Free Republic

Just sayin. The entire world changed.

A casual hike on the slopes of Zvičina Hill in the Czech Republic led to a remarkable discovery when two hikers stumbled upon a lost gold treasure worth more than $340,000. The find, made in early February but only recently announced, includes 598 gold coins, jewelry, and other artifacts. The entire collection weighs about seven kilograms, with gold coins accounting for nearly 3.7 kilograms. While exploring the landscape near the Polish border, the hikers uncovered a tin container packed with nearly 600 gold coins. The coins were carefully stacked in eleven piles and wrapped in black cloth. Not far from...

From Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, Russian schoolchildren are preparing for the most important holiday of the year: Victory Day. Commemorated with a grand military parade on Moscow’s Red Square every May 9, the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany has long been used by authorities to rally support for the state. And it starts in school. In September 2016, three history textbooks were sanctioned by the Ministry of Education, all of which gloss over Stalin’s crimes and his initial alliance with Nazi Germany. “My main issue with the textbooks is that they do not reveal the whole truth,” says historian and...

April 18, 2025, marks the 80th anniversary of Ernie Pyle’s death on the battlefield Eighty years ago, Ernie Pyle, one of America's most recognized war correspondents, was killed while covering the Battle of Okinawa during World War II. HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -- Eighty years ago, one of America’s most recognized war correspondents was killed while covering the Battle of Okinawa during World War II. When it came to telling the story of the American soldier fighting the good fight overseas, no one compared to Ernie Pyle. “He exemplified the courage and the willingness to hear the story of the common soldier,...

MILWAUKEE -- Ed Miklavcic said the secrets to his longevity are simple: He took care of himself and worked hard. It showed on Wednesday at American Family Field, where the 105-year-old Miklavcic, a World War II veteran and the second-oldest living survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, threw a ceremonial first pitch for the ages prior to the Tigers-Brewers game. Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick and manager Pat Murphy were among those who visited with Miklavcic before his pitch. He is one of 15 veterans of Pearl Harbor alive today after this week’s passing of 106-year-old Vaughn P. Drake Jr....

The body of U.S. Army Air Force Sergeant Henry Allen Jr., a World War II soldier from Covington, Georgia, has been identified decades after his death.Allen was killed during the war when his plane was shot down over Germany.In June, his family was notified of the identification, which was made possible through anthropological and dental analysis.Sergeant Allen will be laid to rest in Covington at a future date.

https://justsayingitoutloloud.blogspot.com/2025/04/when-britain-rejected-plan-for-jewish.html When Britain rejected the plan for a 'Jewish Army' of 200,000 Jews, including of E. Israel/Palestine to fight Hitler (though 1.5 million Jews did serve in the regular Allied militaries during World War II). The Jewish Army Plan (1941 - 1942) As Hitler’s army was conquering Europe and moved into North Africa, a movement began in the United States to create a Jewish army comprised of Jewish volunteers from Palestine, other Middle East countries, and stateless Jews driven from their homes, to fight the Nazis. Proponents suggested 100,000 Jews would fight because of “their hate for Hitlerism.” The Committee...

A 100-year-old World War II veteran traveled from Bristol, Connecticut, to Iwo Jima to mark 80 years since the U.S. fought on the small Japanese island. Joseph Caminiti, a 100-year-old WWII veteran who still goes to the gym daily, joined U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, military officials, and families of those killed in the battle of Iwo Jima to visit the island for the combat’s 80-year anniversary, according to a report by WTNH. Caminiti is among the estimated three remaining living survivors of the battle of Iwo Jima, where the iconic photograph was captured of U.S. Marines raising the...

Capturing the heart of America, an Ohio veteran turning 104 years old in May of 2025 requested President Donald Trump to attend his birthday in a viral video acquiring hundreds of thousands of viewers. The message acted as a captivating reminder of the enduring patriotism of United States veterans, showcasing the love for our nation still deeply rooted in those who have served. The man making that heartfelt and heartwarming plea to the president while wearing a red MAGA hat was Denver Moore, a proud World War II veteran celebrating his 104th birthday on May 15, made a heartfelt plea...

The letter added that the U.S. has learned “from credible public sources” that Al-Dawalibi “was a collaborator with the Hitler regime during World War II,” and spent the war years “as the personal secretary to Nazi collaborator Amin Al-Husseini, the former Mufti of Jerusalem.” Al-Dawalibi, the letter added, “was a known anti-Semite and served as an informer for Hitler’s security police.”

