A Reflection on Euphemisms stemming from World War two

I have a Dictionary of Euphemisms called How Not to Say What you Mean? and in looking in it I have found a number of World War two Euphemisms. So I thought I would share a couple of Euphemisms that come from World War Two. With events in history such as this its interesting to see that they have not only changed the history of war, but also our very language. Instead of looking through the whole book, I used this website http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/41/messages/250.html.

"piece of cake/easy as pie - The two expressions are remarkably alike in meaning. 'As easy as pie' is an American expression. Back in the 1890s 'pie' was a common slang expression meaning anything easy, a cinch; the expression easy as pie stemmed quite readily from that. A 'piece of cake' has a somewhat more devious history. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it first appeared in print in a work by Ogden Nash, who wrote in 1936: 'Her picture's in the papers now, and life's a piece of cake.' But, if it first turned up in America, it was swiftly adopted by British airmen in World War II. In 1943 the author of 'Spitfires over Malta' wrote: 'The mass raids promised to be a 'piece of cake' and we expected to take a heavy toll.' Certainly 'piece of cake' was more originally more popular in Britain than in the United States."

BLACK MARKET ? ?as originally used during World War II meant the market in buying and selling stolen military supplies, such as clothing, blankets, food, and truck tires?The term had also seen some use in World War I, when it entered English as a translation of the German ?Schwarzmarkt.?? From ?I Hear America Talking? by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976). Another source says the phrase got its start in 1931 and meant ?unauthorized dealing in commodities that are rationed or of which the supply is otherwise restricted. After a slow start in the 1930s, mainly in the area of currency dealing, the term really took off in the disrupted economic circumstances of World War II?? From ?20th Century Words: The Story of New Words in English Over the Last 100 Years? by John Ayto (Oxford University Press, New York, 1999).

Coming on a Wing and A Prayer: This phrase originated with the WWII patriotic song Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer, 1943, by Harold Adamson and Jimmie McHugh, which tells of a damaged warplane, barely able to limp back to base

"whole nine yards"...I have heard several times that is relates back to one of the items you allude to on your site...["The explanation refers to World War II aircraft" The length of US bombers bomb racks/The length of RAF Spitfire's machine gun bullet belts. The length of ammunition belts in ground based anti-aircraft turrets, etc.] Apparently if they shot out all their ammunition they would refer to the fact that they went "the whole nine yards"

My Thoughts reqarding Guadalcnal

How do experienced leaders help them cope with such an overwhelming Experience?

Experienced leaders provide means of making Guadalcanal less traumatic. Not only do the experienced leaders lead them to less loss on the field of battle, but they also provide a way of dealing with negative emotions. Having the experience they have, they know how to deal with the loss of their fellow solider, and can be an example for other soldiers who are attempting to deal with similar situations of loss.

Paul Von Hindenberg Avatar

His moustache was too unique to make.

Odd comics

So, I have this book, Holy *****!: The Worlds Weirdest Comic Books. Which includes Comics like Fatman the Human Flying Saucer! and Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary. I found four of the comics in this book to be about World war 2. One is satirical, Hansi, The Girl Who Loved the Swastika,one attempts to show horrors of war, Atomic AttacK!, ones a Crude parody I can only find a image on online, Hyme Putz Presents "You Nazi Man", and the last one, Chaplains at War, dipicts the selflessness of Soliders on a sinking ship. All of these are written post World War 2, most likely because they needed to know if it was worth ending well or not, but I bet there are plenty of Comics during that time period filled with Propaganda(perhaps a Nazi Hulk).

Versailles: A Fitting Place

I find the Versailles was a fitting place for the treaty that taxed Germany so heavily be placed (and not only because if they called it the treaty of Versailles and signed in London no one would know what was going on). King Louis XIV built the palace as his own place to be rich and ignore the needs of his people. He taxed his people heavily to make the palace, just as the alliance would tax Germany greatly after the war. Louis XIV's palace was also the place where Louis called together the people of France to discuss what they were going to do to make France more fair for the French lower class. This meeting was quite unfair to the lower class and they had little say in what they got out of the meeting and weren't allowed to speak. Another group, the Germans, would also attend a meeting here where they could get very little negotiation in. The final reason that makes this such a interesting location is the removal of the monarchy in place. Because of Louis's poor execution of what to do for the French people, he was executed. His arogant statements and poor leadership got him kicked out of office. Kaiser Wilhelm the second was a fairly arogant and poor leader, and also kicked out of office with the treaty of Versailles. These were just some interesting parallels I found, but I'm sure most of them are totally unrelated.

A web site

I found this fairly interesting site: http://www.worldwar1.com/
And on it they have information about tours of old trenchs. Such a tour seems like it would not quite be worth the 2,950 dollars or trip to Europe only to see similar trenches all over the same front. After covering the information once you've seen one section of the westeren front you can most likely imagine all other parts of the maintained trenches. Though the tour adds some information more indepth about specific battles, plans, and trench life, we can draw from other places in the war that the general stalemate was held all over the country. A good thing about tours like this, that march you all over from Paris to Passendale, is that you can focus more on the stories of indivduals soliders that fought and lived in the trenches you visit. I can't assure how specific they get on the soliders though, because the amount of death most likely cause a great number of replacements of the solider in the area you visited.

