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Winter 2003, Vol. 35, No. 4 American POWs on Japanese Ships Take a Voyage into Hell, Part 2 By Lee A. Gladwin Brazil Maru The Brazil Maru passes through the Panama Canal on March 26, 1940. Nearly five years later, it carried Allied POWs. (185-CZ-Vol. 51-Brazil Maru) The Brazil Maru and the Enoura Maru: Finishing the Journey into Hell On December 27, the prisoners at San Fernando boarded the Brazil Maru and Enoura Maru and sailed for Takao, Formosa, part of the TAMA #36 convoy, bound for the POW camps near Moji, Japan. Landing craft ferried them from the pier...

Another member of the Greatest Generation leaving and his last wish is to celebrate Halloween by giving out candy one last time. Local news report that traffic was backed up to the interstate Saturday to visit veteran Andy Furlong ( don't you just love his name. Some 4,000 people showed up with candy and gifts for him and to celebrate him and his last wish. Just a wonderful story. http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Ill-Army-Veteran-90-Dreams-of-Handing-Out-Halloween-Candy-339015452.html

Hero Ships: Season 1, Episode 3 USS Samuel B. Roberts TV Episode, Documentary, History, WWII

(Photo: US Army/Public Domain) What does a travel guide look like when you're part of an occupying army? Thanks to Oxford's Bodleian Library, we can get an idea. In the early 2000s, the library began reissuing a series of pamphlets that had been given to Allied servicemen before their trips to foreign nations.These guides can tell us a lot about cultural attitudes and a little about military strategy during World War II, but more than anything, they highlight shifting priorities in how troops interact with civilians.According to correspondence between the War department and to the headquarters of General Eisenhower in London, the...

History hasn't looked kindly on the Catholic Church during WW II. The conventional narrative is not the whole storyAt six in the morning on Sunday, 12 March, a procession snaked toward the bronze doors of St. Peter’s. Swiss Guards led the line, followed by barefoot friars with belts of rope. Pius took his place at the end, borne on a portable throne. Ostrich plumes stirred silently to either side, like quotation marks. Pius entered the basilica to a blare of silver trumpets and a burst of applause. Through pillars of incense he blessed the faces. At the High Altar, attendants...

[VIDEO DOCUMENTARY] From The Solon Historical Society Achieves - March 24th, 1998 Nelson Bard discusses his personal involvement in the real life "Caine Munity"

Seventy-five years ago today, Red Army troops smashed into Poland. Masters of deception and propaganda, they encouraged locals to believe that they were coming to join the battle against Hitler, who had invaded two weeks’ earlier. But, within a day, the true nature of the Nazi-Soviet collaboration was exposed. The two armies met at the town of Brest, where the 1918 peace treaty between the Kaiser’s government and Lenin’s revolutionary state had been signed. Soldiers fraternised, exchanging food and tobacco – pre-rolled German cigarettes contrasting favourably against rough Russian papirosi. A joint military parade was staged, the Wehrmacht’s field grey...

The world has been hearing about the Nazi gold train for weeks, and we may finally be getting closer to a confirmation or denial. The Polish army has converged upon the southwestern Poland site where the train could be located, with explosives, chemical, and radiation experts making sure there's no danger, especially since the train was rumored to have been booby-trapped, the AP reports. "Our goal is to check whether there's any hazardous material," a Polish colonel leading the search tells AFP. The military personnel are using ground-penetrating radar and mine detectors in their probe near Walbrzych, and the governor...

Mine was built in 1944 by Buick in Flint, Mich., with a 975-cubic inch airplane engine in it. According to my records, it was sold as surplus after World War II to the Yugoslavian military, where it was used in the civil war there in the 1990s. “Would whoever owns the 1984 Camaro, please move it, or we’re going to have it towed away.” Of course, nobody moved it. With everyone watching, I fired up the tank destroyer and crushed that Camaro. The crowds loved it.

