http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/wwii/ en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:34:58 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050854/posts Dinko Sakic arrived at the concentration camp known as the “Auschwitz of the Balkans” riding a white horse, wearing a tailored black uniform with polished black boots and carrying a whip and a submachine gun, survivors remembered. His brazenness continued even after Croatia went down to defeat with Nazi Germany, its ally. He fled to Argentina, where he lived for a half century under his real name, making no attempt to hide. In his last decade of freedom, he gave interviews saying he was proud of what he had done and would gladly do it again...... NYT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050854/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:34:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049292/posts Need some FReeper help re: WWII US infantry weapons. Know the M1 Garand was the ubiquitous rifle issued to EM once it was availableto replace 1903 Springfield. Two other weapons often seen were the Thompson .45 cal sub-machinegun and the M1 carbine. I was under impression the Thompson was issued to NCOs and the M1 Carbine to officers. Recently have seen movie depictions of officers with Thompsons, NCOs with carbines. Which is correct, and why? I can understand the reasoning for the M1 carbine, lighter weight, more defensive than offensive, so officers can use time for leadership, not as an... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049292/posts#comment Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:21:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047174/posts On July 17, 1946, sixty-two years ago, the life of General Draza Mihailovich came to an end. Why should we care? Why did his life and death matter? He was a military officer who lived at a time in history when his dedication to democratic ideals would bring him into conflict with the fascists, the Nazis and, in the end, the communists. It would be the communists who would finally silence him, but not before he and his people fought valiantly to prevent his country, Yugoslavia, from falling into communist hands after the war. It would be too easy to... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047174/posts#comment Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:28:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047119/posts Squadron Leader Frank Day Last Squadron Leader Frank "Fearless" Day, who has died aged 91, came close to freedom during the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III; he was near the end of the tunnel when the exit was discovered, by which time 76 airmen had broken free, but he was forced to retreat and was soon in solitary confinement. In the spring of 1943 the escape committee decided to construct three tunnels and make a mass breakout. Day volunteered to assist but his health did not allow him to go underground as a digger. He became one of a... Telegraph UK http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047119/posts#comment Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:52:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2046684/posts Paris in the month of May was in full aphrodisiac bloom. The girls were swinging along the boulevards in their short, flowery skirts, their hair flowing loose behind them. On the radio, the singer Tino Rossi - France's answer to Rudolph Valentino - belted out his latest romantic favourite. But a few short weeks later, on June, 14, 1940, the German army marched into the capital and occupied it for four years. France has never forgotten its humiliation - or its bewilderment - in having to adjust to a life of close proximity to the old enemy, with all the... The Daily Mail http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2046684/posts#comment Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:32:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046386/posts The U.S. Justice Department has asked a Seattle federal court to revoke the citizenship of a Washington state resident accused of serving the Nazis. Tuesday's complaint alleges that Yugoslavian-born Peter Egner, 86, in April 1941 joined the Nazi-controlled Security Police and Security Service in German-occupied Belgrade, Serbia, a Nazi mobile killing unit that participated in the mass murder of more than 17,000 Serbian civilians during World War II. According to the complaint, Egner has admitted volunteering to serve in the Security Police and Security Service and guarding prisoners as they were being transferred to concentration camps. Egner also admitted serving... JTA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046386/posts#comment Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:48:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045711/posts Poland commemorates her refugees in Iran by Ryszard Antolak 24-Jun-2008 The Polish Postal Service has commemorated the role Isfahan played during World War 2 in caring for Polish orphans. The new stamp, "Isfahan - the City of Polish Children", went on sale earlier this month. It depicts a pupil at School No. 15 near Isfahan (Stanislaw Stojakowski), standing in front of a Persian carpet woven at the city's Carpet School in 1944. In 1942, Isfahan housed thousands of Polish orphans released from the Soviet work camps of Siberia and Kazakhstan. At its peak, twenty one areas of the city were... Iranian.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045711/posts#comment Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:40:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028388/posts I'm finishing up Buchanan's book and am looking for people who have read it who: 1) Argue in detail with any of his points. 