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On August 6, 1945, 30-year-old U.S. Air Force pilot Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr. took to the sky in the Enola Gay, his Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber. His destination, the Japanese city of Hiroshima, was not an especially notable target. His payload, however, a single bomb nicknamed “Little Boy,” would change the course of history. True watershed moments in history are rare — the agricultural revolution is one such example, as was the Battle of Salamis, the advent of Jesus Christ, and the fall of Western Rome. Yet in the last 1,500 years, no two distinct epochs of time...

The process to remove grave headstones of German prisoners of war that display swastikas and markings related to the Nazi regime at cemeteries in Texas and Utah will begin later this month, Veterans Affairs announced. The VA said Monday in a statement that it has decided to replace the headstones on gravesites of three German POWs. Two are located at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas, and one is at Fort Douglas Post Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah. “Americans must always remember the horror of the Nazi regime and why so many Americans sacrificed so much...

WASHINGTON — The US Veterans Administration will not replace three tombstones of soldiers who fought for Nazi Germany inscribed with swastikas in its military cemeteries, calling them “historic resources.” A group that advocates for religious freedom in the military on Monday called on the VA to replace two World War II-era POW headstones in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas, inscribed with swastikas inside a German cross, and the phrase, “He died far from his home for the Führer, people, and fatherland.”

The Kremlin reacted with fury on Tuesday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Soviet collusion with Nazi Germany led to the outbreak of World War II. While visiting Poland on Monday to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz death camp, Zelensky said the Poles “were the first to feel the consequences of the criminal collusion of the totalitarian regimes.” Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and carved up Poland in September 1939 under a secret clause of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Nazi invasion prompted Britain and France to declare war on Germany. “We categorically disagree with...

PORTSMOUTH, England – President Donald Trump read from a prayer delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he joined other world leaders and veterans Wednesday in marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Roosevelt went on national radio on June 6, 1944, to address the U.S. for the first time about the Normandy invasion. Trump, with images of an American flag and Roosevelt projected behind him, read to the crowd: "Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day, have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilization and to set free...

Four months after the Pearl Harbor attacks, Kapitanleutnant Reinhard Hardegen decided that Americans should see for themselves what war with Adolf Hitler's Germany was going to look like. He began with Florida sunbathers. On April 11, 1942, Hardegen's submarine, U-123, torpedoed the tanker SS Gulfamerica off Jacksonville. He maneuvered U-123 around the flaming wreck and surfaced between the SS Gulfamerica and the beach. He sank it with U-123's deck gun. Hardegen later wrote in his log: "All the vacationers had seen an impressive special performance at [President Franklin D.] Roosevelt's expense. A burning tanker, artillery fire, the silhouette of a...

The Army deployed 65 infantry divisions for the Second World War. Each was a small town with its own equivalents for community services plus eight categories of combat arms. Units such as artillery, engineering, and heavy weapons engaged the enemy directly. Yet of all categories, the foot soldier faced the greatest hazard with the least chance of reward. Except for the Purple Heart and the coveted Combat Infantryman’s Badge, recognition often eluded them because so few came through to testify to the valor of the many. The infantryman confronted the most dismal fate of all whose duty was uninterrupted by...

BERLIN (AP) -- Germany on Sunday honored a group of Nazi-era officers who tried to kill Adolf Hitler 70 years ago. The plot - portrayed in films such as the 2008 Hollywood movie "Valkyrie" - helped establish a principle under which German soldiers today are encouraged to defy orders if they would result in a crime or violate human dignity. In a somber ceremony, President Joachim Gauck called the July 20, 1944, bombing of Hitler's Wolf's Lair headquarters in Eastern Prussia a "significant day in German history" for showing the world that there were Germans who opposed the Nazi regime....

He arguably did more than any other artist to raise morale during the dark days of the Second World War. But Noel Coward secretly longed for Nazi bombers to attack Hollywood because he was furious at the failure of fellow British stars in Los Angeles to rally to the country’s aid during the Blitz. In an angry letter to the novelist and dramatist Clemence Dane, which is among a cache of papers being sold at auction, the playwright and composer said longed for the ‘happy and beautiful’ bombing raid.

In the dead of the night 70 years ago, more than 1,000 Japanese men stormed the barbed wire perimeter fences of Cowra prisoner of war camp in central NSW. Armed with improvised weapons including baseball bats and sharpened kitchen knives, hundreds of Japanese prisoners overcame machine gun posts in what would become the biggest POW escape of World War II. The mass breakout at the detention camp on August 5, 1944 resulted in a 10-day manhunt as Australian soldiers and police searched for hundreds of armed escapees roaming the Cowra countryside, 300km west of Sydney. A total of 359 Japanese...

