Flooded WWII German bunker reopened by a Guernsey historical group (includes video)
A German bunker which had remained closed since World War II has been opened by a Guernsey historical group. Festung Guernsey pumped the water out of the concrete structure at Vazon Bay before installing lights inside. It was among the equipment left from the occupation of the island by German forces from June 1940 to May 1945. Paul Bourgaize said the finds would be put on display: "We have an identical bunker to this at L'Eree that we're hoping to use for tours, it's open now but come the summer we'll be getting a lot of visitors and the aim is to try to equip it with as many original items as possible."
(bbc.co.uk)
Freeman Barber served as a gunner and radio operator on Sherman tank
Freeman Barber recalls his time in a WWII Sherman tank: "Only the tank commander with his head popped up from the top hatch knows what's going on." The 4-man crew - tank commander, driver, assistant driver, and gunner - used an unreliable intercom system to communicate. Even when it did work the noise level forced the crew to improvise: "We tied a rope to the driver and steered him like a horse. Pull left to go left, right to go right, pull back to stop, and kick him in the back to go forward." Sherman tankers soon realized they were out-gunned by the heavy German panzers: "Their shells ripped right through us. Ours just bounced off the panzers. The 88s were also deadly. Thankfully, our speed and maneuverability saved a lot of lives."
(rockdalecitizen.com)
Video: Warsaw's Last Robber - An unusual story told by Zbigniew Ksiazczak
Video: Warsaw's Last Robber - An unusual story told by Zbigniew Ksiazczak.
(vimeo.com)
Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice by Gerald Steinacher (book review)
How did so many prominent Nazis manage to escape capture at the end of World War II? Gerald Steinacher is a Harvard Research Fellow as well as being a Lecturer on Contemporary History at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. "Nazis on the Run" traces the complex escape routes of Nazis like Adolf Eichmann through the South Tyrol, into Italy and onward to Argentina and elsewhere. The detailed research poses many awkward questions including the way in which the Vatican and the Red Cross helped the Nazi escapees. And why were so many ex-Nazis recruited by Allied Intelligence services?
(monstersandcritics.com)
White Rose founder Alexander Schmorell declared a saint by Russian church
The Russian-Orthodox Church canonised one of the founders of the anti-fascist group the "White Rose," Alexander Schmorell, over the weekend in Munich, nearly 70 years after his execution by the Nazis. The White Rose, or Weiße Rose, was founded by a group of Munich students and their philosophy professor Kurt Huber, all of whom voiced their resistance against the Nazi regime. In 1942, the group launched a graffiti campaign and began to distribute leaflets urging opposition to the Nazi Party. On July 13, 1943, Schmorell and Huber were executed, just five months after fellow White Rose members Sophie and Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst were put to death.
(thelocal.de)
Malaysian jungle adventurers have located crash sites of 30 WWII aircraft
They trek for days through crocodile-infested swamps and mountain jungles, but the members of the Malaya Historical Group are not seeking treasure or ancient artefacts. Instead, they're after rusty wreckage. Over the past decade, the six amateur Malaysian military historians have helped locate the crash sites of 30 WWII aircraft. 70 years after the end of the war, at least 100 British and American aircraft wrecks are scattered across the jungles of India, Thailand and Malaysia. "What we do is to find whichever wrecks are in Malaysia and help identify them so that relatives can get closure," says the group's leader Shaharom Ahmad.
(mysinchew.com)
French railroad SNCF hands over WWII-era archives to Holocaust museums
SNCF, the French national railroad, has handed over digital copies of hits WWII–era archives. The documents were moved to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the Shoah Memorial in Paris. The handover comes a year after SNCF President Guillaume Pepy admitted that the company transferred Jews to Nazi camps. The company sent trains loaded with French and foreign Jews from all over the country to Drancy and then to Bobigny 1942-1944. German trains made the final trip from both places to Auschwitz and other death camps. 75,720 Jews from France were deported, only 2,500 survived.
(jta.org)
Restored WWII-era Stinson OY-1 Sentinel takes flight after 10-year restoration
Steve Hager on Jan. 16 caused a disruption at work when he saw a World War II plane fly overhead. He herded co-workers outside to catch a glimpse of the Stinson OY-1 Sentinel making its debut flight after a 10-year restoration. Hager was among members of the Commemorative Air Force Old Dominion Squadron at Franklin Municipal Airport who restored the plane, which had been used for observation in the Pacific during WWII. The aircraft will join the squadron`s Ryan PT-22 Recruit on tour at air shows in the region once the radios are reinstalled and the plane is put through a 10-hour engine checkup.
