Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week for U.S. Veterans. Enjoy!
History Museums: Landing Ship from WWII Serves as Museum
Even those who are not well-educated on the happenings of D-Day may be familiar with the iconic image of the landing ship sending out LCVPs to carry soldiers onto the shores and into the chaos of the battle. Now, such a vehicle is open for tours in Decatur, Alabama. This vehicle is in fact the last remaining landing ship to be completely intact, and many veterans of the war have already participated in the tours.
The vehicle in question has been dubbed the USS LST Memorial 325, and it is the only one of its kind remaining out of more than one thousand that were manufactured for use in the Second World War. It is now a floating museum, where visitors may go to learn more about the war and the utility of such vehicles as the landing ship tank, or LST. This particular vessel is now available for viewing in Decatur, but this is not the only location in which tours have been offered. In fact, the USS LST Memorial 325 travels around the United States, enabling visitors in many locations to take advantage of the education it has to offer.
Some of the crew members who manage the tours have a personal connection with the subject matter. One crew member, Terry Tull, served on a similar vessel during the Vietnam War. There are nearly four dozen crew members aboard the landing ship, many (though not all) of them veterans of one war or another. They are therefore accustomed to the manner of living that is required to serve aboard such a craft. Read more here…
Unlikely Preservers of History: The Nazis who saved Europe from Hitler’s destruction
In the last months of the war, Hitler ordered the destruction of cities across Europe such Paris. Sean Farrell on the story of the officers who refused to carry out his orders. Last month Paris celebrated the 70th anniversary of its liberation, largely intact, from the Nazis. How and why this occurred is one of the themes explored in this book on the resistance, at various levels, by Germans to Hitler during the last year of World War II.
Hitler, “a maniac of ferocious genius” in Churchill words, continues to fascinate, with dozens of new books on his era appearing annually. The Second World War – his war – was the most destructive in world history. By its close, at least 60 million were dead, millions more displaced, the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe obliterated, and hundreds of European cities destroyed. Could it have been even worse? Taking the failed July 20 assassination plot as a starting point, Randall Hansen explores some of the legends about the last months of the war. Did Prussian General Von Choltitz ‘save’ Paris? Did Albert Speer (as he claimed) almost singlehandedly frustrate Hitler’s instructions to destroy Germany’s industry and infrastructure as its enemies closed in? Did the German armies in the west ‘give up’, concentrating instead on fighting the Soviets? Read more here…
History Book Reviews: NORMANDY BATTLEFIELDS – Review by Mark Barnes
I was very keen to see this book when it appeared in the bumph Casemate routinely send to me and I am not disappointed.
The book offers a version of the tried and trusted then and now format anyone with half a brain will thank Winston Ramsey for pioneering forty years ago. Here, the authors utilize their aerial photography skills to show the Normandy battlefield as it is today, mixed with a great many well and lesser-known archive photographs. The effect is appealing and fits well within the format of the book.
In addition to this, the system of captioning the images helps explain what we can see. This is an easy to follow easy on the eye journey through the events of D-Day.
The authors of this book have a lot of work and publications under their belts and have done well here. The pretty aerial snap of Pointe du Hoc on the cover draws us in to a well-executed product that deserves to do well. A fair balance between the US and Anglo-Canadian stories have been achieved. All the old favorites are here and a few more besides. Read more here…
History Air Shows: World Biggest Gathering of Spitfires and Hurricanes Planned for Next Summer
RAF Northolt, near London, England traces its heritage back to early 1915, when the fragile and ponderous BE2c “fighters” of the Royal Flying Corps flew from the nascent base to take on the Zeppelin scourge. It held a fine tradition in WWII as well, when the men of 303 Squadron (Polish) in their Hawker Hurricanes took on the seemingly unbeatable Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain.The pilots of 303 Squadron, mostly expatriate Poles, took on the Germans with a ferocity and zeal unlike almost any other unit in the RAF, and played a major role in irrevocably deterring the Germans from their planned invasion of Britain.
RAF Northolt is now England’s last operational airfield from the Battle of Britain, and with 2015 representing the 75th anniversary of the Battle and the Centenary for the Northolt, the base is planning a major celebration next September. Read more here…
Veterans Advocacy: Memorial honoring disabled Veterans dedicated in DC
On Sunday, October 5, 2014, the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
The dedication ceremony included remarks from President Barack Obama, VA Secretary Bob McDonald, former Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Interior Department Secretary Sally Jewell, and Gary Sinise, who is the national spokesman for the Disabled Veterans Life Memorial Foundation.
Also participating were the memorial foundation’s executive staff including Lois Pope, Arthur H. Wilson, Dennis Joyner and Roberto Barrera.
The gallery below included highlights of the dedication ceremony. Photos by U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs photographer Robert Turtil. You can also view the full gallery on VA’s Flickr page. Read more here…
After seven decades, a missing World War II soldier’s remains are buried in Virginia via The Washington Post
After the veterans with “POW-MIA” inscribed on their black ties saluted the casket, after the chaplain talked of time and healing, a man in a dark suit slipped on reading glasses and rose from his pew. He walked to the stage of a Northern Virginia funeral home and pulled from his pocket the tribute he had written the night before.
“Seventy years ago, our uncle, he died for our country,” Richard Bean, voice quavering, read to a small crowd of about 75 people. “One year ago, an incredible journey came to know him as a hero.”
