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367,442 views Oct 26, 2025 #worldwar2 #ww2history #ww2 Why one aircraft mechanic installed unauthorized piano wire in P-38 control systems during WW2 — and saved 80 to 100 American pilots' lives. This World War 2 story reveals how a six-inch piece of wire changed aerial combat in the Pacific. August 17, 1943. Technical Sergeant James McKenna, an aircraft mechanic with the Fifth Air Force at Dobodura airfield, New Guinea, watched another pilot prepare for a mission against Japanese Zeros. The P-38 Lightning was fast and powerful. But it couldn't turn with a Zero. The control cables had slack. A three-eighths...

World War II is laden with unsung heroes, and Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz certainly falls into that category. While the remarkable deeds of people like Oskar Schindler are well known, Duckwitz’s role in saving 7,000 Jews in Denmark is less so. He was one of those brave Germans that looked to damage the Nazi Party’s plans from within and risked his own life out of a desire to do the right thing.

@RandPaul On @MeetThePress, I made it clear: America needs diplomacy over endless war, real debate before military action, and fiscal sanity, not $2–3 trillion deficits from either party. I’ll stand with President Trump when he’s right and stand up to government overreach when he’s not.

Several columns ago, I used the phrase, “Thunder without sound,” when writing about our First Lady, Melania Trump. After my wife, two good friends, and I toured Auschwitz, I hope you’ll allow me to reuse that phrase, albeit slightly changed. Auschwitz doesn’t whisper, shout, or mumble; it’s a quiet explosion rocking the foundation of my soul. I walked through our tour with an open mind, allowing it to flow rudderlessly to shape an outline for me to express in a way I hope makes sense. However, to properly share my thoughts, I’ll need to break this down into a few...

The living memory of World War II is passing away. In April, the oldest known survivor of Pearl Harbor died at 106 years old. A few weeks ago, a 102-year old veteran who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944) entered his eternal reward. Sadly, less than one percent of the war’s veterans are still alive. However, more troubling and dark, the increasing deaths of witnesses — those who endured the conflict and its horrors — has been coupled with the rise of revisionist ahistorical conspiracies about the Second World War. Worse, this is increasingly a right-wing...

China kicked off its largest-ever military parade on Wednesday, a show of its growing firepower and geopolitical clout as President Xi Jinping seeks to cast Beijing as the custodian of a post-U.S. international order. Flanked by Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un, a smiling Xi strolled up a red carpet to take his seat for the lavish event at Tiananmen Square to mark 80 years since Japan's defeat at the end of World War Two. More than 50,000 spectators packed into stands joined a vast choir singing patriotic songs as the dignitaries took their seats on the...

As Beijing rolled out its largest military parade in decades, US President Donald Trump trained his guns at Xi Jinping, accusing the Chinese President of “conspiring” with Russia and North Korea against the United States. "Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America," Trump said in a post directed at Xi on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. His remarks coincided with a show of force in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War 2. Xi was joined by Russian President Vladimir...

John "Lucky" Luckadoo, of Dallas, the last surviving B-17 bomber pilot from the 100th Bomb Group during World War II, has died at the age of 103. Presbyterian Village North in Dallas, where Luckadoo's lived since 2006, confirmed in a statement that he died Sept. 1. "He was admired for his courage and the kindness he shared so generously with our community. Lucky’s legacy of service and inspiration will continue to live on through the celebration of Home Front Heroes Day on May 9th, a local holiday that he one day hoped would become a national holiday honoring those who...

On that Monday, 6 August, Americans who had survived the Battle of Okinawa were not celebrating the final rout of the Japanese defenders seven weeks earlier. They were still stunned at the carnage they had both unleashed and endured. For 82 days without letup, Okinawa—one-third the size of Rhode Island—had been shredded by a maelstrom of bombs, artillery shells, and small-arms fire. The casualties on both sides were horrific. In all, nearly 250,000 people died in the battle, including 12,520 American servicemen, 110,000 Japanese and conscripted Okinawan defenders, and more than 100,000 Okinawan civilians caught in the crossfire. The American...

Government wants 'decommunization' law 12.09.2006 The ruling Law and Justice is pressing for creating legislation on 'decommunisation'. The purpose of the new law is to rid public and political life in Poland of the remnants of Communist influence still to be found, believes the government, in many areas of public life. Story by Slawek Szefs These former Communist 'aparatchiks' have not only swiftly and painlessly entered Poland's democratic ranks, but have also been reaping considerable financial profits from the country's economic transformations, passing in silence over their abrupt change in orientation. The Law and Justice parliamentarians claim that it's high...

