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General Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived in London January 2, 1944 to command Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) and to direct the last five months of planning for D-Day. Eisenhower’s study of leadership skills required he never express the apprehension and doubt, which inevitably arise as strain and tension wear away endurance. He was determined always to present confidence and optimism to those around him. He brought with him a confident, battle tested team that had led successful landings in North Africa, Sicily, and Salerno, despite experiencing German counterattacks nearly driving the Allies into the sea on the last two...

Drachinifel, Naval Histriographer and Naval Historian Jonathan Parshall discuss the Battle of Midway

Battle of Midway, (June 3–6, 1942), World War II naval battle, fought almost entirely with aircraft. The Midway Islands were claimed for the United States on July 5, 1859, by Capt. N.C. Brooks. The coral atoll—consisting of Eastern Island and the larger Sand Island to the west—has a total land area of just 2.4 square miles (6.2 square km). Midway was formally annexed by the U.S. in 1867. A coal depot was established for transpacific steamers, but it was never used. It was World War II which conclusively demonstrated the strategic importance of Midway. In 1940 the U.S. Navy began...

It would stand to reason that a battle as momentous as Midway—and a defeat as calamitous as the one the Japanese suffered—would have led to a major re-evaluation of their naval practices and, most likely, to lessons learned that would have improved Japanese performance in future battles. Learning can take place on a number of levels, and the effects of Midway were felt across the board, from the halls of power down to the level of the navy’s operational personnel. Third Fleet’s doctrine emerged in late July 1942. It contained a number of important recognitions and tactical innovations.2 Most important,...

Which side received higher leadership marks on its Battle of Midway report card is no surprise, but the illuminating ‘why’ behind the grades reflects crucial differences between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet, was the architect of Midway and arguably the chief author of its failure. An inveterate gambler, accomplished bureaucratic infighter, and air-power advocate, he was also an outspoken opponent of the Axis alliance with which Japan had entered the war. Yet the outbreak of the conflict he feared had been coincident with his most spectacular achievement: the attack...

I hadn't intended to write about war songs this week. But I was struck by some of the responses to yesterday's D-Day special, and, as always, impressed by the resilience of the accompanying music. It's eighty years since June 6th 1944, four score and six since the first troops shipped out, and yet that sound remains unmistakeable. For those who were there, a few bars of "White Cliffs of Dover" will always mean a crowded railway platform in East Anglia as the troop train pulls out, and a snatch of "Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner" will always evoke the...

Freedom isn't Free. Just sayin...

The Nazi occupying forces massacred civilians in Crete. Credit: Bundesarchiv, CC BY-SA 3.0 de/Wikipedia Greek scientists have recently identified 18 people who were executed by the Nazis in Crete through DNA analysis. In the Battle of Crete during the World War II occupation of Greece, the German forces faced substantial civilian resistance. The inhabitants of Adele, a prosperous lowland village in the northeastern part of the Rethymnon regional unit, resisted fiercely and had formed an armed resistance group. As a consequence, the German forces surrounded the village on June 2, 1941, and arrested 18 male civilians (including two fathers with...

Send this to all your family and friends. This is why Israel exists.

The final resting place of an iconic U.S. Navy submarine that was sunk 80 years ago during World War II was located 3,000 feet below the ocean's surface, the Naval History and Heritage Command said Thursday. The USS Harder – which earned the nickname "Hit 'em HARDER" – was found off the Philippine island of Luzon, sitting upright and "relatively intact" except for damage behind its conning tower from a Japanese depth charge, the command said. The sub was discovered using data collected by Tim Taylor, CEO of the Lost 52 Project, which works to locate the 52 submarines sunk...

American submarine USS Harder that vanished in 1944 is discovered more than 3,000 below surface near Philippines' Luzon island The wreck of a U.S. Navy submarine that "sank the most Japanese warships" during World War II has been found in the South China Sea after being missing for nearly 80 years. The USS Harder, which vanished on Aug. 24, 1944, with 79 sailors onboard, has been discovered off Luzon island in the Philippines with the help of data provided by Tim Taylor, CEO of Tiburon Subsea and the Lost 52 Project, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC)....

