Hitler's Third Reich and World War II in the News is a daily edited review of WWII articles - including German WW2 militaria - providing thought-provoking collection of hand-picked WW2 information.

The Liberators: America's Witnesses to the Holocaust by Michael Hirsh (WWII book review)     washingtonpost.com :: 2010-03-14 :: Nazi Death Camps: Hitler's Horror
What many of them remember most was the smell: burnt and decaying flesh - "the first thing you encounter and the last thing you forget," says a GI who was at Buchenwald. The American servicemen who walked into the Nazi death camps near the end of World War Two saw a level of evil that few can understand. The Liberators recounts the memories of the Americans who were in the camps. Even though the Soviet army had begun liberating death camps months earlier, American soldiers knew little about them. When they discovered the camps - sometimes by accident - they were unprepared for the horrors inside the gates. [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE]

Top secret interviews with WWII Japanese navy brass to be published     mainichi.jp :: 2010-03-14 :: Japan: WWII-era and Aftermath
The Koyanagi File - a huge collection of testimonies on the Pacific War by navy ministers and officers of the Imperial Japanese Navy - will be released to the public for the first time in April 2010. The file, 4000 pages in 44 volumes, was collected by the Suiko-kai, an association of retired Japanese naval officials, based on interviews by Vice Admiral Tomiji Koyanagi with a total of 47 navy ministers, admirals and other top officials of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1956-1961. The file had been kept secret for half a century, and naval officials had maintained strict silence after the war.

Nazi naval relic Admiral Graf Spee pits salvage operator against Germany     france24.com :: 2010-03-13 :: Admiral Graf Spee: Pocket Battleship
The Admiral Graf Spee, the German "pocket battleship" scuttled in 1939, is in the middle of a struggle between the businessman salvaging it and the German government hoping to prevent its commercialization. "We always proposed a serious historical and cultural destiny" for the remains of the Graf Spee while "contemplating fair compensation" for the work made to recover its relics, said businessman Alfredo Etchegaray. In 2006 divers salvaged a 350kg Nazi bronze eagle - with outspread wings and swastika - and soon Germany sent a note to the Uruguay claiming ownership of the Graf Spee.

Luftwaffe Over Scotland by Les Taylor (WW2 book review)     dailyrecord.co.uk :: 2010-03-13
With a population of 10,000 Peterhead seemed unlikely to be one of Luftwaffe's top targets. But a new book, Luftwaffe Over Scotland, reveals that the port was the second most bombed place in Britain after London. The reason: It was the first urban area the Luftwaffe saw as they attacked the UK from Norway. The town was bombed 28 times, followed by Aberdeen with 24 raids, Fraserburgh 23, Edinburgh 18, Montrose 15 and Glasgow 11. There were over 500 Nazi air raids on Scotland - from single aircraft hit-and-runs to mass bombings by 240 planes. 2500 people perished during the air war in Scotland. [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE]

Britain planned to kill Benito Mussolini at his headquarters with a raid by the RAF's Dambusters squadron     telegraph.co.uk :: 2010-03-12 :: Benito Mussolini
Air Marshal Arthur "Bomber" Harris suggested using the 617 Squadron to fly over Rome at "roof-top level" and bomb Il Duce's headquarters to kill him, files in the National Archives at Kew reveal. The operation had the approval of Anthony Eden, who wrote to Winston Churchill on 13 July 1943: "Harris has asked permission to try to bomb Mussolini in his office in Rome and his residence simultaneously in case the Duce is late that morning." Mussolini's HQs, the Palazzo Venezia, and his private residence Villa Torlonia were both "unmistakeable". But within 2 weeks Mussolini was expelled by the Grand Council of Fascism.

How British sisters helped Jews by smuggling their jewellery out of Nazi Germany     timesonline.co.uk :: 2010-03-12 :: WW2 Rescue Operations & heroes
In the years before World War II, British sisters Ida and Louise Cook travelled time and again to Austria and Nazi Germany to see the opera stars. Nazi officials didn't pay too much attention to the unremarkable-looking sisters, arriving in fairly plain clothes. Before travelling back they would put on fine clothes and jewellery and furs that belonged to the Jews allowed to leave the Third Reich - but only without their wealth.

