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Cool beans. I love ww2 history. Im planning on visiting Volgograd this NOV (formerly Stalingrad). If anyone wants to start a World War 2 PING list, this would be a nice time to do it.

BTW..lemme know if any of you are going to the 60th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy next June. (yes, yes, I know I'll be in France, but I will also be on American soil (too bad its a cemetary)).

Have you read "Stalingrad" by Beevor? A great book. They are still finding bodies (German and Russian) all over that area. Another great book (also by Beevor) is "The Fall of Berlin". Both are in paperback now.

I recently saw a program on the history channel. Germans are still finding 1000 bodies every year from the final battles around Berlin. They interviewed an old woman who had just recieved a letter from the German government officially announcing her father's death since they had only recently discovered his remains (he had died trying to fight his way with his unit to get to American lines rather than surrender to the Russians). She had no idea or word of what had happened to him for all those years. That must happen all the time in Germany.

There are independent groups in Russia doing the same thing- trying to find the remains of dead Russians since the fate of so many is still unkown to their relatives. They have a tougher time identifying the remains since most Russian soldiers didn't wear the equivelent to our "dog tags" as they thought it was bad luck.

DC - we visited Normandy last fall (Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc, the U.S. cemetery at Collevilles-sur-Mer, etc.) - absolutely NOT to be missed! Next year, Mr. M and I plan to visit WWI sites in France where my grandfather and his grandfather's cousins fought and were wounded (Chateau Thierry, Argonne forest, St.-Mihiel). There is nothing more sobering than a visit to one of the places where our countrymen laid down their lives for the freedom of others.