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The Eva Braun story: Behind every evil man…
[2006-03-12] [independent]
She was a good Catholic girl. Her ordinariness was her defining quality. So why did she devote herself to Adolf Hitler? As a major new biography is published, Frances Wilson looks at her strange life - and death. It wasn’t much of a wedding; just the bride and groom and a few of his colleagues. Appropriately for a workaholic, the ceremony was held in his office without ceremony, but there was plenty of champagne in the store, so they drank a hearty toast to the bride. She would have preferred to wear a different dress of course, so it was all a bit disappointing, but she wasn’t going to let silly things ruin the moment she had waited 15 years for.
Special tribute to Swazi Army - Swazi Unit at Anzio
[2006-03-12] [observer]
The Swazi contingent that fought on the side of the Allies during the WW2 last weekend received an unexpected accolade when it was remembered in the South African broadsheet ‘The Sunday Times’, 62 years after the war. Headlined ‘Swazi Unit at Anzio’ the paper wrote in 1944, about the exuberance our lads carried themselves about as they did their bit for the Empire. Excerpt: ‘The only African natives in the Anzio (Italy) beachhead are members of a Swazi smoke company that landed on January 21 and also participated in the landing at Salerno (Italy) last year.
The Brilliance of the Lend-Lease Act
[2006-03-12] [americanheritage]
65 years ago today the US Congress passed a bill that altered the course of the Second World War. By a vote of 60 to 31 in the Senate and 317 to 17 in the House of Representatives, Congress Passed HR 1776, “A Bill Further to promote the defense of the US, and for other purposes”—the Lend-Lease Act. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was authorized to “sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, [or] lend” arms and other equipment to countries whose well-being he judged “vital to the defense of the US.” By the end of the war, the Lend-Lease Administration provided more than $50 billion in aid to 50 allies. In 1941 approximately 1% of British arms were obtained through Lend-Lease. Over the course of the war that number leaped to a remarkable 17%.
D-Day training beach remembered
[2006-03-11] [walb]
More than 250,000 US troops trained for the D-Day invasion just 60 miles south of Tallahassee. This weekend they’ll celebrate the 61st anniversary of that training. And for many of them, it’s an emotional trip back in time. Each year the group of Veternas that return to the amphibious soldier camp shrinks but the stories of those soldiers only grow. “We’d get in these boats and go out to Dog Island, make invasions of Dog Island, and one time you may have noticed, 16 men from our batallion drowned,” said Martin Kruse.
The only Filipino soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor
[2006-03-11] [thenewstoday]
During WWII, the only Filipino soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor was Sgt. Jose Calugas. His award reads: “For conspicuous gallantry and interpidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy at Culis, Bataan Province, Philippine Islands. When the battery gun position was shelled and bombed until one piece was out of action and casualties caused the removal of the remaining canoneers to shelter, Sergeant Calugas, voluntarily and on his own accord proceeded 1,000 yards across the shell-swept area to the gun position and joined the volunteer gun squad which fired effectively on the enemy.”
Gathering of Mustangs and Legends — the Final Roundup
[2006-03-11] [dispatch]
Rickenbacker Airport is attempting to land a historic gathering of P-51 Mustang fighter planes and pilots for 2007. The show is significant, because of the aircraft’s popularity and because it could be the last major gathering of P-51 pilots from WWII. P-51 Mustangs were the aircraft of choice to escort American bombers during World War II. The show would be called “Gathering of Mustangs and Legends — the Final Roundup.”