Third Reich Walking Tour     thesun.co.uk :: 2010-03-11 :: WW2 Tours - History and Battlefields
Every year thousands of visitors travel to Germany to tour the ruins of the Third Reich. From the V2 rocket factory to the underground tunnels and bunkers in Berlin - and from Hitler's mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden to the SS Camelot at Wewelsburg, tourists are fascinated by the history of the Third Reich. The Sun took one of the many Third Reich Walking Tours in Munich -- the city where Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party was formed in the 1920s. "You can read books and see films but it's only coming to places like this that you get a real handle on it," explained Mike Kennedy.

The only WASP pilot with camera - Slideshow of colour photographs of WWII female pilots     npr.org :: 2010-03-11 :: WW2 Photos, Pictures
It's hard not to want to ask questions as you browse Lillian Yonally's World War II-era color photos of American female pilots in uniform. Female pilots in World War II? In color? What was their story? Yonally was one of the young women in the Women Airforce Service Pilots, a military program that trained civilian volunteers to fly planes so men could be sent to overseas for combat duty. Yonally shot the photos from 1943-1944 at Avenger Field where she trained, and Camp Irwin in California, where she would tow targets so gunners on the ground could practice shooting with live ammunition.

WWII Ghetto laborers still waiting for German compensation, 90% of applicants rejected     spiegel.de :: 2010-03-11 :: WWII Restitution: Forced Labor
Germany approved the Ghetto restitution legislation in 2002, but many of those who worked in World War II ghettos are still waiting for their pensions. Up to 90% of applicants have been turned down. Now, though, a new reading of the law could break the breakdown, and cost Berlin 2 billion euros. Germany's Ghetto Pension Law (ZRBG) was designed as a swift measure to seal a gap in the country's Nazi-era compensation -- at least that's what proponents intended. But the opposite has happened: State pension agencies have denied 90% of the 70,000 applications, while every day 30-35 survivors perish.

Pat Murphy built scale model of every Spitfire flown by a Canadian pilot     bclocalnews.com :: 2010-03-11 :: Military Scale Model: Aircrafts, Vehicles
Pat Murphy first saw a Spitfire at an air show in Ontario in 1968. His passion for the aircraft and model building led Murphy to an effort that preserves a part of Canada's aviation history. In 2009 he donated almost 3 dozen, 1:48 scale Spitfire models to the Vancouver Island Military Museum. Every model is a scale replica of a Spitfire flown by a Canadian pilot. Each plane has the squadron and pilot id markings, and modifications specific to each aircraft, includng details like camera ports on reconnaissance versions of the planes, pilot uniforms and flight jackets painted to match original colours and insignia.

Werner Strebel: Nazi spy interested only in good food and easy living     guardian.co.uk :: 2010-03-10 :: WWII Spies
A German spy sent to Britain to discover Royal Air Force (RAF) secrets passed on only "entirely worthless" information to the Nazis, MI5 files reveal. Swiss-born Werner Strebel became involved in espionage because he believed it would be a comfortable life. Recruited as a spy by the Abwehr (German military intelligence) Strebel travelled to London before the start of World War Two in 1939. He sent back only 3 secret messages, all regarded "quite useless" by the Abwehr. He told his Abwehr handler he followed the motto "good food, good drink and easy living".

The mini-biographies of 27 British "Heroes of the Holocaust"     telegraph.co.uk :: 2010-03-10 :: WW2 Rescue Operations & heroes
The Auschwitz POW camp inmate Denis Avey arranged to swap one night at a time with Jewish inmates from the nearby concentration camp. Exchanging his uniform for the striped clothes he gathered facts about the camp. --- Sir Nicholas Winton set up the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia before World War II in an operation that became known as the Czech Kindertransport. --- Working as a passport control officer for the British embassy in Berlin, Major Frank Foley helped up to 10,000 Jews escape the Third Reich after Kristallnacht by supplying fake visas.

