World's Biggest Ship Graveyard Lies At Site Of WW2 Battle

The Ghost Fleet Of Chuuk Lagoon: World's Biggest Ship Graveyard Lies At Site Of WW2 Battle Where US Crushed Japanese Fleet -- Daily Mail

* Over three days in 1944, more than 60 Japanese warships and 200 aircraft sank after an attack by Allied forces
* During the Second World War Chuuk Lagoon was Japan's main base in the South Pacific
* American bombardment of the base wiped out their supplies and reduced Japanese threat
* The lagoon is now considered one of the top wreck diving destinations in the world
* The site, formally known as Truk Lagoon due to a mispronunciation, offers scuba divers a chance to explore

It may look like a tropical paradise, but this stunning lagoon masks a dark secret... under the clear blue waters lies the biggest graveyard of ships in the world.

In the Second World War Chuuk Lagoon was Japan's main base in the South Pacific, but in 1944, American forces launched an attack and over a two day bombardment more than 60 warships ended up on the floor of the lagoon.

Years later the Japanese still pay their respects at the watery graves each year, but now the site, formally known as Truk Lagoon due to a mispronunciation, offers scuba divers a chance to explore a piece of living history.

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My Comment: Beautiful .... but for a brief moment in time it was a place of sheer horror.

Were American WWII GIs Dangerous Sex-Crazed Rapists Who The French Feared As Much As The Germans?

American WWII GIs Were Dangerous Sex-Crazed Rapists Who The French Feared As Much As The Germans, Explosive Book Claims -- Daily Mail

* Book 'debunks myth that the GI were manly and always behaved well'
* By 1944 women in Normandy 'filed complaints about rapes by US soldiers'
* Debauchery, lawlessness and institutional racism are chronicled in book
* Penned by Mary Roberts, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin
* Veterans Affairs rep says there is 'no way' to reprimand the U.S. soldiers
* Comes just after Sexual Assault Prevention Month in the U.S., where the military is under fire for string of high-profile assault cases
* Japanese politician also just claimed that American soldiers used their women as 'sex slaves' during WWII

A controversial new book about ordinary American soldiers fighting in France in WW2 claims that many civilians did not think them liberators but as sex-mad rapists, thieves and robbers.

'What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France,' by Mary Louise Roberts, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin, shatters the myth nurtured by the western Allies that GIs were welcomed everywhere they went after four years of Nazi occupation.

Professor Roberts said that what the French got instead, when the first soldiers swarmed ashore at Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day, was 'a veritable tsunami of male lust' which the ordinary French citizen came to fear as much as their German oppressors.

The inflammatory account is likely to trigger outrage among U.S. veterans who saw many of their comrades die on the battlefields of France.

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My Comment: I know an American and a Canadian vet of the Normandy invasion and its aftermath, and when I mentioned to them Professor Mary Roberts' claims of soldier misconduct they were ... to put it bluntly .... not pleased with my phone call. Bottom line .... and my father mentioned the same thing when he told me of his experiences on the Eastern front .... the mass majority of soldiers were more concerned about not getting killed or crippled .... than spending their time with girls. As for those who wanted to spend some time with a girl .... they were usually the ones who got killed or crippled.

How Did Renaissance Masterpieces Survive The Carnage Of World War II?

(National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD)

How WWII Soldiers Saved Italy’s Art From the Nazis -- Noah Charney, Daily Beast

How did Renaissance masterpieces survive the carnage of World War II? Noah Charney on a team of U.S. soldiers who rescued the world’s greatest objects from being stolen or destroyed by the Nazis.

The Second World War altered the map of Europe, and redistributed art on an unprecedented scale. But few people know the astonishing extent of art looting during the war. Adolf Hitler and his deputy Hermann Göring raced one another to steal artworks. Goring “collected” a private gallery of thousands of stolen masterpieces, displayed in a hunting lodge outside of Berlin as an enormous shrine to his deceased wife, while Hitler ordered art stolen both for his personal enjoyment and to fill his planned “super museum,” a conversion of an entire city in Austria to contain every important artwork in the world. Hitler’s boyhood town of Linz would be leveled and rebuilt, with masterpieces like The Ghent Altarpiece and the Mona Lisa as centerpieces in this definitive collection. It would even feature a gallery of horrors, a wing dedicated to “degenerate” art that did not meet the Nazi standards of racial purity of artist and subject matter. This wing would show the world from which the Nazis had saved humanity. Taking a note from Napoleon, whose army featured the first dedicated art theft unit, the Nazi army established the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), assigned the task of collecting documents, archives, and art for the Nazi cause.

