Free Republic

I have not read Dracula ever again. I was ashamed of myself. Here I was, a 2nd lieutenant of Marines, fresh out of OCS, going to fight those Japanese SOB's, and just think, I let a book of fiction scare me like that.

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima (Aug. 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9) didn't end World War II -- at least not quite. The six days between Nagasaki and Japan's surrender on Aug. 15 were six more hideous days of war for U.S. and allied forces. Combat -- and Japanese atrocities -- continued in China, the Philippines and Southeast Asia. They were also six days of vicious political intrigue and turmoil in Tokyo, as the so-called "peace" and "war" factions in Japan's high command struggled for control of the state. In his classic essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb,"...

How many nations could genuinely say that they had the real potential to conquer the world or destroy it? How many nations had an arsenal capable of obliterating any other nation without risking retaliation? How many nations, with an army and navy superior to any others, an industry and economy capable of producing more weapons and material than any other, with forces already deployed for conquest, how many nations would try to conquer the world while they had such advantages? Sixty years ago, this was exactly situation in which the United States of America found itself. American military forces were...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Herb Lehr hasn’t been to Trinity Site since the day a mushroom cloud filled the early morning sky in the New Mexico desert. Standing 12 miles from the blast, he looked toward the Oscura Mountains and watched as scientists detonated the first atomic bomb 60 years ago Saturday, ushering in the nuclear age. “All of a sudden this very bright light came out and where I was, it was intense enough that the whole mountain range itself was completely whited out,” he said. “I could see the ball and fire rising up. It was sort of awe-inspiring.”...

In the Herbst Theater auditorium in San Francisco, delegates from 50 nations sign the United Nations Charter, establishing the world body as a means of saving "succeeding generations from the scourge of war." The Charter was ratified on October 24, and the first U.N. General Assembly met in London on January 10, 1946. Despite the failure of the League of Nations in arbitrating the conflicts that led up to World War II, the Allies as early as 1941 proposed establishing a new international body to maintain peace in the postwar world. The idea of the United Nations began to be...

Victory Parade, Moscow, Red Square, June 24, 1945

Bush: U.S. Had Hand in European Divisions By JENNIFER LOVEN RIGA, Latvia - President Bush said Saturday the Soviet domination of central and eastern Europe after World War II will be remembered as "one of the greatest wrongs of history" and acknowledged that the United States played a significant role in the division of the continent. Bush said the agreement in 1945 at Yalta among President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill "followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact." The decisions at Yalta led to the division of...

'His authority was extraordinary. He was charming' - Hitler's nurse on his final hours Survivor of bunker tells of admiration for Goebbels' wife and hatred for Eva Braun Luke Harding in Berlin Monday May 2, 2005The Guardian She is the last witness. For 60 years, Erna Flegal said nothing about her starring role in the Third Reich. Her family knew that in the last, desperate weeks of the second world war she had lived in Berlin. But she never spoke of her job as Hitler's nurse and of her time in the Führer's Berlin bunker. Now, as the 60th...

THIS February will mark the 60th anniversary of the unwarranted death of over 100,000 civilians whose lives were sacrificed in the 1945 Battle of Manila. The casualty count was that immense because advancing US troops and their commander, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, did not consider that these non-American civilian lives deserved to be protected and secured by US troops whose role after all is to absorb the risk of war. But I wonder if anyone has even cared to remember this national tragedy? Next to Warsaw, Manila registered as the city most devastated by World War II. Early accounts obviously peddled...

An online guide to the Latin Low Mass has been added to the Angelqueen site. Using a variety of sources, the Mass has been divided into sections with narrative explanation, illustration, history and background. The Latin is side by side with the English exegesis/translation. There are also sections on the altar setup,  the vestments, and the furnishings and equipment with photos and descriptions. You can start at the intro and click through the entire mass by hitting the "next" link on each page. Or use the table of contents to find various sections.One reason it was put together was to...

WWII veteran of the USS Arkansas (BB33)(1945)looking for fellow shipmates. Crewman Richard Timmerman. Any fellow shipmates reading FreeRepublic or do any readers know of fellow shipmates? Later on the USS Vulcan (AR5)(Spring 1946). Any leads?

CHICAGO -- Nobody wants the Chicago Cubs to get to the World Series more than Phil Cavarretta, and nobody knows how difficult it is than he does. Cavarretta made his Major League debut with the Cubs at the age of 18 in September 1934. The team had reached the World Series three times in his young lifetime -- in 1918, '29 and '32. He grew up on the north side of Chicago, was a standout ballplayer at Lane Tech High School, and a Cubs fan. In 1935, Chicago manager Charlie Grimm tabbed the teen as the starting first baseman and...

Israel Zoller Reported a "Peaceful Conscience"ROME, FEB. 16, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The autobiography of Israel Zoller, a wartime rabbi of Rome who converted to Christianity in 1945, has just been published in Italy -- a half-century after it was written. In "Before the Dawn" ("Prima dell'Alba," St. Paul Publishers), Zoller says that at his baptism he took the name Eugene, in honor of the wartime help his community received from Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli). Zoller led the Jewish community in Rome from 1938 to July 1944. On Aug. 15 of that year, he revealed to Father Paolo Dezza, then rector...

Play Ball!

Pennant fever is sweeping the area. With both the White Sox and Cubs in first place or close to it, fans are dreaming of a Windy City Series. Using the suitable clinical terminology, this is just plain nuts. The Sox, well, maybe. It’s been dry on the South Side for a long time, but there is a genuine possibility. Not a great possibility in all likelihood, but one nonetheless. The story on the North Side is different. The Cubs have a long tradition of defeat. And not just being beaten, but losing in the most ignominious ways. Assorted explanations have...

  I have received several requests/suggestions that I change a reference made in the poem whichappears on my "It Is The Veteran" web page. The line reads: Where five good men raised this Flag so high,That the WHOLE DAMN WORLD COULD SEE IT FLY. The requests/suggestions are to correct this line to read: Where SIX good men raised this Flag so high,That the WHOLE DAMN WORLD COULD SEE IT FLY.   First let me say that I am not the author of the verses that appears on this page.I have done an extensive search and, as near as I can tell, the actual author...