Wounded 24 times in WWII and in Korean War, Tennessee Ranger veteran dies at 106

 R.I.P.

"Wounded 24 times in WWII and Korea, Tennessee Ranger veteran dies at 106

(Stars and Stripes) The Nazis couldn’t kill Thomas E. Gwynn, and the communists failed, too — though he earned a dozen Purple Hearts fighting them." (Source, website blocked despite VPN)

The largest surrender in British history | Singapore, 1942

Very recommendable!

(144) The largest surrender in British history | Singapore, 1942 - YouTube

Japan's "comfort women" system in WW2 explained

Very recommendable! A horrible story of sex slavery at an enormous scale in Asia. One of the Largest Cases of Human Trafficking and sexual violence against women in History. Some of the women were forced to have sex with up to 40 men per day. At the end of the war, Japan made attempts to cover up by dressing abused sex slaves in nurse uniforms or they killed these sex slaves. Japanese medical staff participated in the sexual abuse as well.

Another reason why two nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan.

The Japanese Empire started to develop the brothel system in 1904. The map shows the extent of the brothel/comfort system by 1916.

The only American military cemetery in the Netherlands removes two displays honoring black American soldiers. Really!

Another sign that the Military Times is a left leaning publication! To call the Heritage Foundation a "right-wing think tank" gives it away easily besides spelling black Americans with a capital B.

Why are there no images of these two removed displays in this article? Just laziness/time pressure or?

The second display appears to be not so important and very narrowly focused.

Maybe Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is here also on display by the Military Times and other left leaning news outlets! To blame president's  efforts to end DEI initiatives for the removal of these two panels is probably wrong.

Is it not astonishing how many left leaning media outlets picked up on this rather negligible story as if there was noting more important to report!

Neither one of these three news outlets and some other news outlets bothered to produce images of these removed panels!

"The Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands, has quietly removed panels displaying the contributions of Black American soldiers during WWII, sparking outrage from Dutch and American citizens.

One of the two displays featured an overall history of Black American military personnel fighting a double V campaign — victory at home and abroad — while the other told the story of George H. Pruitt, a Black soldier in the 43rd Signal Construction Battalion who drowned a month after the war’s end while attempting to save a comrade’s life in a German river. ...

The two panels were added to the visitor center in September 2024 after the American Battle Monuments Commission, a U.S. government agency that oversees the cemetery, received criticism from families and historians for not including the contributions of Black service members and their experiences fighting in the Netherlands. ...

The panels were reportedly rotated out in early March, one month after President Donald Trump’s executive order terminated diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives across the federal government. ...

The same month the panels were removed, The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank [???], contacted the ABMC for its supposed failure to comply with Trump’s anti-DEI initiatives. ..."

Netherlands WWII cemetery removes displays honoring Black soldiers

Of course, the Guardian reported about this incident too, but notice no capital B for black. The Guardian also failed to show pictures of these removed panels.

A Dutch war cemetery added displays showing black US soldiers. Then they were quietly removed "Relatives fear the move is part of ‘the same virus affecting the US’, as historians and politicians say it coincided with Trump’s DEI purge [???]"

The Washington Compost did not disappoint either.

U.S. WWII cemetery in the Netherlands removes displays about Black troops (behind paywall) "An American World War II cemetery in the Netherlands removed displays focused on Black American soldiers, sparking outrage and compelling Dutch politicians to appeal to U.S. officials this week to restore the information."

Talk Africa: Africa remembers World War II

Very recommendable! Did well trained African soldiers returning from WWII accelerate the ouster of colonial powers? One could say WWII may have started in Africa with Mussolini invading Ethiopia in 1935. Then there was Italian Libya.

Image of the day

80 years celebration of the defeat of Hitler's Germany!

What is wrong with the picture below? There should be no Russian language on it. Stalin was like Hitler, he also invaded Poland and Finland, Holodomor and so on! From Stalin to Putin the Terrible!