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My Comment: I guess parts of this movie are true .... albeit with a French twist.

70 Years Later It Is Revealed That MI6 Spent £200m Bribing Spaniards During The Second World War

Smiling German ldr. Adolf Hitler(R) shaking hands w. Spanish leader Generalissimo Francisco Franco(2L) during Hitler's only official meeeting w. Franco. Location: Hendaye, France. Date taken: October 23, 1940. Life Images

MI6 Spent £200m Bribing Spaniards In Second World War -- The Guardian

Newly released documents reveal secret services paid out fortune in bid to stop Franco joining war on Hitler's side

MI6 spent the present-day equivalent of more than $200m bribing senior Spanish military officers, ship owners and other agents to keep Spain out of the second world war, files released today disclose.

More and more money was delivered, mainly via a Swiss bank account in New York, as Sir Samuel Hoare, Britain's ambassador in Madrid, warned London that unless it was paid, there was a real and immediate danger of Spain abandoning its neutrality and of Franco joining forces with Nazi Germany.

In June 1940, Hoare was demanding an initial $1m. "I personally urge authority be granted without delay, and that if you have doubts, the prime minister be consulted," he told the Foreign Office in London. "Yes indeed," Churchill initialled on a copy of Hoare's deciphered telegram in red ink.

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My Comment: Money well spent .... invading Spain would have cost far more.

No Buried Spitfires In Burma

A place in history: A poster unveiling the Spitfire from around 1939. Daily Mail

Archaeologists Believe No Spitfires Buried In Burma -- BBC

Archaeologists hunting for World War II Spitfires in Burma believe there are no planes buried at the sites where they have been digging, the BBC understands.

The archaeologists have concluded that evidence does not support the original claim that as many as 124 Spitfires were buried at the end of the war, the BBC's Fergal Keane reports.

Wargaming.net, the firm financing the dig, has also said there are no planes.

But project leader David Cundall says they are looking in the wrong place.

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More News On The Failure Of Finding Spitfires In Burma

There are NO Spitfires buried in Burma: Hunt for missing WWII planes ends in disappointment -- Daily Mail
Spitfire search in Burma draws a blank -- The Guardian
Archaeologists: No planes buried in Myanmar -- UPI
Search for lost Spitfires ends in failure for treasure hunters -- The Telegraph
Burma Spitfire Hunt Appears Doomed After No Planes Found -- IBTimes
Myanmar Spitfire hunters say search has hit snag -- Huffington Post
Archaeologists find no buried World War II surplus Spitfires in Burma -- Slashgear
Are there perfectly preserved WWII-era Spitfire airplanes buried in the Burmese jungle? -- io9
Myanmar Spitfire hunter still optimistic -- AFP

WNU Editor: Bummer.

How The Game Monopoly Helped POWs Escape During The Second World War

muurkrant.nl via snopes

How Monopoly Games Helped Allied POWs Escape During World War II -- The Atlantic

One of the charms of Monopoly is its insistent iconography: the quaint little board, with its quaint little properties and its quaint little playing pieces, all overseen by the quaint little mascot that is Rich Uncle Pennybags. To play Monopoly -- even if you're playing one of those newfangled versions -- is in some sense to step back in time: specifically, to the America of 1934, when the game was first mass-marketed.

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My Comment: A great story to bring up the next time when you are playing Monopoly.

Death Of The Desert Fox

Erwin Rommel, also known as Desert Fox, was regarded as one of the most skilled commanders of desert warfare in World War Two

Death Of The Desert Fox: Rommel's Son's Account Of His Father's Last Moments After Hitler Ordered Him To Take A Cyanide Pill Or Be Arrested -- Daily Mail

* German general Erwin Rommel told his teenage son he had been ordered to kill himself by Adolf Hitler
* In a newly discovered letter, Manfred Rommel describes watching his father being led into a car moments later
* Rommel, known as Desert Fox, was accused of plotting to kill Hitler

A poignant account of the German general Erwin Rommel being led away to his death told by his teenage son has been discovered.

In a revealing letter written by Manfred Rommel, he tells of his father's last moments after he was ordered to commit suicide by Adolf Hitler.

His father explained to him he had to poison himself after being implicated in a plot to assassinate the Nazi dictator.