(tidewaternews.com)
Revised edition of Milk Cows: The U-Boat Tankers at War 1941-1945 by John F White
A revised edition of John White's comprehensive 1998 look at the one of the most unusual and innovative aspects of German U-boat operations during the Second World War, the submarine tanker program.
(strategypage.com)
You can sell Hitler schnapps: Austrian police abandon probe into sale of alcohol with Hitler's face on bottle
A man has been allowed to carry on selling schnapps with Hitler's face after officials ruled it wasn't breaking the law. A legal probe was launched after complaints that an Austrian website was offering alcohol for sale adorned with portraits of the Nazi leader and swastikas. The site offered sales of spirits in "nostalgic bottles of former historical greats." However, state prosecution official Heinz Rusch said the investigation ended because of a lack of proof that it was intended to glorify the National Socialist era. He said the 48-year-old, known as Roland M, was motivated by profit and not by ideology.
(dailymail.co.uk)
World War II Code Talker Jimmie Begay passes away at 86
Flags across the Navajo Nation are whipping in the wind at half mast, as Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly ordered the move in honor of Sgt. Jimmie Begay. He trained as a Code Talker at Camp Eliot before serving in the 1st Marine Division, 2nd Battalion during campaigns at Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Guam, Saipan, and Tinian in the midst of World War II.
(indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
Department MD1: Winston Churchill`s Toyshop: Secret WWII Weapons and Gadgets
Did you know that Winston Churchill had a special chamber designed for air travel? It was a giant metal cocoon on his personal plane, complete with ventilation systems, inside which the great man would kick back and puff on his cigars. However, the pressure chamber pales in comparison to the products that flowed from his "toyshop", a secret division of the Ministry of Defence dedicated to WWII weapon research and development. Department MD1 was nicknamed `Churchill`s Toyshop` because they reported directly to the PM. MD1 were responsible for inventing a swathe of unusual bombs and weaponry, including the PIAT (Projector Infantry Anti-Tank), the first magnetic Limpet naval mines, and the Sticky Bomb.
(gizmodo.co.uk)
3.7inch WWII Anti Aircraft gun displayed at Fort Rinella in Kalkara, Malta
A WWII 3.7inch Heavy Anti-Aircraft Gun has been acquired by Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna. The gun will be put on display at Fort Rinella in Kalkara along with other examples of historic artillery that once formed the defensive armament of the Island. The 3.7-Inch Anti-Aircraft gun was Britain`s primary heavy anti-aircraft gun during World War Two and was the mainstay of Malta`s aerial defence system during the War. This gun, designed by Vickers is a mobile version and came into service in 1937. Records show that 10,000 of this type of gun were built, proof to its superior performance during that period.
(gozonews.com)
The only known recording of Germany's first chancellor Otto von Bismarck discovered
Germany's Iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck died over 100 years ago, but his voice has now been heard for the first time in the new millenium after recordings were transcribed using modern technology in the laboratory of Thomas Edison. Wax cylinders dating from 1889 and 1890 captured the great man for posterity, but have since been hidden away for more than a century. The only known recording of Germany's first chancellor was captured by Adelbert Theodor Edward Wangemann, one of Edison's assistants. Two others contain recordings of German military genius Helmuth von Moltke. Officials at Edison`s old laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, in what is now now the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, are ecstatic, as are Bismarck scholars in Germany.
(dailymail.co.uk)
Neil Cunningham-Dobson, who discovered WWII fighter holding a $237 million treasure, recalls the mission
A marine archaeologist told how his sea exploration company discovered two World War fighters containing silver bullion worth $237 million. Scotsman Neil Cunningham-Dobson was at the controls of the Remotely Operated Vehicle as the WW2 cargo ship SS Gairsoppa and the WW1 steamer SS Mantola were discovered in the North Atlantic last year. Both of the vessels - 100 miles apart - were sunk by German U-Boats. Cunningham-Dobson's employers Odyssey Marine Exploration will be able to keep 80% of the silver once they have recovered it. He said as his team found the SS Gairsoppa, all he could think about was his father who served on a similar WWII ship.
(dailymail.co.uk)
Color photos show women workers doing their bit for the nation on the eve of World War II
Color photographs - released by the Library of Congress - show women workers doing their bit for the nation on the eve of the Second World War.
