An American anti-aircraft unit alert for approaching German planes
An American soldier with a flame-thrower in action
A Caucasian soldier from the Soviet Army now a German POW. These guys were tough!
THE CAUCASIAN FIGHTERS IN THE RED ARMY
In the book "WAR THE LETTERS" the head of California's Eurasian Center, Alan Fogelquist points this out:
"The Caucasus is the black hole of the world. The people that come from this hole are the most fierce warriors, and a threat to the enemy. They get pleasure from burning homes, raping women, killing innocents. Violence against the enemy gives them a special pleasure. And these letters of Caucasian warriors truly paint a grim picture."
The closest assistant of former British prime minister John Major, David Shannon, says in his memoirs:
"Terrible is the world of man, divided into the rich and the poor, the powerful and weak. It had it's load of terrible malice and mutual hatred, of filth and lucre. And if we add the representatives of the lower race, that come from the Caucasus Mountains, what could be worse than this? Note the volume of the skull of Caucasian men. It is clear evidence of the lack of signs of civilization."
American Ack Ack in action to thwart a Kamikaze airplane
The war is over for these American soldiers
Pilots of the Free French Air Force
THE FREE FRENCH AIR FORCE
On 17 June 1940, five days before the signing of the Franco-German Armistice, the first "exodus" of 10 airmen took flight from Bordeaux-Mérignac to England. Others rallied to General Charles de Gaulle from France and French North Africa during the period of June 1940 to November 1942. A contingent of volunteers from South American countries such as Uruguay, Argentina and Chile was also created, as Free French officials recruited there personally. From a strength of 500 on July 1940, the ranks of the Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres (FAFL) grewn to 900 by 1941, including 200 flyers. A total of 276 of these flyers were stationed in England, and 604 were stationed in overseas theaters of operation.
Trucks with American troops trundle into the destroyed French town of St Lo in 1944
German soldiers in action with their 37 mm gun
German soldiers in Africa. One of them is just a boy!
VIDEO: AFRIKA KORPS
German motor-cyclists in France in 1940
VIDEO
German grenadiers in Russia
The tough guy! Russian General Petrov in Odessa, 1941. Things were going very badly for the Russians then.
American anti-aircraft guns manage to shoot down this Japanese Kamikaze plane before it did any damage.
VIDEO
A rare sight! Italian soldiers in action. One wonders why there are so few pictures of Italian soldiers during the Second World war.
POINT TO PONDER: Why do you think it is that Italian soldiers fought so poorly in WW2?
I read that they were poorly trained and that is one reason but Russian soldiers were barely trained or not trained at all and they fought hard. I also have heard that it was because they didn't agree with why they were fighting but their were a lot German soldiers who didn't agree with the war but they still fought hard. So what do you think the reason is?
The backbone of Benito Mussolini: The Black Shirts
WHO WERE THE BLACKSHIRTS?
Armed squads of Italian Fascists under Benito Mussolini who wore black shirts as part of their uniform. The squads, first organized in 1919, targeted socialists, communists, republicans, and others. Hundreds of people were killed as the squads grew in number. In 1922 Blackshirts from all over Italy participated in the March on Rome. In 1923 the private Blackshirts were officially transformed into a national militia. With Mussolini's fall in 1943, the Blackshirts fell into disgrace.
APOCALYPSE NOW: Best War Movie Ever Made
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This classic by Francis Ford Coppola is inarguably the best war film ever
put into celluloid. And definitely the best Vietnam War film. It has that
quality...
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
-- George Santayana
History Quotes
May 1945 - If hell on earth existed, than it existed in Prague after May the 5th. 1945. Old men, women and children were beaten to death and maimed. Rapes, barbaric cruelties, horror-scenarios of hellish proportions - here they had been let lose.
- Ludek Pachmann, Czech Chess-Grand Master and publicist, forty years after the fact.
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Quotes
"History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are." -- DAVID C. MCCULLOUGH
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. -- MARY ANGELOU
Quotes
HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools. -- Ambrose Bierce
We learn from history that we learn nothing from history. -- GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Quotes
"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past." --EDWARD GIBBON
"Patriotism ruins history." -- GOETHE
Snippets from History
This short but important battle played a key role in the decision to use atomic bombs when attacking Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The battle showed just how far Japanese troops would go to defend their country.
Snippets From History
Paulus didn't give the order to 6th Army to surrender, but his troops no longer had much fight left in them. Resistance faded out over the next two days, with the last die-hards finally calling it quits. One Red Army colonel shouted at a group of prisoners, waving at the ruins all around them:"That's how Berlin is going to look! "
Quotes
History is Philosophy teaching by examples. -- THUCYDIDES
Quotes
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." -- George Santayana
Points to Ponder: Why Is China Unstable?
The aim of individuals in any society is money and power. Societies that give equal chance to all its members to get them will be the most stable. That is why democracies are more stable than other systems of governance.
China after Deng's reform gave the chance to get rich but power is in the hands of an elite; the Communist Party of China. Membership to the party is at the whims of the local party bosses. This leaves out many people who crave political power dissatisfied and disgruntled. There in lies the roots of instability. The Party suppressed these demands once at Tiananmen in 1989. But force is hardly the way to deal with things like these.
World War Two ended many many years ago. All the Nazi creations were destroyed. But even today there is a continuous, even a growing interest in the Waffen SS. Why?
