Rumors of war, and no pronunciation guide

By sheer coincidence, I've been spending a lot time researching the lead-up to the start of the Second World War, 70 years ago this morning. Reading through the papers and magazines of the time, it is hard not to feel a chill reading about how the world marched into the abyss, while America was content to look on with what almost feels like bemused concern. I came upon this thought from an editorial in The New York Times on Monday, August 21, 1939.

"Already we undergo a fresh baptism of consonants at news dispatches from Grunia, Lwow, and Bydgoszck, and worse may be yet to come. Any day now we may have to read of skirmishes at Mlawa and Piotrkow, turning movements at Wloclawek and Wlocklawa, and artillery duels at Bycloweszka and Czestowhowo. For all we know, there will even be retreats to Zgenz and Maciecjowice and a famous victory at Tecxynski, and by then the tongues of suffering millions will be tied in hard knots for life."