“The Führer was surprised — he clearly had no foreknowledge of the date and time of the attack — and ecstatic.”
WW II History
Defending Freedom: Vets, Experts on Whether Canadians Would Fight Again
World War II concluded more than 75 years ago, and although there have been regional conflicts where Canadian soldiers have served since then, there’s been no war that tested the willingness of all young Canadians to go to the front lines to defend freedom if called upon.
Retired Lt.-Col. John Selkirk, who spent decades in the reserves and also taught at the Royal Military College of Canada, expressed confidence that Canada would respond to a contemporary threat.
I am not so optimistic, Canada is a 5th column now.
Germany: Nazi tank collector on trial for basement cache
Acting on a tip about stolen Nazi art, German investigators raided a home near the northern German city of Kiel in 2015. Instead, they discovered an underground garage containing a World War II-era Panther tank, a torpedo, mortars, anti-aircraft guns, more than 1,500 rounds of ammunition and other weapons.
I posted on this previously but have come across some interesting history about the tank’s origins. Seems it was one of several cobbled together by the British in German factories at wars end and transported to the UK for evaluation. See the video below. I follow historian Mark Felton on YouTube, he posts a lot of interesting stuff.
Operation Barbarossa: the most barbarous conflict in history
The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union continues to cast a shadow over east-west relations today.
At 3am on 22 June 1941 – one year to the day after France fell to the Nazis – the largest invasion force in history entered the Soviet Union. Operation Barbarossa had begun.
Nazi forces attacked in three groups across an 1,800-mile front, and advanced towards Leningrad, Kiev and Moscow. Alongside their German core, the three million troops included Italian, Hungarian, Romanian, Finnish, Slovak and Croatian soldiers.
US documents solve mystery of war criminal Tojo’s remains
TOKYO (AP) — Until recently, the location of executed wartime Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo’s remains was one of World War II’s biggest mysteries in the nation he once led.
Now, a Japanese university professor has revealed declassified U.S. military documents that appear to hold the answer.
The documents show the cremated ashes of Tojo, one of the masterminds of the Pearl Harbor attack, were scattered from a U.S. Army aircraft over the Pacific Ocean about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Yokohama, Japan’s second-largest city, south of Tokyo.
77th anniversary of D-Day
Normandy commemorates D-Day with small crowds, but big heart
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (AP) — When the sun rises over Omaha Beach, revealing vast stretches of wet sand extending toward distant cliffs, one starts to grasp the immensity of the task faced by Allied soldiers on June 6, 1944, landing on the Nazi-occupied Normandy shore.
Several ceremonies were being held Sunday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the decisive assault that led to the liberation of France and western Europe from Nazi control, and honor those who fell.
My Dad was there.
Sophie Scholl: Student who resisted Hitler and inspires Germany
Her name is not widely known outside Germany, but Sophie Scholl is an iconic figure in her native country and her story is extraordinary.
This weekend many will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of a young woman who famously stood up to Adolf Hitler and paid for it with her life.
Her resistance is retold countless times in books, films and plays. And it continues to inspire people today.
Sophie Scholl was born in 1921 into a country in turmoil. But her childhood was secure and comfortable.
Are French People Grateful For The United States’ Help During World War II?
The Daily Caller’s Lisa Bennatan went to Paris, France, and asked Parisians whether they are grateful for the United States’ help during World War II.
The poster is from Vichy France, referencing de Gaulle, then of the Free French forces, it translates roughly as “He embraces us only to slaughter our sons and companions”
Kohima: Britain’s ‘forgotten’ battle that changed the course of WWII
Captain Robin Rowland was 22 when his regiment was deployed to the north-eastern Indian town of Kohima. It was May 1944, and a small group of British-Indian soldiers was under assault by an entire division of Japanese forces.
Capt Rowland, now 99, vividly remembers approaching the town, following a trail of devastation to the front line.
“We saw abandoned trenches and destroyed villages, and as we moved forward the smell of death was everywhere,” he said.
I read this book late last year – Road of Bones: The Siege of Kohima 1944 – The Epic Story of the Last Great Stand of Empire
The battle was a major feat of arms for the vastly outnumbered British and Indian troops but also for the Japanese if you consider the terrain they had to cross and the fact that their generals lied to them about resupply. They really did starve and the author provides an excellent glimpse into the Japanese view of things much of which was every bit as rancid as we’ve come to understand. I was surprised to discover the “Traitorous General” Kōtoku Satō who ignored his commanders and ordered his soldier’s to retreat back into Burma was not executed though he did endure bouts of public shaming initiated by the truly guilty long after the war. His post-war personal journey of atonement to his troops for having lead them to a disaster he foresaw is recounted revealing him to be anything but typical of Japanese militarism.
“Face” and emperor worship played such a significant influence in Japanese lives that the depth of belief is difficult for me to grasp. In another book dealing with the battle of Okinawa I read in disbelief that a Japanese army officer held on to the hope that the Imperial Navy would arrive to blast the American fleet laying siege to the island. He had never heard of Midway or knew that the Japanese Navy was long defeated by that stage of the war. A stranded naval officer he befriended told him the truth of Japan’s situation. Still he fought on to the bitter end surviving only because he was captured having passed out from wounds.
The book gives a good sense of the pending collapse of Britain’s empire in India. Many saw it coming others not so much. The common soldier seemed to understand better than most that Indian independence was a foregone conclusion and they simply weren’t wanted there. In fact the Japanese had their own “Indian Army” on their side. Still they fought and triumphed against great odds because they were good soldiers fighting not for ideology or empire but only to get it done and go home.
It’s a worthwhile read.
‘Lasting honour’: Battle for Hong Kong ended on Christmas Day 1941 and Capt. John Reid was among the Canadians there
By December 22, Mount Cameron, several miles north of Reid’s Regimental Aid Post, had become the linchpin of West Brigade’s defensive line as the Japanese forced their way from the east. The position was held by only 100 Winnipeg Grenadiers, reinforced by a platoon of British Royal Engineers — all that could be spared. After raining Mount Cameron’s defenders with artillery and mortar fire, the Japanese attacked during the evening with 1,000 troops. The Grenadiers and Royal Engineers fought back ferociously, but a Japanese breakthrough on their right flank threatened to encircle their position and forced their withdrawal northward to Wan Chai Gap. In his postwar debriefing in October 1945, Reid recalls the confusion of this night…
Why Did So Many Doctors Become Nazis?
This essay is written from the point of view of a physician, medical educator, and bioethicist who sees the deplorable fact of physician involvement in the Shoah as an opportunity to highlight enduring moral lessons for the medical professions. Medicine and law are intimately connected to one another, and, since the professionalization of medicine in the United States and Europe in the latter half of the 19th century, even more so. One discipline that connects both is moral philosophy; for both law and medicine involve reason and the will, directed toward the good of the person. Thus, the story of the Holocaust is a tragedy that unfolded because of the corruption of moral philosophy first, and medicine and law second.
The ‘Robin Hood’ policemen who stole from the Nazis
During the German occupation of their island, a group of Guernsey policemen were deported to brutal labour camps in Nazi-occupied Europe after appearing before a British court. Their crime? Stealing food from the Germans to stop civilians from going hungry.
Not all of them survived. Some of those who did return home at the end of World War Two were suffering with debilitating diseases and had life-changing injuries, yet they were treated as criminals and denied their pensions.
Decades after what the men’s families believe to be a dreadful injustice, some of them made one last attempt to clear their fathers’ names.