There's a fascinating Twitter stream about World War II, called "realtimewwii." The guy posts a tweet every couple of hours, or more frequently, as if he were tweeting from 1939 about then-current developments in the war, date for date. He plans to continue all the way to 1945.
Here are his November 28, 1939, tweets from the last two hours (latest is at the top). Germany had invaded Poland on September 1; France and Great Britain declared war on Germany two days later. Then the USSR also invaded Poland. Now, on November 28, in the next few hours, the USSR will renounce its nonagression pact with Finland and will invade the country two days later, claiming cross-border provocations by Finland (which, it turns out years later, were instituted by the USSR to provide a casus belli). But things haven't reached that point yet, and there's still hope in Finland that negotiations will avert an invasion: ===== Finnish cabinet in all-night session on USSR's threats. Foreign minister Erkko remains convinced Soviets are bluffing as negotiating tactic Khrushchev: "All we have to do is raise our voices a little bit, and the Finns will obey. We fire 1 shot, they'll surrender." Soviet leaders Molotov, Khrushchev, Zhdanov & Finnish communist Kuusinen dined in Stalin's apartment tonight to discuss invasion of Finland Finnish troops just got to Pummanki outpost. Phone wires severed, door smashed. Clothing & rations lying in snow. No sign of 3 border guards New Zealand's 1st internment camp now open, imprisoning German nationals from Western Samoa, including head of Samoan Nazi Party Pummanki is in the isolated north of Finland, less than 400 metres from border with USSR. Troops are on their way to investigate Phone call just came from a Finnish border post at Pummanki asking if any patrols were in area: footsteps outside. Then line went dead ===== http://twitter.com/#!/realtimewwii This all sends chills up my spine. My parents had returned to the U.S. not long before this, having spent their honeymoon in Europe--including in Germany--and were now beginning their life together under the ugly shadows that were gathering. They'd have been reading about the events described in these very tweets as they began planning to start a family. I was conceived less than two years later in spring 1941, before the U.S. entered the war, and then was born shortly after Pearl Harbor. What must it have felt like to be bringing a new life into the world in these circumstances?