We were told America was a mongrel nation, weak, divided, controlled by Jews, incapable of military prowess. Every day I am here, I see the opposite. This is the most organized, unified, and powerful nation on earth. We were told fairy tales by criminals.

A wildfire that broke out at Britain’s North York Moors National Park has burned for weeks, reaching a ground layer containing unexploded ordnance from World War II. The Langdale Moor fire started on Aug. 11, the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said. Crews from the North Yorkshire service and other local firefighting departments were still fighting the blaze Thursday.The fire is affecting an area of almost 10 square miles according to the BBC, and is fueled by wind, vegetation and now peat. The peat layer also contains decades-old unexploded bombs and other ordnance from World War II.“As the peat...

n his book Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Doolittle Raid pilot Ted Lawson recalls the moment his B-25 bomber reached the coast of Japan – the first land he had seen, he tells us, after being at sea on the USS Hornet for nearly three weeks. "It looked very pretty," he writes:"Everything seemed as well kept as a big rock garden. The little farms were fitted in with almost mathematical precision. The fresh spring grass was brilliantly green. There were fruit trees in bloom, and farmers working in their fields waved to us as we pounded just over their heads. A...

Donald McPherson, believed to be America’s last surviving “ace” from World War II, passed away on August 14, 2025. He was 103 years old. McPherson earned the Congressional Gold Medal and three Distinguished Flying Crosses during his service as a US Navy pilot aboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex in the final battles of World War II. McPherson enlisted on January 5, 1943, after the Navy waived a two-year college requirement for its aviation cadet training program. He earned his commission and wings at Corpus Christi, Texas, on August 12, 1944. He was assigned to fly a Grumman F6F Hellcat...

Saturday marks the 86th anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, an agreement concluded between Moscow and Berlin that would effectively lead to the carve up of Poland and condemn the world to six years of war. In hindsight, it is abundantly clear that a major global conflict had long been brewing, however, it was the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that is now viewed as the final treachery that would lead to war. While, in essence, the pact was billed as a non-aggression agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, it contained a secret annex that divided...

Flight Lt. John Cruickshank was at the controls of a Royal Air Force plane on submarine patrol in July 1944 when he spotted a German U-boat steaming placidly on the surface of the Norwegian Sea. Swooping low, just 50 feet above the waves, the plane raked the submarine with gunfire, but the airplane’s depth charges failed to deploy. As Flight Lieutenant Cruickshank returned for a second run, he was now fully in the U-boat’s sights, and the submarine fired a shell that exploded inside the airplane’s fuselage. The bombardier was killed, and Flight Lieutenant Cruickshank was lacerated by shrapnel, though...

An abandoned wreck of a Rolls Royce car which once belonged to US army legend Dwight Eisenhower during World War Two has been found and restored. Now the magnificent vehicle has been painstakingly put back together. Pat Jeater has spent 11 years lovingly restoring the the car used by Eisenhower back in 1944. After the 1940s it ended up being used as a wedding car and a taxi in Amsterdam. The letter: "I also found a copy of the Italian paper La Stampa - it was dated 12th April 1944." Pat found that the letter had been written by a...

Almost everyone remembers that fighting in World War II ended on Aug. 15, 1945, and that a formal surrender ceremony was signed aboard the battleship USS Missouri (BB 63) in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2. But between those two dates, an unexpected air action took place. Involved were a well-known Japanese air ace, a little-known four-engine American heavy bomber, and U.S. Army photographer Sgt. Anthony J. Marchione.

Silence on the official history of 1939 to 1945 has led to a flowering of creative interpretations. When did World War II end? Or, when will World War II end? This may seem a rhetorical question to most, with Aug. 15 marking the 80th anniversary of V-J Day (Victory Over Japan Day). On that date, Japan supposedly surrendered unconditionally. Few realize, however, that the state of war between the Allies and Japan did not legally end until years later with the Treaty of San Francisco, which was signed in September 1951 and took effect in 1952. That treaty did not...

The U-Boat campaign off the United States' coast is pretty well known. Complacency on the American side, and daring on the German side. Combining in a perfect storm that saw many, many losses in the early days after the United States joined the war. That said, not all those losses were American. Some U-Boats were lost too, including one particularly noteworthy one. U-166. A submarine sunk close off the Gulf Coast. This sinking became something of a controversy, in how the captain responsible was treated by the Navy. But the boat, herself, is interesting all her own. After all, this...