Real time World War II

[Edit: the url to follow this twitter account is this one, https://twitter.com/#!/RealTimeWWII. You don't need your own twitter account to read the page. Also, I somehow convinced myself that yesterday (when I wrote this post) was the 29th, when it was actually the 28th. The Winter War starts on the 30th.]

There is a twitter account that tweets as if it is a news agency reporting World War II live (@RealTimeWW2). I find this account fascinating and have been following it now for more than a month.

The depth and the breadth of what this account adds to one's understanding of the war is actually quite large, so I can only touch the surface in this post. The first thing I noticed was how this method of telling the story of WWII really gives you a much more accurate sense of the timescales involved than you get from reading a history book. Six years is a long time. I discovered the account a few days into the initial German invasion of Poland; Britain and France soon declared war and yet no military action has taken place between any of these nations, apart from a few skirmishes at sea.

It would be foolish to interpret this as somehow making the war boring. Though, in fact, contemporary Britain did make this mistake. There are regular tweets describing British behaviour that makes it obvious why the name they gave this part of the war was the “Phoney War”.

“German pilot who fought off 3 planes to let his crew escape is guest of honour tonight at an RAF dinner in France. Off to POW camp tomorrow”

However, it can be assured that from the perspective of the Poles, the Czechs and the Jews in occupied Germany, this war has been far from phoney so far.

“New German decree: 'Aryans' married to Jews have been given 1 year to divorce their Jewish husband/wife or 'face the consequences'.”

"Occupied Poland: New decree orders all Jews in Krakow to wear an armband with a blue Star of David, as seen being sold: http://pic.twitter.com/GUOdpg8o"

I have toyed with writing a post about this account for a while and decided sometime ago that today would be the day I write the post. Today is the eve of the second major event of The War. That is, the Winter War between Finland and The Soviet Union. Tweets that have gone out in the last 48 hours are ominous and frightening:

“The USSR has renounced its non-aggression treaty with Finland due to "hostile actions"; Moscow radio reports 3 more incidents on border”

The “incidents” were of course incidents that were faked by Soviets on their own outposts to justify military action. By doing such acts their aggression is made more morally ambiguous and their own populace can be made much more supportive of any action.

Anti-Finnish demonstration marching through Leningrad, chanting "Kulak-bands armed by capitalists should be expelled from the Soviet border"

The truly ominous side of it all though is the Finnish response (seemingly convinced that they can avoid war by showing their lack of willingness to partake in it)

“Finnish army still fully mobilized. Mannerheim has ordered all units out of range of Soviet border to avoid "provocative incidents"

“Finnish government has denied shelling Soviet village of Mainila, says shots came from USSR; they've suggested a joint investigation”

and, almost prophetically given the outcome of the Winter War and the overall War itself.

“Minister of Defence Juho Niukkanen says the Soviets are bluffing: 'They wouldn't be so stupid as to invade in the middle of winter!' ”

Tomorrow, the Soviets will invade and the second major offensive of World War II will begin.

I touched in the above on one of the aspects of this retelling of WWII that is so compelling. That is, our inevitable hindsight. If ever there was a choice to watch a slow-motion train crash, this is it. In 1939, Finland sufferred an exceptionally cold winter. This winter helped them win this war. As did the Russian winter help the Soviets drive out the Germans four years later.

I really could write so much more. Other amazing perspectives this offers are the present behaviour of the neutral countries. They strut and they boast of their moral superiority in taking a neutral stance and yet we know, in less than a year, they will be occupied, despite this “moral superiority”. Germany and the Soviets are very much good friends right now, dividing up Eastern Europe between themselves. Finland will get no help from their future German allies in the impeding Winter War (and yet their success in this war will open the door to German aid).

I am most surprised by the behaviour of both Italy and the United States at this moment. Both are in fact very neutral - despite eventually taking very clear sides. The U.S even had to pass a difficult law through congress to allow themselves to trade with Britain as their neutrality would otherwise not allow it. Seen from this lens it is almost impossible to imagine them joining the war, let alone sending millions of troops to Europe and the Pacific. And Italy! Germany's greatest ally is strutting it's neutrality as boldly as The Netherlands and Belgium.

I couldn't recommend following this account strongly enough. If you don't use twitter, this is good enough reason to do so. It is a remarkably clever idea and method to tell one of the most over-told stories of our time and to find a very fresh and very insightful new angle. It works so well that it even sometimes pulls you into its world. When I read of events in Finland, I wonder why I didn't notice that myself. When I read the tweets I often find myself imagining a poor soul, trapped halfway between two times, able to communicate to us his world, but unable to receive our replies. We can watch his world unfold, filled with the knowledge of the horrors that will befall him, but are powerless to help or warn him or his world. We know how his story ends and we can only watch as the inevitable unfolds.

Twitter @just_shaun