A Bomb's foreigners behind bared wire

Allied America was not terribly different from Axis Germany when it came to employing hands and brains from dozens of foreign lands, often behind barbed wire fences, to do the heavy lifting for a super weapon they then had the chutzpah to claim as fully their own.

The atomic bomb project represented one vision of the future of world, one where the many labour so the few can benefit : think of it as country club Manhattan.

Big Tent Manhattan

Dr Henry Dawson also invited the small and the many in to labour on his Manhattan project as well.

But in this case, he worked to ensure that the benefits of that project (natural lifesaving penicillin) went as well to the small and the many, not just to the few that the Allies had originally intended it for.

His vision was of a world consisting of 'coalition of all possible talents' working to benefit all : think of it as Big Tent Manhattan.

So did Janus Manhattan's 1945 beacon shine dividedly forth to a tired and huddled world.

What, in the end, was that beacon to reveal : a vision of a Big Tent for all, be they powerless or powerful ----- or a vision of an exclusive country club, just the powerful ?

Dying Boomers, of WWII : Rosemary Clarke of Chiswick for example

Wernher Von Braun : I aim for the Stars - but sometimes I just hit little kiddies

Poor little Boomer Rosemary Clarke was only three years old when the very first V2 to kill its targeted victims fell on Staveley Street, Chiswick London.

It happened precisely at 6:44 pm on September 8th 1944 - marking the tragic start to today's much celebrated Space Age.

(Chiswick in my old stomping ground of West London and so I must have passed by this street a half dozen times.

But in 1970-1972 when I lived in the area for a total of almost a year, exploring most of it on foot, there were no signs of wartime damage left and seemingly no plaques up marking the spots of the worst tragedies.)

Rosemary was born in 1941, thus she is definitely part of the millions of baby boomers born during WWII  but because she and hundreds of thousands like her died during the war or in its immediate aftermath, she is not part of my postwar transitional generation of youngsters.

Boomer kid first victim of the Space Age

Her slightly older brother saw her lifeless body totally unmarked, for she had died from loss of oxygen from the direct effects of the massive rocket blast.

She probably didn't suffer - but many other little boomers-to-be did .

They starved and froze to death slowly as 1944 -1947 Europe had far too little food or fuel or good housing to go around and vulnerable young ones and the elderly were, as always, the worst hit.

Historical accuracy demands we bring these sad facts forward to temper the widespread view of boomer kids all having it free and easy.

If only that was so - if only that will ever be so ....