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On this episode of The Resistance Library, Sam and David discuss the Battle of the Bulge. When we think about American GIs in the European theater of World War II, much of our image comes from the Battle of the Bulge. Named so because of the distinctive "bulge" shape of the front lines, this is where so many American men laid down their lives on fields of frozen mud in France.

American GIs in World War II did not get to experience many creature comforts. Sustained mostly by C-Rations and whatever could be made in a field kitchen, troops were halfway around the world from the tastes of home. There was one exception. Every serviceman had access to a supply of Coca-Cola. This was done through a global network of bottling plants, technological innovations, and an entire unit whose job was to ensure that soda supplies never ran dry. In 1943, Dwight Eisenhower sent a request to the head of Coca-Cola. Eisenhower requested 10 portable Coca-Cola factories near the frontlines. This...

The honor and dignity of Japanese culture carefully hides dubious aspects of their WW2 military operations. Why would a culture place such a high priority of respect onto legacies of kamikaze pilots, suicide submarine missiles, and underwater suicide mine bombers? In short, families of these soldiers knew the personal realities behind the warrior myths.

Interview with Patton's driver during WW2. TWO important notes in this video: Jeff Sanza states he was there when Ike radioed him to STOP and not go further to Berlin. The driver states he saw tears go down Patton's face because he didnt want the Soviets there and it clearly upset him. Patton wanted to be in Berlin 2) The REAL story for eh slapping incident: NO, it was NOT a slap across the face. Idiot liberal media back then had in it for Patton. At 12:30 MARK but watch the entire 16 minute video, it's great.

Like many people my age (62), I was taught both at home and in school that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a great president. FDR, I was taught, saved American democracy in the 1930s with the New Deal and led the nation to victory against Hitlerism in the 1940s. That view of FDR was reinforced by many television documentaries and history books. And virtually every poll of historians — including the most recent C-Span poll — places FDR in the top five of all U.S. presidents (usually in third place behind Lincoln and Washington). This is so despite persuasive revisionist historical...

The Washington Post had a real scoop Monday: people in the 1940s held views that many would find racist and sexist today. It seems that Edward J.K. Gitre, an assistant professor of history at Virginia Tech, stumbled upon 65,000 pages of Army surveys from World War II in the National Archives. Wokescolds have now combed through them and are presenting the very worst of the “harsh views” expressed, in a project called “The American Soldier in World War II,” supported by Virginia Tech and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Post breathlessly informs us that “a lot of it...

101st Airborne veteran Earl Ervin McClung is remembered as an American Indian whose service during World War II was heroic, brave and memorable. As a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, McClung jumped into battle on D-Day, and landed behind enemy lines amidst gunfire both in the air and on the ground. ... McClung has modestly explained, though, that the praise received by Easy Company, following the successful HBO series, could have easily been based on many other airborne companies. “They all went through the same things we did,” McClung said. “This was supposed to have what these men and...

Tells how submarines crippled Japan in WWII (my observation shows how China could also be crippled if they start a war).

With crisply starched fatigues, World War II veteran and 101st Airborne Division patches fixed on his uniform, paratrooper boots glistening, Private First Class (PFC) Vince Speranza marvels at the thrilling twist his life took in his mid-80s. Now 95, the veteran, retired history teacher, widower, father and grandfather, has a popular book called Nuts!: A 101st Airborne Division Machine Gunner at Bastogne that he published at the age of 89. He has more friends on Facebook than he knows what to do with, and fame in Belgium that rivals Jean-Claude Van Damme’s. The freshly vaccinated American WWII GI and Illinois...

Did you know…1980 and 2021 are as far apart as 1980 and 1939.Railway Impression IV – Marta ZamarskaIn 1939 Germany invades Poland. World War II begins. The Great Depression continues.The Wizard of Oz debuts.A Railway Impression I - Marta Zamarskain 1980 the Soviets’ invasion of Afghanistan continues - for another 10 more years - without victory.The Iranian hostages, taken the previous November, are held for another 12 months.Inflation and stagflation continues in the US.CNN debuts.Watching 3 Trains Pass - Mark EdwardsPerspective: it’s a fascinating thing.“Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance. Everybody thinks it’s true” – Paul...

On this date in 1940, Great Britain carried out the first two executions under its brand-new-for-wartime Treachery Act of 1940. Raced into the books in May of 1940 amid Nazi Germany’s onslaught on France, the Treachery Act made it a capital crime if, “with intent to help the enemy, any person does, or attempts or conspires with any other person to do any act which is designed or likely to give assistance to the naval, military or air operations of the enemy, to impede such operations of His Majesty’s forces, or to endanger life.” Naturally the realm had centuries of...

