on the edge of twilight

NEWS BULLETIN: NORMANDY INVASION FAILS The author was ten years old when America entered WWII and I remember the Home Front very well. The Nazis could have won the war if the Normandy invasion had failed because it would have provided the time to use the futuristic weapons in existence and ready to be used. PROLOGUE When Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 I was ten years old. Although I was a boy through the wartime years I followed the events as they happened via movie newsreels and radio like most Americans. My impression of the war from the first Pacific offensive on Guadalcanal in 1942 forward to the end of the global conflict was, we Americans were always victorious in almost bloodless battles. I believe it was a common conviction shared by many Americans. This public impression of non stop winning in the largest war ever fought on this planet was perpetuated by Hollywood movies. Recently I saw a fictional version of the Anzio invasion depicting the hero as discovering the German construction of their gun emplacements in the hills overlooking the Anzio beachhead. He carries the alarm to the allied commanders who promptly send in the bombers to destroy the artillery positions. One bombing mission seems to wipe out all of the defensive positions only a few days after the landing. In reality, the Germans bombarded the allied beachhead from their hilltop positions for forty days. Propaganda in wartime is used by political leaders of every country to sustain the war time effort of it's citizens. I know now the morale of the American people was of paramount importance because our war production was absolutely vital to all of our Allies fighting around the globe. Our country was far away from the horrors of war so it required a smooth running propaganda campaign to keep up our fighting spirit. After reading a number of history books about WWII from the viewpoint of historians from other countries I gained a revised impression of the war. These other accounts especially from the perspective of the English and French scholars provided me with astonishing truths which to my knowledge were never revealed to the American public. We could have lost the war in Europe if Hitler and the Nazis had enough time to put into action a number of super weapons actually in existence in 1944. At every stage of the war with Germany we were up against far superior weapons mass produced by a country whose sole purpose was war. All of the top scientists in Germany were devoting their efforts to finding more efficient ways to kill people. It was an advantage the Nazis depended on to defeat the Allied armies who outnumbered them. As a German general put it, " this war is run on machines, oil and gasoline." War news as edited for consumption by the public can be likened to the bull fights in Spain. These fights are begun by Picadors on horseback sticking lances into the bull's shoulders and neck to weaken the muscles of the animal so it can't effectively defend itself by using it's deadly horns. The Picadors' horses have padded blankets over them giving the crowd the impression the horse is being protected from the bull's repeated charges and goring as the Picadors are driving their lances into the beast's muscles. Truth is, the padded blanket is for the benefit of the crowd so they don't see the terrible blood streaming wounds sustained by the horse. As I read other accounts of the war I was surprised to learn the Allies discovered a squadron of jet propelled bombers with pressurized cabins in Norway. These ultra modern bombers were capable of flying at 60.000 feet and bombing New York City. V3 intercontinental rockets were under construction to attack the East coast of America. Two super class submarines were also a reality rather than on the drawing board. Churchill's greatest fear could have happened if these super U boats had been operational