A Few of FR's Finest..Every Day..02-6,7-07..WW2: The War, The Era, The Monument, The FReeper Vets

February 6, 2007 | Dolly Howard

[DollyCali]

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay, or a profile of another FReeper.

On Mondays please visit us to see photos of A FEW OF FR'S VETERANS AND ACTIVE MILITARY

If you have a suggestion, or an idea, or if there's a FReeper you would like to see featured, please drop one of us a note in FR mail.

We're having fun and hope you are!
~ Billie, Dutchess, DollyCali, GodBlessUSA, Aquamarine~

World War II (abbreviated WWII), or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict fought between the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers, from 1939 until 1945. Armed forces from over seventy nations engaged in aerial, naval, and ground-based combat. Spanning much of the globe, World War II resulted in the deaths of over sixty million people, making it the deadliest conflict in human history. The war ended with an Allied victory .

Names & words like Adolf Hitler,Nagasaki, Normandy, the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, Nazi, Adolph Eichmann, Rudolf Hess Auchwitz, , Iwa Jima, Atomic Bomb all bring sharp memories and often tears to those who lived through the time & bring images of a sad history for those of us who followed. .

Some 63 million people, or 3% of the world population, died in the war (though estimates vary): about 24 million soldiers and 38 million civilians. This total includes the estimated 9 million lives lost in the Holocaust. Of the total deaths in World War II, approximately 80% were on the Allied side and 20% on the Axis side.

Allied forces suffered approximately 17 million military deaths, of which about 11 million were Soviet and 3 million Chinese. Axis forces suffered about 8 million, of which more than 5 million were German. In total, of the military deaths in World War II, approximately 44% were Soviet soldiers, 22% were German, 12% were Chinese, 8% were Japanese, 9% were soldiers of other Allied forces, and 5% were other Axis country soldiers. Some modern estimates double the number of Chinese casualties originally stated. Of the civilian deaths, approximately 90% were Allied (nearly a third of all civilians killed were Soviet citizens, and more than 15% of all civilians killed in the war died in German extermination camps) and 10% were Axis.

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Many civilians died as a result of disease, starvation, massacres, genocide--in particular, the Holocaust--and aerial bombing. One estimate is that 12 million civilians died in Holocaust camps, 1.5 million by bombs, 7 million in Europe from other causes, and 7.5 million in China from other causes.[7] Allied civilian deaths totaled roughly 38 million, including 11.7 million in the Soviet Union, 7 million in China and 5.2 million from Poland. There were around 3 million civilian deaths on the Axis side, including 2 million in Germany and 0.6 million in Japan. The Holocaust refers to the organized state-sponsored murder of 6 million Jews, 1.8-1.9 million non-Jewish Poles, 200,000-800,000 Roma people, 200,000-300,000 people with disabilities, and other groups carried out by the Nazis during the war.

The Soviet Union suffered by far the largest death toll of any nation in the war, over 23 million. The Holocaust was the organized murder of an estimated nine million people, including approximately six million Jews. Originally, the Nazis used killing squads known as Einsatzgruppen to conduct massive open-air killings, shooting as many as 33,000 people in a single massacre, as in the case of Babi Yar. By 1942, the Nazi leadership decided to implement the Final Solution, or Endlösung, the genocide of all Jews in Europe, and to increase the pace of the Holocaust. The Nazis built six extermination camps specifically to kill Jews. Millions of Jews who had been confined to massively overcrowded ghettos were transported to these "Death-camps", in which they were either slaughtered on arrival or put to work until the Nazis could find no more use for them, at which point they were put to death by shooting or mass poisoning in gas chambers. .

In a short presentation such as this no attempt will be made to do a depth study of this war but rather to provide some links for those with an interest to know more.