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My Comment: I am not shedding any tears for the death of Rommel. My background is Russian, and I know too well what the German Nazis and their Generals did in the former Soviet Union during the Second World War .... as far as I am concerned, Rommel got off easy.

Scenes From The Nanjing Massacre (Photo Gallery)

Chinese prisoners are used as live targets in a bayonet drill by their Japanese captors during their occupation of Nanjing. Bettmann / CORBIS

The Nanjing Massacre: Scenes from a Hideous Slaughter 75 Years Ago -- Time

75 years ago, on Dec. 13, 1937, Japanese troops captured the city of Nanjing, then the capital of the Chinese republic led by Chiang Kai-shek and went on a six-week campaign of carnage and slaughter that would be forever remembered as the “Rape of Nanjing.” Reports document widespread rape and the indiscriminate killing of civilians; some death tolls estimate over a quarter of a million people were killed. The incident, though, still rankles Sino-Japanese relations. Japanese nationalists contend that the death tolls are inflated and the majority killed were resisting Japanese occupation. To this day, pages in Japanese school history textbooks can incite heated protests on the streets in China. Then and now, the Nanjing massacre remains one of the darkest events of the last century.—Ishaan Tharoor

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My Comment: Now you know why many Chinese have a deep hatred towards Japan.

Remembering The Nanking Massacre

On the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre on Thursday, Chinese and Japanese mourners gather in the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Invaders in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, to pay tribute to those who died in the atrocity. Li Ke / for China Daily

Sirens Wail As China Marks Massacre Anniversary -- Global Times

Sirens wailed at 10 a.m. Thursday in Nanjing, as 9,000 people from the world attended a peace rally to mark the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.

Large wreaths were presented and the People's Republic of China national anthem was sung, before people bowed three times and took part in a silent tribute.

Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu Province, bears painful memories of Japan's invasion of China during World War II.

More than 300,000 Chinese people, including infants and the elderly, were massacred after Japanese troops occupied the city in December 1937.

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More News On Remembering The Nanking Massacre

Thousands remember victims -- China Daily
Memorials held to commemorate 300,000 Nanjing Massacre victims -- China.org.cn
China marks Nanjing massacre amid tense Japan ties -- Straits Times
China marks 75th anniversary of Nanking massacre amid tense relations with Japan -- South China Morning Post
China marks 75th anniversary of 'Rape of Nanking' -- NBC (Photoblog)
Religious service held to mark 75th anniversary of Nanjing Massacre -- Global Times
'We must never forget the history' -- Cang Wei and Song Wenwei in Nanjing, China Daily

My Comment: Never forget.

An Interactive Map That Shows Every Bomb Dropped On London During The Blitz

The map allows users to zoom in (inset) and exactly exactly how much damage German bombers inflicted on London (right). It uses a census of bomb sites, and is the first time the data has been made easily accessible.

The Astonishing Interactive Map That Shows Every Bomb Dropped On London During The Blitz -- Daily Mail

* New site uses data from the National Archive previously only available to visitors to the Reading Room
* Allows Londoners to search for their home and see if it was bombed
* Mobile phone app allows tourists to point their phone at a landmark to see if it was bombed

If you've ever wondered how close London’s landmarks came to being blown up in the Blitz, a new interactive map has the answer.

The Bomb Sight project allows people to zoom in on a map of the capital to see the damage inflicted during the heaviest period of bombing by German planes.

It was created by a collaboration between Dr Catherine Jones of the University of Portsmouth and the The National Archives, and funded by the charity JISC.

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My Comment: That's a lot of bombs.

How One U.S. Submarine Commander Earned Four Navy Croses And One Medal Of Honor

Photo: Eugene B. Fluckey. Wikipedia

Know Of Anyone With An MOH And 4 Navy Crosses? -- Blackfive

Well, you will in a minute.

I know, you're saying it has to be a Marine, right?

Uh, no.

A submarine skipper.

The alternate title could be "if you're name is Fluckey, you'd better be good". Well, Eugene Fluckey was very good and the story of his sub, the USS Barb is one for the history books. It is the only submarine that I know of that sunk a train.

He's definitely someone you should know.

Here's the story (as sent to my by a friend):

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My Comment: What an incredible story. There is more on his career here.

Was Gen. George S. Patton Murdered?