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day landings is an opportunity for present generations to show gratitude for the “heavy sacrifice” of soldiers who landed on the beaches of Normandy to fight against “Nazi barbarism” and free occupied France during World War II. He also states that it should serve as a reminder that excluding God from the lives of people and societies can bring nothing but death and suffering and he calls on the people of Europe to find their roots and future hopes in the Gospel of Christ. The Holy Father’s words are contained...

This June 6th marks the seventieth anniversary of the D-Day Normandy landings. While not the largest amphibious operation in history, it is perhaps the most significant. Europe was pinned beneath the boot of National Socialism, a godless, gnostic sect that swept God from public life. The Normandy invasion spelled the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. The scope of all that happened on D-Day is hard to fathom. Its success in all its many facets is a testimony to the powers of organization and order that once existed in America and her Western allies. On that day full of...

Under a slate grey sky, the words of Winston Churchill rang defiantly around Westminster: 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.' It may be 70 years old, but the resounding call to arms during the Battle of Britain still stiffened the sinew bringing pride and not a few tears yesterday. Churchill's famous address was delivered by actor Robert Hardy at 3.52pm  -  exactly the time they were originally spoken in Parliament by the wartime Prime Minister on August 20, 1940.   Former fighter pilots, Churchill's daughter Lady Soames and...

In the end, it was only time from which he could not escape. Jack Harrison, the last of those involved in the 'Great Escape', has passed away, peacefully and quietly, at the age of 97. It has been 66 years since the dark night when he waited with bated breath, preparing to crawl through ‘Harry’ and under the wire of Stalag Luft III. Many years after the war the former RAF pilot, and his brave and resourceful comrades, would be immortalised by the iconic 1963 film - starring Richard Attenborough and Steve McQueen - which remains the staple fare of...

The Loss of HMAS SYDNEY II Summary The controversy HMAS SYDNEY II was lost on 19 November 1941. She sank after an engagement with HSK KORMORAN, a German armed raider that was disguised as the Dutch merchant vessel MV STRAAT MALAKKA.KORMORAN also sank, being scuttled by her commanding officer, CAPT Detmers. SYDNEY’s commanding officer, CAPT Burnett, and all her 644 crew were lost; CAPT Detmers and 317 of his crew managed to take to lifeboats and survive. That consequence led to doubt and controversy about the circumstances of the engagement because the account given by the German survivors was that...

The Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, AC, AFC said HMAS Sydney II was lost with all hands on 19 November 1941, following an engagement with the German raider, HSK Kormoran, off the Western Australian coast. “For a long time our nation has struggled to understand how our greatest maritime disaster occurred,” Air Chief Marshal Houston said. “The unanswered questions have haunted the families of those brave sailors and airmen that never came home.” President of the Commission, the Honourable Terence Cole, AO, RFD, QC, said that the Inquiry’s key findings confirm that accounts provided by...

THE long-awaited report of the defence inquiry into the controversial loss of the cruiser HMAS Sydney in 1941 will be released tomorrow. Defence Minister John Faulkner will unveil the report at the Australian War Memorial in a function attended by defence chiefs and inquiry commissioner Terence Cole. HMAS Sydney was lost with all 645 crewmen in a battle with the German mercantile raider Kormoran off the West Australian coast on November 19, 1941. ..... In March last year, the wreckage of both vessels was discovered some 112 nautical miles off the WA coast in waters around 2.5 kilometres deep. Damage...

It’s hard for anyone under the age of at least 50 to say they truly understood Ted Kenna, except for his family and perhaps anyone who’s almost died in combat. And Ted was probably easier to understand than others famed or prominent among his World War II generation, a laconic, uncomplicated country guy who happened to have been given a medal called the Victoria Cross. Ted Kenna and his wife Marjorie For valour. It’s the highest honour you can get. But judging by the muted reaction to Ted’s death, at 90, a lot of people didn’t really get what he...

HIS wife once compared him to a Datsun Sunny, suggesting he would "go forever". But on Wednesday night, following surgery in Geelong Hospital, Ted Kenna died a few days after his 90th birthday. There was little about Mr Kenna to distinguish him from the rest of his generation - except for a single moment in 1945, when he made a choice he was compelled to explain over and over for the rest of his life. Winning the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery, was both a privilege and burden. He had met the Queen 13 times and appeared on...

WHEN Kim Beazley slipped his feet under the desk as Australia's defence minister in 1984, he took charge of a vast department with a multibillion-dollar budget and gained access to the nation's most valuable military secrets. But even from his position at the apex of Australia's military machine he was unable to find a definitive answer to one of his family's most enduring mysteries: what happened to Uncle Syd. Now, a quarter of a century on, Beazley has put his influence behind a campaign to demand answers to questions surrounding one of the nation's most tragic wartime episodes, the sinking...