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THE Bismarck, the German battleship which sank with the loss of more than 2,000 sailors, was scuttled by her own crew, according to a news docu-mentary to be screened this weekend. The Second World War flagship, the pride of Hitler’s naval fleet, sank so quickly that it must have been deliberately aimed at the ocean floor by desperate commanders, according to the programme, made by the Titanic film director, James Cameron. Semi-crippled after an aircraft-launched torpedo knocked out her rudder, the Bismarck was hounded across the Atlantic by a chasing British naval pack. Then, on 27 May, 1941, in what...

Seventy-two years after eight airmen in the B-24 Liberator Hot as Hell crashed in violent weather over India during World War II, part of the crew began their final journey home after a full-honors ceremony Wednesday, April 13, 2016, at Air Force Station Palam in New Delhi, India. TARA COPP/STARS AND STRIPES AIR FORCE STATION PALAM, NEW DELHI, India — Seventy-two years after eight airmen in the B-24 Liberator Hot as Hell crashed in violent weather over India, part of the crew has begun the final journey home. In a full-honors ceremony Wednesday at New Delhi’s airport, Secretary of Defense...

When John Kerry toured the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum this week before meeting foreign ministers at the G-7 Summit, Reuters reports that he had witnessed “haunting displays [of] photographs of badly burned victims, the tattered and stained clothes they wore and statues depicting them with flesh melting from their limbs.” “It is a stunning display. It is a gut-wrenching display,” explained Kerry. “It is a reminder of the depth of the obligation every one of us in public life carries … to create and pursue a world free from nuclear weapons.” Iran exempted, of course. But, really, is this...

A great-grandfather has celebrated his 100th birthday with a skydive from 10,000ft (3,000m). D-Day veteran Verdun Hayes made the jump at Dunkeswell Airfield near Honiton, Devon, to raise money for the North Devon Hospice.

In the early 1940s, the U.S. Navy still expected to need huge, first rate battleships to fight the best that Japan and Germany had to offer. The North Carolina, South Dakota, and Iowa-class battleships all involved design compromises. The Montanas, the last battleships designed by the U.S. Navy, would not.

Monday in Holy Week, 1937 ... ... was the day when the Gestapo raided diocesan offices and presbyteries all over Germany. The previous day, Palm Sunday, when the churches were packed, priests all over Germany had read publicly the Encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge [=With Burning Sorrow?] of the Holy Father Pope Pius XI [thanks to Fr Ray for reminding us]. It had been smuggled into Germany in the Nuncio's Diplomatic Bag and secretly printed (as when the secret press was thumping away in the attic of Stonor House to produce S Edmund Campion's Decem Rationes); secretly distributed by special couriers...

At 0930 hours on 18 Mar 1938, at the mountain village of Brennero in the Brenner Pass, Italian Alpine troops welcomed the arrival of Benito Mussolini and Galeazzo Ciano by train. As snow drifted down heavily, Adolf Hitler and Joachim von Ribbentrop arrived, also by train. Ciano escorted Hitler and Ribbentrop toward Mussolini's train car over red carpet. The subsequent meeting lasted two hours and twelve minutes; after which, they each returned to their capitals. The two parties discussed potential plans for future joint-aggression, but to the public they offered terms to maintain peace in Europe.

General Draza Mihailovich Belgrade 1946 The famous bridge over the Drina River in Visegrad, Bosnia. Photo: Creative Commons Aleksandra's note: 70 years ago, on the night of March 12-13, 1946 near Visegrad in Bosnia, the town made famous by Ivo Andric's classic novel "The Bridge on the Drina" published in 1945, the most decorated Serbian military officer and leader of the first successful uprising against the Nazis in all of occupied Europe was finally captured by the Yugoslav communist special security agents (OZNA) loyal to Marshal Josip Broz Tito after a long manhunt. A short time later the Yugoslav communists...

Lt. Col. James M. Inks (USAF) 1921-2004 Lt. Col. James M. Inks (USAF): American Military Forces treated as prisoners by Tito's Partisans / The Chetniks treated us like free men and allies."...I kept an accurate account of what happened to me and my comrades while we were in Yugoslavia. This has recently had its secret classification removed by the army and is now cleared for publication. I hope in the near future to have it before every citizen in the United States, in one of our popular magazines and you can rest assured that I will leave nothing out that...

Patrick J. Buchanan's new contribution to the flourishing genre of World War II revisionism, should appear in the same season as Nicholson Baker's "Human Smoke." Never has there been such a clear demonstration of the way ideological extremes tend to converge. Messrs. Baker and Buchanan probably could not stand to be in the same room for five minutes. The former is to the left of most Democrats, the latter to the right of most Republicans. When they look back to the 1930s, Mr. Baker's role models are the Quakers and pacifists who believed it was better to lie down for...