Photo: General George Patton

The Mysterious Death of Gen. George S. Patton -- Robert K. Wilcox, American Thinker

Sixty-seven years ago, on a cold December 9th in 1945 Germany, legendary American general George S. Patton was injured in a strange auto "accident" on a road outside Mannheim, near the Rhine River. The opinionated anticommunist died twelve days later. Today, the evidence that he was murdered -- the first in a line of postwar political assassinations including that of President John F. Kennedy -- is mounting.

In 2008 my book about Patton's mysterious death, Target: Patton, was published by Regnery with the core evidence, including:

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My Comment: A conspiracy theory to read about during the weekend. As to what is my take .... the war was over and General Patton's ability to influence events (i.e. to start a conflict with the Soviet Union) was severely limited. In short .... there was no motive to kill him. He was old and got into a serious car accident .... it happens every day. In addition .... when the Soviet Union fell the records of the former NKVD/KGB became opened .... there is no mentioned about Soviet involvement in the assassination of Patton.

An Inside Look at World War II's Bloodiest Battle

Soviet soldier waving the Red Banner over the central plaza of Stalingrad in 1943. Wikipedia

Revisiting Stalingrad An Inside Look at World War II's Bloodiest Battle -- Michael Sontheimer, Spiegel Online

A German historian has published a collection of unusually candid interviews with members of the Red Army that provides the first precise account of the battle of Stalingrad from the perspective of ordinary soldiers. They show that this chapter in history deserves a reappraisal.

At dawn on Jan. 31, 1943, the bloodiest battle of World War II came to an end for the top German commander in Stalingrad. Russian soldiers stood at the entrance to the basement of the Univermag department store in which the top-ranking German officers, including supreme commander Friedrich Paulus, had taken refuge. One day earlier, Adolph Hitler had promoted the leader of the German troops in Stalingrad to the rank of field marshal -- not so much as a sign of recognition as an implicit order to end his life rather than allow himself to be captured.

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My Comment: My father was an officer in an artillery unit that fought north of the city. Reading this Spiegel article brings back my own  recollections and thoughts of my father when he talked about Stalingrad .... the one and only conversation we ever had about Stalingrad. Sighhhh .... it was one of those very sober father-son talks.

Why Dean “Diz” Laird Is A Legend In The U.S. Navy

At 91, Dean "Diz" Laird is still tall, sharp and confident. — Sean M. Haffey

WWII Pilot Defeated German And Japanese Foes -- UT San Diego

Ace played role when San Diego became naval aviation "center of universe".

Dean “Diz” Laird is a legend, the only known U.S. Navy ace to shoot down both German and Japanese planes during World War II. Despite close calls — once, his shot-up plane skidded across an aircraft carrier’s flight deck — Diz possessed a fighter pilot’s essential attribute: Supreme self-confidence.

“It never entered my mind that I would ever get shot down,” he said. “I thought I was too good.”

Now a Coronado resident, this Northern California native was a bit player in global drama. He saw the transformation of the Navy and its tactics, a transformation that also changed the service’s key West Coast port.

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My Comment: A remarkable story .... read it all.

The Desert Rats Remeber El Alamein

Veterans Of The Bloody Battle Of El Alamein Gather For Heartfelt 70th Anniversary Memorial Service -- The Daily Mail

* Evensong at Westminster Abbey in London today marked seven decades since the battle in North Africa
* The 14-day battle is hailed as the turning point in the Second World War

Veterans of the Battle of El Alamein gathered today for a special service to mark the 70th anniversary of the bloody battle.

The evensong at Westminster Abbey in London marked seven decades since the battle in North Africa - widely hailed as the turning point in the Second World War.

Around 40 British and Australian veterans, many of whom are now in their 90s, were part of a 500-strong congregation to honour those who fought in the 14-day battle.

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More News On The 70th Anniversary Of The Battle Of El Alamein

Veterans of El Alamein honour their fallen comrades -- The Telegraph
Veterans commemorate El Alamein -- The Telegraph
El Alamein: Westminster Abbey service marks anniversary -- BBC
Britain's 'Desert Rats' Celebrate El Alamein's 70th -- New York Times/Reuters
Veterans remember horror of Battle of El Alamein -- ITV News

Escape From Colditz

History is remade: The glider after crash-landing in front of the castle

Escape From Colditz - In A Glider Made With Sheets And Porridge: How One Of The Most Audacious Escape Plots Was Recreated -- Daily Mail

t was one of the most audacious escape plots of the Second World War, and it has left an intriguing question hanging – almost literally – in the air. Could British prisoners have succeeded in their attempt to fly off the roof of the notorious Colditz Castle and make their escape in a glider?

