Second World War tweets from 1941

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US government has approved secret plan JB 355- to secretly supply American planes & volunteer pilots to China, to fire-bomb Japanese cities & cripple their industry- destroying a US rival in the Pacific.

Royal Air Force pilots in Britain relax between flying missions with some archery practice alongside their aeroplanes.

US President announces new plans for economic sanctions against Japan; Roosevelt advises Americans to get ready for sandbags & gas rationing.

As Luftwaffe bombing of Moscow continues, citizens retreat underground, taking shelter in the city's magnificent Metro stations.

Free French leader General de Gaulle is withdrawing his troops from Allied command- furious at UK declaring the French colony of Syria to be independent.

Soviet Union hurling every available body against invaders; Germans report that some surrendering Red Army units contain young children:

Soviets desperately trying to find men to throw at the Germans. Newly recruited Red Army soldiers are training with fake wooden guns, without uniforms, wearing portyanki- wrapped footcloths- for want of boots.

Count Ciano, Italian Foreign Minister records that Mussolini has ordered at the first opportunity, Rome's anti-aircraft guns should fire- in order to make the war seem more exciting.

Mussolini has decided that Rome isn't being bombed often enough: when British planes attack the port of Naples, he orders fake air-raid warnings in the Italian capital, 140 miles away, to "inspire Roman patriotism".

To mark one month since invasion of the USSR, 200 Luftwaffe bombers are hitting Moscow- citizens shocked by first mass air raid on Russia's capital. See bombing now: sputnikglobe.com/20110722/16533…

Guderian: "If we head for Kiev first we'll inevitably bog down in a winter campaign before we can smash Moscow. I shudder to think of it."

General Guderian, commander of the German march on Moscow, is desperate to change Hitler's mind: "Our only hope is to avoid a winter war."

German drive on Moscow has come to an abrupt halt- Hitler wants to split his forces north & south to take Leningrad & Kiev, & focus on destroying the vast masses of Red Army already trapped behind Axis front.

Triumphant Hitler claims to his Axis allies that "Soviet armies have been totally destroyed- all serious resistance will be over within 6 weeks."

Brtish civil servants have told Churchill not to flash the V-sign with the palm inwards (as shown): it "represents a vulgar phrase to labouring classes."

From France to Norway, Denmark to Poland, V for Victory is appearing in silent defiance of Nazi occupiers- on walls, on posters, chalked on roadways:

Britain has started a new "V for Victory campaign", embracing V-sign as a symbol of anti-Nazi resistance & encouraging people across occupied Europe to use it in defiance.

Wehrmacht doctors prescribe Pervitin- nicknamed Panzerschokolade [Tanker's Chocolate]- to help individuals "achieve exceptional performance".

To keep soldiers fighting on two hours of sleep a night, German army doctors are distributing millions of tablets of Pervitin: a methamphetamine recently synthesized by German chemists.

Even marching up to 50km/day, most German infantry are still far behind their tireless panzers- leaving the Wehrmacht unable to engage & totally wipe out trapped Red Army units.