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I need a little help from knowledgeable FR posters. My wife recently came across her father's WWII medals. They were in poor shape. He was a member of Company C, 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Division and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. His company was known as the "Sharpshooters of Munshausen." Anyway, my wife wants to get replacements and we came across a loose clasp that simply said, "1000." Her father was awarded the CIB and also the sharpshooter medal. I am assuming that "1000" means he qualified at 1000 yards. Am I correct?

The two “ghost ships” discovered sailing towards the Italian coast last week with hundreds of migrants – but no crew – on board are just the latest symptom of what experts consider to be the world’s largest wave of mass-migration since the end of the second world war. Wars in Syria, Libya and Iraq, severe repression in Eritrea, and spiralling instability across much of the Arab world have all contributed to the displacement of around 16.7 million refugees worldwide. A further 33.3 million people are “internally displaced” within their own war-torn countries, forcing many of those originally from the Middle...

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe will "express remorse" for World War II, the Associated Press reports. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that his government would express remorse for World War II on the 70th anniversary of its end in August. [Snip] He said the government would draft a new statement "that includes Japan's remorse for the war," though he stopped short of saying it would apologize. The Japan Times has more on the move:

For the first time in 70 years, no World War II veteran will be sitting in the House of Representatives or in the Senate when 114th Congress convenes Jan. 3, according to the Association of Mature American Citizens. Michigan’s John Dingell, 88, and 91-year-old Ralph Hall, of Texas, were the last of what’s known as the Greatest Generation to serve. Dingell, a Democrat, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1944, when he turned 18, and rose to the rank of second lieutenant. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1955 and holds the distinction of being the...

'He was Hitler's favourite Nazi commando, famously rescuing Mussolini from an Italian hilltop fortress, and was known as "the most dangerous man in Europe". After World War Two, he landed in Argentina and became a bodyguard for Eva Perón, with whom he was rumoured to have had an affair. So when Otto Skorzeny arrived in Ireland in 1959, having bought a rural farmhouse in County Kildare, it caused much intrigue.'

Lying under a thin veil of desert sand, a bag belonging to a Second World War soldier has been discovered intact 65 years after he dropped it. Its contents, buried for decades under the Sahara sun, have remained in remarkable condition, providing a fascinating insight into a bygone era. There are letters written by family who have long since died, photographs and personal belongings. Now Alec Ross's family are hoping to have the bag returned to England. Mr Ross was a despatch rider in the 8th Army when he lost the backpack in Egypt in 1942. It was found recently...

Some GI wanted to keep his sweetheart picture close at hand.  I have seen pictures enclosed in Lucite grips before. The uniform appears to be an Army officer's winter service uniform from early in the war.  The Sam Browne belt and shoulder strap were replaced early in 1942.   Of course, existing uniforms were often used for quite some time after they were superseded. If you look closely at the frame, just below the slide, you can make out the UNITED STATES PROPERTY stamp. Large numbers of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines kept their .45 service pistols after the war,...

Planes Filled the Sky Remembering the Battle of the Bulge. Warren Kozak January 5 - January 12, 2015, Vol. 20, No. 17 Exactly seventy years ago, Allied forces in Europe experienced an all-too-common occurrence in war: a huge intelligence failure that led to a surprise attack, followed by a horrific battlefield disaster. That it was transformed into victory by the Allies  was due, in large measure, to the incredible bravery of young Americans, who were outnumbered, outgunned, and fighting in some of the worst physical conditions of World War II.Seventy years later, the Battle of the Bulge is not as...

Each year, the Commandant issued a special Christmas message to be read to Marines all over the globe. Below is the Commandant's message from 1944. The Commandant's Christmas 1944 Message Among the many important things which men sacrifice in the armed forces is Christmas at home. It is one of the most difficult to give up. The American family Christmas is one of the great joys of life. At the same time, it is one of the real, tangible things for which we fight. Its preservation is one of the essential reasons for our being at war. Every Marine who...

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 or its sequence. As the Chief Chaplain of the Third Army throughout the five campaigns on the Staff of General Patton,...

OK Neil – You are right. It was not until December 2008 that I found out that I no longer had to remain silent about the help I received from the Brits in Stalag IVB. I had been asked repeatedly the details of my escape on Friday the 13th of April 1945. Now I can answer. I GUESS SOMEDAY IT WOULD BE TOLD......I VOWED NOT TO EVER DISCUSS THE DETAILS OF MY ESCAPE...NOW "THE CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG"....YES, I HAD THE HELP DESCRIBED. (See below narrative) AT STALAG "IVB" I WAS LOCKED IN WITH 187 BRITISH NCO's. THERE...