A convoy under air attack
[2006-03-11] [tribune-democrat]
Retired Army Capt. W.W. Wilkins Jr. is on a mission to win the Bronze Star for retired Cpl. James F. Weyandt, an ambulance driver. A convoy – part of the 4th Armored Division of the 3rd U.S. Army under Gen. George Patton – was strafed several times by a German plane, which then dropped anti-personnel bombs that rained down shrapnel. “They explode in the air, there are no foxholes there, so you’d just lay down. Many guys got hit in the back.” Weyandt loaded two men on stretchers into his ambulance and helped 7 men who could sit up. Weyandt drove off to the nearest field hospital. The ambulance drew fire on a road through enemy territory. Three times, the vehicle came under rifle fire. Then, a German plane zeroed in on the lone ambulance…
A battle plan that made the Germany the focus of the Allied airpower
[2006-03-11] [dcmilitary]
On March 6, 1942, Lt. Gen. Henry H. Arnold had won approval for a battle plan that made the European theater the focus of the majority of Allied airpower, with minimal airpower in the Pacific theater. 3 days later, the Army released Circular 59, War Department Reorganization. The plan streamlined the Army’s resources into three major commands, defining the Army Air Forces as an autonomous command within the Army. The technology gap between “us” and “them” had never been so pronounced as during the Nazi Luftwaffe’s siege of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
What happened to the British led anti-Nazi resistance in Hungary
[2006-03-11] [prweb]
“Sword of the Turul,” by Catherine Eva Schandl, tells the true story of how the British-led anti-Nazi resistance in Hungary was secretly imprisoned by the NKVD and abandoned by the British intelligence service after WWII. The only thing missing from the book is names. The author is now disclosing the real names of: the Hungarian leader of her father Karoly’s resistance group, one of the group members who also ended up in Vladimir prison, and the arrested Dutch lieutenant who was working for Raoul Wallenberg.
Second Marine Division Were Warriors
[2006-03-10] [virginiamn]
Bob Cary remembers their wartime stories of weathering artillery fire and howling bombs, of antics activated in the name of survival, and the firm friendships formed among the fearless fighters. Once his battalion was overlooked for food supplies: There was no way to requisition supplies through the Army, so Cary was recruited to devise a solution. With two trucks, smeared with mud to hide their identity, Marines set out on their looting mission. Approaching the supply docks, Cary improvised, stating they were with the 33rd Engineers. The trucks were soon filled with canned beef, corn, beans and peaches.
Nazi Govt. Wanted to Deport Jews to Soviet Union
[2006-03-10] [mosnews]
A document found in a Moscow archive suggests that the Soviet leadership rejected a Nazi proposal to deport Jews to the Soviet Union. The letter discusses a German proposal - maybe written by Adolf Eichmann and Alois Brunner - to move more than 2 million Jews to the Soviet Union. But the Soviet leadership rejected almost immediately the idea: “We cannot take these Jews. We have an awful lot of our own already,” Chekmenyov wrote in the letter to Molotov. Nazi officials had also proposed other ways of evicting Jews, such as deporting them en masse to the island of Madagascar, as a territorial solution to what the Nazis referred to as the “Jewish question”.
MI5 saved goddaughter of the late king George V from jail
[2006-03-09] [bbc]
MI5 documents now reveal Dowager Viscountess Dorothy Downe had her mail intercepted at her home but was not interned. She was noted in official files as a “most fanatical admirer of Hitler” but not involved in pro-Nazi propaganda. However, unlike some other fascist aristocrats, she avoided jail. The newly released file records that Lady Downe was also said to have “for some time almost entirely supported the National Fascists out of her own pocket”.
Neil Lambell flew in the most successful Lancaster during WW2
[2006-03-09] [yourguide]
There were only 35 Lancasters out of 6500 that were successful in achieving 100 or more operational missions. The most successful plane was Lancaster ED888, which achieved 140 ops. ED888 arrived at 103 Squadron’s base and began operations on May 4, 1943. The Lancaster became known as “Mother Of Them All”. Neil was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallant service. On one occasion during an attack on Berlin he was hit on the face by a piece of shrapnel whilst making his bombing run, but undeterred, he released his bombs at the correct time.
