OT: Alternate WW2 history acted out -- "If Day" in Winnipeg

[AlphaLackey]

I only bring this up because I recently did a Winnipeg Jets / They Might Be Giants themed Game Day Thread this year, and I'm like kicking myself for not noticing that in 2021, TMBG did one of their educational numbers in a song called "If Day In Winnipeg", which made absolutely no sense to me until I googled it up.

Did you all know that, in an effort to raise war bonds for Canada in the early 1940s during WW2, the government in Manitoba staged a one-day city-wide production of what a Nazi invasion of Canada would look like, with a mock German conquest of Winnipeg? It was called "If Day" and, after doing their due diligence to make sure these radio broadcasts and live performances didn't accidentally trigger a "War of the Worlds" type reaction that wasn't even five years old at the time, the faux Nazi invasion of Winnipeg was on.

From sending our provincial government officials to an internment camp at gunpoint, to teaching school students "Nazi truths" in classes that day, to actually flying the Swastika flag over Fort Garry, to "officially" renaming the city of Winnipeg to "Himmlerstadt" and renaming Main Street to "Hitlerstrasse", to having the occupying "Nazi soldiers" planning a strategic follow-up conquest of Brandon (lol, right?), they went all out, and they absolutely smashed their fundraising goals for war bonds.

Absolutely fascinating bit of history there. I love this city and I love our history, and I hadn't even heard of it until like a week ago.

If Day - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

EDIT: yes, I admit I'm laughing at late-WW2 Hitler cowering in his shellshocked bunker, finally getting one solitary military W, then telling his advisors with a trembling voice: "Today, it was Winnipeg.. tomorrow, we take.. BRANDON!"

Click to read more...

 

[SUX2BU]

Did they have pothole problems too?

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Did they have pothole problems too?

Potholes were verboten. Therefore there were none. Reporting a pothole would be an anti-Nazi lie and therefore subversion. Execution without trial.

 

[AlphaLackey]

Just imagine if that renaming had stuck? Fast forward to 2011: "legions of hockey fans gathered today at Portage and Hitler to celebrate the return of the Jets..."

 

[voyageur]

I never knew that either...I guess with so many men off to war a good theater production was necessary. My grandpa was in that war, and the book he gave my family to read was Farley Mowatt's My Father's Son. Conn Smythe is in that story, for reference.

 

[AlphaLackey]

I never knew that either...I guess with so many men off to war a good theater production was necessary. My grandpa was in that war, and the book he gave my family to read was Farley Mowatt's My Father's Son. Conn Smythe is in that story, for reference.

Right? You'd think that something so outrageous AND so successful would be, like, part of our folklore. Sure as shit will be part of my Winnipeg stories going forward. And both my granddads were involved in the war -- dad's side Pepere built ships in Quebec and mom's side grandfather was a telegraph operator with the RCAF. I suppose that's as good a reason as any to remember this day, for those men of renown we loved growing up

 

[WolfHouse]

Luckily they didnt have to rebrand any of the pagan imagery at the leg...

 

[SUX2BU]

Potholes were verboten. Therefore there were none. Reporting a pothole would be an anti-Nazi lie and therefore subversion. Execution without trial.

I forgot to put this in

 

[tbcwpg]

This channel is very good, by the way. The main part of it is a week by week real time summary of WW2, he also did a 4 year week by week project on WW1. They do little side stories like this as well.