Armed Forces Radio II
Lead: During World War II the British Broadcasting Corporation and the American Forces Radio (AFN) had to be forced to work together in support of the Normandy invasion.
Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.
Content: Required to give up its monopoly on radio broadcasting in Britain during World War II, the BBC welcomed the fledgling GI network with surprising grace considering its previous opposition. BBC helped AFN with studios, engineering assistance and expertise, but it was not easy. The Brits strove for scrupulous accuracy in their broadcasts and were offended at the informal American broadcast style and occasional willingness to use questionable sources and interpretation in news reporting. They considered AFN to have accomplished a great deal, but that it was really little more than a small town operation, with announcers that were illiterate, unresourceful, and couldn't even read scripts very well.
Armed Forces Radio I
Lead: During World War II, to the lonely GI, Armed Forces Radio was a welcome reminder of home. It is a part of the war that continues to this day.
Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.
Content: In 1942 Allied forces began to assemble for the Normandy invasion in bases throughout the English countryside. For many, this was the first time away from home and they missed it. To pass the time they listened to the radio, and for that the only choice was the British Broadcasting Company. This was the heyday of the BBC. All over Europe, indeed, all over the world, those who could listen were dependent on the BBC for news that was largely free from bias, very accurate, and absent the hopeless propaganda that poured out of Berlin, Rome and Tokyo. To the American ear, however, the BBC was deadly dull. The music was boring, the humor dry and out of context, the announcers starchy and pretentious.
Battle of the Java Sea
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Open in new tab Count Folke Bernadotte WW II Negotiator II
Lead: Having negotiated the release of thousands of concentration camp inmates in the closing days of the Third Reich, Folke Bernadotte attempted to mediate the land settlement in Palestine and paid for it with his life.
Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.
Content: Count Folke Bernadotte, head of the Swedish Red Cross, earned his reputation as a mediator, when he treated with Heinrich Himmler for the early release and transportation of internees at Buchenwald, Ravensbruck, and Theresienstadt concentration camps. While some historians dispute the importance of his intervention, his role was a vital one. Despite the moral implications of negotiating with someone like Himmler, many lives were saved in the chaotic collapse of Hitler’s regime. Bernadotte’s reputation as an intermediary in 1945 led to his appointment as United Nations mediator in Palestine after the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Both sides rejected his plan. He advocated contiguous borders for Israel, giving the new state Galilee, but turning over the Negev to Arab control, putting Jerusalem under U.N administration and allowing Arab refugees to return to their homes in Israel. Arab negotiators, who rejected the legitimacy of Israel in the first place, turned their back on Bernadotte’s efforts and according to essayist Cary Stanger, Israeli “confidence in the mediator was eroding.” Some in Israel began to plot his removal.
Count Folke Bernadotte WW II Negotiator I
Lead: In the closing days of World War II, Count Folke Bernadotte, head of the Swedish Red Cross, was instrumental in the release of thousands of concentration camp inmates. For millions it was too little too late.
Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.
Content: As the decades pass it is difficult to recall the dilemma facing many Europeans in the early 1940s. From the fall of France to the fall of Stalingrad, nearly everywhere Adolf Hitler was triumphant. National Socialism, driven by the German military machine, seemed to many to be the wave of the future. Attitudes toward Hitler ranged across the moral spectrum from enthusiastic collaborationists such as Vidkun Quisling in Norway to implacable foes, the latter being a very small group that got smaller before Stalingrad signaled to perspective observers that Hitler might not succeed after all.
Surplus Wars II
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