinton had used as his headquarters, and partied in the city with the Philadelphia Elite. He even married Peggy Shippen, a member of the Elite. However, this upper class in Philadelphia had also had parties with the British when they occupied the city. The city turned against Arnold, viewing him as a traitor. The state governor sent a letter to Washington, informing Arnold of his treasonous behaviour. Washington, who had originally saw Arnold as a “fighting general” and had supported him, denounced his behaviour. It was around this time Arnold planned to defect.

He requested that Washington put him in charge of West Point, where he would contact the British, offering the plans to the fort in exchange for a Brigadier General position in the British Army and a decent sum of cash. By the time the plans were discovered by the Americans, Arnold had already defected and set up base in the British occupied New York.

Benedict Arnold handing over the plans to the British

By 1780, the British were losing support for the war. Despite having taken parts of Massachusetts, the North had largely come to a stalemate. The British decided to switch up and focus more of their efforts on the largely British supporting South. They captured Savannah, Georgia and when the Americans and French tried to fight back, they were repelled and the British advanced to Augusta. They then captured Charleston, taking many prisoners. Now occupying the majority of Georgia and South Carolina, the pro-British Americans in the region against the people who had been harassing them for being pro-British.

In order to deal with the Southern offensive, James Madison sent down Horatio Gates, who they believed was the one responsible for the successful offensive at Saratoga, to Camden. Gates got in one battle at Camden and was absolutely annihilated. Washington then sent down the much more capable Nathaniel Greene. He split his army into two, distracting General Tarleton, and defeating them with ease. He then pulled up Cornwallis’ men through North Carolina, straining their supply line. Greene then crossed the Virginia border, gathered reinforcements and faced down the British at Guilford Courthouse, who were tired from having to slug around their heavy equipment. Eventually, the two sides clashed in close-quarters combat. Fearing loss, Cornwallis fired cannons into the struggle, many of which cut down his own men. The American forces retreated but the British, just like Bunker Hill, sustained significantly more losses.

Eventually, both sides were becoming tired of the war. With mutinies occurring in the American Army and the British running out of money, the French arrival was the fresh air that they needed to end the war. Cornwallis decided to consolidate his men in Yorktown, with the intention to take Virginia, which was the American’s main supply hub. Meanwhile, Clinton’s forces in New York received intercepted messages saying that Washington intended to do a frontal assault of New York. However, Washington and the French, Commanded by Rochambeau, were secretly moving their troops down to Yorktown. The French navy made quick work of the British ships in the area whilst the ground troops tightened their grip on the city, firing artillery at Cornwallis’ men. Cornwallis asked Clinton for assistance but it never came. After holding out for a month, Cornwallis surrendered, with 7,000 British troops captured.

Parliament had enough of the war. Whilst Britain still did hold New York, Charleston and Savannah, they decided that they must sue for peace. The Treaty of Paris was signed, which dictated that British troops must leave the 13 colonies, recognise US independence and give them territory up to the Mississippi River, whilst America agreed to pay any debts to Britain and stop discrimination against any American Royalists. The Spanish took Florida.

Washington retired, wishing his men a farewell, saying:

With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy, as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.
Washington speaking to his officers, 1783

A painting of Washington bidding farewell to his officers

Eventually, the ever modest Washington was forced by the other founding fathers to take the role of leader of the country, deciding to name the office the humble title of President. Ultimately, Washington could have made the office into anything he wanted, whether it be a fascist dictatorship or an absolute monarchy. He instead decided to make the office a fairly elected, with a cabinet of advisors, as he knew that one man could not know everything. He would give annual speeches, talking about the state of the Nation. He claimed that the US should remain neutral in foreign politics and resigned the office after two 4 year long terms, knowing someone else had to eventually take the rains. Due to Washington’s carefulness, he made the office of President of the United States one of the most respected in the world.

