There were approximately 302,000 U.S. military personnel killed in military action in WW II. This number includes about 9,000 merchant marine. This number does not include about 130,000 non-combat military deaths during WW II.
The German defences in Normandy: The Atlantic wall
SOME INTERESTING FACTS
German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel was absent from the action at the onset of the invasion. Why?
He was celebrating his wife's birthday in Germany. Because the weather in the English Channel appeared to be too severe to launch an invasion, Rommel felt it would be safe to leave the front for several days to see his wife. Although he was concluded to be complicit in the attempt on Hitler's life, and subsequently commited suicide with poison because of this, these events did not happen until later.
These German paratroopers landed at the wrong time
The German 240 mm gun trundles into Russia
Early days of the war in Russia. German troops in 1941
An inglorious end: This German general was killed in Arnhem
BATTLE OF ARNHEM VIDEO
German POWs stagger along in Russia. Very few of them made it back home.
FATE OF GERMAN POWS IN RUSSIA
Officially, the Soviet Union took 2,388,000 Germans and 1,097,000 combatants from other European nations as prisoners during and just after the war. More than a million of the German captives died. The immense suffering Germany and her Axis partners had caused surely played a key role in the treatment of enemy POWs. "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."
Josef Stalin's regime was ill equipped to deal with prisoners: In 1943 as more enemy units fell into Soviet hands, death rates among POWs lingered around 60 percent. Roughly 570,000 German and Axis prisoners had already died in captivity. By March 1944, conditions began to improve, but for economic reasons: As its manpower was swallowed up in the war effort, the USSR turned to POWs as a surrogate work force. While POWs were not technically part of the gulag system, the lines were often blurred. Camps and detainment centers often comprised poorly constructed huts that offered scant protection from bitter Russian winter winds. The Soviet Union repatriated prisoners at irregular intervals, sometimes in large numbers. As late as 1953, however, at least 20,000 German POWs remained in Russia. After Stalin's death, those men were finally sent home.
The T34 tank was developed by the Russians both before and during World War Two. The T34 revolutionised the way tanks were designed and made. Close up in battle, the T34 proved to be more than a match for the powerful Tiger tank. The T34 combined developments from both America and, ironically, Germany.
This Japanese officer surrenders. A rare picture. Japanese soldiers were very motivated and preferred to die fighting than surrender
Policemen in the Jewish ghettos. These men were policing their brethren for the Germans
THE JEWISH GHETTO POLICE
Jewish Ghetto Police also known as the Jewish Order Service and referred to by the Jews as the Jewish Police, were the auxiliary police units organized in the Jewish ghettos of Europe by local Judenrat councils under orders of occupying German Nazis.
Members of the Judendienstordnung did not have official uniforms, often wearing just an identifying armband, and were not allowed to carry firearms. They were used by the Germans primarily for securing the deportation of other Jews to the concentration camps.
The Jewish ghetto policemen were Jews who usually had little prior association with the communities they oversaw (especially after the roundups and deportations to extermination camps began), and who could be relied upon to follow German orders.
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."
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...
Commanders: Heinz Guderian
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*“You hit somebody with your fist and not with your fingers spread.” *
* “Whenever in future wars the battle is fought, armored troops will play
the decisi...
"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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