(dailymail.co.uk)
Feng Shan Ho, Chinese Consul-General in Austria, saved thousands of Jews
Harry Fiedler is sure that, if not for the visas issued by Dr. Feng Shan Ho, his parents would have been perished in the Holocaust and he would never have been born. Harry Fiedler was born in Shanghai in 1940, two and a half years after his parents fled Vienna with visas issued by Ho. Ho served as the Chinese Consul-General in Austria 1938-1940 and issued thousands of visas to Jews desperate to escape the Nazis. If he hadn't enabled Oscar and Berta Fiedler to escape Vienna after Kristallnacht, their son told: "they would have perished. They would have been taken to the concentration camps, I'm sure, and then I wouldn't have been born, plain and simple."
(jewishtribune.ca)
101st Airborne division veteran recalls WWII: I took no prisoners, I blew away every German soldier I saw
Victor Lee Mackool became a sergeant in the motor pool, but later signed up with the 101st Airborne Division because the pay was better by $100 per month. Big money in those days. "What the hell is the matter with you, are you crazy?" he remembers thinking later of his decision. But none of his war experience marked him as much as seeing firsthand the horrors of Nazi atrocities, when he liberated Kaufering IV concentration camp: "I wanted to get the hell out of there. It was so, so pathetic. Even the war wasn't that bad. That's how bad it was. I just went crazy after that. I took no prisoners - I blew away every German soldier I saw."
(chron.com)
Harperley WWII PoW camp owners' hope for investor
When foot-and-mouth disease wiped out their herd of pedigree Highland cattle, Lisa and James McLeod decided to turn their hands to something completely different. A nearby WWII POW camp, with 49 derelict huts and 20 acres of land, was up for sale in County Durham. So in 2001 the couple used £400,000 from the sale of their farm to buy Harperley PoW camp. But 10 years down the line, and having poured almost £1m into turning the camp into a tourist attraction, the site has been mothballed and left almost derelict once again. At the height of its popularity the site was taking £60,000 a week and had regular attractions like camp tours.
(bbc.co.uk)
Online resources On Japanese Internment In World War II
The Fred Korematsu Institute has a full, and free, online curriculum (korematsuinstitute.org/fredkorematsuday/curriculum/).
World War II: Internment of Japanese Americans is a photo gallery from The Atlantic (theatlantic.com/.../100132/).
(larryferlazzo.edublogs.org)
Attitudes toward Mein Kampf slowly changing in Germany
The city that was the center of Hitler`s empire is littered with reminders of the Nazi past, from the bullet holes in the buildings to the Luftwaffe headquarters that now house the Finance Ministry. What it doesn`t have, nor has it since 1945, are copies of Hitler`s Mein Kampf in its bookstores. The latest attempt to publish excerpts failed after the Bavarian government challenged it in court, although an expurgated copy appeared at newspaper kiosks. But in Germany - where keeping a tight lid on Hitler`s writings has become a rich tradition in itself - attitudes are slowly changing, and fewer people are objecting to its becoming more widely available.q
(washingtonpost.com)
Online tool featuring video testimonies of Holocaust survivors debuts at UN
Students everywhere will have the opportunity to learn more about the Holocaust thanks to a new online educational resource that debuted at United Nations Headquarters and showcases video testimonies of survivors of one of the world`s greatest tragedies. IWitness – produced by the Shoah Foundation Institute at the University of Southern California – provides teachers and students access to the video testimonies of more than 1,000 Holocaust eyewitnesses from the Institute`s archive of nearly 52,000 testimonies.
(un.org)
WWII plans that never happened: 1939-45 by Michael Kerrigan
World War ll Plans That Never Happened is a look at some of the strangest and at times, unbelievable, plans and schemes of the Second World War. It includes a Nazi plan to kidnap the Pope, an IRA plan to invade Northern Ireland, a British plan to attack the Soviet Union after the defeat of Hitler and details about a Japanese scheme to seize the Panama Canal. Not to mention a German plan to seize bases in Spain and Portugal and invade Switzerland and an American proposal to use U.S. Marines to attack V-1 bases in Europe.
(ottawacitizen.com)
World War II bomb shelter opens for tours in Singapore
What is possibly the last WWII-era civilian air raid shelter in the area will welcome its first groups of visitors in guided tours soon. The shelter, occupying the ground floor of Block 78 Guan Chuan Street in a corner of Tiong Bahru, has had an anonymous existence all this time. No signs have pointed passers-by to it, and from the outside, the brick walls would have betrayed little of what the 1,500 sq m space was built for. But it was this space that gave 100 people from the neighbourhood shelter during the Japanese air raids between December 1941 and January 1942, shortly before Singapore fell.
(straitstimes.com)
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