The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) to receive the Congressional Gold Medal (photos, video)     latimes.com :: 2010-03-09 :: Female Pilots of WWII
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program was formed to fill a pilot shortage. 25,000 women applied, almost 1,100 completed training, and 38 perished in duty. This little-known group of female pilots did everything the men did except flew in combat. They flew test planes, delivered supplies and piloted every aircraft the U.S. Air Force had. In 1977 Congress granted them veteran status, and now they receive Congressional Gold Medal. WASP pilot Carol Brinton Selfridge's memories include everything from the difficulty of finding a uniform for a 6-foot-tall to soloing in a rare snowstorm.

Agent Rose, French resistance heroine Andree Peel, survived a Nazi death squad     bbc.co.uk :: 2010-03-09 :: French Resistance
A French resistance heroine who saved over 100 lives and survived a Nazi death squad has passed away at 105. Known as Agent Rose, Andree Peel helped British and American pilots escape from Nazi-occupied areas. She was granted a second Legion d'Honneur in 2009 to mark her bravery - in addition to her Croix de Guerre and American Medal of Freedom. After the war she got a personal congratulatory letter from Winston Churchill. Peel was being lined up to be shot by a firing squad at the Buchenwald when the U.S. Army arrived. She told her wartime adventures in autobiography "Miracles Do Happen".

Sikh World War II ace was saved by his turban     dailymail.co.uk :: 2010-03-09 :: The Blitz - Battle of Britain
A sikh fighter pilot was saved by the padding in his turban after he had to crash land his plane in a WWII dogfight. Squadron Leader Mohinder Singh Pujji, one of the Indian ace flyers in the RAF and a Distinguished Flying Cross winner, crashed into the English Channel after his Hurricane was downed in a dogfight. Rescuers boarded boats to help the ace and pulled him from the wreckage with bad head injuries. Singh Pujji's specially-adapted headgear, which had his wings sewn onto it, acted as a cushion for the crash-landing. His WWII memoirs - "For King and Another Country" - are to published in 2010.

Ghost Army exhibit and film shed light on the elusive phantom warriors     annarbor.com :: 2010-03-09 :: Special Forces & Missions of WWII
The U.S. Army's 23rd Headquarters Special Troops - the top-secret WW2 group nicknamed the Ghost Army - remained phantoms in the shadows. By setting up elaborate illusions the Ghost Army convinced the enemy of deceptions to influence their tactics. The University of Michigan is displaying material created by Ghost Army soldiers, as well as quotes from soldiers and a narrative text. In addition Rick Beyer will screen a rough cut of his documentary film "The Ghost Army." The Ghost Army used 4 main types of deception: The "visual deception" included inflatable rubber tanks, airplanes and other military vehicles.

Sophie Kukralova: Blonde Nazi spy who had affairs with two British secret agents     dailymail.co.uk :: 2010-03-08 :: WWII Spies
A glamorous Nazi spy became involved with two British secret agents in Cairo, classified World War II files reveal. Sophie Kukralova - codenamed R 37 49 by the Nazis - had a "most undesirable familiarity" with the two intelligence officers. She seemed have been a femme fatale: One married agent offered to leave his wife and marry the blonde while the second threatened to blow her cover unless she slept with him. Kukralova's arrival in Cairo in 1941 raised suspicion because of her excess wealth, expensive taste in clothes, and her claims of high-level connections with the Nazi regime.

Spyclists: How Hitler Youth's cycling tours caused panic in prewar Britain     guardian.co.uk :: 2010-03-08 :: HitlerJugend - Hitler Youth
Cycling tours by Hitler Youth groups and Nazi attempts to form links with the Boy Scout movement caused a security panic in prewar Britain, MI5 files reveal. Authorities monitored German students on bicycle tours in the late 1930s. A meeting between Lord Baden-Powell, head of the Scout movement, and Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German ambassador, rang even louder alarm bells in Whitehall. The term "spyclists" was coined because of an entry in the German Cyclist magazine: "Impress on your memory the roads... and other landmarks... Perhaps you should be able to utilise these sometime for the benefit of the Fatherland."

