Secrets of the devastation caused by Grand Slam, the largest WWII bomb ever tested in the UK
The final secrets of Britain's largest-ever conventional weapon of war are being 'unearthed' by archaeologists. Geophysics experts are using ground-penetrating radar and other high tech methods to 'x-ray' the ground, in a remote area of the New Forest in Hampshire, to shed new light on the most powerful top secret WWII weapon test ever carried out in the UK. The weapon - a bomb designed by Barnes Wallis, and codenamed 'Grand Slam' - was almost 26 foot long and weighed 22,000 pounds, substantially bigger than any other wartime explosive device ever developed by Britain.
(independent.co.uk)
WWII-era poisonous gas, fire bombs and ammunition still rotting in German waters
Millions of tons of poisonous gas, fire bombs and ammunition continue to rot in the waters off the coast of Germany. They contain deadly toxins, which are seeping into the environment.
(dw.de)
Hiroo Onoda, Japanese soldier who hid in jungle for 29 years after WWII ended, dies at 91
A Japanese soldier who refused to surrender after WWII ended and spent 29 years in the jungle has died aged 91 in Tokyo. Hiroo Onoda remained in the jungle on Lubang Island near Luzon, in the Philippines, until 1974 because he did not believe that the war had ended. He was finally persuaded to emerge after his ageing commanding officer was flown in to see him. As WW2 neared its end, Mr Onoda, then a lieutenant, became cut off on Lubang as US troops came north. The young soldier had orders not to surrender - a command he obeyed for nearly three decades. "Every Japanese soldier was prepared for death, but as an intelligence officer I was ordered to conduct guerrilla warfare and not to die. I became an officer and I received an order. If I could not carry it out, I would feel shame. I am very competitive," he told in an interview in 2010.
(bbc.co.uk)
10 Amazing Things Recently Found from WWII
10 Amazing Things Recently Found from the Second World War.
(oddee.com)
Victoria and Albert Museum in London to publish an inventory list of the artworks stolen under the Nazis
On Adolf Hitler's orders, art historian Rolf Hetsch comprised a two-volume list of the artworks the Nazis seized for the "Degenerate Art" exhibition in Munich in 1937. The list was comprised of more than 16,000 artworks in alphabetical order based on the names of the museums they were taken from. The inventory list also contains the names of the artists as well as information about what happened to the artworks. Thus far this inventory list was only accessible for scientists for their research.
(dw.de)
Android strategy game Operation Market Garden (part of Conflict-Series) released on Google Play
Can you succeed in a risky Allied attempt to shorten the end of the Second World War by using airborne forces to capture multiple bridges to pave a way for a 100-kilometer armored attack to seize the German industrial heartland?
(Google Play)
A 88-year-old SS man charged over WW2 Oradour massacre in France
An 88-year-old German man has been charged with involvement in one of the most infamous World War II massacres. The charges relate to Oradour-sur-Glane in central France, where 642 people were murdered by SS troops in 1944. Many were herded into a local church into which hand grenades were thrown before it was set on fire. Prosecutors in Dortmund said the man had been charged over the murder of 25 people and with aiding and abetting the murder of several hundred. The man was named in documents as Werner C, a former member of an SS armoured division who was 19 at the time.
(bbc.co.uk)
Nazi trial for Siert Bruins dropped over evidence gaps
A German court dropped the case against a 92-year-old member of the Nazi SS accused of killing a Dutch resistance fighter in 1944, ruling that there are too many gaps in the evidence to deliver a verdict. The Hagen state court said there was enough evidence to convict Dutch-born Siert Bruins, now a German citizen, of manslaughter, court spokesman Jan Schulte said. However, that charge falls under Germany's statute of limitations. The witnesses needed to possibly prove the charge of murder—for which there is no statute of limitations— are now all dead so the court decided it had no option but to drop the case.