Rod Serling served as a U.S. Armyparatrooper and demolition specialist with the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division in the Pacific Theater in World War II from January 1943 to January 1945 (Discharged stateside in 1946). He was seriously wounded in the wrist and knee during combat and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Serling's military service deeply affected the rest of his life and influenced much of his writing. Due to his wartime experiences, Serling suffered from nightmares and flashbacks. During his service in World War II, he watched as his best friend was crushed to...

Great WW2 footage of the great warbirds of WW2, the people that built them, crewed them, and the men that fought and died in them. We can never repay the debt we owe to them.

A great one tonight. Based on a true story, The Fighting Sullivans is a look at the lives - and sacrifices - of five brothers who served together on the USS Juneau during WW2. Starring Anne Baxter and Thomas Mitchell.

Ben Kuroki, who overcame the American military's discriminatory policies to become the only Japanese American to fly over Japan during World War II, has died. He was 98. Kuroki died Tuesday at his Camarillo, California, home, where he was under hospice care, his daughter Julie Kuroki told the Los Angeles Times on Saturday. The son of Japanese immigrants who was raised on a Hershey, Nebraska, farm, Kuroki and his brother, Fred, volunteered for service after the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. They were initially rejected by recruiters who questioned the loyalty of the children of Japanese immigrants. Undeterred,...

Richard E. Cole On Monday, one of the last two surviving members of the WWII “Doolitte Raiders” will celebrate his 100th birthday. As one of the original Doolittle Raiders, retired Lt. Col. Richard Coledefied all the odds in what was considered a suicide mission to bomb Japan in 1942. Mr. Cole was co-pilot for Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, who led 16 B-25 bombers on the mission that is considered an event that changed the nation’s morale following the devastating attack on Pearl harbor. He was one of 80 fighters who volunteered for the dangerous, top-secret mission. The Raiders planned...

“I wrote a story about it.” It is a phrase Jack Beritzhoff says a lot. And when you consider the San Rafael resident, and former Merchant Mariner, is about to celebrate his 97th birthday, that adds up to a lot of stories. In fact, Beritzhoff compiled many of his favorite one into a book he published in 2012: Sail Away, Journeys Of A Merchant Seaman. Still, there is one story he is most eager to share these days, about an oversight of history he would like to see corrected. “I think it’s an injustice,” said Beritzhoff. Beritzhoff is referring to...

This color footage of the Japanese surrender ceremony on board the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) on 2 September 1945, was filmed by Commander George F. Kosco. In 2010, the Kosco family had the film restored, and the footage is presented now for viewing by the public. Source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Photographic Section. (Note: The original footage is silent. The 2010 restoration of the film by the Kosco family includes overdubbed music by the United States Navy Band, which has been removed to avoid possible YouTube copyright violations).

Lt. Col. James N. Methven, USAF (Ret.) recalls an encounter with Japanese soldiers who are unaware World War II has ended.

Mel Gibson is returning to his Australian roots to direct his first film in a decade, the true story of a conscientious objector who saved 75 men during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II.

With the hint of a smile, Simone Segouin stares nonchalantly into the camera with a submachine gun slung over her shoulder. It is a startling image of the young French freedom fighter – and it would soon become iconic. It comes from a colour film, shot by Hollywood director George Stevens in August 1944. It immortalises an 18-year-old Simone shortly after she helped capture 25 German soldiers in her home village of Thivars, south west of Paris. The defiant teenager gazes back at the lens, dressed in blue shorts, a black-and-white top with a red sash and a khaki cap,...

'Significant find' confirmed in Poland as speculation builds it could be lost Nazi train carrying gold - follow latest updates. SNIP--- 23.02 At a press conference Zygmunt Nowaczyk, deputy mayor of Walbrzych, said “the discovery was in the town’s district”. The Polish state treasure and culture ministry have been informed in case the find contained anything of value, Matthew Day reports. SNIP-- All we know for sure so far from today's developments is a press officer in the Polish town confirming a military train has been found and the Walbrzych's deputy mayor saying there was "formal information".