Pilot asked me if I would go on a secret mission with him
[2006-03-09] [sun-herald]
“The major asked me if I would go on a secret mission with him,” Sgt. Pete Chisholm recalls. When we were airborne, the major told we were flying into Burma to pick up Merrill’s Marauders. We landed our C-47 on a “awfully short” bamboo runway. The minute we landed the major said, “Pete, get those Marauders in here! They’re out there in the bushes.” I hollered for them to come out. Nothing! Finally I called them every name I could think of, and they came out of the tall grass and climbed aboard. We weren’t off the ground when we reached the end of the bamboo runway - but the major kept right on flying through the bamboo until we were off the ground. “That was when my trouble really began…”
Plaque To the only German air raid on Londonderry
[2006-03-09] [Century Newspapers ]
The victims of the only German air raid on Londonderry are to be commemorated with a memorial plaque. While Belfast was blitzed by Nazi bombers, causing widespread death and destruction, only once was Londonderry targeted by the Luftwaffe, even though it had been a strategic sea and air base. On April 15, 1941, two parachute mines were dropped from a single German bomber, aimed at the ship repair base on the River Foyle. No-one was hurt when one of the bombs fell near St Patrick’s Church, but the second landed on nearby Messines Park, killing 13 people and injuring 33.
Exhibit will feature vintage posters from World War II
[2006-03-09] [wtrf]
A new exhibit from the Smithsonian Institute featuring home front posters is about to make its way to Elkins. The poster exhibit, titled “Produce For Victory” is only one part of the traveling exhibit. It will feature vintage posters like the now classic “Buy War Bonds” posters seen so much throughout the war. Before the exhibit arrives in November, the Smithsonian is looking for folks who have local WWII memorabilia to display along side the posters.
Auschwitz escapee and leader of Belgian Resistance - William Herskovic
[2006-03-08] [ap]
William Herskovic escaped from Auschwitz and helped inspire Belgium’s resistance to the Nazis during the Second World War. Three months after being sent to Auschwitz, Herskovic escaped by cutting through a chain-link fence with two other prisoners. The three hopped a train to Breslau, but a local rabbi threw them out when they tried to tell him about the horrors at Auschwitz. In his prewar home of Antwerp, Herskovic delivered one of the earliest firsthand accounts of the atrocities of the Holocaust. The resistance swiftly mobilized, placing bricks on railway tracks to stop a train bound for the camps.
The French Croix de Guerre and a Purple Heart with 4 clusters
[2006-03-08] [chieftain]
His heroism in France brought him the French Legion of Honor. Pete Jimenez was a squad leader in the 29th Infantry Division, going ashore on D-Day at Omaha Beach. Among his decorations were the French Croix de Guerre, the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart with 4 clusters - signifying the 5 times he was wounded in combat. Sept. 17, 1944, he led a small squad of GIs to try and recover some American soldiers who were taken prisoner near Brest. Fighting off several counter-attacks by German infantry units, his small group found themselves in a heavy firefight with German soldiers entrenched in a subway tunnel.
Letters Offer Glimpse of Life in Nazi Labor Camps
[2006-03-08] [npr]
The New York Public Library opened an exhibit of 300 Holocaust-era letters saved by Sala Garncarz, a Jewish woman who spent 5 years in the labor camps. Garncarz was interned in 7 different Nazi labor camps between 1940 and 1945. Although conditions at labor camps were often harsh laborers could sometimes receive mail. Over the next 5 years she kept every piece of mail she received, more than 300 letters, postcards, drawings and photographs. These letters are more than a family’s chronicle of survival: They document a vast network of Nazi slave labor camps.
British POW death march is marked by heritage trail
[2006-03-07] [telegraph]
One of the most brutal episodes of the Second World War, the Sandakan death march in Borneo, has been commemorated with a heritage trail. Tourists will be able to trek the same route taken by the POWs, who were forced to walk 155 miles. The Japanese soldiers guarding the ragged column were ordered to execute all those who faltered. Even those who made it were not safe. They were later shot by Japanese commanders who wanted to cover up the atrocities. Some were executed 12 days after the war had officially ended. Of the 2,434 British and Australian POWs, only 6 escaped, all Australian.
Museum acquired a rare M-36 Jackson tank destroyer
[2006-03-07] [newstimeslive]
Tank destroyers were meant to combat the big-gunned, heavily armored German Tigers and Panthers that “badly outclassed” the American Sherman tanks during the war. They were basically fast, lightly protected gun platforms firing shells that could penetrate the German armor. Their survival — and that of their crews — depended on speed and elusiveness, rather than heavy armor. Only about 1,500 M-36s were manufactured, and they reached the front in 1944, replacing older, smaller tank destroyers like the M-10 Wolverine and M-18 Bearcat.
