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 »
Oradour-sur-Glane 10th June 1944.
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 »
SS Werewolves.
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 »
10 Highlights of WWII.
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, the third brother.
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 »
American Soldiers Gone ‘Bad’ During WW2.
During World War II, United States military personnel mutilated dead Japanese service personnel in the Pacific theater of operations. The mutilation of Japanese service personnel included the taking of body parts as “war souvenirs” and “war trophies”. Teeth and skulls were the most commonly taken “trophies”, although other body parts were also collected. “Japanese skulls… Read more »
Sturmabteilung, SA.
The Sturmabteilung, SA , meaning Storm Detachment or Assault Division, in Nazi Germany, functioned as the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant key role in Adolf Hitler rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Their primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of… Read more »
Nazi Party.
The National Socialist German Workers’ Party ( abbreviated NSDAP), was a political party in Germany that was active between 1920 and 1945 and practiced the ideology of Nazism . Its precursor, the German Workers’s Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; DAP) , existed from 1919 to 1920. The party emerged from the German nationalist, racist and populist Freikorps paramilitary culture, which… Read more »
The capture of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen.
In March 1945, with the bulge caused by the German Ardennes offensive effectively reduced, the US 1st Army launched Operation Lumberjack. Designed to reach the west bank of the Rhine, US troops quickly advanced on the cities of Cologne, Bonn, and Remagen. Aware that the Rhine posed the last major geographic obstacle to Allied troops, Hitler ordered… Read more »