This is a report on the activities of Nazi Germany, its influence and influencers in the United States in promoting National Socialism, and fascist ideologies and how to recognize them.
Published by the US Government Printing Office for the US State Department in 1943, this is a detailed study of the Nazi ideology and focuses on the various aspects of National Socialism, its foundations, tenants, and policies. Particular focus has been placed on the Nazi viewpoints regarding citizenship, loyalty, individual rights, and their relationship to the government. It also focuses on their work in influencing Germans abroad and indoctrinating them to adopt these ideologies to further the Nazi cause around the world.
It details their aims and methods and even their infiltration tactics. It provides specific details on who they are targeting abroad with their messages and how to regulate their activities. There are 48 translated documents reproduced in the volume that illustrate the efforts and principles of the fascist ideology of Germany in the 1930’s and 40’s.
The State Department concluded that the Nazi efforts to organize and recruit Germans here in the United States and around the world to their cause were not successful and that they made very little headway in influencing any German Americans to embrace these ideologies and spread them here in America.
Historical government documents are an important part of learning where we have been and what has happened in the past, but they can also be a guide for what is happening in the present and help us prepare for the future. If we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.
This displays a cloth aeronautical chart, a propaganda leaflet, an air target map, and a radio frequency chart (1944)
This map printed on cloth is known as an evasion map. Printed on nylon or silk, these maps or charts were created to be multi-use maps. They were lightweight and had to be durable, waterproof, and easy to conceal for pilots flying missions over the Pacific during WW II. These maps included detailed information about geographical features, sea currents, enemy positions, airfields, and escape routes that pilots might need if their planes were forced down.
The small skinny map is a radio frequency chart from Ulithi Island to Angaur Island in the South Pacific. It helped keep the pilots on course. There are also general airport diagrams of the runways on the other side.
The larger map of Angaur Island is an Air Target Map. It was used by airmen to record the specific locations on the island that were either hit after a bombing run or to locate specific objects, personnel, buildings, troop or equipment movements on the island.
Also included is a leaflet that was dropped in mass numbers by a pilot that sent the following message to the enemy soldiers on the island.
Translated, it states:
"Of our comrades have died from the disease, and many others may have become ill. What kind of treatment will these comrades receive? The situation is probably very bad. If you want to get medical help, please raise the large cross-shaped cloth board at the southeast runway crossing of the airport. We can help you."
This army manual from 1906 is for the care and maintenance of horses used by the US Armed Forces as the main transportation resource for moving equipment and personnel.
When the United States entered the World War I in 1917, a single American army division required 7,701 horses. This manual was used to train those in the Army how to care for, administer medical care to, and learn about the anatomy and physiology of a horse.
They were used as beasts of burden to pull and pack artillery, supplies, cavalry, communications, medical, and engineering services. These animals suffered the same fate as the soldiers, dying from shellfire, weather, chemical gas, shell-shock, and disease. But they labored just as heroically, as four legged soldiers during the war.
By the fall of 1917, more than half a million American horses and mules had been sold to the Allied Armies and sent to Europe for service.
The British Army recorded that by October 1917 225,856 of their horses in France had been killed, were missing, or were put down. British records estimate that one quarter were battle deaths and the rest from disease and exhaustion.
By the end of WW I, only around 60,000 horses survived and only a fraction of those made it home. These Army horses and mules proved to be invaluable in pushing the war to a successful conclusion.
Horses, mules contributed to Allied war effort - https://www.army.mil/article/190788/horses_mules_contributed_to_allied_war_effort
The American Battle Monuments Commission - https://www.abmc.gov/news-events/news/remembering-american-war-horse/