Crossing the Delaware & French Assistance

Winter had fallen upon the war. Due to the severe losses, troop morale was low, so low that many ended up abandoning the army. British forces had spread throughout the New Jersey area and, while they partied, hired some German mercenaries to guard the Delaware River. However, due to their defences being low, Washington decided that now was the time to strike.

On Christmas, 1776, Washington made a dangerous crossing across the icy Delaware River. It was considered of upmost importance that the river be crossed so every soldier was armed, including officers and musicians who were given muskets. He marched down to Trenton the next morning and took out the mercenaries with ease. This victory sent a message of American power and that the war was far from lost for the Colonies.

British forces were sent south to deal with the armies but were quickly taken care of by Washington’s army, forcing Britain to back out of Southern New Jersey. The Americans set up camp in Morristown and waited out the winter.

The British had managed to capture the northern naval base of New Port, Rhode Island, and attempted to capturing Charleston, South Carolina. Because of this, Congress sent Benjamin Franklin to Paris, to convince the French to join the fight. Whilst the French were deciding, Franklin allegedly starting getting in casual relationships with Parisian women.

Furious that the Colonies had not been crushed, the British came up with a plan, to meet up Burgoyne’s army in Canada with Howe’s army in New York, splitting the Colonies in half down the Hudson Valley. Burgoyne managed to make it to Bennington but Howe had not joined the fight. He had instead gone down to Philadelphia, capturing the capital and forcing Congress to move to York. This left Burgoyne to deal with the ever increasing American force at Saratoga.

Once again, we encounter Benedict Arnold. He was in a dispute with Horatio Gates. Gates wanted to set up defensive positions and push back from there. Arnold wanted to lead an offensive charge against the British. Gates eventually vetoed the plan but Arnold went against his orders and sent a large force against the British, pushing them back to Canada. Horatio took all the credit and Arnold did not get a single mention.

Burgoyne and Howe were both pulled out of the country, leaving General Henry Clinton in New Jersey. In addition, the victory at Saratoga meant the French could finally join the war against the British. Despite this ally, American forces were once again beginning to lose hope in Washington’s leadership, as winter had once again set in. Soon, a Prussian General called Friedrich Stueben came along and fixed everything, properly training the American army in shooting, marching and other such things that the army desperately needed. Those who did not comply would be punished. After the winter of 1778, Washington was ready to take back the capital. But before he could, Clinton was ordered to move all his forces to New Jersey, due to the new threat from France, and allowed Philadelphia to fall back into American hands. Washington assigned Arnold to hold down Philadelphia and chased the British all the way back to New York.

The Declaration of Independence & The British Return

After forcing the British troops out of Boston, Washington decided to move his troops down the New York, believing that if the British were to return, they would come for there. Meanwhile, Thomas Paine, a political philosopher, wrote a pamphlet called “Common Sense”, wherein he advocated for independence from Britain. It spread across the nation and became one of the best selling American titles. This pamphlet brought the idea of independence into the mainstream, meaning that congress began considering it seriously. Thomas Jefferson wrote an official Declaration of Independence. On July 2nd, Congress voted unanimously in favour of independence, with the independence taking effect on July 4th. The United States of America was born.

A painting of the signing of the Declaration of Indpendence

Due to viewing this declaration of independence as treason, King George sent 130 warships down to New York with 25,000 soldiers for a ground invasion. They set up camp on Staten Island whilst the Americans set up on Brooklyn Heights. However, the British did not attack, instead allowing the American’s nerves to wear down. After an artillery barrage, the British hit hard, having one half of their army attack Washington’s men from the front, while the other half looped from the back and flanked them. The American forces ended up being pushed back to the East River.

Between a rock and a hard place, Americans began to believe that the war was already lost. However, the British decided to entrench themselves around the Continental Army as a thick fog set in, allowing the Americans to cross the river undetected. However, they were chased by the British, suffering defeat after defeat. Washington’s leadership began being called into question as they were pushed all the way back the the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border. Never in human history was an army so badly beat but yet was still around to fight another day.