World War II (also referred to as "the Second World War") was a global conflict lasting from 1939-45, and was referenced throughout the Highlander franchise.
Involvement of the Immortals[]
Numerous Immortals were involved in the events of the war, as well as their Watchers. A timeline of key events (organized by year) pertaining to both the Immortals and the Watcher organization, leading up to, and following, the outbreak of war in Europe:
1935
- Duncan MacLeod travels to Berlin on behalf of British Intelligence to monitor the rise of Nazism in Germany. There, he meets Ingrid Henning, an intellectual and fellow Immortal, and one evening at the Festhaus, MacLeod stops two S.A. brown shirts from beating a young Jewish boy to death.[1]
1936
- While secretly working as a smuggler in Berlin as part of his cover with British Intelligence, Duncan MacLeod helps a physicist escape the Nazis, while Amanda steals engraving plates for U.S. dollars during the same affair. He lets Amanda escape in the airplane in his place with the physicist, as the Nazis close in on them.[2]
1937
- Working as a newspaper reporter during the Spanish Civil War, Duncan MacLeod encounters fellow Immortal Kage, posing as a photographer during the Del Marino Bridge incident. Kage betrays the Republican forces for money, and Duncan’s mortal journalist colleague is killed in the attack.[3]
1938
- Duncan MacLeod and Alexei Voshin encounter one another in the Soviet Union and do battle, with MacLeod ultimately sparing Voshin’s life in exchange for his promise to help evacuate a group of Jewish refugees from Stalinist Russia, on the eve of World War II. He is betrayed by Voshin, who wants to kill the Highlander in revenge for their previous duel. All of the refugees are arrested by the KGB, and presumably imprisoned and/or killed.[4]
1940
- Mortal, David Leiner meets and becomes the lover of Immortal, Alex Raven, while she is in Poland during the war.[5]
- Anton Legris joins the French Army as a soldier against Nazi Germany during World War II.[6]
- Marjolaine LaMerc fights in the French Resistance movement, in addition to her later duties as Duncan MacLeod’s Watcher. During this time, she also valiantly helps in the safeguarding and restoration of Chronicles and artifacts from the onslaught of the Nazis.[7]
- 2 October – The Watchers’ London Area HQ is destroyed by German bombing during the Blitz; the many casualties include Area Supervisor Andrew Gaylor (Duncan MacLeod’s former Watcher). However, the majority of the Chronicles and artifacts from the London HQ had recently been evacuated to safer facilities in Cornwall.[8]
- 13 October – Duncan is in London during the Blitz, where he gets involved with Diane Terrin, a mortal CBS news reporter. Diane is killed during a Nazi bombing raid on the city, while trapped with Duncan beneath some wreckage. Afterward, MacLeod uses the resources of British Intelligence and the influence of Lord Sewell to transplant Diane’s remains to the mountain of Gothic in Colorado, for interment.[9]
- 14 November – A depletion of Watcher personnel in the Greater London area, and the heavy influx of Immortals participating in the Second World War, causes the “Reservist Proviso” to be activated by Acting Supervisor, Michael Hedley, requiring all retired-but-able-bodied Watchers to report for active duty.[10]
1941
- 2 April – Watcher Didier Cloque is randomly picked up by Nazi occupational forces while walking towards his home in Paris, and shot along with nine other French citizens.[11]
- October – Jane Owen is recruited into the Watchers by Michael Hedley, and is placed in charge of observing Connie Richland, freeing up Richland’s more experienced Watcher for a more demanding assignment elsewhere.[12]
1942
- Duncan MacLeod serves in the French Resistance in the Paris region starting around this time.[13]
- While storming the beaches at Iwo Jima, Howard Crowley is killed, and returns to life as an Immortal.[14]
- 25 July – Duncan MacLeod is shot by German soldiers during the beginning of the expulsion of the Warsaw Ghetto, along with Alex Raven. Max Leiner learns of the existence of the Immortals after witnessing Alex’s revival. With Raven’s help, Leiner escapes with Warsaw Ghetto with his father’s financial records, and makes it to London, England.[15]
1943
- Duncan MacLeod participates in the imprisonment of Immortal Nazi Ernst Daimler at the bottom of the Seine, aided by the young Bernard Sidos. Daimler will rest in the Seine for the next 52 years before working himself free. Daimler is stricken from the Watchers’ roster of active Immortals, as a result of his imprisonment.[16] [17]
- Connor MacLeod is shot down by the Nazis during an air raid over occupied Holland. He then finds the orphaned nine-year-old Jewish refugee girl Rachel Ellenstein hiding in the middle of a Dutch town destroyed by a raging battle, and takes her with him to safety, allowing Rachel to flee the Holocaust. He returns to New York City to raise Rachel as his adopted daughter.[18] [19]
- Alex Raven pleads with her mortal lover David Leiner to escape the Warsaw Ghetto, but Leiner refuses to risk his son Max’s life in an escape attempt. Leiner later entrusts Max with the details of his financial transactions in the event he doesn’t survive.[20]
- April – Watcher, Mordecai Weisel, is captured by the Nazis while in Warsaw, Poland, and later presumably murdered. His papers will be discovered decades later, concealed in milk cans in the ruins of the old Warsaw Ghetto.[21]
- 18 April - 8 May – Duncan MacLeod takes part in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, alongside Avram ben Mordecai, presumably after having journeyed back from Nazi-occupied Paris.[22]
1944
- 18 July – Duncan MacLeod and Ingrid Henning meet with German Oberst (colonel) Klaus von Stauffenberg in a public beer hall to go over their plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler and end the war. They are observed by MacLeod’s Watcher, Wolfgang von Klausner, who weighs his Watcher oath against turning all of the conspirators in for their crimes. Ultimately, he chooses not to act, forever changing the course of history.[23] [24]
- 20 July – “Operation Valkyrie” is put into action; it fails. Duncan MacLeod and Ingrid Henning both participate in the planting of a bomb in Adolf Hitler’s bunker; Henning hesitates when given the opportunity to shoot Hitler. The two Immortals barely manage to escape the scene, while Colonel von Stauffenberg is later executed for his role in the conspiracy.[25] [26]
- Connor MacLeod serves as a soldier in a U.S. Army platoon, under Sergeant W.W. Hicks, approximately around this time. During a battle against Nazi forces in Europe, his unit suffers a massive mortar attack, where many men perish, including his unit's chaplain, Capt. Dale Stark.[27] [28]
- Watcher Marjolaine LaMerc completes her service to the French Resistance in this year, presumably due to aftermath of the successful Allied invasion of Normandy.[29]
References[]
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