(ydr.com)
US witness report found on Stalin's Katyn massacre
A researcher says she has uncovered vital testimony from a U.S. officer who in 1943 was forced by the Nazis to watch as they exhumed thousands of Polish officers killed on Soviet leader Josef Stalin's orders. At a news conference in Warsaw, U.S. researcher Krystyna Piorkowska said she found the Paris-dated May 10, 1945, testimony of former American prisoner of war Lt. Col. John H. Van Vliet Jr. in the U.S. National Archives near Washington last November. It was filed among other unrelated WW2 documents from the U.S. Embassy in Paris. The sworn deposition provides evidence of Soviet responsibility for the 1940 massacre of some 22,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest and other places in what was then the Soviet Union.
(seattlepi.com)
Nazi guillotine used to kill resistance heroes like Sophie Scholl discovered
German officials have discovered a guillotine the Nazis used to execute three resistance heroes in 1943, posing a dilemma today about whether it would be in good taste to put it on public display. The contraption was gathering dust in a storeroom of the Bavarian National Museum in Munich. Officials said they recalled its use in a previous museum exhibition where it was shown chopping off the heads of toys. At that time it was not realized the machine had been used to execute members of the White Rose, a secret circle of nonviolent university students who spread leaflets in Munich criticizing the Nazis. Evidence showed the machine put to death Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst on Feb. 22, 1943 in Munich`s Stadelheim Jail, museum expert Sybe Wartena said. In all, the Nazis killed seven White Rose members.
(thonline.com)
E-book versions of Hitler's opus are rising in the rankings on Amazon and iTunes. What gives?
You won`t see Adolf Hitler peering back at you from the featured display tables at Barnes & Noble any time soon. But browse the most popular e-book stores these days and Der Führer`s mug is seemingly unavoidable. For a year now, his magnum manifesto has loomed large over current best-sellers on iTunes, where at the time of this writing two different digital versions of Mein Kampf rank 12th and 15th on the Politics & Current Events chart alongside books by modern conservative powerhouses.
(vocativ.com)
Remarkable Untouched 1942 Apartment Discovered In Paris
It was owned by Madame de Florian who fled to the South of France during the second world war, leaving everything behind. She never came back to Paris but kept on paying her rent until the day she died when she was 91.
(joannecasey)
World War II-era bomb detonates in Germany, killing one
A bulldozer struck what authorities believe was a World War II-era bomb in a western German town, causing a blast that killed the bulldozer driver, injured 13 other people and damaged homes. The blast occurred at a rubble storage site in Euskirchen, Germany, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of Cologne.
(cnn.com)
An Austrian Analysis of Hitler`s Economy
The Nazis had a very centralized economy, with basically one man running the show, Adolf Hitler. Since all Hitler`s economic ideas are still alive and well in every major country it is of interest to see how successful Hitler was implementing them. (1) Hitler decided the country needs an ultra modern highway system. And what he wants gets done. There is just a bit of a fly in the ointment though. Nobody had a car to drive on those highways as "Germany was one of the least motorized societies in Europe." This might just explain why the free market didn`t want to build those awesome highways.
(smilingdavesblog)
Britain's Luftwoofe: The Heroic Paradogs of World War II
Brian was a tough paratrooper. He trained hard for his deployment with the British Army during . During his training, he learned how to identify minefields. Then, on the battlefield, he protected his comrades-in-arms. On D-Day, he parachuted under heavy anti-aircraft fire onto the Continent. He was there when the Allies liberated Normandy. A few months before the war's end, he parachuted into western Germany, from where he marched to the Baltic Sea. After the war, Brian was given an award to recognize his "conspicuous gallantry." But the bronze medal was not the only thing that distinguished this special soldier from the majority of his comrades: Brian, the tough paratrooper, was a dog, a young Alsatian-Collie mix.
(abcnews.go.com)
Nazi interrogator Hanns Scharff used kindness to lure POWs into disclosing military secrets
During the latter part of World War II lots of allied fliers got shot down over Nazi Germany. Many of the survivors - or terrorfliegers as they were termed by the Nazis - got rounded up and were dispatched to Luftwaffe's interrogation unit at Dulag Luft POW Camp. After being marched into the camp, they were placed in solitary confinement and in spite of the provisions of the Geneva Convention, they anticipated rough handling. Aircrew who anticipated a Gestapo-style battering were in for a surprise when they encountered Obergefreiter Hanns Scharff.
