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Hershel "Woody" Williams, America's last surviving World War II veteran to have received a Medal of Honor, passed away surrounded by family on Wednesday morning. Williams, 98, was the last of the 473 American service members who received a Medal of Honor in WWII. Williams spent his final days with family at a hospital in his home state of West Virginia. Family members called on Americans to pray for him on Tuesday."As he lives out his last days, we welcome and appreciate any additional prayers lifted up on behalf of Woody and his family," his family said in a statement...

It has recently come to light that a number of significant Japanese aircraft wrecks are currently being disassembled for recovery in the South Pacific. Located at the old Imperial Japanese Navy airfield on Balalae Island, part of the Shortland Island Group in the western province of the Solomon Islands, the collection of airframes and components importantly includes two Mitsubishi G4M attack bombers, along with the rear fuselage of another example. The G4M, better known in the west by its Allied code name, Betty, was a mainstay of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s land-based aerial bombing fleet. They possessed incredible range, although...

A US navy destroyer sunk during World War II has been found nearly 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) below sea level off the Philippines, making it the world's deepest shipwreck ever located, an American exploration team said. The USS Samuel B Roberts went down during a battle off the central island of Samar on October 25, 1944 as US forces fought to liberate the Philippines—then a US colony—from Japanese occupation. A crewed submersible filmed, photographed and surveyed the battered hull of the "Sammy B" during a series of dives over eight days this month, Texas-based undersea technology company Caladan Oceanic said....

My college classmate John Floberg recently retired after a distinguished career in neurology. We took Professor Peter Bien’s freshman seminar on Politics and the Novel together during our first term. John is originally from Chicago but we reconnected in the Twin Cities through Power Line 40 years after our studies with Professor Bien. Following in a family tradition, John served as a commissioned Navy officer after our graduation. In 2016 John sent me this Daily Journal article about his father’s service on D-Day and his sister Anne Wilson’s then upcoming visit to the Normandy beaches where John and Anne’s father...

In late December 1941, Navy Secretary Frank Knox and FDR met and selected Chester Nimitz to command the Pacific Fleet, which at that time the public perceived as residing at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt said, “Tell Nimitz to get the hell out to Pearl and stay there until the war is won”. Knox informed Nimitz by saying, “You’re going to take command of the Pacific Fleet, and I think you will be gone a long time”.On Christmas Day 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz arrived by Catalina flying boat to take command. He did not bring any staff with him....

Ukraine has started receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled howitzers from the United States, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Saturday, saying the arms would bolster forces fighting Russia's invasion. "The coastal defence of our country will not only be strengthened by Harpoon missiles – they will be used by trained Ukrainian teams," Reznikov wrote on his Facebook page.

As described by U.S. naval veteran Edward L. Beach, service on a World War II submarine represented ‘stress to the ultimate degree’. Men had to be constantly on the alert for attacking aircraft, prepared to make dangerous dives and endure prolonged depth-charge attacks.The dangers faced by submariners during World War II are apparent in the high attrition rates. According to one estimate, 1,280 submarines were lost in action or by accident during the Second World War.8 In the U.S. submarine service, about 16,000 officers and enlisted men made war patrols; from among these 3,406 died in action. This amounted to...

Ward talks to "Lucky" Luckadoo, World War II veteran who flew 25 B-17 missions in 1943 and the subject of "Damn Lucky," a new book written by Kevin Maurer.Watch This 100-Year-Old Badass B-17 Pilot Describe Flying into Hell | May 23, 2022 | Ward Carroll

With any war movie, the safe audience bet typically favors the immediate, graphic horrors of battle. That way, when you see a title such as “Hacksaw Ridge,” you know a director (in that case Mel Gibson) will be operating with a cinematic license to slaughter. Espionage makes for subtler, trickier storytelling. “Operation Mincemeat,” now purring along, confidently, on Netflix, takes as its subject a singular feat of deception cooked up by British intelligence in 1943. How decisively the operation turned the Allied tide against Nazi Germany is up for historical debate. But the men and women of MI5 assuredly helped...

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin railed against American “exceptionalism” and “moral degradation” on Monday during the country’s annual “Victory Day” parade, celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany that Moscow claims for itself. The Putin regime has for years denied any significant American contributions to ending World War II – going as far as to declare the legendary D-Day landing of American troops at Normandy “not a game-changer” – instead giving all the credit for the fall of Adolf Hitler to the communist Soviet Union under mass murderer Joseph Stalin. Russia marks its contributions to World War II on May 9 with...