That uncle, also named Richard Bean, grew up in and around Manassas. In 1941, just months before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Army. He deployed the following year with the 105th Infantry Regiment, which was in the first wave of units sent into Pacific Theater combat. On July 7, 1944, while fighting on Saipan, Bean and his comrades faced the largest suicidal banzai attack of the war and, at 24, he was reported missing in action. Three years later, the military declared him dead. Posthumously, he was promoted to sergeant and awarded the Bronze Star. Read more here..
Reunions with History: Pilot is reunited with the plane he flew in WWII
Even at 99 years old, he walked quickly across the tarmac to the parked DC-3. The sun glinted off the bare aluminum skin.He climbed aboard the vintage airplane, parked outside the Historic Flight Foundation at Paine Field. He walked through the passenger cabin and sat down in the cockpit, the left seat.”This was my seat,” Peter Goutiere said.
It is where he sat during World War II while flying hundreds of missions to ferry supplies over the Hump, the name Allied flyers gave the Himalayan mountain range. The air route was the main supply line for Allied forces fighting the Japanese in China.The planes, heavily loaded with supplies, took off from northern India. They had to contend with weather, enemy fighters and the tallest mountains in the world.Goutiere flew this Douglas DC-3, an icon of aviation history, for the China National Aviation Co. (CNAC). The Chinese government was the majority owner and had pressed the airline into flying for the war effort.He had tried to join the U.S. Army Air Corps after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. But at 27, he was a few months too old.He finally found a way to join the war effort in 1943, when he got a job flying for CNAC.Goutiere traveled back to the U.S. the next year to pick up a new DC-3 for the airline. It was number 100 in CNAC’s registry reports heraldnet.com Read more here…
History Stories: 7 October 1944: “Flak so thick you could walk on it,” and here it was
The bomber war continued. No longer distracted by the need to support the campaign in France RAF Bomber Command and the US Eighth Air Force commanders turned their attention almost exclusively to Germany. Many still believed that bombing alone would knock Germany out of the war and the progressive destruction of most of Germany’s cities was resumed. The primary targets were the diminishing number of German synthetic oil installations, an attempt to cut off the fuel that kept the Wehrmacht running.
The German air defences had long ago recognised the importance of guarding oil installation – and the best organised and equipped anti aircraft guns were inevitably found around these targets. For crews that had not yet visited these targets the difference in intensity of “flak” was tangible.
Alan Cook, co-pilot of the ‘Umbriago’ of the 711th Squadron, recalls his worst mission out of his tour of thirty. Read the rest here…
Only 7 days to go to help out with our Campaign (82nd Airborne Reunion), you can start with a $1 @kickstarter
The Making History Project makes history for the future by preserving the memories of World War II and Veterans through oral histories, pictures, documents, and artifacts. While we cannot change history, we can certainly make history today for future generations by accumulating, documenting and archiving those important memories.
An oral history is an interview with the Veteran so he/she can take us back in time and tell us what is what like to be there. This is a walk through history in the eyes of a Veteran that lived it. Oral history obtains the sights, sounds, and feelings from an experience. The Veteran tells you just how it was, including his/her hopes, dreams and fears. A fascinating trip down memory lane as though you had your own personal time-machine.
These oral history interviews are conducted with high end audio and video equipment. The resulting recordings are then preserved by sending copies to the U.S. Library of Congress for the Veterans History Project and to the National World War II Museum. We also give a complete copy and record of those proceedings to the Veteran’s family so they may cherish those moments forever. Read more here…
History Maker Reunions: World War Two| Pain, Camaraderie and Valour
Seventeen heroes of World War Two has built a long term friendship among themselves through the pain, camaraderie and valour they shared together while in captivity and imprisoned in Germany’s Stalag Luft III camp. Their friendship is now more like an extended family as it comprises of wives, children and grandchildren. Read more here…
That is one big Flag: Acuity Flagpole Project – #tallestUSflag
Standing 400 feet tall, the new Acuity Insurance Flagpole is the tallest flagpole in North America (#tallestUSflag). Located on the Acuity Insurance headquarters campus in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, along Interstate 43 between Milwaukee and Green Bay, the pole supports a 60-foot-wide by 120-foot-long American flag. Located at the base of the flagpole is a brick paver patio featuring the names of Sheboygan County residents killed in active duty. Read more here…
Treats from History: Divers find WWII coffee beans in torpedoed boat and make them into a nice hot brew
Some people won’t touch food or drink that’s just a day or two past its best-before date.
But when some divers found a 72-year-old bottle of coffee beans in a ship wreck, they couldn’t resist brewing up with them – and they were amazed that they made a hot beverage with one hull of a taste. The beans were brought up from the wreck of the Sulina, a Romanian cargo ship which was sunk in Black Sea after being struck by a Soviet torpedo during the Second World War. Read more here…
Theories of History: Why Did the French Army Collapse So Quickly?
Q. Why did France fall?
A. Because the French people were hypnotized by their low birth rate; because their Maginot line had imprisoned their army; because; ignorant of the character and intentions of their enemy, they did not know why they had to fight the Germans and so preferred to fight among themselves; because they had no Churchill; because they were betrayed by a powerful group of their leaders including senior officers of the Army; and because the French were stultified by their debased and venal press.
Read more here…
Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for U.S. Veterans.