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WW2 time line

WW 2 Europe

WW2 Pacific Timeline

Eyewitness to History WW2

Pacific Naval Battles

Wikipedia – WW2

Mini Biographies of Military & Political Leaders

Best of History Websites

Voices of WW2

The magnificent World War II Memorial Official Site was dedicated on May 29th of 2004, but this wonderful memorial cannot be shared with most WW II Veterans here in Ohio or elsewhere. They are now in their 80s to 90s.

The majority are on limited, fixed incomes, lack help. A twelve-hour bus ride is not an option for these heroes.

According to Veterans Affairs statistics, about 1,200 WW II Veterans die each and every day. The overwhelming majority of them will pass away without ever having an opportunity to visit the memorial they have waited over 60 years to see. We are changing that.

FReeper Warrior Queen works with the Cleveland USO & volunteers now with a remarkable group. Here are some of her comments…. We now fly WW II Veterans, one Saturday a month, in large commercial aircraft to the Washington, DC area. The program is called Honor Flight and the purpose is to fly America’s elderly veterans to visit the memorials dedicated to recognize their service and the sacrifices of their friends.

We are a federal nonprofit (501c3) organization. We are doing everything we can to make this activity FREE for the veterans. Sadly, Honor Flight does not receive any corporate or government sponsorship. We are asking for donations to cover airfare, tour bus services, food, tee shirts, scooter/wheelchair rental, oxygen and operational costs. We’re hoping that, by getting the word out, public support will continue to grow.

The more support we receive, the more veterans finally get to visit their memorial. Over the past two years, we have transported a total of 463 members of “the Greatest Generation.” We are now joined by other programs in North Carolina, Utah, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Illinois. Next year, our combined goal is to fly over 5000 WW II Veterans.

We conduct regular operations out of Dayton and Columbus. We plan to expand to Cleveland in 2007. Round trip, same day flights from Cleveland into Baltimore Washington International (BWI) would cost about $120.00 per seat. We then handle ALL the ground operations/logics from BWI, around Washington DC and back to the airport. We provide a deluxe motor coach, meals, tee shirts, name tags, motorized scooters, oxygen, etc. Our cost is about $50.00 per person.

It is our hope that we will pick up the cost of all ground expenses so that organizations from around the country pay only for their airfare. The cost will be about $120.00 a piece< to make the dreams of hundreds of WWII Veterans from Cleveland come true. Our policy is that the WWII Veterans don't pay a penny. . We will be serving as the "parent" organization to similar programs across the country. Recently we had about 20 people from across the nation that want to learn about how to proceed with an Honor Flight, HonorAir, Hero Flight, etc. program.

An office is opened that is staffed with volunteers to answer the phone, a national toll free number (1 888 FLY-VETS) and a national web site (presently under revision) www.HonorFlight.org. .

Time is NOT on our side. Since early January 2005, thirty-seven World War II veterans on our waiting list have passed away without visiting their memorial. In another 3 to 7 years, almost all WW II Veterans will be gone.

We remain committed to do everything we can to help those surviving veterans view their precious memorial. They are ordinary men and women who collectively and literally saved America and the
world.

If you would like more information or would like to help, please visit our web site at www.HonorFlight.org, email me at HonorFlight@aol.com
or call (937) 864-7261.

Erwin (Earl) Morse, Captain, USAF Retired
Founder of Honor Flight, Inc.
P.O. Box 214
Enon, OH 45323
Phone: 937 864-7261

More Honor Flight Information

Submitted by FReeper Bev ..the Bev in Bevlar; wife of Larry.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1012827/posts He is also registered at: http://www.wwiimemorial.com. The above site is where Freepers paid tribute to him. I cherish this website!!!

Lawrence Fredrick Zacker was born in Carroll Iowa November 4, 1915. He was 26 years old, married with children on December 7, 1941. The ARMY, NAVY AND MARINES wouldn't take him because he had very flat feet. He quit his job as Used Car Manager at a Los Angeles car dealership and went to work at Northrop building the P-61 Black Widow planes. He was doing his part for the war effort but felt he needed to participate as a soldier/sailor. In the summer of 1942, the United States Merchant Marines took him - flat feet and all after he begged the examining doctor to pass him.