The ten lessons of Winston Churchill
[2006-03-07] [msnbc]
In May of 1940, the same day Hitler’s panzers began their blitz across Europe, Churchill became prime minister. With Holland, Denmark, and Belgium quickly overrun and France, England’s last fighting ally, about to sign an armistice, with a quarter of a million British troops, the country’s entire army, stranded at the French port city of Dunkirk, Churchill refused to quit. “Of course, whatever happens in Dunkirk,” he told his cabinet, “we shall fight on.”
Berlin: Nazi rallying with giant swastika banners
[2006-03-07] [spiegel]
An alarming sight in Berlin: The city’s central “Lustgarten” square transformed into a Nazi rallying ground complete with giant swastika banners and a ranting Führer. But Germany’s first comedy film about Hitler was bound to break taboos. Tourists stared open-mouthed at the scene in central Berlin: huge red banners bearing the Nazi swastika fluttering in the winter sun outside the city’s cathedral, Wehrmacht soldiers in their steel helmets standing guard between the imposing pillars of the Old Museum and a crowd of hundreds cheering their Führer with enthusiastic Hitler salutes and chants of “Sieg Heil!”
27th Air Transport Group - goods to the battle front
[2006-03-07] [jacksonholestartrib]
Joseph W. (Bill) Stevens was assigned to the 27th Air Transport Group. A primary duty was ferrying goods to the battle front, gasoline for Patton’s tanks, ammunition, and other goods. Return flights were usually filled with wounded headed. Most flights were uneventful - one wasn’t. They were descending through a layer of clouds when they were hit by flak. One engine was damaged, the throttle and prop control were useless. A burst hit one wing just outboard of a fuel tank. Others hit the fuselage. The only passenger, a Frenchman was systematically destroying the documents he was carrying as the crew struggled to keep the aircraft flying.
The pencil “too slow” to ridicule Hitler
[2006-03-07] [calendarlive]
John Heartfield found the pencil “too slow” to ridicule Hitler, so he made his point with photo montages, as illustrated in a Getty show. In his effort to secure power, Adolf Hitler engaged in a fierce propaganda war. He not only had a minister of propaganda, the notorious Joseph Goebbels. He also had some shiny new tools at his disposal: public radio broadcasts and the new wide-circulation, photographically illustrated magazines. Hitler’s opponents had a powerful weapon too, and his name was John Heartfield, who’s most searing works were the 237 photomontages he made for the magazine Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung (Workers Illustrated News).
P-51 Mustang in WWII as a bomber escort
[2006-03-07] [centralohio]
They called it a search and destroy mission, the perfect way for a P-51 fighter pilot to wrap up a day’s work over Nazi Germany. “It was a plane that changed the whole course of the war,” George Valentine said. Until the Mustang appeared, American bomber crews were on their own during missions over the Third Reich. But the Mustang was the fighter plane that could go all the way with them and fend off enemy fighter attacks. Until jet fighters made their appearance at the very end of WWII, the Mustang was the fastest, nastiest thing in the air.
Pearl Harbor attack a strategic failure for Japan
[2006-03-06] [news-record]
Japan’s two-year “window of opportunity” resulted in its decision to go to war in the Pacific. Japan needed resources to become the world power, and the resources in the south were too great a magnet. The only power that could oppose it was the US. So strategic plan was formed: With a massive first strike, Japan would destroy the US Navy based at Pearl Harbor. The battle plan: In late Nov 1941 sail a huge Imperial Japanese Navy fleet across the northern Pacific. When the fleet was 200 miles north of Hawaii, aircraft carrier planes would be sent out to bomb the US naval base, sinking as many of the ships as possible.
