Picture of the day

AP said:
Nanjing was no secret anymore than other atrocities performed by Japs in Manchuria - and these were well known before the Americans even entered the war.
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Saving American lives was only part of the reason for dropping the bomb. The other reason is that immediately after VE Day, Stalin ordered his troops east and began rolling through Japanese defenders at an alarming rate. Imagine a t34 or IS series tank backed by massive artillery and divisions of full auto armed soldiers vs a ha-go and poorly supplied and tired troops with largely bolt action rifles. The U.S. Knew they had to end the war quickly not just save American live but because the soviets would gain control of Japan and other se Asian countries In Short order if fighting continued.
 
The agreement for Russia to attack Japan was set up long before the actual attack, from WikipideA;

At the Tehran Conference (November 1943), Stalin agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan once Nazi Germany was defeated. At the Yalta Conference (February 1945), Stalin agreed to Allied pleas to enter World War II's Pacific Theater within three months of the end of the war in Europe. On July 26, the US, UK and China made the Potsdam Declaration, an ultimatum calling for the Japanese surrender which if ignored would lead to their "prompt and utter destruction". The invasion began on August 8, 1945, precisely three months after the German surrender on May 8 (May 9, 0:43 Moscow time).
 
Allied planners couldn't believe how fast Stalin turned his forces east, or how fast he was making minceat out of the Japanese defenders though. They were expecting another language my, two front campaign but the soviets started steamrolling. And their vision of a conquered Japan was far different than ours.
 
Has there been any historical analysis of the capitulation on one hand and the - bombs and Russian invasion on the other? I have long believed that the the threat of a Russian invasion had a strong influence on the decision to pack it in.

Of course, there was the birth of Chuck Norris, too...
 
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Ratings aboard HMCS Sankaty. Halifax, 1941.

Sankaty_minelaying2_1941.jpg
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
Life in the Navy - singing, dancing, everyone all happy and smilin'...

Looks like cold, miserable work, with the added joy of the possibility of drowning.
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How does that old song go?

"I joined the navy, to see the world,
And all I saw, was the g@d-d@mned f---ing sea."
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
Life in the Navy - singing, dancing, everyone all happy and smilin'...

Looks like cold, miserable work, with the added joy of the possibility of drowning.
Click to expand...

I never heard of this warship before. I also doubt these mines were being laid in Halifax Harbour, but who knows? Interesting to think that minefields were being laid off Nova Scotia waters by RCN warships as defensive measures, perhaps, or even in foreign waters or as part of offensives? :confused:

Something from across the pond:

http://1.bp.########.com/_eYRxBRh4fJ4/Sob9pwu9jpI/AAAAAAAADm4/ozgGIdBWhKA/s400/Poland_warsaw_poster.jpg
 
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