He served in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during the war years and was "bosun" on a ship off the coast of Normandy June 6, 1994. His service to his country did not go unnoticed and at the end of the war, he was contacted by the US Navy and given the opportunity to enter the Navy as an Ensign. He declined and returned to civilian life but often regretted his decision. He was a true flag waving patriot!!

After returning to civilian life, Larry became a Realtor and lived in Sana Diego for many years. In 1973, he retired and we moved to the mountains of N CA to the little town of Fall River Mills. We received an offer we couldn't refuse - Columbia Helicopters needed a watchman and we would be paid while we literally vacationed in our motor home. All we had to do was look after the helicopter during the evening hours. We traveled with Columbia for 4 years and had the time of our lives. In 1979, we decided to settle down once and for all. We bought a small acreage on the river - just a mile from the ocean on the beautiful north coast of Oregon.

In 1994, he received a special invitation, including a seating badge, to attend the 50 year remembrance of the Normandy invasion. He refused to attend because the draft dodging Bill Clinton was going to be there to strut around.

Larry will always be my hero because I knew his heart. I was Blessed to be his wife. He served his country with pride and honor. Larry died 10/31/03.

MY WAR
by William Barrows

Submitted by FReeper Wheelbarrow. A short excerpt presented here from the essay

FOUND HERE

"…..we pulled into what I thought was Liverpool (but later documents said it was Grenock, Scotland). En route we fought off and sank a German submarine that Hitler had boasted sank us, so when a British search plane came out to find us (or the remains) it was a jubilant dockside welcome that greeted us on arrival.

In England our troop train took us to a camp near North-witch for about a week, then again we were put on a train and taken to Southampton and loaded on assault ships to take us to Utah Beach in France where, like the guys who took the beach head, we had to climb the cliffs to get to the trucks that would take us to the combat area.

In France we traveled on mostly country roads (the German Air Force was still something to worry about, and there was a big German submarine post back behind at St. Nazzaire). We bypassed Paris and eventually wound up near Nancy (the last city of any size we’d encounter), the HQ. of General Patton’s Third Army and my 26th Division. Soon after to the east we were dropped from the trucks and began the march to the “front lines” some 20 miles away….."

1-09-07 ~ Hall of Fame #18

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 2-05-07 Military Monday

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' Every Thursday at the Finest The guy's good, folks!

[Aquamarine]

Awesome story behind your service during WWII Ex-Snook, appreciate you sharing it with us here - and thank you for serving.

[Aquamarine]

As promised earlier a few more Wartunes.

Begin

Puttin on the Ritz

[Aquamarine]

Very nice post about you father Dolly, imagine you weren't able to get through that with dry eyes. Can tell you adored your father as I did mine.

[stopem]

Utoh...LOL:)

[snugs]

Wonderful thread Dolly here are photos of my parents from this era. My father was just too young to do anything official in the war. He later went down the mines for his national service but mum was just old enough to be in the ATS.

My mother's father was also in charge of fire watching in Maidstone where both of my parents grew up, I am not sure if this is how they met but they both as teens (13-17) did this in Maidstone under mum's dad.

[Aquamarine]

Your parents look so young there, like kids. Part of that war was fought on your soil which brings it to a higher level of reality. Your country was heroic during that time.

[La Enchiladita]

Silly me, Dolly, it never registered with me that you are Navy. So, you followed in Dad's footsteps, and what a wonderful story of him that you told: memories to cherish forever. He sounds like a man who truly enjoyed serving others and enjoyed and loved his family to the max. I hope you know, although you lost him too soon for your taste, he gave you time of immense QUALITY.

He had a sweet smile too!!!

[La Enchiladita]

Dear Aqua. Alzheimer's is indeed a tragedy. Many prayers for your FIL. I have never seen such a devastating disease in my life... not in my family... but what I witnessed and related to in one of the nursing homes where my Mother lived for awhile.

