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Anchorage Daily News reports that an underwater archaeological team identified and mapped a shipwreck involved in one of Alaska's most tragic maritime disasters. The Star of Bengal was traveling from Wrangell to San Francisco when it went down on September 20, 1908, near Coronation Island in southeastern Alaska's Alexander Archipelago. The 264-foot ship, which was built in the same shipyard as the Titanic, was carrying around 140 people when it sank. Of the 110 souls that perished, the vast majority were seasonal Asian workers hired to work in local Alaskan canneries. The wreck was found to be scattered across nearly...

I need not tell fellow Freepers the story of the USS Indianapolis, we all know it.Harold Bray has lived in Benicia, California for many years (as did I). Mr. Bray routinely shared his story with high school history classes (both my sons heard his him). I met him once and spoke with him, he is a gentlemen and a hero. His birthday is coming up: June 15th. He will be 98 years old. His family and friends have asked for birthday cards and well wishes from as many people as possible. The address to send the cards is:Harold Bray PO...

In the depths of the ocean, there are countless undiscovered shipwrecks. Ranging from old sailing vessels, to massive cargo haulers. Most of these wouldn't get even a bit of interest. However, when you limit yourself to *warships*, well, that changes. And in today's video, we'll be looking at another five missing wrecks. Consider this something of a sequel to the video I made a couple years back, after Nautilus visited Midway. In light of their upcoming Guadalcanal survey, this felt fitting.

AT THE FRONT LINES IN ITALY, January 10, 1944In this war I have known a lot of officers who were loved and respected by the soldiers under them. But never have I crossed the trail of any man as beloved as Capt. Henry T. Waskow of Belton, Texas.Capt. Waskow was a company commander in the 36th Division. He had led his company since long before it left the States. He was very young, only in his middle twenties, but he carried in him a sincerity and gentleness that made people want to be guided by him."After my own father, he...

To mark the 80th anniversary of the eventual Liberation of the islands, ‘Britain Under the Nazis: the Forgotten Occupation’ (w/t) tells the story of one the most controversial periods in WW2 British history, utilising eye-witness accounts from those who lived through it. In June 1940 Britain abandoned the Channel Islands to the Nazis. 69,000 islanders were left to live with the enemy, facing an impossible dilemma: to collaborate, resist, or tread a difficult line in between. Their words, drawn from little known diaries, memoirs and letters from both the occupiers and occupied, are brought to life by actors for the...

Losin, Yigal. (1983). Pillar of Fire: The Rebirth of Israel--a Visual History. Israel: Shikmona Publishing Company. *(Archived screenshot)Swastika on the walls of Jerusalem's Zion Gate. Arab feelings in 1936.1936 was not a good year for democracy. The Fascist countries were seen as successful by many people. Every step taken by Hitler or Mussolini met with hesitation and trepidation on the part of the leaders of the free world. Hitler armed Germany, contraven-ing the Treaty of Versailles. The Wehrmacht marched to the Rhineland; this was a blatant violation of the Locarno Pact, according to which Germany was to keep the area...

The Army deployed 65 infantry divisions for the Second World War. Each was a small town with its own equivalents for community services within 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.These civilians become warriors, confronted the most dismal fate of all, and their duty was uninterrupted by missions completed or a fixed deployment time. The infantryman was enveloped within a deranged, barbaric, and brittle existence against a resolute enemy where victory often required...

It was the plane that pilots 'put on' rather than flew; the beautiful beast that left even the Germans waxing lyrical. If you ask people today what typified British defiance the most in the Second World War, many of them will tell you it was the Spitfire. So when I got the chance to take to the skies in one - and even briefly take control - on a sunny morning in March, I knew that this would be the experience of a lifetime. Today, as Britain marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we are rightly remembering the men...

The Sledge Patrol, by David Howarth, 233 pages, published by Macmillan in 1957. $10 in mass market paperback from Amazon. First editions available as used copies. The Sledge Patrol is a one of those fascinating glimpses of WWII which show the conflict through an unexpected and unusual lens. It is the story of the East Coast of Greenland and how a few men can affect a much larger conflict, in ways of which they are unaware. As a bonus, there is the description of a conflict between a polar bear and a man alone on the ice. The polar bear...

In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender in May 1945, the Hoover Institution Library & Archives has released more than 800 digitized audio recordings and transcripts of conversations relating to 20th century conflict – most notably, undercover conversations with high-ranking Nazis who had fled to South America.

https://x.com/DeptofDefense/status/1918999055566614571May 4, 2025 · 253.3K Views

John "Paddy" Hemingway, the last surviving pilot who flew in the Battle of Britain, died in March of this year. He was 105. Hemingway was forced to bail out of his aircraft four times – three times in England and a fourth over enemy territory in Italy, where locals helped him get back to Allied lines. He said that his "biggest regret was the loss of friends, in particular that of Richard 'Dickie' Lee in August 1940.“ The last living witnesses to World War Two are leaving us and taking a shared memory of its history with them. If you...

US President Donald Trump on May 1 expressed his intent to rename two US holidays to “Victory Day” in his latest attempt to alter the country’s nomenclature. “I am hereby renaming May 8 as Victory Day for World War II and November 11 as Victory Day for World War I,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. -snip- “Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8 as Victory Day, but we did more than any other country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II,” Mr Trump’s post said. - snip- “We won both wars,...

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...

On February 19, 1945, waves of 18, 19 and 20-year-old Marines hit the beaches of Iwo Jima, a heavily defended island held by the Japanese. The importance of taking Iwo Jima and converting it into a major airfield for American bombers, cannot be overestimated. Our planes needed a place to land and be repaired to continue their devastating attacks on Japan; and only courage and blood could secure the landing fields they needed to get the job done. Those young Iwo Jima Marines who are still alive, are great grandfathers now with the youngest survivors being 92 years old. We...

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,...

The Doolittle Raid wasn't just an operation of the Army Air Force. The Navy made its own plans, took its own risks, and has its own story that deserves to be remembered. Beyond Doolittle: The Navy Role in the Doolittle Raid | 15:16 The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered | 1.53M subscribers | 55,154 views | April 18, 2025

At 106 years old, Vaughn Drake Jr. was the oldest known survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor until his death on April 7, according to his obituary. Born Nov. 6, 1918, in Winchester, Kentucky, Drake served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. He saw the battles of Pearl Harbor and Saipan in the Marianas, collecting an array of honors including the special congressional medal for Pearl Harbor veterans and the World War II Victory Medal. In 2016, the Lexington Herald-Leader sat down with Drake to record some of his memories of the fateful attack on...

London -- Keir Starmer hailed the contributions of British Sikhs across all walks of life in the UK in his Baisakhi greetings from 10 Downing Street on Sunday. Having hosted a special reception earlier this week to mark the festival symbolising the birth of the Khalsa, Starmer posted a video on social media showcasing the festivities along with his Baisakhi message. “It’s really fantastic to be able to come together and to celebrate the contribution of British Sikhs to our nation, and what a contribution that is and has been and will be into the future,” said Starmer. “From across...

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.