Marinus van der Lubbe was born in Leiden, Holland on 13 January 1909.  His father left home soon after he was born and he was brought up in extreme poverty. Lubbe worked as a bricklayer but after an industrial accident in 1925 he spent five months in hospital. He never fully recovered from his injuries… Read more »

Operation Market Garden from 17–25 September 1944, was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the World War II. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time. Delivering over 34.600 men of the 101st  under General Maxwell Davenport Taylor,  82nd under General James “Slim Jim” Gavin  and 1st Airborne Division… Read more »

Schroeder was born in the Baltimore suburb of Linthicum Heights, Maryland, on July 16, 1918. Although bullied as a child, Schroeder became an outstanding athlete in high school, graduating in 1937 from nearby Glen Burnie High School where he played soccer and baseball. While captain of his high school’s soccer team in 1936, they won… Read more »

Bedford, Virginia…Like eleven other Virginia communities, Bedford provided a company of soldiers (Company A) to the 29th Infantry Division, nickname “Blue and Gray”  when the National Guard’s 116th Infantry Regiment was activated on 3 February 1941. Some thirty Bedford soldiers were still in that company on D-Day; several more from Bedford were in other D-Day… Read more »

On June 8, 1944, two days after the Allied landing, the German Army Commander-in-Chief for the West, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, issued orders to “crush” the resistance “with swift and ruthless initiative,” and express the “expectation that the major operation against the gangs [i.e., partisans] in Southern France will be carried out with the… Read more »

In marked contrast to Volkssturmjunge Alfred Czech’s heroic story, the second vignette is about Hans-Georg Henke. a 16 year old soldier in an anti-aircraft detachment of the Luftwaffe. His father died in 1938 but when his mother died in 1944 leaving the family destitute, Hans-Georg had to find work in order to support the family. At… Read more »

The disastrous defeat at Stalingrad in 1942, followed by the immense crushing at Kursk in 1943, foreshadowed beyond the question the eventual destruction of the German Reich. Hitler, however. refused to believe that the pure Aryan race could be defeated and therefore absolutely refused to allow or plan any such idea of a post-war resistance…. Read more »

1. World War II started on Sept. 1, 1939, when German forces under Nazi leader Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. Britain demanded that Germany withdraw, but Hitler refused, and the United Kingdom declared war on Sept. 3, along with France 2. When the UK declared war, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said he would fight injustice and… Read more »

Ernst Hermann Himmler was born on 23 December 1905 in Munich, the third and youngest son of a headmaster (Oberstudiendirektor), Joseph Gebhard Himmler (born 17 May 1865     in Lindau; died 29 October 1936 in Munich), and Anna Maria Heyder (born 16 January 1866 in Bregenz; died 10 September 1941 in Munich). His siblings were SS Reihsführer Heinrich… Read more »