How Nazi spy was duped by failed actor who played Bernard Montgomery     timesonline.co.uk :: 2010-03-08 :: WWII Intelligence & Espionage
In 1944 a boozy Australian actor Meyrick Clifton James saw one of the most unusual career revivals in history. James, who had lost a finger in the trenches, was not a great actor, but he could do a great impersonation of General Bernard Montgomery. When WWII broke out he volunteered to entertain the troops overseas, but ended up in Leicester in the Army Pay Corps Variety Troupe. On the eve of D-Day the failed actor found himself in the operation "Copperhead" (the basis for the film "I Was Monty's Double") - a plan to use Montgomery lookalike to fool Major Ignacio Molina Pérez, a Spanish spy in German employ.

Bereiterinnen: Third Reich female Horse-breakers (forum thread with photographs)     forum.axishistory.com :: 2010-03-07 :: Women in World War 2
While the German cavalry maintained integral remount units, the training task for riders and horses in the mounted elements of infantry and artillery units, and for draught animals, fell to a rather strange group. Due to a lack of qualified officers and NCO's in these units, German girls who were experienced in riding and breaking horses were used for these tasks. The horsewomen wore the standard uniform tunic of the staff auxiliaries riding breeches and boots. "Together with about 20 other girls and young women I became a female horse-breaker. We had the rank of Unteroffizier," recalls Margot von Schade.

Albert Bavaria may have guided Iwo Jima photographer Joseph Rosenthal to Mount Suribachi     lehighvalleylive.com :: 2010-03-07 :: Battle of Iwo Jima : Facts
Albert Bavaria was an officer in the U.S. Navy in February 1945 when a man with a camera talked to him at Iwo Jima. Bavaria was a beach master, making sure supplies that landed on Iwo Jima's beach got where they needed to go. One day a photographer asked where to get a good shot. "The tracer bullets - we could see them going up and up and up Mount Suribachi. We said the Marines are getting to the top - maybe that's a good place to go." Bavaria can't be sure he spoke to Joe Rosenthal, who would photograph 5 Marines and a Navy corpsman as they set up an American flag atop Mount Suribachi.

B17 Flying Fortress salvaged from a grassy Papua New Guinea swamp     philly.com :: 2010-03-06 :: B-17 Flying Fortress
It took Alfred "Fred" Hagen - an aircraft enthusiast - 3 years and 8 months to salvage the B-17E Flying Fortress ("Swamp Ghost") from a grassy Papua New Guinea swamp. Now it's onto a ship bound for New Zealand and eventually for the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz. On Feb. 23, 1942, the B-17 took off from Australia to bomb Rabaul, a Japanese-held port. After the mission the Flying Fortress didn't have enough fuel to climb over the Owen Stanley Mountains. The pilot landed the plane in what looked like a grassy field, but the crew found itself in 4 feet of water amid 6-foot-high kunai grass.

Documents prove: Dutch Prince Bernhard was member of Nazi party, in spite of his denials     telegraph.co.uk :: 2010-03-06 :: Holland during World War II
Prince Bernhard, the father of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, was a member of the Nazi party, a new book reveals, contracting the German-born Dutch war hero's life-long denials. "Bernhard, a secret history" unveils that the prince was a member of the German Nazi party until 1934, three years before he married Princess Juliana, the future queen of the Netherlands. Historian Annejet van der Zijl has found membership files in Berlin's Humboldt University that prove Prince Bernhard joined Deutsche Studentenschaft, a National Socialist student fraternity, as well as the Nazi NSDAP and the Sturmabteilung.

Historic naval vessel, Mark III Tank Landing Craft LCT 7074, used in D-Day in danger of being lost     liverpooldailypost.co.uk :: 2010-03-05 :: LST - Landing Ship Tankers
From seeing combat in one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War to being used as a floating clubhouse in Liverpool's docklands, the Landfall has had a colourful history. Now the historic Merseyside naval vessel - Mark III Tank Landing Craft LCT 7074 - is in danger of being lost after she started sinking in the Birkenhead dock. The 500-ton Landfall is the last surviving tank landing craft to take part in the D-Day invasion, The tank landing craft's future has been uncertain ever since her former owner, the Warship Preservation Trust, went into liquidation in 2006.

Although the articles linked from Adolf Hitler's Third Reich 1933-1945 and World War II in the News are reviewed and specially selected, they do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, who is not responsible for the content of any external sites. This service is © Joni Nuutinen 2005-2010. All rights reserved. Contact.