Prince Philip talks frankly about his family’s links with the Nazis
[2006-03-06] [dailymail]
Prince Philip has broken a 60-year public silence about his family’s links with the Nazis. He said they found Hitler’s attempts to restore Germany’s power ‘attractive’ and admitted they had ‘inhibitions about the Jews’. The revelations come in a book about German royalty kowtowing to the Nazis, which features photographs never published in the UK. They include one of Philip at the 1937 funeral, flanked by relatives in SS and Brownshirt uniforms. Another one shows his sister Sophia sitting opposite Hitler at the wedding of Hermann and Emmy Goering. “There was a lot of enthusiasm for the Nazis, the economy was good, we were anti-Communist and who knew what was going to happen to the regime?”
WWII airman lost over Himalayas
[2006-03-06] [thenewstribune]
Gerard Rugers Jr was a 24-year-old radio operator in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He flew the treacherous Hump missions over the Himalayas that between 1942 and 1945 would claim more than 1,000 U.S. fliers. Rugers had been missing and presumed dead since March 27, 1944. His remains were identified after a U.S. military forensics team trekked to the long-hidden crash site along the Tibetan frontier. Rugers’ long journey home began when the Chinese government sent a team to investigate villagers’ reports of a crash site on Meiduobai Mountain in Tibet. The team found wreckage of a U.S. C-46 Commando, tail number 124688.
From bombs to bronze, WWII veteran tells of his Army life
[2006-03-06] [insidebayarea]
Aubrey “Bob” Jolly managed to save 22 lives while serving in Italy. A member of the 109th Engineer Battalion, Jolly specialized in clearing minefields, and building and blowing up bridges. A newly appointed lieutenant sent a squad through the wrong road. Accompanied with 3 trucks loaded with 200 pounds of TNT and anti-tank mines, Jolly and his squad were engaged by enemy fire and were forced out of the trucks to take cover. If hit, each truck carried the potential to kill everyone nearby. Realizing the soldiers were too close to the explosive-laden trucks, Jolly ran toward the vehicles dodging bullets, got inside each truck and drove them 350 yards away.
Descendant of Goering converts to Judaism
[2006-03-06] [independent]
“I used to feel cursed by my name. Now I feel blessed”, said physiotherapist Matthias Goering, a descendant of Hermann Goering. He says he did not have a happy childhood. His great-grandfather and Hermann’s grandfather were brothers, and that was enough to ensure problems after the fall of the Third Reich. His father, a military doctor, was a Soviet POW, but returned with his anti-Semitic views intact. “When times were hard our parents would say to us, ‘You can’t have that, because all our money’s gone to the Jews.’” Other descendants of Nazis have trodden the same path. Katrin Himmler, who’s uncle was the SS commander Heinrich Himmler, married an Israeli.
The only Gestapo spy to evade capture in Britain in WWII
[2006-03-05] [ap]
The only German spy to evade capture in Britain first surfaced in London in 1940 and set off a panicked search amid fears he was an advance man for a Nazi invasion, security service documents show. Wilhelm Morz had operated first in Czechoslovakia, followed by Holland, and both countries fell to German forces not long after he vanished. Then in June 1940 he was spotted in Britain for the first time. The Security Service began a frenzied hunt for Morz. “He is in fact one of the cleverest secret agents the Gestapo has,” a Sept 1940 document says.
The Nazi bid to poison Shetland
[2006-03-05] [scotsman]
British secret service documents reveal that Hitler wanted to introduce lethal bacteria to Shetland. The plot began in Jan 1943 when 3 exhausted Norwegians staggered ashore from Nazi-occupied Norway. Alarm bells rang when MI5 intercepted a German signal saying the boat had left Norway on a mission for German intelligence. Captain Lieutenant Klein, the new head of German intelligence in Trondheim had ordered the Reidar to be sent as a “feeler”. MI5 discovered that if the Reidar trip succeeded, spies would be sent on subsequent journeys “and these would also be equipped with the necessary material for spreading bacteria in this country”.
German-born Jewish refugees trained for a very special mission
[2006-03-05] [Contra Costa Times]
During WW II German-born Jewish refugees were recruited and trained by U.S. forces for a very special mission. Their objective? Going behind enemy lines to wage an intellectual and psychological battle in the hopes of stopping the senselessly brutal bloodshed. They were called the Ritchie Boys. What must it have been like for these German-born Jews to return to Germany to fight against the very people who persecuted them? “You know, it really didn’t mean much anymore,” was Habermann’s quiet but emphatic response. “I was no longer a German. The Nazis had told me so either get out or get killed.”