(bbc.co.uk)
How a German Jew caught Rudolf Höss, the Kommandant of Auschwitz
At the end of 2006, journalist Thomas Harding attended the funeral of his great-uncle, Hanns Alexander. Two of Hanns`s nephews gave a eulogy that traced their uncle`s life, from his upbringing in Berlin to his family`s flight from Nazi Germany to England, and then to his war effort with the British Army against his native country. Much of this was known to the congregation. However, Harding was jolted by one detail that had never been aired: In 1945 Hanns had changed from soldier to Nazi hunter and was responsible for tracking down the Kommandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss. His interest piqued, Harding began investigating and the result is the meticulously researched and rivetingly reported `Hanns and Rudolf.`
(forward.com)
Nazi murder trial: Life sentence urged for SS-Officer Siert Bruins
German prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for 92-year-old ex-SS officer Siert Bruins, accused of murdering a Dutch resistance fighter in 1944. Prosecutor Andreas Brendel said that although a superior ordered the killing, Bruins was unlikely to have been punished had he refused to do it. Dutch-born Bruins is accused of killing Aldert Klaas Dijkema near the German-Dutch border in September 1944. He was an SS volunteer and a member of the Nazi intelligence unit at the time. The trial - which is taking place in Hagen - is one of the last of its kind in Germany as Mr Bruins is one of the last suspected Nazi criminals to be detained in Germany.
(bbc.co.uk)
Rare photographs of Nazi-occupied Poland
Rare Pictures of Nazi-occupied Poland during Holocaust.
(kulfoto.com)
Photos: 2013 Bastogne Historic Walk
Photos: 2013 Bastogne Historic Walk
(wo2actueel.nl)
Records reveal U.S. Army forcibly lobotomized 2,000 WWII veterans
Newly uncovered documents show the U.S. Army embraced frontal lobotomy as a way to treat at least 2,000 troops in the aftermath of World War II, the Wall Street Journal reported. "They just wanted to ruin my head, it seemed to me," recalled Roman Tritz, who told he was forcibly lobotomized on July 1, 1953, after resisting previous attempts. Though the Department of Veterans Affairs has no record of the procedures taking place, other government records, inter-office correspondence and letters reveal that they took place at VA facilities around the country to treat troops who were identified as gay, along with those diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression and psychosis. The records show the bulk of the procedures were carried out between April 1947 and September 1950.
(rawstory.com)
94-year-old Auschwitz guard Hans Lipschis deemed too old to stand trial
Hans Lipschis, 94, accused of being a guard at the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, has been freed and is unlikely to stand trial because he is too old, a German state court announced. Lithuanian-born Lipschis, who moved to the United States after World War II and was later sent back to Germany, told a reporter he had only been a cook at the Holocaust's principal killing site.
(bellinghamherald.com)
The Venerable Sten - The Allies` $10 Dollar Submachine Gun
First dreamed up in the opening months of the Second World War and then rushed into production during the Battle of Britain, the sten was a bargain-basement sub-machine gun that could be produced quickly and in great numbers. The 3kg, all-metal weapon fired eight rounds per second from a horizontally-loaded, 32-round magazine. Cleverly designed to use German 9 mm pistol ammunition, the sten was effective to about 100 meters (300 feet). Each sten gun cost as little as £2 ($10) to produce – roughly equal to about $130 or £80 today. By comparison, the American M1A1 Thompson went for a staggering $200 per unit in 1940!
(militaryhistorynow.com)
The unresolved death of Geli Raubal, Hitler`s half-niece and romantic obsession, is a murky footnotes of the Führer`s early career
The unresolved and hastily covered-up death in 1931 of Geli Raubal, Hitler`s half-niece and romantic obsession, has long been relegated to the murky footnotes of the Führer`s early career in the demimonde of Munich. And calls for a new investigation are stirring up another Austrian crisis of conscience.
(vanityfair.com)