2) Recommend essays from experts who challenge some of Buchanan's contentions. Just going on what I read in the book, what he says makes sense. Book entitled, "Churchill, Hilter and the Unnecessary War" http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028388/posts#comment Mon, 9 Jun 2008 17:45:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2043048/posts The Simon Wiesenthal Center has received leads that "Dr. Death" Aribert Heim, the center's most wanted Nazi war criminal, is alive and living in Patagonia, Chile. The center's chief Nazi hunter is due to travel there this week. The hunt for "Dr. Death" Aribert Heim, the Nazi war criminal wanted for murdering hundreds of prisoners in concentration camps during World War II, has intensified after the Simon Wiesenthal's chief Nazi hunter received fresh leads during a visit to South America. Efraim Zuroff, a Holocaust historian who heads the center's Jerusalem office, told media that he had received information that Heim... Spiegel Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2043048/posts#comment Wed, 9 Jul 2008 19:35:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042254/posts BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: World War II, I read today, those of you from the greatest generation, you World War II vets still alive, apparently Monday night PBS is going to run a documentary on World War II in which the whole notion that we were the good guys is going to be turned upside down, that we used totalitarian dictatorship tactics to win World War II, that all we did was bomb the innocent in Dresden and Hamburg and, of course, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that we were not the valiant and valorous victors that we were made out to be,... www.rushlimbaugh.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042254/posts#comment Tue, 8 Jul 2008 06:03:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2041626/posts YPSILANTI, MICHIGAN (WTOL) - As we celebrate Independence Day, four veterans of World War II want to thank those who kept them safe in enemy territory years ago. They were recently reunited at the Yankee Air Museum in Ypsilanti thanks to the Experimental Aircraft Association. News 11's Jennifer Boresz was there and has their story. These men are called the 'Forgotten 500' in a published book. As more and more people hear the story, however, they're hoping the daring rescue mission and the men behind it will never be forgotten again. "When they said pull that rip cord, I started... WTOL Toledo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2041626/posts#comment Mon, 7 Jul 2008 00:42:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040509/posts My 66-year life with the Second and Orange USO began at age 7 when my father, active in the war effort, served on its dedication committee in April 1942. The war dominated my childhood and indelibly shaped my personal and professional life as a naval officer and historian. As a boy, I played war games with friends in our Forest Hills neighborhood, and we followed every inch of the news. We boys believed our troops overseas won the war because of us. To see, touch and talk to real soldiers and Marines, we visited them at the county’s USOs, including... Star-News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040509/posts#comment Fri, 4 Jul 2008 00:02:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038833/posts Adam Buckman at the NYPost blew the whistle last week on a moral equivalence-marinated PBS documentary that airs tonight. Melanie Morgan and I chatted about the smearing of the Greatest Generation with Rush Limbaugh during the “From the Frontlines” web-a-thon on Friday. IÂ’ve heard from many upset WWII vets. Read Adam’s column here. Excerpt: Members of the Greatest Generation - especially those with weak hearts - might want to steer clear of an upcoming PBS documentary that suggests the Allied victory in World War II was “tainted” and questions whether it can even be called a victory. Moreover, the documentary,... michellemalkin.com & nypost.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038833/posts#comment Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:49:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038031/posts Return to the Article June 29, 2008Don't Let These Old Soldiers Just Fade AwayBy Dylan Gwinn General Douglas Mc Arthur once said to Congress, "...old soldiers never die, they just fade away." As was often the case, the General was quite correct. Too often our society revels in the accomplishments of its great men while events are happening, only to then lose sight of those accomplishments as time marches on. But, how does our society remember "old soldiers" whose accomplishments went almost un-noticed when they were happening? How will we remember men like Lt. Col. Charles "Chuck" Dryden who... American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038031/posts#comment Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:46:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037342/posts Itanagar, June 27: A five-member US Defence Department team has arrived in Ita nagar to coordinate a joint Indo-US search operation to find the wreckage of US fighter planes and remains of hundreds of pilots missing in action during World War II in Arunachal Pradesh. Official sources said on Friday that a team from the US Joint Prisoners of War/Missing In Action Accounting Command (JPAC) arrived on June 24 on a coordination mission for the search on humanitarian grounds. The team comprised Lt Col Peter Huddle, Lt Col Bruce E Cox, Maj Craig Tippins, Maj William J Taylor and Capt... Express India http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037342/posts#comment Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:54:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036936/posts MEMBERS of the Greatest Generation - especially those with weak hearts - might want to steer clear of an upcoming PBS documentary that suggests the Allied victory in World War II was "tainted" and questions whether it can even be called a victory. Moreover, the documentary, titled "The War of the World: A New History of the 20th Century," asserts that the war could only be won by forming an unholy alliance with a dictator - Joseph Stalin, who was as brutal as the one they were fighting, Adolf Hitler - and by adopting the same "pitiless" and "remorseless" tactics... New York Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036936/posts#comment Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:43:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036606/posts The trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, that touchstone of atomic espionage, is a case that launched a thousand doctorates and enough historical texts to make a library groan. Now, however, the 50-year-old record may grow even more complex: on Monday, the federal government, in an unusual move, consented to release most of the secret grand jury testimony taken in the case. In papers filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, prosecutors said that they would not oppose the release of testimony from 35 of the 45 witnesses who appeared before the grand jury in New York in 1950 and... The New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036606/posts#comment Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:23:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2035718/posts Jewish Prisoners Executed at the Babi Yar RavineYesterday, I posted a thread here regarding Patrick J. Buchanan’s new book, the controversy surrounding it and included a photo taken at Babi Yar near the city of Kiev, Ukraine.  