Tweeting The Second World War... In Real Time

Staffers at the National Archives in Kew are undertaking the mammoth task of Tweeting the events of the Second World War in real-time.

Belgian Ambassador complains British troops moving through Brussels which his government has declared an open city http://ow.ly/1L0yz11:50 AM May 14th via HootSuiteWar Cabinet
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Packing in several tweets per day, many with links back to archived Cabinet Paper documents from the era, the feed has been running since the turn of the year, with only a short, politically mandated break during Purdah. Currently, the German Blitzkrieg is overwhelming France and the Low Countries, and Britain is contemplating the "collapse" of its Gallic neighbour. Meanwhile, new Prime Minister Winston Churchill has authorised airstrikes along the Ruhr, but warns his cabinet that Britain can "expect to be hit in return".

British occupation of Iceland proceeding. Small force sent North to occupy aerodrome http://ow.ly/1LFps2:33 PM May 16th via HootSuiteWar Cabinet
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The frequency of the updates, and the sometimes mundane, sometimes critical developments they inform on, has the effect of painting detail into an era often depicted in broad brushstrokes and hindsight-laden truisms. The contemporary angle removes any notion that what happened during the War was inevitable; there's a palpable sense, particularly in mid-1940, before the United States was involved and pre-Barbarossa and the end of the Molotov-Ribbentrov pact, that Germany would succeed.

Cabinet meets for a second time. Chamberlain proposes near "totalitarian" powers for government in event of France's fall http://ow.ly/1MDRX11:50 AM May 14th via HootSuiteWar Cabinet
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Watch the war unfold at @UKWarCabinet.