This month, 70 years ago, the overwhelming numbers in men, artillery and armor  of the Red Army, together with the determination and utter disregard for human life of the Soviet Leaders, was beginning to overwhelm the tiny Country of Finland in what has become known as the Winter War.  Although the outcome was never really in doubt, the plucky Finns had managed to exact a terrible toll, in the first three weeks of the war, on the Soviets.     The root causes of the war were twofold. One was the desire of the Soviet Union to reclaim those pieces of the former Russian Empire that had been ripped from it at the conclusion of the Great War.  This included the Grand Duchy of Finland, over which the Russian Czar had ruled since March 29, 1809, when that area had been wrested from Sweden by the armies of Czar Alexander I. During the upheavals created upon Russia’s exit from the Great War, and the ensuing revolution and Civil War, Finland... » Click here for the full story.

    This month, seventy years ago, the German Reich suffered its first defeat of the war. It came at the hands of the Royal Navy in the first naval battle of the war, which occurred on our side of the Atlantic Ocean.     On September 3, 1939, The United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and the Republic of France declared that a state of war existed between their countries and the German Reich.     Europe had been edging toward war for some time, and even though the pace had quickened, France and Britain were not prepared for war.  Germany wasn’t prepared for war with France and Britain either.  Indeed, when informed of the declarations of war against his country, Adolf Hitler is reputed to have turned to his foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, and asked, “Now what do we do?”  Within the week, the Union of South Africa and Canada had added themselves to the list of Germany’s enemies.   ... » Click here for the full story.