OK, Hitler was a bad guy. He dragged the world into a destruction never seen before . Agreed, the SS leadership was evil. The millions of fighters of the Waffen SS were embued with the Nazi ideals.
But certain ideals were drilled into them which made them one of the toughest soldiers the world will ever see. A camaraderie, a fierce devotion to Germany. With a complete disregard for one's life. A purity which is rarely seen in today's world.
One young officer coming upon a unit that had overtaken a column of German refugees fleeing westward later recalled: ‘Women, mothers and their children lie to the right and left along the route, and in front of each of them stands a raucous armada of men with their trousers down. The women who are bleeding or losing consciousness get shoved to one side, and our men shoot the ones who try to save their children.’ A group of ‘grinning’ officers was standing near by, making sure ‘that every soldier without exception would take part’. READ MORE >>>>
The End Of Nazi Germany
Zhukov stood up. 'We invite the German delegation to sign the act of capitulation,' he said in Russian. The interpreter translated, but Keitel, by an impatient gesture, signalled that he had understood and that they should bring him the papers.
Zhukov, however, pointed to the end of his table. 'Tell them to come here to sign,' he said to the interpreter. Keitel stood up and walked over. He ostentatiously removed his glove before picking upthe pen. He clearly had no idea that the senior Soviet officer looking over his shoulder ashe signed was Beria's representative, General Serov. Keitel put the glove back on, then returned to his place. Stumpff signed next, then Friedeburg.
'The German delegation may leave the hall,' Zhukov announced. The three men stood up.Keitel, 'his jowls hanging heavily like a bulldog's', raised his marshal's baton in salute,then turned on his heel.
As the door closed behind them, it was almost as if everybody inthe room exhaled in unison. The tension relaxed instantaneously. Zhukov was smiling, sowas Tedder. Everybody began to talk animatedly and shake hands. Soviet officers embraced each other in bear hugs. The party which followed went on until almost dawn,with songs and dances. Marshal Zhukov himself danced the Russkayato loud cheers fromhis generals. From inside, they could clearly hear gunfire all over the city as officers and soldiers blasted their remaining ammunition into the night sky in celebration. The war was over.
The German divisions advanced across immense fields of sun-flowers or corn. One of the main dangers they faced was from Red Army soldiers, cut off by the rapid advance, attacking from behind or from the flank. On many occasions, when German soldiers fired back, the Red Army soldiers fell, feigning death, and lay there without moving. When the Germans approached to investigate, the Soviet soldiers waited until almost the last moment, then 'shot them at close range'
"I must admit that this gassing had a calming effect on me, I was always horrified of executions by firing squads. Now, I was relieved to think that we would be spared all these bloodbaths." Rudolf Hoess..
Rudolf Hoess was responsible for the death of over one million people in his concentration camp. He was caught in March 1946, gave evidence at Nuremberg and was then handed over to Poland for trial. While awaiting trial he wrote his memoirs. He was executed at Auschwitz, the very site he commanded, and allowed others to die in.
History Trivia: Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich..
Hitler referred to Reinhard Heydrich as "the Man with the Iron Heart" at his funeral. Until his death Heydrich oversaw the 'Final Solution' ... He was assassinated by two Czech resistance members in Prague in 1942. Hitler was so angered by the assassination that the village of Lidice was completely destroyed, and the inhabitants murdered.
Snippets Of History
STALIN 'WAKES' UP
For the first time, the Russian people heard the voice of their leader. Stalin addressed the entire country on July 3, 1941. He welcomed aid from the West and proclaimed a scorched-earth policy, denying the Germans everything and calling for the Russians already under occupation to fight hard against the invaders. He also appealed not only to communist ideals but to Russian nationalism.
In World War II and almost every other war in United States military history, our military was very clearly threatened by a uniformed and rather easily recognizable enemy. However in Vietnam, it was quite opposite. It appeared to the American soldiers that the whole country was hostile to American forces. It was impossible to tell the difference between friendly Vietnamese and enemy Vietnamese, (Viet Cong). The Viet Cong was rarely uniformed; therefore American troops were often forced to kill women and children.
The Polish-Jewish historian and the Warsaw Ghetto archivist Emanuel Ringelblum has described the cruelty of the ghetto police as "at times greater than that of the Germans, the Ukrainians and the Latvians."
Snippets From History: Vietnam War
From a journalist’s perspective, especially a photo-journalist, the war in Vietnam was unique. With virtually unrestricted access to the battle fields many photographers came to depict war in a way never seen before or since. Despite the technology, this was a guerrilla war with much of the fighting at close quarters, allowing intense moments to be recorded on film.
This meant risk; over 135 photographers from all sides are recorded as dead or missing. But it was also a war where images changed public opinion.
Snippets From History
"In 1945, in Soviet eyes it was time to pay," wrote British military historian Max Arthur. "For most Russian soldiers, any instinct for pity or mercy had died somewhere on a hundred battlefields between Moscow and Warsaw."
Snippets of War
BATTLE FOR STALINGRAD The Germans were now not only starving, but running out of ammunition. Nevertheless, they continued to resist stubbornly, in part because they believed the Soviets would execute any who surrendered. In particular, the so-called "HiWis", Soviet citizens fighting for the Germans, had no illusions about their fate if captured.
The Hitler youth fought with great courage during the battle. One group of Hitler youth even managed to hold off a Soviet tank division for three days. Many soldiers said that no one scared them more then the Hitler youth.....
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