This is the Brandenburg Tor in Berlin, Germany

Short film Wim Wenders: The Keys to Freedom released by the Foreign Ministry of Germany in recognition of May 8th, 1945

You'll be the judge! (in English language) I am not sure I like this video by the  now 79 year old film director.

Amphetamine Use in World War 2 | PBS. Really!

Seriously, a 55 minutes long documentary about this subject by PBS? 

PBS seems to imply that allied forces were copying the German military efforts to create meaner soldiers by drugging them.

This is even a repeat showing, first aired in 2019. Probably, 20-30 minutes would have more than sufficed!

Fania Brantsovsky, last living Vilna ghetto partisan resistance fighter, dies at 102

Recommendable! R.I.P. A heroine!

"Lithuania’s Jews and Yiddishists around the world are mourning the passing of Fania Brantsovsky, the last surviving member of the Jewish underground in the Vilna ghetto and a keeper of the flame of the city’s once glorious Yiddish past, who died at the age of 102 on Sunday in Vilnius.

Brantsovsky escaped the ghetto in 1942 and fought against the Nazis and their local collaborators in the Rudninkai forest with a group of Jewish partisans under the command of Abba Kovner. ...

It was a role that brought her world-wide acclaim and eventually local hostility, when Lithuanian nationalists began to equate her Soviet liberators with the Nazis, and tried to discredit partisans like her who had once considered the Russians their allies. ...

As a young girl, she was active in the rich Jewish life of Vilnius [Polish back then]. At the time [about 1927], Vilnius was home to more than 60,000 Jews and boasted over 100 synagogues, the largest of which had seating for more than 2,000. With a Jewish community that had been flourishing when Napoleon passed through the city in the 18th century, Vilnius was more than just a religious center. It was home to a rich cultural and political scene, all in the Yiddish language. ..."

Fania Brantsovsky, last living Vilna ghetto partisan resistance fighter, dies at 102 - Jewish Telegraphic Agency "Remaining in Lithuania after the war, she became a keeper of the flame of the city’s once illustrious Yiddish culture."

Pacific nations urge Japan to clean up WWII shipwrecks

Long after 1945, we are still cleaning up war debris (like unexploded ordinance) of World War II.

Presumably, the threat is exaggerated to some degree to drive donations etc.!

"Over 3000 ships sank in the Pacific during WWII, including about 300 oil tankers. As they rust, many of them are starting to leak oil. In 2001, a sunken warship in Micronesia started leaking oil and the US Navy eventually conducted a major salvage operation to remove about 6000 tons of oil from the wreck. Several Pacific Island communities are worried that major oil spills from other wrecks will soon devastatingly pollute the reefs and mangroves of their coasts.   ..."

Pacific nations urge Japan to clean up WWII shipwrecks - Nikkei Asia Oil leaks put coral reefs, mangroves and fisheries at risk, researcher warns

Potentially Polluting Wrecks project

Major Projects Foundation conducts fieldwork on sunken vessels in Chuuk Lagoon in the Federated States of Micronesia in May.

Flirting with danger: A play based on the true story of 3 Dutch women who lured Nazi soldiers to their deaths

Unfortunately, we do not learn how many they killed. What did the ladies do with the dead body afterwards?

"... They were sisters Freddie and Truus Oversteegen and Hannie Schaft, who, in  1940 were 14, 16 and 20, respectively. While they, along with other resistance fighters, used dynamite to destroy bridges and railroads, and helped hide Jewish children and smuggled Jews out of the country, the very young women also would go to bars and pick up Nazi soldiers. They would ask the men to go for a walk in the forest under the pretense of romance or sex — and then shoot and kill them. Their story was told in a 2019 book, “Seducing and Killing Nazis,” by the Dutch author and activist Sophie Poldermans. ...
In addition to doing all of this active resistance work by actually murdering Nazis, one of them was hiding Jews in her home. ..."