February 19 was the anniversary of the beginning of the amphibious assault by the United States Marines on Japanese-held Iwo Jima (wiki) in 1945, during the final year of World War II. Located in the Volcano Islands, 750 miles south of Tokyo, Iwo Jima was one of the final steps in Admiral Nimitz's Central Pacific "island-hopping" campaign and was attacked both to eliminate a base from which Japanese fighter aircraft could intercept Tinian-based U.S. B-29 bombers on bombing raids against Japan and to provide those bombers the protection of U.S. fighter escorts based there, plus an emergency landing site. After...

General Draza Mihailovich on Ravna Gora in Serbia 1943 Aleksandra's Note: This year, 2016, will mark the 70th anniversary of the martyrdom of Serbian legend General Draza Mihailovich. There have been many testimonies over the last 70 years that accurately reflect who the General was as both military commander and as a man. Due to the vast institutionalization of communist propaganda over the course of these same seven decades, the truth has had to fight its way to the light. But "Truth" does, and always will, prevail. That is the nature of God's justice, and God's justice will always be...

When word spread that WWII/Korean War vet had no one to mourn him, that changed quickly He died an American hero, but with no family to mourn him. On Tuesday, however, Sergeant First Class Sidney Dean Cochran was buried with full military honors, surrounded by hundreds of strangers who came to pay their respects to the World War II veteran. Thanks to a social media campaign that began with a post on funeral director Ryan Jensen’s wife’s Facebook page, word quickly spread about the service.

SYDNEY – A 93-year-old World War II veteran from the United States embraced his wartime girlfriend in Australia in their reunion Wednesday after more than 70 years apart.

Capt. Jerry Yellin, from Fairfield, Iowa, flew the final combat mission in World War II. World War II veterans visit Iwo Jima for the 70th anniversary Mar. 21 in commemoration of the end of World War II.

Jean-Marie Loret, who died in 1985 aged 67, never met his father, but went on to fight Nazi forces during the Second World War. His extraordinary story has now been backed up by a range of compelling evidence, both in France and in Germany, which is published in the latest edition of Paris's Le Point magazine. Hitler is said to have had an affair with Mr Loret's mother, Charlotte Lobjoie, 16, as he took a break from the trenches in June 1917. Although he was fighting the French near Seboncourt, in the northern Picardy region, Hitler made his way to...

Until his death in 1985, Jean-Marie Loret believed that he was the only son of Adolf Hitler. There is now renewed attention to evidence from France and Germany that apparently lends some credence to his claim. Loret collected information from two studies; one conducted by the University of Heidelberg in 1981 and another conducted by a handwriting analyst that showed Loret’s blood type and handwriting, respectively, were similar to the Nazi Germany dictator who died childless in 1945 at age 56. The evidence is inconclusive but Loret’s story itself was riveting enough to warrant some investigation. The French newspaper Le...

Getting to know the Hitlers (Filed: 20/01/2002) FOR more than 50 years, the relatives of Adolf Hitler have hidden under false names in Long Island, New York. They have not spoken publicly since the Second World War. In a revelatory new book to be launched this week, they break their silence. David Gardner tells their story. The faint lilt of German folk music floated through the open window of the dark-wood alpine bungalow as I walked down the short path to the front door. The property straddled two small roads on a forested private estate nestling into one of the ...

Terrorist supporter a school teacherBy KEITH MOOR07apr03 A TERRORIST group supporter who claims to be Adolf Hitler's illegitimate son has been teaching at a Melbourne school. Despite having recent criminal convictions, extremist organisation leader and master forger Michael O'Hara was able to talk his way into a full-time job at Lilydale High School in January. He still has an outstanding charge against him of taking firearms out of Victoria without informing police. Mr O'Hara, using the name Zeev Gideon Korwan, is executive chairman of the Jewish Defence League in Australia. Writing on the JDL website, Mr O'Hara has vowed to...

DNA tests have revealed Adolf Hitler may have been related to both Jews and black people that he earmarked for extermination. Brussels news magazine Knack has claimed that DNA obtained from the Nazi leader's relatives living in America led to the discovery. Journalist Jean-Paul Mulders garnered the DNA from a serviette dropped by one of three known Hitler descendants who live on Long Island, New York. That led earlier this year to the tracking down in Austria of a farmer known only as Norbert H. who was found to be a cousin of the German dictator. Mulders used the services...