While armed services often crave “gold-plated” weapon systems, Kaiser’s cheap jeep carriers showed how simple, affordable and numerous platforms well-suited to operational requirements can prove to be of greater value. The Casablanca class’ finest hour came in the Battle of Samar, when sixteen CVEs and their escorts covering the amphibious landing at Leyte Gulf single-handedly took on a Japanese battlefleet consisting of four battleships and nineteen cruisers and destroyers. In a frantic few hours, the carriers’ combined air wings and self-sacrificing destroyer escorts managed to sink three cruisers and persuade Admiral Takeo Kurita to withdraw. “Mass-production” isn’t a term one...

Bob Dole was a happy undergrad at the University of Kansas in 1942. “He didn’t want to go to war,” Richard Ben Cramer writes in chapter 5 of What It Takes: The Way to the White House, his doorstop “masterpiece” (as Jonathan Martin called it when Cramer died in 2013). Dole was happily “fooling around” on campus and at his fraternity, pursuing his studies, going out for football, baseball, and track. When he heard the footsteps of the draft board after him, however, he enlisted in the Army. By the spring of 1944 he had risen to the rank of...

Retired Colonel Edward Shames, the last surviving officer from the legendary Easy Company of World War II paratroopers whose exploits were featured in the award-winning miniseries Band of Brothers, died at age 99 on Friday. Shames died 'peacefully at home,' according to an obituary posted by the Holloman-Brown Funeral Home & Crematory. Born to Jewish parents, Shames forged his mother's signature to enlist in the Army in 1942 at just 19, and was one of the officers in charge of the famed Easy Company, part of the US Army's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. The book Band of...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military. But that loyalty is being tested amid a dispute with Washington over the terms of its “Compact of Free Association” agreement, which expires soon. The U.S. is refusing to engage the Marshallese on claims for environmental and health damage caused by dozens of nuclear tests it carried out in the 1940s and ’50s, including a huge thermonuclear blast on Bikini Atoll.... ... China...

So asks Newsweek's cover, which features a full-length photo of the prime minister his people voted the greatest Briton of them all. Quite a tribute, when one realizes Churchill's career coincides with the collapse of the British empire and the fall of his nation from world pre-eminence to third-rate power. That the Newsweek cover was sparked by my book "Churchill, Hitler and The Unnecessary War" seems apparent, as one of the three essays, by Christopher Hitchens, was a scathing review. Though in places complimentary, Hitchens charmingly concludes: This book "stinks." Understandable. No Brit can easily concede my central thesis: The...

The only body recovered after the nation's greatest maritime disaster has been identified 80 years after HMAS Sydney was sunk in a World War II naval battle. All 645 officers and crew aboard the Sydney were lost when she was attacked during World War II by the German raider Kormoran off the coast of Western Australia. The action on November 19, 1941 in which both vessels were sunk remains the most grievous loss in the history of the Royal Australian Navy. The wrecks of HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran were not found until 2008, solving one great mystery, and now...

(CNN)In honor of Veterans Day, congressional Democrats reintroduced legislation Thursday that would provide GI Bill benefits to descendants of Black World War II veterans. The GI Bill Restoration Act was introduced in the House by Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia is set to introduce the legislation in the Senate, according to a news release on Clyburn's website. ...If passed, the bill would extend to descendants and surviving spouses of Black WWII veterans access to the VA Loan Guaranty Program, which provides assistance for buying and...

Wednesday is the United States Marine Corps’ birthday. The Marines were formed 246 years ago in a bar in Philadelphia. Marines old and young across the U.S. are celebrating their special day, including a 103-year-old Marine from Greensburg. KDKA’s resident Marine Ross Guidotti spent some time with Madeline Buchek, whose service in World War II helped pave the way for future female Marines. Although it’s been 78 years, Buchek says her memories of her time as a Marine are as vivid as ever.

Veteran’s Day is here and descendants of World War II Rangers are working to have a Congressional Gold Medal awarded to them. Of 16 million American military in World War II, just 7,000 were Rangers who spearheaded multiple invasions from Africa to D-Day Normandy. Today, only 19 of those Rangers are living. The U.S. Senate has already passed bipartisan legislation that will award the medal. HR3577 will do the same in the House if it gains sufficient co-sponsors. Sen. Jerry Moran was a co-sponsor on the Senate bill, but as of yet, only Congressman Tracey Mann — one of four...