The Eastern Front of WW2 remains one of the largest bloodbaths in the entire history of humanity. More than 30 million individuals are estimated to have lost their lives in the period between June 1941 and April 1945. Of these, around 10 million were combat related deaths, the rest being civilians.

Additionally, another 50 to 100 million are estimated to have been wounded during the severe fighting on this somewhat forgotten front.

I-16 airplanes lie destroyed as the result of German Blitzkreig

Destroyed Russian tank with crew caught trying to escape. Notice penetrating hits on hull & turret.

Pz3 races to action

Goebbels announced to the German populace that war has been declared on the Soviet Union.

German troops, likely of the Sixth Army surrender en-masse to Soviet troops during the defense and subsequent encirclement of Stalingrad.

German anti-tank cannon engages Soviet T34 tank at extreme long range.

Dead bodies freeze in place during the Siege of Leningrad

A child falls victim to the Siege of Leningrad

A young Russian poses for a photo before heading out to the frontier.

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During the late 50s and early 60s, communist China undertook what on the surface appeared to be a relatively benign ecological program to kill pests.

It was called “The four pests” campaign. The goal was to eradicate 4 pests in China that Mao Zedong considered to be an enemy of the people. These four pests were : The mosquito which spread milaria, the rat which spread plague, the fly which spread other diseases and the sparrow which ate the grain of the peasants.

Out of these four, only one campaign was totally effective in its goal of eradicating its pest : The Eurasian Tree  Sparrow.

The Great Sparrow Campaign also known as the Kill a Sparrow Campaign, and officially, the Four Pests Campaign was one of the first actions taken in the Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1962.

The programs overall were extraordinarily effective as it gave the people a purpose with their free time. People got caught up in the cult of communist worship and were able to kill millions of birds in short order.

The masses of China were mobilized to eradicate the birds, and citizens took to banging pots and pans or beating drums to scare the birds from landing, forcing them to fly until they fell from the sky in exhaustion. Sparrow nests were torn down, eggs were broken, and nestlings were killed. Sparrows and other birds were shot down from the sky, resulting in the near-extinction of the birds in China.

By 1960, peasants and labor were celebrating that they had followed the government’s desires and killed all the birds. Unbeknownst to them, they had created one of the worst disasters in history.

By killing sparrows, they eliminated the primary enemy predator of the locust. Without any natural predator the locust, the local populations thrived. Grain production in most rural areas collapsed and a massive famine began.

The resulting massive famine in China killed by some estimates, 20 million people total. The government quickly rushed in to cover up their massive mistake and replaced the sparrow with bedbugs as a threat. It took till 1978 for scholarly works to be done that were able to assess the massive losses of life due to the government’s program.

Source of loss and research into famine.

46 years ago on July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon.

In the midst of the iconic “One Small Leap for Mankind” speech that Armstrong gave while walking for the first time on the moon, a different kind of record was going on inside of the lunar module. Instead of walking outside of the capsule first, Buzz Aldrin stayed inside as the Lunar Module pilot, and achieved a different kind of first: eating the first meal on the moon.

What makes this piece of history interesting is not only that we, in fact, know what the first meal taken by humankind on another planetary body is, but what was actually consumed.

Rather than feed himself a standard zero-gravity meal, or something more akin to the fare afforded to Earthlings inside a gravity well, he opted for something hugely contrasting: he took communion. 

Despite the feelings of some opting to pit religion against science, Mr. Aldrin chose to combine man’s most incredible feat – landing on the moon – with one of man’s most ancient rituals.

As per Buzz Aldrin:

In a little while after our scheduled meal period, Neil would give the signal to step down the ladder onto the powdery surface of the moon. Now was the moment for communion.

So I unstowed the elements in their flight packets. I put them and the scripture reading on the little table in front of the abort guidance system computer.

Then I called back to Houston.

“Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM Pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours and to invite each person listening, wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his own individual way.”

…

In the radio blackout I opened the little plastic packages which contained bread and wine.

I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.

Theologically, there has been great debate about what Buzz did in space. Some Christians believe that communion is something that only priests can perform, while others believe that it is very important for the act to be done in the presence of others – much like when Jesus broke bread with the disciples in the Gospels.

Picture: Buzz Aldrin’s hand-written notes on the event, and a passage from the Gospel of John

What makes the argument interesting is that Buzz Aldrin happened to be a Presbyterian Elder at Webster Presbyterian Church in Webster, Texas. Therefore, he was allowed (as per Presbyterian policy) to perform the communion. Additionally, since he was technically the only person in the Lunar Module, he could have been considered a “Shut In”, which is the only given example of when it is theologically applicable to perform communion by ones’ self.

Regardless of your religious leanings, what Buzz did is an interesting achievement:  bringing religion to space. But it begs some further questions on Christianity in space: Who actually leads Christianity in the heavens?

Muslims only answered the question in 2014 by issuing a fatwa concerning prayer towards Mecca. But for Catholics, the answer was already known before any man or even animal entered space. In fact, the Catholic Church already had discussed which Bishop would preside over the moon in the early 1900’s.

Currently, the Bishop of Orlando is the reigning “Moon Priest”, or space pope if you will. The decree was established many years prior defining that any vessel traveling from a port of call would be under the authority of the Bishop of the said port of call. In the case of NASA and Cape Canaveral, it would be the aforementioned Bishop of Orlando. One wonders, though, how that will change and evolve as more and more people go into space, and one day, live there as well. Will Christianity or religion survive in space? Its impossible to know, but for Mr. Aldrin, the very foundations of lunar exploration by humanity were rooted in appreciation towards God and religion.

In 1942, a local boy found a bear cub near Hamadan, Iran, whose mother had been shot. He sold it to Irena Bokiewicz, a young Polish refugee who had left Poland due to world war 2. Irena was walking across the Elbruz mountains as she in an attempt to escape the Soviet Union pogroms in her hometown. When the bear became too big she donated him to the Polish Army. Eventually, Wojtek made it to the rank of Corporal while in the Polish 22nd transport company.

This is the journey of a very special bear.

Wojtek (Voytek) was a bear cub found in Iran in 1942 and adopted by soldiers of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps

Soldiers fed him with condensed milk from an emptied vodka bottle. The bear was subsequently fed with fruit, marmalade, honey and syrup, and often rewarded with beer, which became his favorite drink. He also enjoyed smoking and eating cigarettes.

Over the long journey from Iran to Palestine, the bear quickly became the unofficial mascot of the 22nd company. The bear would sit around the campfire with the men, eating, drinking, and sleeping in the tents with the rest of the soldiers.

He enjoyed wrestling (obviously, no one had any chance with him) and was taught to salute when greeted.

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