Operation Overlord

Write to live, live to write.

AIRBORNE ALL THE WAY Friday, July 17, 2009

POSTDAM
Two days ago, the Postdam Conference began.
It lasted from the 16th of July to the 2nd of August. The main participants were Josef Stalin, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill, but Churchill lost the General election of 1945 in late July and was replaced by Clement Attlee. (But Churchill was still better!)
Anyway. I shall bore you with the results of the Conference.
* Germany:

o Issuance of a statement of aims of the occupation of Germany by the Allies: demilitarization, denazification, democratization, decentralization and decartelization.
o Division of Germany and Austria respectively into four occupation zones (earlier agreed in principle at Yalta), and the similar division of each's capital, Berlin and Vienna, into four zones.
o Agreement on the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.
o Reversion of all German annexations in Europe, including Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine, Austria and the westernmost parts of Poland
o Germany's eastern border was to be shifted westwards to the Oder-Neisse line, effectively reducing Germany in size by approximately 25% compared to its 1937 borders. The territories east of the new border comprised East Prussia, Silesia, West Prussia, and two thirds of Pomerania. These areas were mainly agricultural, with the exception of Upper Silesia which was the second largest centre of German heavy industry.
o Expulsion of the German populations remaining beyond the new eastern borders of Germany.
o Agreement on war reparations to the Soviet Union from their zone of occupation in Germany. It was also agreed that 10% of the industrial capacity of the western zones unnecessary for the German peace economy should be transferred to the Soviet Union within 2 years. Stalin proposed and it was accepted that Poland was to be excluded from division of German compensation to be later granted 15% of compensation given to Soviet Union.
o Ensuring that German standards of living did not exceed the European average. The types and amounts of industry to dismantle to achieve this was to be determined later.
o Destruction of German industrial war-potential through the destruction or control of all industry with military potential. To this end, all civilian shipyards and aircraft factories were to be dismantled or otherwise destroyed. All production capacity associated with war-potential, such as metals, chemical, machinery etc were to be reduced to a minimum level which was later determined by the Allied Control Commission. Manufacturing capacity thus made "surplus" was to be dismantled as reparations or otherwise destroyed. All research and international trade was to be controlled. The economy was to be decentralized (decartelization). The economy was also to be reorganized with primary emphasis on agriculture and peaceful domestic industries. In early 1946 agreement was reached on the details of the latter: Germany was to be converted into an agricultural and light industry economy. German exports were to be coal, beer, toys, textiles, etc — to take the place of the heavy industrial products which formed most of Germany's pre-war exports.

* Poland:

o A Provisional Government of National Unity recognized by all three powers should be created (known as the Lublin Poles). Recognition of the Soviet controlled government by the Western Powers effectively meant end of recognition for the existing Polish government in Exile (known as the London Poles).
o Poles who were serving in the British Army should be free to return to Poland, with no security upon their return to the communist country guaranteed.
o The provisional western border should be the Oder-Neisse line, defined by the Oder and Neisse rivers. Parts of East Prussia and the former Free City of Danzig should be under Polish administration. However the final delimitation of the western frontier of Poland should await the peace settlement (which would take place at the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in 1990)
o The Soviet Union declared it will settle the reparation claims of Poland from its own share of reparations.

Bored yet?
We're going to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at 1600hrs. To prepare for it I began reading the book this morning and finished it the same morning. Impressive, eh? I was supposed to be studying ting xie then. Whoops.
Our cousins from Beijing have come back and they're due to leave on Monday. We're watching the movie with one of my cousins. Monday is the day Col. von Stauffenberg tried to blow Hitler up and failed (in 1944), when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon (in 1969) and when a guy called Eng Wee Hua was born in 1955.
I love my family's birthdays.

~Today in History~
1925: Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf (My Struggle).

~Quote of the Day~
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
-FDR (won't tell you what the initials stand for because if you know me you ought to know what they stand for). Of course, he doesn't mean that you should tie a knot around your neck.

>>Forgotten by22:59