The Spitfire - Tribute To Warplane That Saved Britain
[2006-03-05] [thisisbristol]
An aviation expert has published a new book which pays tribute to Britain’s most famous warplane - the Spitfire. The fighter aircraft which helped to change the course of the WWII celebrates the 70th anniversary of its first flight. Peter R March’s book is a picture-led account of the history of the Spitfire - from its first flight to its role in the war. When it first flew at Southampton 70 years ago, the Air Defence ministry ordered 310 aircraft straightaway. It meant the plane could go into production in time to be operational for the WWII. Without it, the outcome of the WWII would undoubtedly have been different.
Secret files reveal WW2 problem of Nazi nobles
[2006-03-05] [scotlandonsunday]
Newly-released papers show the scale of suspicion and fear around the British High Command during the Second World War. It has emerged that intelligence chiefs faced a dilemma over how many aristocrats with Nazi sympathies they should arrest, amid fears that interning too many would inflate their importance. MI5 spied on a god-daughter of the late King George V, Dowager Viscountess Dorothy Downe, noting her as a “most fanatical admirer of Hitler” and intercepting her mail.
The Complete Correspondence of Franklin D Roosevelt and Joseph V Stalin
[2006-03-05] [guardian]
Joseph Stalin did not like to travel, a trip to his dacha outside Moscow, was about as far as he was willing to venture. But, in his wartime letters to Franklin D Roosevelt, Stalin gave the impression that he was constantly on the move. “I have frequently to go to the different parts of the front,” he wrote in August 1943, fully two years after his last such expedition. There could be no clearer indicator of the failure of the industrialisation of the Soviet Union than its inability to produce even the basic requirements for war. By winter 1941 lacked even the leather for the soles of its boots.
Female racing ace hoarded pictures of Hitler
[2006-03-05] [independent]
The celebrated female racing driver Fay Taylour hoarded a cache of pictures of Adolf Hitler during a 3-year prison spell in the WW2, British Security Service files have revealed. In a letter to a friend, the Irish-born driver said: “I love Nazi Germany and the German people and their leader and this war seems terribly unfair.” A memo from the detention camp authorities, revealed the extent of her devotion to the Nazi cause. It said: “She is in the habit of hoarding pictures of Hitler and had in her possession a hymn in which his name was substituted for God’s.”
Auschwitz photographer worked with Dr. Josef Mengele
[2006-03-05] [ap]
Brasse was sent to Auschwitz as a political prisoner for trying to sneak out of German-occupied Poland. Because he had worked in a photography studio, he was put to work in the photography and identification department. One day in 1943 his boss, an SS officer Bernhard Walter, called him into his office. An immaculately uniformed SS officer was waiting. The stranger politely addressed Brasse as “sir.” It was Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous camp doctor and practitioner of cruel medical experiments. He said that he was going to send some Jewish girls for pictures, and that I had to take pictures of them naked. For years afterward Brasse saw them in his dreams: emaciated Jewish girls, herded naked in front of his camera. Eventually, his dreams stopped. But he never took pictures again.
Former P.O.W. reveals nasty side of the French Resistance
[2006-03-05] [standard-journal]
Canadian Jack Fairweather temporary worked with the French Resistance, earning one of France’s highest honors. He was part of the June 6 D-day landing in Normandy. On the second day he was taken as a POW. Train transfering him was bombed by the Allies, he wasn’t hurt, but the explosion allowed him to escape. He was picked up by French resistance fighters after the escape. “The leader of the group was an outlaw of sorts named Lecoz. The guy was pretty much out for himself. Anyone that got in his way he’d have them either executed or beaten to death.” While with the group, Fairweather helped to liberate the small French town of Loshes. Once the town was liberated, Lecoz rounded up many of the residents and executed them for no reason other than he found them undesirables.
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