WW2 Tweets @RealTimeWWII@mastodon.muage.org

Current food ration issued to civilians in Leningrad is 125 grams of bread per day, 50–60% sawdust, with the rest a mix of bark, bran, fruit stems, pine needles, & some flour.

~514,000 citizens of Leningrad, 35,000 wounded soldiers, & equipment from 86 factories evacuated across the frozen Lake Ladoga this winter- but millions of people remain trapped by German blockade, with 1000s dying each week.

Mathematician Leonid Kantorovich, professor at Leningrad University, calculates optimal distance between trucks driving over Road of Life. To prove his theories correct, Kantorovich personally walks between trucks crossing the ice.

"Road of Life" across frozen Lake Ladoga is giving a slender supply chain to city of Leningrad, now connected to a railway line in recaptured town of Tikhvin- although supply trucks still crash through ice & Germans bombard lake regularly.

Hours of confusion in Los Angeles has left 5 people dead; 2 heart attacks & 3 car crashes in the blackout. US Army reports "warplane" sightings are likely a mix of weather balloons & mass hysteria. 12 Japanese-Americans arrested for "suspiciously showing lights".

In "Battle of Los Angeles", US army fired over 1400 artillery shells at "unidentified flying objects" above city. Watch now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhjkMoWLE_Y

Air-raid sirens sounded across Los Angeles last night: American observers reported "enemy planes" above the city & anti-aircraft units opened fire with machine-guns & artillery.

David Stoliar spends 24 hours clinging to floating cabin door. In despair, he tries to slit his wrists, but "my hands were too swollen from the frost." Returned to Istanbul, he's arrested by Turkish authorities for entering the country illegally. https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-lone-survivor-of-torpedoed-jewish-refugee-ship-struma-a-901490.html

Struma sinking is the worst civilian naval disaster yet. Perhaps 100 of the almost 800 aboard survive the torpedo, floating in freezing waters of the Black Sea. By time rescuers arrive, just one is left alive: 19-year-old refugee David Stoliar.

Colossal explosion wracks the hideously overcrowded MV Struma- Soviet submarine Щ-213 has torpedoed the stricken refugee ship, following orders to sink any neutral vessels in Black Sea.

Refugee ship Struma is floating helplessly in the Black Sea, crammed with 769 Jewish passengers fleeing fascist Romania. British govt. in Palestine refused to allow them to land, fearing to encourage more Jewish immigration, & Turkish authorities set the ship adrift.

Red Army continues counter-offensive, biting deep into German lines; New York Times map shows the territory recaptured by Soviets this year:

British disaster in Burma; a regiment of Indian soldiers, guarding Sittang river from advancing Japanese, have been trapped on the wrong side after engineers blew up the bridge too early.

Captain Kozo signals Tokyo as his submarine sails away: "Left Santa Barbara in flames." One Japanese shell struck oil refinery, causing ~$500 worth of damage; hundreds in California still panic at "Japanese Blitz".

I-17's captain Nishino Kozo visited California on a commercial oil tanker pre-war; despite his first-hand knowledge, most shells have missed their targets.

Santa Barbara, California, is under attack: a Japanese submarine, I-17, has surfaced off the American coast & is shelling huge oil tanks at Ellwood Field using her small deck gun.

"'Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the sacrifice, the more glorious the triumph.'

So spoke Americans in the year 1776.

So speak Americans today!"

Read Roosevelt's full speech: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fireside-chat-6

President Roosevelt mocks US isolationists; they want "the American eagle to imitate tactics of the ostrich. But we prefer to retain the eagle as it is- flying high and striking hard."

President advises listeners to refer to a world map as he explains USA's "Germany First" military strategy; today's New York Times includes handy reference map.

US President is making a radio speech to the nation, hoping to counter mood of American pessimism. Roosevelt's latest "fireside chat" discusses the war so far. Listen now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Stpw1TYH0