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WALKING beside his dad, 11-year-old Walter Chmielewski watched as an emaciated man on death's door was dragged towards a crematorium. It was a harrowing sight, but one which was commonplace for Walter, who grew up in a Nazi concentration camp in Austria, of which his father Karl Chmielewski - a German SS officer dubbed the "Devil of Gusen" - was commander. More than 35,000 prisoners, most of which were Polish, Spanish Republicans, Soviet citizens and Italians, were slaughtered at Gusen - a subcamp of Mauthausen - during the Holocaust. Prisoners were subjected to starvation, heavy labour and mass executions and...

Hi-Power, meet the High Power.The Hi-Power — known as the Browning Hi-Power, the Browning Automatic Pistol, the Grande Puissance, P-35, Pistole 640(b), and so many other names — is arguably the most widely-used military handgun of all time. Present in historic conflicts from both sides of the toughest battles of World War II to the Iranian embassy siege in London that made the British Special Air Service a household name, this single-action semi-automatic pistol was unbelievably innovative for its time, boasting a number of features that made it truly higher power than other options of the day.Now, 87 years after...

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.

A letter penned by a young Army sergeant in Germany to his mother in Woburn was lost in the mail for 76 years until finally being delivered last month. On Dec. 6, 1945, 22-year-old Sgt. John Gonsalves wrote to his mother, sending his well wishes and hopes of returning home soon.

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...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K07j-wuL8sw

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

This weekend my wife and I watched a feature length Japanese movie on TV Japan entitled The Great War of Archimedes, a movie that has nothing to do with Archimedes, and there's actually only one -- terrific -- intense battle simulation scene in the flick. I'll do my best here to convince you FReepers that this is a great choice to watch (in English subtitles) -- and try to not give the plot away. What the Movie IS and IS NOT: It is NOT a War movie, though the first few minutes of his movie show a highly realistic and...

One of Australia's greatest mysteries has finally been solved thanks to advances in DNA technology, with the 'Unknown Sailor' finally identified exactly 80 years after he died. Thomas Welsby Clark was just 21 years old and an able seaman on HMAS Sydney when it was sunk on November 19, 1941, about 200km off Western Australia. He had trained as an accountant in Brisbane, then served in the army before finding a berth on HMAS Sydney. His remains washed up on Christmas Island, 2,600km north-west of Perth, 11 weeks after the HMAS Sydney was lost, and it was all that was...

Published on Nov 4, 2011 This is the story of one platoon of 18 lightly armed men held off the spearhead of Kampfgruppe Peiper for 8 hours during the Battle of the Bulge on December 16, 1944. The ultimate David versus Goliath story of World War II.

Cook 3rd Class Doris Miller is an American hero, the first Black sailor to earn the Navy Cross. On Dec. 7, 1941, under fire, he helped move the mortally wounded commander of the battleship West Virginia to safety and then manned a machine gun -- a weapon he was barred from training with because of his race -- to fire at attacking aircraft. A sign at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial visitors center says Miller died on the USS Liscombe Bay in 1944 at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Miller actually died the year before, 1943, on the USS Liscome...

The name alone would strike terror into the hart of even the most battle-hardened German soldier: The Night Witches. Although these women were not Americans, we decided that since they fought as allies against Nazi soldiers and their story is not commonly known, we would give them an honorable mention in our Forgotten Americans section. Named for the sound of their rudimentary, plywood biplanes as they cruised slowly overhead at low altitude dropping bombs, the Night Witches were the all-volunteer, all-female air raid squad that the Soviets deployed against the Third Reich. The spooky “whoosh” as they circled overhead reminded...

Eighty years ago, on the morning of December 7, 1941, at 7:55 a.m., America found herself suddenly under attack. A devastating surprise raid by Japanese aircraft on our fleet at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor sank several massive warships, damaged many others, and destroyed numerous aircrafts. The most tragic loss, however, was in life. The attack resulted in the deaths of a staggering 2,403 Americans. After the initial shock, Americans found themselves facing several decisions of profound significance… decisions that would shape the character of our nation and leave lessons for us today. What can our generation learn from what some call...

Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 23, 1944: more dreary freezing rain saturated the Hurtgen forest. Rhineland rivers overflowed their banks, and U.S. Army vehicles skidded on muddy roads. War-weary 26th Regiment infantrymen — many of whom had been in near-constant combat since the Normandy landing in June — spent this soggy day crouched in their foxholes, as always, on alert. Also on this day, several combat patrols captured exhausted German soldiers willing to be taken prisoner and shipped out to the comfort and protection of one of 511 POW camps in America. The prisoners were brought to the company command post, where...

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...

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. What Was the Battle of the Bulge? The Battle of the Bulge was the result of Hitler's last dying gasp lashing out against the increasing pressure of the Allied forces in France. Hitler's goal was to drive a literal and metaphorical wedge between the United...

There were about half a dozen prisoner of war camps in Tennessee during World War II — the best known of which was Camp Crossville, in Cumberland County. We know a lot more about Camp Crossville than the others because of Gerhard Hennes. Hennes was a German officer captured in North Africa in May 1943. Five months later, he entered the gates of Camp Crossville, where he was interred for two years. After World War II, Hennes would become an American citizen, and in 2004 he published The Barbed Wire: POW in the USA. In it he gives a detailed...

The son of a Bomber Command pilot whose plane exploded in a fireball in Nazi Germany has revealed his father's incredible story of survival during the war. Gerald Sherwood, 80, from St Austell, Cornwall, told how Wing Commander John 'Flap' Sherwood took part in a daring mission before being captured in his new book. He also highlighted how the RAF hero was chucked in Stalag Luft III - the Luftwaffe-run prisoner of war camp made famous by the Great Escape.

Work has begun on an animated film depicting the true story of the cigarette smoking, beer drinking bear which 'fought' alongside soldiers in the Second World War. Adopted as an orphaned cub in 1942 by the 22nd Artillery Division of the Polish 2nd Corps, Wojtek, which in Polish means 'smiling warrior' or 'he who enjoys war', quickly became an adored mascot. He went on to be officially given the rank of Private and learnt to march alongside the troops, salute and even carry cases of ammunition.

A charity named after Winston Churchill has provoked fury by rebranding itself amid concerns over his views on race. The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust has removed pictures of the wartime leader from its website and is changing its name to the Churchill Fellowship. Volunteers at the trust said it was 'rewriting history'. One told The Sun: 'He was voted, by the people, as the Greatest Briton in a BBC poll in 2002 but is now erased from his own charity by the woke brigade. ... ...Controversies surrounding his rule include whether he could have acted more decisively to prevent the...