This was the site of a horrific slaughter by Hitler’s Einsatzgruppen officers of 34,000 Jewish men, women and children in September of 1941.  Accompanying my text was a photograph I mistakenly described as a mass of corpses.  On further research this morning, spurred by commenter Bantam, I discovered the photo had been miscaptioned at the site where it was originally found.  The photo... Lone Star Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2035718/posts#comment Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:22:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035390/posts Ravine at Babi Yar, Kiev, Ukraine - September, 1941 That Hitler was a rabid anti-Semite is undeniable. “Mein Kampf” is saturated in anti-Semitism. The Nuremberg Laws confirm it. But for the six years before Britain declared war, there was no Holocaust, and for two years after the war began, there was no Holocaust.Not until midwinter 1942 was the Wannsee Conference held, where the Final Solution was on the table.That conference was not convened until Hitler had been halted in Russia, was at war with America and sensed doom was inevitable. Then the trains began to roll. The quote above is... Lone Star Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035390/posts#comment Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:37:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2035232/posts <p>Provenance Fighter Sales is benefiting from growing interest in WWII-era aircraft.</p> <p>The World War II-era P-38 fighter made an emergency landing on a Greenland ice cap in July 1942 while on a flight from Maine to England. The aircraft eventually was buried under a layer of ice and snow more than 200 feet thick.</p> LA Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2035232/posts#comment Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:23:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035013/posts TOLEDO (WTOL) -- As families remembered their fathers this weekend, the community paid tribute to a local World War II survivor. Toledo Metcalf Field played host to the Plane Fun weekend, where the last living member of Operation Halyard was flown in on a bomber plane. News 11's Tanieya Lewis shares Arthur Jilbian's story. It is the first time in 60 years Arthur Jibilian is seeing these planes. They were flown by US pilots during WW II. Jibilian is the last survivor of Operation Halyard. That mission returned more than 500 American airmen home to their families. "I get goose... WTOL http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035013/posts#comment Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:44:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2034783/posts A reunited trio of World War II veterans recall the night they were seperated, seemingly foreverIt was a miserable January night outside the French village of Rimling, made bleaker by advancing German troops from the 559th and 257th Volks-Grenadier Divisions. Don Hildenbrand's company was pinned down on a ridge about two miles from town, just a grenade toss from the border. Their communications line had been cut and German units had pushed past them on both flanks. "Everybody knew something bad was going to happen, we were badly outnumbered," Hildenbrand recalled Saturday. Sgt. Pete Petracco asked for a volunteer to... Mail Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2034783/posts#comment Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:41:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034628/posts WASHINGTON — During World War II, more than 25,000 European Jews became citizens of El Salvador, a country most had never visited and few ever would. The country, roughly the size of Israel, would come to justify its Spanish name as "the savior" thanks to bogus certificates that made thousands of Jews citizens of El Salvador and kept them from being deported to concentration camps. The signature on nearly all the certificates was that of George Mandel-Mantello, a Romanian Jewish refugee who in the early 1940s sought help from a Salvadoran acquaintance in Switzerland. The El Salvador consul general in... Houston Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034628/posts#comment Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:29:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033917/posts The idea came up on a thread today that perhaps it would be a good idea to write to the various conservative websites/publications that currently pay/publish Patrick Buchanan, and let them know that we would like them to stop publishing him. The thought is that PJB is basically a useful idiot for the left, allowing them to paint conservatives as racists, and tying the right wing to Nazism. He makes us look like irrational haters when we really aren't. He is used by MSNBC and others to make fools of us. It's not an effort to silence him. He can... self http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033917/posts#comment Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:02:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033893/posts So asks Newsweek's cover, which features a full-length photo of the prime minister his people voted the greatest Briton of them all. Quite a tribute, when one realizes Churchill's career coincides with the collapse of the British empire and the fall of his nation from world pre-eminence to third-rate power. That the Newsweek cover was sparked by my book "Churchill, Hitler and The Unnecessary War" seems apparent, as one of the three essays, by Christopher Hitchens, was a scathing review. Though in places complimentary, Hitchens charmingly concludes: This book "stinks." Understandable. No Brit can easily concede my central thesis: The... townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033893/posts#comment Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:12:50 GMT