The fact that they managed to construct one at all, from materials including bedsteads, floorboards, cotton sheets and porridge, is in itself astonishing. But engineers and historians have long questioned whether their two-man machine would actually fly.

Now, 67 years later, a team of engineers has attempted to reconstruct and launch the Colditz Cock, as it was known, and lay the mystery to rest.

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My Comment: It is a good thing that the prisoners did not have a chance to do this escape. The test flight worked .... but the dummy pilot lost it's head when the glider landed.

Britain Remembers The Soldiers Lost While Serving Under Bomber Command

Bomber Command used Lancaster Bombers during the Second World War

Bomber Command: A Tribute To The Warriors Of The Skies -- The Telegraph

Bomber Command lost 55,000 crew during the Second World War, but it is only now that the sacrifice is being registered

Back at the start of the swinging Sixties, the Beyond the Fringe team raised much laughter with a sketch entitled "Aftermyth of War". It mocked some cherished wartime legends, and among its targets were the men who bombed Germany. The sequence opens with Peter Cook, in the uniform of a senior RAF officer, breaking up a party of airmen having a sing-song around a piano. He informs one of them by the name of Perkins that he is needed for a ''futile gesture'' to raise flagging morale. He is to ''get up in a crate, pop over to Bremen… don't come back.''

''Goodbye, sir,'' says Perkins gamely as he departs to do his duty. ''Or is it au revoir?'' The reply comes: ''No, Perkins.'' The line invariably produced a gale of sophisticated mirth.

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My Comment: Honoring those who served 67 years after the fact. Better late than never.

Eerie Second World War RAF Fighter Plane Discovered In The Sahara

Shifting sands: The final resting place of the Kittyhawk P-40 has been discovered in the Sahara 70 years after it crashed there

Frozen In The Sands Of Time: Eerie Second World War RAF Fighter Plane Discovered In The Sahara... 70 Years After It Crashed In The Desert -- Daily Mail

* Pilot of the Kittyhawk P-40 was thought to have survived crash, but died trying to walk out of the desert
* Aircraft was found almost perfectly preserved, unseen and untouched, after it came down in 1942
* Historian describes find as 'an incredible time capsule' and 'the aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb'

He was hundreds of miles from civilisation, lost in the burning heat of the desert.

Second World War Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping took what little he could from the RAF Kittyhawk he had just crash-landed, then wandered into the emptiness.

From that day in June 1942 the mystery of what happened to the dentist’s son from Southend was lost, in every sense, in the sands of time.

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My Comment: 200 miles away from the nearest town .... the pilot must have known that he was not going to make it. But he tried anyway.

Incredible Story Of World War II ‘Operation Halyard’

Caption: George Vujnovich led a rescue operation to save more than 500 U.S. bomber crew members shot down over Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Source: U.S. Air Force via Wikimedia Commons

George Vujnovich Dies, Incredible Story Of World War II ‘Operation Halyard’ Lives On -- International Busines Times

George Vujnovich led what has been called "one of the greatest rescue missions of World War II." He passed away of natural causes in New York City on April 24 at age 96.

Vujnovich was a Bronze Star Medal recipient. He served as an agent for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a U.S. intelligence organization that preceded the CIA. Vujnovich orchestrated Operation Halyard in 1944, stealthily rescuing a group of U.S. airmen who were stranded in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia during the final years of World War II. But those who don't know his name can be forgiven, as the story of Vulnovich's greatest triumph was kept under wraps for over 60 years in a tale of Cold War intrigue.

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Update #1: OSS agent who led WWII rescue of 500 dies in NY -- Yahoo News/AP
Update #2: George Vujnovich dies at 96; leader of daring World War II rescue -- L.A. Times

My Comment: A true American hero. Our prayers are with his family and loved ones.

Colour Photos Of U.S. Fighter Pilots Defending Britain In World War Two

Thunderbolts From The Blue! Incredible Colour Pictures Show The Young American Fighter Pilots Who Risked Their Lives To Defend Britain In World War Two -- Daily Mail

Some are smiling, while others are deep in reflection with their lives at risk.

These are part of the amazing collection of images chartering the close bond American troops who fought to defend British lives during the Second World War.

They feature the 56th Fighter Group 'Zemke's Wolfpack' which were based in north Suffolk at Halesworth (Holton) Airfield Station 365 in the early 1940s.

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My Comment: They are truly great heroes.