The US and other G7 countries vowed to defend Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity” on Sunday’s 77th anniversary of Germany’s World War II defeat — as Russian despot Vladimir Putin boasted of erasing Ukrainian “Nazi filth.” Leaders of the Group of Seven — the US, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, the UK and Japan — made the pledge in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

John Hillman, a Second World War veteran living in Oak Bay, B.C., has kicked off his fundraiser for Ukrainian children and families affected by war. The 103-year-old began his campaign Monday, and plans to walk 103 laps around the courtyard of his independent living centre. Hillman's scheduled to walk 10 laps around the courtyard every day, and local children are slated to join him on his walks next week. The centenarian is raising money for the Save The Children charity, with funds going towards Ukrainian children. "It touched my heart to see those kids being herded away from their homes...

WASHINGTON – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Lt. Col. Addison E. Baker, 36, of Chicago, killed during World War II and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, was accounted for April 8, 2022.In the summer of 1943, Baker was the commander of the 328th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On Aug. 1, 1943, Baker was piloting a B-24 Liberator bomber during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest World War II bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. During its bombing run,...

Come join us Friday May 13, 2022 – Sunday May 15, 2022 for the Camp Aliceville WWII POW Camp Reenactment located at the Aliceville Museum in Aliceville, AL. Camp Aliceville was one of the largest POW camps in America from 1943-1945 housing over 6000 mostly Afrika Korps prisoners. To honor the history of Aliceville’s great contribution to the war and honor all of those who served…we will be putting on a period accurate reenactment of the WWII prison camp for those days. We welcome reenactors to portray Rommel's Afrika Korps and Luftwaffe POW's as well as American MP's and Alabama...

A stunning sight at Buffalo's Naval Park at Canalside Thursday morning. The USS The Sullivans is taking on water. "If you look at the stern of the ship, where it normally reads, The Sullivans, it now reads The Sull," said WBEN's Tim Wenger at the Naval Park. "The rest of the name has disappeared under the water." The World War II era destroyer is listing to its starboard, or right, side. The stern is further into the water than the bow (or front of the ship). The gangway that leads onto the ship from the pier is laying in the...

Pictures feature in Images of War: The Nazis' winter warfare on the Eastern Front, 1941-1945, by Ian Baxter They show the plight of German troops unaccustomed and ill-equipped for the fierce weather conditions Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941 and ultimately ended with Soviet troops' offensive on Berlin Wrapped up against the bitter cold with looks of grim resignation on their faces as they faced a resolute enemy, German troops are seen battling through the harsh Russian winter during their invasion of the Soviet Union. The rare image, taken in the cold months of 1941, is among hundreds which feature...

April 5, 2022, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) BUCHA, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the Russian military must be brought to justice immediately for war crimes, accusing the Kremlin’s troops of the worst atrocities since World War II. Zelensky urged the council to “act immediately” on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of his country, calling for Russia to be expelled from the Security Council. Zelensky called on the 15-member council, which aims to ensure international peace and security, to “remove Russia as an aggressor and a source of war,...

The largely forgotten Winter War of 1939-40 When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, it seemed apt to compare it to the Soviet Union’s invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, when those states sought to throw off Moscow’s yoke and go their own way. The Soviet army needed barely a week to extinguish the last breaths of the Hungarian resistance, and it took only a day to put down Czechoslovakia’s. But Ukraine is not Hungary, and it is not Czechoslovakia. Five weeks in, the Ukrainians have killed thousands of Russian soldiers, destroyed entire enemy columns, downed planes,...

Russia's Vladimir Putin has criticized a recent European resolution assigning some blame to the Soviet Union in the outbreak of World War II. Putin told soldiers that Allied policies of appeasement before the war broke out, for instance tolerating Germany's annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1938, were also to blame for the conflict and for the communist Soviet Union's decision to seek a deal with fascist Germany. But he reserved particular criticism for Poland, alleging in particular that Poland's ambassador to Germany at the time was a Nazi sympathizer. "Essentially they colluded with Hitler. This is clear from documents, archival documents,"...

BERLIN (AP) — Germany is marking the 75th anniversary of the most famous plot to kill Adolf Hitler, honoring those who resisted the Nazis — who were stigmatized for decades as traitors — as pillars of the country’s modern democracy amid growing concerns about the resurgence of the far-right. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will speak Saturday at an annual swearing-in ceremony for some 400 troops before addressing a memorial event, paid tribute ahead of the anniversary to executed plot leader Col. Claus von Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators and highlighted their importance to modern Germany. “Only if we understand our...