The Führer Adolf Hitler is dead!

On July 20, 1944, a bomb explosion resonated across the vast Wolf's Lair field Headquarters near Rustenburg, East Prussia. The plot to kill Hitler, codenamed Operation Valkyrie, was now officially initiated . Shortly after the bomb explosion, the order contained in the Operation Valkyrie, was read to the Reserve Army in Berlin:

" The Führer Adolf Hitler is dead!

An unscrupulous clique of party leaders alien to the front has attempted, under the exploitation of this situation, to fall on the backs of the hard-struggling front and to seize power for selfish purposes.
II. In this hour of highest danger, the government of the Reich has declared a state of military emergency for the maintenance of law and order and at the same time has transferred the executive power, with the supreme command of the Wehrmacht, to me.
 
III. With this, I order:

    1. I transfer the executive power – with the right of delegation, on the territorial commanders – in the area of the war at home, on the commander of the army reserves under the simultaneous appointment to the supreme commander in the homeland war – in the occupied western area, on the supreme commander west – in Italy, on the supreme commander southwest – in the occupied eastern area, on the supreme commander of the army groups and the commander of the Wehrmacht eastern land for their respective area of command – in Denmark and Norway, to the Wehrmacht commander.

    2. The holders of executive power have control over:

        a) all section and units of the Wehrmacht, including the Waffen-SS, RAD and the OT, within their area of command;
        b) all public authorities (of the Reich, Germany, the states and the municipalities), especially the entire law enforcement police, security police and administrative police;
        c) all office bearers and subdivisions of the NSDAP and those of its affiliated associations;
        d) the transportation services and public utilities

    3. The entire Waffen-SS is integrated into the army with immediate effect.
    4. The holders of executive power are responsible for the maintenance of order and public security. 

They especially have to ensure:

        a) the protection of the communication facilities,
        b) the elimination of the SD (Security Service).

Any opposition against the military power of enforcement is to be broken ruthlessly.
In this hour of highest danger for the Fatherland, unity of the Wehrmacht and the maintenance of full discipline is the uppermost requirement.

That is why I make it the duty of all commanders of the army, the navy, and the air force to support the holders of executive power to carry out their difficult task with all means at their disposal and to guarantee the compliance of their directives by the subordinate sections. The German soldier stands before a historical task. It will depend on his energy and attitude whether Germany will be saved."

But it turned out that Hitler was alive, to the dismay and horror of the conspirators. And they ( the conspirators and sympathizers ) would soon feel the wrath of Adolf Hitler. About 5,000 of them would meet their untimely death in the months to come. The coup has failed.

The Fall of Bataan

"Radio Broadcast - Voice of Freedom - Malinta Tunnel - Corregidor - April 9, 1942

"Bataan has fallen. The Philippine-American troops on this war-ravaged and bloodstained peninsula have laid down their arms. With heads bloody but unbowed, they have yielded to the superior force and numbers of the enemy. 

The world will long remember the epic struggle that Filipino and American soldiers put up in the jungle fastness and along the rugged coast of Bataan. They have stood up uncomplaining under the constant and grueling fire of the enemy for more that three months. Besieged on land and blockaded by sea, cut off from all sources of help in the Philippines and in America, the intrepid fighters have done all that human endurance could bear. 

For what sustained them through all these months of incessant battle was a force that was more than merely physical. It was the force of an unconquerable faith--something in the heart and soul that physical hardship and adversity could not destroy! It was the thought of native land and all that it holds most dear, the thought of freedom and dignity and pride in these most priceless of all our human prerogatives. 

The adversary, in the pride of his power and triumph, will credit our troops with nothing less than the courage and fortitude that his own troops have shown in battle. Our men have fought a brave and bitterly contested struggle. All the world will testify to the most superhuman endurance with which they stood up until the last in the face of overwhelming odds. 

But the decision had to come. Men fighting under the banner of unshakable faith are made of something more that flesh, but they are not made of impervious steel. The flesh must yield at last, endurance melts away, and the end of the battle must come.
Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand--a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world--cannot fall!"

Japanese Invasion of P.I. in Photos

General Homma at Lingayen Gulf,  Philippine Islands 1941

Japanese tanks and soldiers moving towards Manila, Dec. 22, 1941

Cavite Navy Shipyard in flames, Dec. 10, 1941 

A Japanese soldier looks at an American propaganda billboard.


(Photo Source from the US National Archives)