The State Department’s Under-Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Rose Gottemoeller, proudly bragged to a Brookings Institution gathering that “our progress toward total nuclear disarmament is now 85% of the way there. If we can maintain the pace, our last nuclear device will be moth-balled before President Obama completes his term.” Gottemoeller asserted that “it is our fervent hope that our example will inspire others to follow suit” and maintained that “a nuclear-free world will be a safer world.” Whether either of these aspirations would bear out is unknown. Prior to the dawn of the nuclear age less potent...

"Patton's familial ties to Confederate veterans is quite fascinating (Chapter One is titled, "Ghosts of the Confederacy") and had a significant impact on his view of history, as well as his role it it. (An extremely important and influential factor, despite what some think.) Patton's great-grandmother once wrote, "I am crying because I have only seven sons left to fight the Yankees."

...Bill Darron drove down the alley behind Laura Hillenbrand’s house (with) a Norden bombsight. Since 1987, Hillenbrand has been sick with chronic fatigue syndrome, which has mostly confined her indoors for the last quarter century. When she explained this to Darron, he agreed to bring the Norden from New Jersey on his next visit to Washington. Now, as he made the final calibrations, Hillenbrand returned to the room, and he offered her a brief tutorial. He showed her how to position herself above the monocular eyepiece, guide the cross hairs toward a target on the map, then lock the sight...

Albert Darago had never fired a bazooka before. He was an “ack-ack” guy, a fuse-cutter on a 90mm antiaircraft gun. But on Dec. 19, 1944, the brass was looking for volunteers to go after some German tanks. And Darago said sure. He was a 19-year-old, color-blind draftee, a native of Baltimore’s Little Italy and a musician who played piano and clarinet. He was no hero, he said. But when Adolf Hitler launched the massive attack that began World War II’s bloody Battle of the Bulge, he had not reckoned on GIs like Darago.

At the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin this weekend highlighted a video of Rand Paul speaking in 2012 about sanctions on Iran. In it, Paul disparages the notion of use of force, and for some reason claims the United States was partly to blame for World War II! “There are times when sanctions have made it worse. I mean, there are times .. leading up to World War II we cut off trade with Japan. That probably caused Japan to react angrily. We also had a blockade on Germany after World War I, which may have encouraged them … some of...

Amongst the findings were shoes and photos hidden by Jewish prisoners of the Holocaust. PRAGUE - House owners rebuilding their attic in the Czech town of Terezinhave found photos, shoes and other possessions of Jews forced into a ghetto there under Nazi rule, a heritage project said on Thursday. Terezin (Theresienstadt), a fortress and garrison town built at the end of the 18th century, was used by the Nazis as a transit camp for Jews rounded up in Czechoslovakia and deported from elsewhere in Europe. They were held in the ghetto until they could be transported to camps farther east....

In a bedroom lay a white silk pillow - yellowed with age and emblazoned with the screaming eagle emblem of the Army's 101st Airborne Division. On the walls were pictures and plaques telling the story of a World War II veteran; in another room was an adjustable hospital bed and, on a windowsill, a worn Bible. That October day, Jim Bennett was looking for an investment, a house to buy, rehab, then rent or resell, as he has done with about 500 others over more than 20 years. But Bennett found much more at the modest, two-story rowhouse on Winton...

Belgium’s King Philippe, right, and Queen Mathilde throw nuts to the public, during the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, in Bastogne, Belgium, on Saturday. The tradition dates from when the Germans asked for the US surrender in Bastogne, to which General Anthony McAuliffe answered: ‘Nuts!’ Photograph: Yves Logghe/AP Braving snowy weather, Americans and Belgians gathered in the Ardennes on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of one of the biggest and bloodiest US battles of the second world war, the Battle of the Bulge. Jean-Claude Klepper, 62, of Virton, Belgium, said “we must never forget what...

TOKYO — Angelina Jolie’s new movie “Unbroken” has not been released in Japan yet, but it has already struck a nerve in a country still wrestling over its wartime past. The buzz on social networks and in online chatter is decidedly negative over the film, which depicts a U.S. Olympic runner who endures torture at a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. Some people are calling for a boycott of the movie, although there is no release date in Japan yet. It hits theaters in the U.S. on Dec. 25. Others want the ban extended to Jolie, the director...