The last surviving Triple Ace pilot from World War II is gone. Brigadier General Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson of Auburn died at about 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 17, daughter Kitty Burlington confirmed Saturday in a call with the Auburn Journal. Anderson decided two weeks ago to stop dialysis treatment, Burlington said. Anderson earned Triple Ace status in World War II with 16¼ kills, two probable kills, two damaged aircraft and one enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground. Over 116 combat missions, Anderson’s two “Old Crow” P-51 Mustangs were never hit by even a single enemy bullet. “He’s kind of a...

A dying Marine veteran was finally handed his high school diploma while receiving hospice care after dropping out to fight in World War Two over eight decades ago. Richard Remp, a 98-year-old marine veteran in hospice care, left school at 17 years of age to serve in World War II, before later continuing his service in Korea and Vietnam. But on Friday he was finally handed the high school diploma he had longed for all these years but never received. Remp told local San Antonio NBC affiliate NEWS4SA: 'On behalf of myself and the Marine Corps, I thank you very...

Hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in San Jose, California arrested Filippo Molinari, an Italian immigrant who sold subscriptions to L’Italia, a popular newspaper in his Italian American community. While held in custody, Molinari asked why he was being detained, only to be told that his arrest was “by order of the President.” A few days later, FBI agents forced Molinari and approximately 500 other “enemy aliens”—including more Italian nationals as well as Japanese and German immigrants from California—onto a train bound for an internment center in Missoula, Montana. Later, Molinari recalled how cold...

Has the U.S. government secretly retrieved exotic craft of “non-human” origin? Newly declassified documents, along with extraordinary legislation, illustrate how two successive Democratic Senate majority leaders appear to have believed so. Notably, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) were not alone in their focus on UFOs. The Democratic heavyweights received critical support and encouragement from a bipartisan group of high-profile senators over the years, including former fighter pilot and famed astronaut John Glenn (D-Ohio); Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who observed a UFO as a World War II pilot; Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), then-chairman of the Senate Appropriations...

Sir Dermot Turing, renowned historian and nephew of Alan Turing, delivered a lecture based on his book "X Y & Z: The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken" on 29 March, 2023, in Trinity College Dublin.Drawing on recently declassified archives Sir Dermot Turing told in full the real story how Enigma was broken. He fully acknowledged the groundbreaking work of Polish mathematicians produced as early as 1930s which subsequently led to the joint efforts of the French, British and Polish secret services (X, Y and Z) during the Second World War.Who really broke Enigma? - lecture by Sir Dermot...

HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi signed Bill 7, declaring the City and County of Honolulu a “Purple Heart City” to honor recipients of the Purple Heart. The bill was passed on April 17 and was signed on Friday. According to the City and County of Honolulu, those who were injured, wounded, or died in the line of duty receive the Purple Heart for their bravery and sacrifice. “I’m just really grateful to all of you, not only for your service and what you represent but for having the opportunity to become a Purple Heart City and all that...

The idea of a target-influenced fuze was not new; similar fuzes for bombs and rockets existed at the outbreak of World War II. The proximity fuze functions as a small radio station in the shell’s nose. The basic components are a vacuum tube (six inches long and three inches in diameter) a battery, and a radio transmitter and receiver; a small glass tube filled with electrolyte solution acts as the battery. After the shell is fired and begins rotating, centrifugal force pushes the solution to the outside of the tube, where a chemical reaction occurs with small pieces of metal...

On May 14, 1944, an A-20 havoc (serial number 42-86768), with a crew of three and one passenger, departed Momote Airfield, Los Negros Island, for a courier flight to Nadzab Airfield, New Guinea. For unknown reasons, this plane was forced to ditch in the ocean off the north coast of New Guinea. Both engines failed at low altitude, and the aircraft's nose hit the water hard. Three men failed to emerge from the sinking wreck and were lost in the crash. One crew member survived and was rescued by a passing barge. An aerial search the next day found no...

The sole living survivor from the sinking of the USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor attack that brought the US into World War II has now died. Lou Conter, who lived in Grass Valley, was 20 years old at the time of the attack on Dec. 7, 1941. There were 2,403 Americans killed in the attack – including 1,177 of Arizona's crew. Conter was one of the only 335 officers and crewmen who survived. Over the years, Conter shared his experiences and visited Hawaii for remembrance ceremonies. "Minute it happened, we sounded general quarters and they were in there and...