My Mother absolutely loved the memory of working during the war at Douglas Aircraft. She was not exactly a Rosie the Riveter, but at first she was a messenger, then she worked in the parts department. The interesting thing was that the aircraft plant was covered by a camouflage "town," complete with "neighbors" talking across the fence. There was one actual attack in Santa Monica Bay also.

My father was a "planner" at Douglas but I only learned this decades later by searching family history records. My parents parted before I was born and he was never part of my life. I have never even seen a photo of him.

Anyway, I am also so proud of your father's and your husband's father's and uncle's service. May they all rest in peace yet know how grateful we are that they served our country.

[La Enchiladita]

Diver Dave, what an excellent experience, sharing your service stories with one from the Greatest Generation..

This gives me the opportunity... can't resist it ... to say that last year, the day after D-Day, I was shopping at Trader Joe's and saw a man come in pushing the shopping cart wearing his WWII hat. SORRY I can't remember the name of the ship, but he was there at Pearl Harbor. I also dropped my inhibition (which I have less and less of) and approached him with a "Thank you."

This launched into his story of how he was there, indeed, and then immediately went to medical school upon discharge. He still practices medicine and must be in his 80s. He was shopping for Christmas gifts for his office staff.

[bevlar]

Dearest Dolly......I just keep reading and rereading. Thank you SO MUCH for the graphics and for creating this site! LOVE YOU!!! Bev

[La Enchiladita]

Words truly fail me in attempting to respond to your recounting of your experiences in WWII.

So, here is a heartfelt, yet feeble by comparison THANK YOU. More power to you; I thank God for your health and that He has truly prospered you.

[La Enchiladita]

You can save the entire thread by hitting (Bookmark) just above post #1. Then you can revisit it at anytime via your homepage.

As for saving the graphics, Billie can tell you how to do that. Right?

[4integrity]

My uncle, now deceased, was also in the battle of the bulge...but, I think under Bradley. My uncle was a patriot and such a good man. He didn't talk much about the action he saw. God bless our veterans. We have them to thank for today's freedoms.

[La Enchiladita]

Thank you, WW2 Vet/FReepers: Invictus, Texican, Tommix2, wheelbarrow, Michael A. Marhevka, Bevlar, EdLinn

[Aquamarine]

How interesting it is to hear about how WWII influenced our lives in all sections of the country. I do remember hearing about an unsuccessful attack on the West Coast.
Sorry to hear about your dad, it's as though the war brought them together which in turn brought you about. Proof that good things can come from bad.

[La Enchiladita]

Well stated, Aqua. Mysterious are the ways of the Lord...

(((HUGS)))

[DollyCali]

Hi all.. just got in. Must feed pets & mom & will be back ASAP.. silly Josy is still outside running after "something"..

great Bible study tonight.. very nice people & loving, knowledgeable & intelligent teacher. MAKES it great~

Dinner at Chilis made it better...

[DollyCali]

Awe Dita.. sad story on your folks.. did your mom ever marry after you were born?

Hard to know all the parts of the story.. sometimes even the principals are misled, lied to etc & so their idea of the facts might be quite askew.

Well, should your dad ever 'appear', he will be proud to see & know what a fine woman you have become. His circumstances might be frustrating to accept but we can only answer to our own decisions & others must face up to theirs.

[La Enchiladita]

No, she didn't marry again Dolly, but I sure wanted her to. I embarassed her one time (probably many times, but I remember this one) when her "date" took us both out and I was jumping up and down in the back seat, shouting, "I want you to be my Daddy!!"

Hehe.

[DollyCali]

oh boy.. weren't you mommy's little helper now! She must have been very much in love with your dad & heartbroken over the situation as it unraveled. Did/does she ever talk about it openly with you?

Unfortunately there are a lot of young ones raised w/o the dads. Often the dads aren't even informed about the baby.. All have their reasons I guess & at the time it seems right

did you have a good male influence in your life (grandpa/uncle etc?)

going to check on mom's chow