An American soldier who was killed during World War II has been accounted for nearly 80 years after his death. Last week, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that it had identified the remains of Glenn H. Hodak, a 23-year-old corporal in the United States Army Air Forces from Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania. Hodak was accounted for on September 25, 2024.

The Battle of Okinawa, code named Operation Iceberg, was World War II's largest and bloodiest battle in the Pacific Theater. The landings on the Japanese island by joint U.S. and Allied forces took place 80 years ago, April 1, 1945, lasting until June 22, 1945. It was the last major battle of the war. Army Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., who commanded the Tenth Army, led the invasion. The Tenth Army was a composite unit comprising the Army's 7th, 27th, 77th and 96th infantry divisions, the 1st, 2nd and 6th Marine divisions, as well as a joint Army/Marine Corps...

... Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, recently got the all-clear for a massive increase in investment after parliament voted to exempt defence spending from strict rules on debt. The country's top general has told the BBC the cash boost is urgently needed because he believes Russian aggression won't stop at Ukraine. "We are threatened by Russia. We are threatened by Putin. We have to do whatever is needed to deter that," Gen Carsten Breuer says. He warns that Nato should be braced for a possible attack in as little as four years. "It's not about how much time I need, it's...

During a meeting at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, Argentinian President Javier Milei assured visiting officials from the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) that he would grant them access to classified documents detailing how 5,000 Nazi war criminals settled in Argentina after the Holocaust. Ten thousand Nazi war criminals are estimated to have fled Europe – and justice – following World War II via escape routes known as the so-called “ratlines.” The records of the escapes and who financed them have remained classified preventing historians and Nazi hunters, including the SWC, from gaining access. “While some previous leaders...

The historical fact of the migration of Nazi criminals to the American continent can no longer be denied as more and more official records are released to the population. Unlike Canada’s former PM Justin Trudeau, who refused to release documents registering the names of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators in his country, Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei haw vowed to declassify records regarding the very significant German Nazi migration post-WW2. El Clarin reported (translated from the Spanish): “The government is in the process of declassifying official files on Nazi criminals who sought refuge in Argentina. This was revealed by the Chief of...

Around noon on June 6, 1944, a German soldier wielding a machine gun burst into a small church six miles from Utah Beach in Normandy, France, ignoring the Red Cross flag hanging from the door. He had been fighting most of the day against American paratroopers in the towns, farms, and hedgerows. Inside the church, he found wounded soldiers laid out on pews and the floor as two American medics tended to them. The German leveled his MG-42 machine gun at the occupants and prepared to fire, but then he noticed the medics were treating German soldiers as well as...

The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, John "Paddy" Hemingway, has died at the age of 105. Mr Hemingway, who was originally from Dublin, joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a teenager before World War Two. At 21, he was a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain, a three-month period when air force personnel defended the skies against a large-scale assault by the German air force, the Luftwaffe. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer paid tribute to Mr Hemingway, saying his courage and those of all RAF pilots had "helped end WWII and secure our freedom". Those who fought...

[Video] After an outcry, the Army has republished a history of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team on its website. WASHINGTON, D.C. (Hawaii News Now) -- The U.S. Army has republished an article detailing the history of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team on it’s website. https://www.army.mil/article/283793 The article was republished Saturday, replacing the webpage that was taken down sometime earlier this month, https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2025/03/14/history-nisei-go-broke-wwii-unit-removed-army-website/ triggering an outcry from relatives of members of the unit and others, including U.S. Congressmen Ed Case of Hawaii and Mark Takano of California, whose great uncle was a veteran of the 442nd. The 442nd, combined with...

The classic film, "Battle of Britain", from 1969. This is a vastly intelligent movie, presenting a complex military-political situation with endless nuance - while at the same time being a superlative action movie. And an episodic tragedy. It simply hasn't been done better, not discounting the various "War and Peace" productions. Among other things you see here the outlook of the European postwar, along with it the case for NATO, presented with utter clarity. It is a whole world view distilled in two hours.

Staggering losses in the Battle of the Atlantic during 1942 led many U.S. Navy officials to believe that Germany’s Kriegsmarine was receiving assistance from Axis sympathizers on the U.S. East Coast and had spies in New York City. To counter this threat, the Office of Naval Intelligence’s (ONI’s) District Intelligence Office (DIO) in the Third Naval District sought assistance from an unlikely ally to help secure the waterfront: the Mob.By using informants from organized crime families, which in this time period were referred to simply as “the underworld,” the DIO was able to secure the waterfront and the coastline around...