World war 1 Hitler: Solider

I found An interesting article about:

New research today undermined the idea that Hitler was a First World War hero whose wartime experiences propelled him into power.


A new book challenges the commonly held notion that he was considered a brave member of his close-knit regiment, and that his experience during the Great War radicalised him and formed his world view.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/undermined-hitlers-image-as-wwi-hero-2054970.html

From this I propose that on top of Hitler's pre-standing irregularities in life that made him the man he later became, part of his evils stemmed from his experiences in the trenches. As we have seen in paintings from Otto von Dix(Though Dix wasn't a very Cheery painter before Machine Gunnery), you see some pretty bad things during that war. These tortured Images and terrible Experiences may have sparked Hitlers lack of compassion for Human life, or made him driven to control the world from a postion of power so he would never be forced to see those War Horrors again.

Imperialism Part in World war 1: A cause, with benefits.

http://www.cusd.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/great_war/causes.htm
This site has a short summary of most reasons of World war 1's begining. One of them is Imperialism.

Imperialism
Another factor which contributed to the increase in rivalry in Europe was imperialism. Great Britain, Germany and France needed foreign markets after the increase in manufacturing caused by the Industrial Revolution. These countries competed for economic expansion in Africa. Although Britain and France resolved their differences in Africa, several crises foreshadowing the war involved the clash of Germany against Britain and France in North Africa. In the Middle East, the crumbling Ottoman Empire was alluring to Austria-Hungary, the Balkans and Russia.

Because Europe compeated to attempt to get a bigger cut of the world, it created tension in Europe. A Europe yearning for more land alliances in Europe less durable. Though these colonies might of been part of the reason for the war's start, they did help those who attempted to gain them fight in the war. The colonies they gained through imperialistic policies had their benifits. Colonies gave the countries many resources to fight, and brought in quite a bit of profit for the countries they were owned by. Colonies offered soliders for Europe, but they also were easy targets and were difficult to defend.

Adjustments In war

As we have seen in class the introduction of machine guns has greatly changed the face of warfare. Because the tactics of that time had not accounted for this new piece of technology, generals plans sent many men to their deaths without making any progress. This has lead me to beleive in many other cases in war a large change in technology had resulted in a great increase in the number of causualties. I did a small amount of research and found a few intances that changed the way war worked. The Invetion of the Composite bow in Egypt while coupled with the chariot allowed egypt to become a major power. In 1132 the Chinese had created a primitive gun powder based weapon called the fire lance. This spear with a hole to shoot out gun powder allowed chinese to fend off the Jurchens. Other intruduced objects of greater destruction are: Steel, spears, Cannons, and firebombing.

Propaganda

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Belgium wins the war?

As we have learned Belgium had put a major hole in the German plan by delaying there army. If they had let the Germans pass through there country the Germans would surely of defeated France very quickly and there soliders could move on to take to other lands Germany needed to take or help on the other front. Perhaps if they had remained more tru to there neutrality, the United kingdoms would of stayed out of the war. I purpose that if Belgium did not interfear and let Germany do things as they were planned Germany could of won World War One. The more interesting thing is how little incentive Belgium had in fighting opposed to letting them go through. If you look further down the line the consequences are even more interesting. If Belgium lets Germany pass and Germany's plan works, then the Germans win WWI. After the Germans win WWI they aren't forced in to the treaty that places them in a super inflated state. The Germans have nothing, but pride and joy because there success in the war and spoils that follow. Hitler's rise to power is stopped because the words which enthralled the German people to the state which brought them to the second world are brought upon deaf ears(metaphorically) when the German people are not desprite enough for his radical thinking.

Continued trouble in the Balkans

I found the Following article about countries in the Balkans:

Albania's Topi urges UN to reject Serbia's resolution on Kosovo


05/09/2010



TIRANA, Albania -- President Bamir Topi urged the UN General Assembly on Friday (September 3rd) not to back Serbia's draft resolution on Kosovo at the upcoming session in New York and to instead recognise Pristina's independence. In a message to UN member states, he highlighted the significance of Kosovo's independence and the need for its recognition after the International Court of Justice's July ruling that Kosovo's independence declaration did not violate international law. He said that backing Serbia's document would "negatively affect" peace and stability in the Balkans.



On Friday, the Kosovo Foreign Ministry announced that Honduras had recognised Kosovo as an independent state, the 70th country to do so. (AP, Radio Free Europe - 03/09/10

This article highlights the continued conflict in the Balkans region. Even though its been many years sinces the events which caused the intial conflict in the region and the redividing of borders there, the people of this area still squabble over which countries they actually consider to be countries at all. Stabillity in the region is easily put into a questionable state, while the area is still greatly divided.

What is required in order to create a world war

In order for a world war to begin, a number of things must happen. So all the countries would be in a postion that would cause a war, countries must have some sort of alliances in place that would make them obligated to help fight. Alliances could come from defensive pacts, trade aggreements, or old hatreds started from old wars. There must be at least two large groups of countries that don't nessarily like one another. With the allainces inplace several economic, culture , and possibly military factors must cause tenstion between the groups. With tenstion and obligation to allies, a incident must insue which begins the war. Incidents include: assasanation, invasion, accidents, terrosist attacks, bad trade deals, and other events which offend alliances. This all could happend today,but with the Un implaced probally wont.

Somethings

Other General Vaguities a