Free Republic

In a recent article titled “Why Hitler Wished He Was Muslim,” the Wall Street Journal draws our attention to two books that reflect the historical Nazi-Islamic supremacist axis. Given the goings-on in Europe, we thought these to be poignant titles adding necessary context to a continent that appears to be a potential powder-keg. Of Stefan Ihrig’s ”Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination,” the Journal writes: Through the 1920s and 1930s, Nazi publications lauded Turkey as a friend and forerunner. In 1922, for example, the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi Party’s weekly paper, praised Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the “Father of the Turks,” as...

Franklin Delano Roosevelt loved to keep secrets. He didn't want the public to know he was bound to a wheelchair, so he went to elaborate lengths to hide his inability to walk on his own. And when he was dying, his doctors hid it from the public. Even Roosevelt himself didn't want to know. Secrets of a different sort lie at the heart of two new books about Roosevelt the candidate and Roosevelt the president, with a special guest appearance by Adolf Hitler, before he became der fuehrer. David Pietrusza's 1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR--Two Tales of Politics,...

On December 11, 1941, several days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States declaration of war against the Japanese Empire, Nazi Germany declared war on the United States, in response to what was claimed to be a series of provocations by the United States government when the US was formally neutral during World War II. The decision to declare war was made almost entirely by Adolf Hitler, without consultation. Hitler had received no advance notice from the Japanese about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Although he and his Foreign Minister Ribbentrop had verbally indicated a willingness...

Today is the anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, which brought the United States into World War II. The meticulously planned and devastatingly successful operation was launched from six aircraft carriers and their escorts, which had managed to penetrate to within 200 miles of Oahu without being discovered. Of the eight American battleships in port that day, four were sunk or destroyed, and nine other warships were sunk or severely damaged. Over 2,400 U.S. servicemen lost their lives, including 2.000 sailors, most of whom perished on the USS Arizona (BB-39). The only bright...

Hundreds of strangers paid tribute at a Kentucky funeral home to a “humble” survivor of World War II’s Normandy Invasion whose caregiver had worried that no one would come to his funeral. Vet Warren McDonough was 91 when he died Saturday. He never married and his only known survivor was a nephew in Florida. The big crowd who attended his wake Thursday night at Ratterman’s Funeral Home in St. Matthews showed up in response to a call from Lena Lyons, who runs a boarding home where McDonough spent his final days. Lyons told WHAS-TV McDonough deserved to be remembered because...

A special holiday musical presentation from Union Station in Washington, DC celebrating the service and sacrifices of our nation's World War II veterans and commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.

45 MINUTES

It sounds like a familiar story: on a bright Sunday in December, nearly 70 years ago, Japanese planes blazed out of the sky to strafe and bomb an American warship while it lay at anchor. The surprise attack caught the crew off-guard, and despite valiant action, the ship was critically damaged, had to be abandoned, and soon sank. If you said December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor, you’d be wrong. The date was December 12, 1937, and the place was the Yangtze River in war-torn China. The vessel? The gunboat USS Panay. It was a sudden and deliberate attack that might...

Leftists will do anything to stop Christian conscience, even harm Veterans. Judge Vance Day, a friend of many Veterans, is under attack because of his religious beliefs. Vance Day, former chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, is a sitting Circuit Court Judge in his home state. Vance and I first met in 2009, where he was a guest speaker at Regent University. His calm, caring demeanor as well as his intellectual and spiritual depth were plainly evident. Vance shared, at the end of his talk, how he was a Christian and that one of the more well-known members of the...

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. There were simultaneous Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held...

In my youth, Dec. 7 was always a big deal, as we remembered Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Today, most of those alive on that fateful day in 1941 are no longer with us, and the collective memory of the event has faded. Subsequent generations have other powerful dates to remember. Nov. 22, the day President Kennedy was assassinated, loomed large in the lives of Baby Boomers. More recently, Sept. 11 has become the day we must never forget. This is the natural course of history moving on. In a generation or two, even Sept. 11 will become just...

The presidency has changed Barack Obama. His hair has gone gray, which is to be expected, and he looks older, which is also to be expected, but his eloquence has been replaced by petulance and he has lost the power to persuade, which is something of a surprise. You can speculate that if the Obama of today and not Winston Churchill had led Britain in World War II, the Old Vic theater would now be doing “Hamlet” in German. The president has lost his voice, that is certain. The numbers say so. Obama has the approval of only 44 percent of...

The folks who run the Yorktown say a lot of kids love the ship, but no kid has ever fallen for a sailor who served on the vessel like these two boys have fallen for Mr. Harding. Which is why, for this trip, the Yorktown made special arrangements for a surprise visitor: Mr. Harding. The boys ran to embrace him; hugging an old salt never felt so sweet. It was hard to tell who enjoyed it more, or who needed it more. Over the years Mr. Harding says he'd kept most of his war stories to himself. "I guess I...

This video contains images of military aircraft shot down, missing during the World War II and found nowadays. Some aircraft have been restored and can fly again!

SEVENTY-four years ago today, Australia's greatest naval tragedy unfolded off the coast of WA. HSK Kormoran was a disguised German warship. Her job was to scour the seas for vulnerable cargo ships carrying the lifeblood of trade to the UK. HMAS Sydney II was a light cruiser. Her job was to escort vulnerable ships, as well as to search the seas for hostile ships - like Kormoran. The initial account of the battle that unfolded on the evening of November 19, 1941, was incomplete and confused. It was built up from interviews of German survivors - individuals who had only...

The True Story of The Patton Prayer by Msgr. James H. O'Neill (From the Review of the News 6 October 1971) Many conflicting and some untrue stories have been printed about General George S. Patton and the Third Army Prayer. Some have had the tinge of blasphemy and disrespect for the Deity. Even in "War As I Knew It" by General Patton, the footnote on the Prayer by Colonel Paul D. Harkins, Patton's Deputy Chief of Staff, while containing the elements of a funny story about the General and his Chaplain, is not the true account of the prayer Incident...

In March 1945, 15 battleships, 29 carriers, 23 cruisers, 106 destroyers, and a train of oilers and supply ships sailed from "a Pacific base." What was this base? The mightiest force of naval Power ever assembled must have required a tremendous supporting establishment. Ulithi, the biggest and most active naval base in the world was indeed tremendous but it was unknown. Few civilians had heard of it at all. By the time security released the name, the remarkable base of Ulithi was a ghost. The war had moved on to the Japanese homeland, and the press was not printing ancient...

About 125,000 World War II soldiers and airmen are buried in 11 cemeteries in France. For many of their families it’s difficult, if not impossible, to pay a foreign visit to decorate their loved-one’s grave. But 70 years after World War II ended, French volunteers continue their pledge to do what American loved ones can’t. “He was in a bomber group and they were flying a mission over France,” said the nephew named after his uncle Chuck. Gunner Charles Speier was just 20 years old, a gifted artist, when he and his bomber crew were shot down April 1, 1944....

James P. Reilly and Michael J. Reilly, fraternal twins born on Nov. 9, 1923, remained close throughout their abbreviated life together. As allies and co-conspirators, they were always within each other’s orbit, attending the same public schools in Queens, playing sports together and jointly enlisting in the Marines. During World War II, when they were 20, the brothers were part of a unit that stormed the beach of a small Japanese-held island in the Pacific. It would be their last hour together. James was killed by gunfire, his body falling only feet from Michael; he was interred in a battlefield...

LAKE CHARLES, LA - Possibly the oldest living World War II veteran lives in Lake Charles and he's celebrating an impressive milestone this week. Frank Levingston turns 110 Friday, November 13.