Flirting with danger: A play based on the true story of 3 Dutch women who lured Nazis to their deaths premieres in NYC - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: Unraveling the Deceptive Deal that divided Poland between Hitler and Stalin

A day to remember! World War II was started by Hitler and Stalin together at about the same time! The pact was designed as a non aggression treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union. 

25 years ago, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ presented a rare portrait of a Jewish soldier in film

What makes great American movies that stand the test of time like the works of Shakespeare? Here is an example! This is by far not the only reason why Saving Private Ryan is such a great movie.

Like the great The English Patient (1996, Distributed by Miramax Films (United States)) introduced the viewers to a Sikh soldier!

"According to the Jewish Virtual Library, 550,000 Jews served in the United States armed forces during World War II. There were 38,338 Jewish casualties, while 26,000 Jewish soldiers “received citations for valor and merit.”

But in high-profile TV and film, identifiably Jewish soldiers have been a rare sight.

One exception came 25 years ago this week, when Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” hit theaters. ..."

25 years ago, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ presented a rare portrait of a Jewish soldier in film - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Frank Sinatra and Gloria DeHaven - "Come Out, Come Out, Whereever You Are (1944)

This was still World War II. What were all those ladies in their underwear doing in the background?

Deadliest Spy of WW2 - Virginia Hall

Very recommendable! She accomplished all that with a wooden half leg prosthesis!

The Battle Of Shanghai: The First Conflict Of WW2 | Shanghai: 1937

Very recommendable with some corrections! This was not the first conflict of WW II as this documentary repeatedly claims. There was the e.g. Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. This civil war was an international conflict with many countries involved (and famous individuals like Ernest Hemingway). It was also an early conflict e.g. between communism and fascism and much more.

What was curious to learn in this video is that supposedly the Chinese nationalist military leader Chiang Kai-shek was wobbly in his decision making. This was repeated several times during the video. 

Conspiracy Theories about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941

Every year we commemorate this day that will lives in infamy! Every year several conspiracy theories are warmed up again and are regurgitated!

Most of these conspiracy theories are garbage and they only superficially sound convincing or plausible. They often claim to tell you the truth! Purveyors of such conspiracy theories have often ulterior motives like implying that the U.S. was imperialist and a war criminal as well.

However, as usual history is most of the times much more complicated than what talking heads like to select for their presentation. See e.g. Events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan in the first half of the 20th century was a military dictatorship invading and attacking various countries etc. to build their empire.

Here are two examples:

1. The November 1941 U.S. oil embargo against Japan provoked the attack (see e.g. here). Picking one singular measure out of a history of many events and measures by various parties involved to explain a course of historical events is a sure sign of demagoguery 
2. The U.S. had advance intelligence information of an imminent attack on Pearl Harbor, but did not warn the military command stationed in Pearl Harbor. How many lives were saved by keeping it secret from the Japanese that the U.S. was able to crack/decipher their diplomatic and some of their military codes?

The Japanese American soldiers who helped liberate Dachau knew the shared history of anti-Jewish and anti-Japanese hate

As they say: Reality or history [or was it truth] is stranger than fiction! The rest is history!

"April 29 marks the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau, the longest-operating Nazi concentration camp. A lesser-known part of that day is that Japanese-American troops played a key role in the liberation of Dachau and its satellite camps. Japanese-American soldiers also rescued thousands of survivors of a Nazi death march nearby, caring for them until medical personnel could arrive. ..."

The Japanese Americans who helped liberate Dachau knew the shared history of anti-Jewish and anti-Asian hate - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Women Spies In World War II narrated by Charlton Heston

Very recommendable!

Among the many courageous women spies was e.g. Virginia Hall with an amputated leg (below the knee). The Nazis were not able to apprehend her when she was behind enemy lines. She even crossed the Pyrenees mountains to escape to Spain from France. She was awarded the  Distinguished Service Cross by the U.S.!

The Bizarre Origins Of Radar Technology during World War II

Very recommendable, but a little bit aged!

Radar actually discovered the Japanese navy and air attack on Pearl Harbor, but the warnings were ignored for lack of experience with radar at the time.