"Side by side with with the fighting men who ride to battle goes an army of men who fight with tools and machinery, instead of guns and tanks... That army of fighter-mechanics has grown in importance with the increase in the Army's dependence on motorized equipment. They operate beyond the glow of headlines - but without the aid of mechanics the Army's wheels would never turn."
This article discusses the various complications and contradictions inherent with Irish neutrality in the face of the Nazi march on Europe. Even though it was clear to see that an Allied victory would certainly be an Irish benefit and the Germans had already fire-bombed Irish cities twice, the Irish leader Eamon De Valera (1882 - 1975) was hellbent on seeing to it that Ireland never played favorites. Lieutenant Colonel Richard Mangrum, USMC, was a seasoned veteran in "the Cactus Air Force" that fought the good fight at Henderson Field from Guadalcanal in 1942:
"For eight weeks the author and his fellow pilots shared the primitive life of the other Marines at Henderson Field. Some portion of his squadron was almost constantly in the air, attacking enemy reinforcements." One of Hitler's refugees from Warsaw recalled the terror of the Nazi attack on her city:
"In a mad panic I ran through streets that were a sea of flames, dragging by the hand my two children, aged eight and three. I have seen wounded and dead. I lost many friends and all my belongings. I was a refugee. And for months I suffered hunger and cold... I can still see myself pressed against the wall, holding the children tight, and waiting, waiting for the bomb to crash..."
Click here to read about the fall of Paris...
"Lieutenant K. F. Brandes of the German Army was killed on October 24 [1944] on the right bank of the Dnieper. A diary was found on him. I have seen many diaries of German officers and soldiers... It was written by a clever and educated man. Brandes was a Fascist. He calls the conquest of Europe the 'German Spring'. Like his colleagues he came to Russia for 'lebensraum'... But as distinct from other Hitlerites, Brandes saw the limit of his dreams. He faithfully described the disintegration of the German Army, showed the meanness of the men who are still ruling Germany. I will cite the most interesting excerpts from his diary." Cash and carry was a diplomatic trade policy set in place by the FDR administration; it was crafted during a special session of the U.S. Congress on September 21, 1939, as a result of the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe. It replaced the Neutrality Act of 1937, by which belligerent parties would purchase only non-military goods from the United States so long as the client states in question paid in cash at the time of purchase and assumed full responsibility for transportation. The 1939 Cash and carry revision allowed for the purchasing of military arms to belligerents on the same cash-and-carry basis. The purpose of the policy was to maintain neutrality between the United States and European nations while giving aid to Britain by allowing them to buy non war materials.
Shortly after the 1940 election, British Prime Minister Churchill told FDR that Britain could no longer afford to buy military supplies under the code of cash and carry and a new agreement needed to be agreed upon. The President then persuaded Congress to swap cash-and-carry with Lend-Lease - a new piece of legislation that granted the president authority to sell, exchange, lend, or lease war materiel to any nation whose defense was vital to U.S. security.
The third most popular Lend-Lease export item was the Tommy Gun - click here to read more..
Click here to read about the lend-lease program for Stalin's Russia... | 
