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Archive for the ‘World War II (1939-1945)’ Category

For nearly a month, direct negotiations had persisted.  Back-and-forth communications?…more than 18 months.  The Soviet Union had, since April of 1938, been interested in territory that belonged to Finland, its neighbor to the west.  And Finland had (more or less) politely refused.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact came and went.  The combined German-Soviet removal of Poland from the map [...]

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As General Mark Clark was preparing to depart from his secret rendevous in North Africa, Vichy commander General Charles Mast quietly said to him, “The French navy is not with us.  The army and the air force are.”  So in the early morning hours of November 8, 1942, as Allied forces made ready to disembark, there [...]

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When Operation Citadel was abandoned by Adolf Hitler in July of 1943, it left in its wake the scattered bit of destroyed aircraft, the hulks of thousands of tanks, the burned out remains of more artillery pieces, and the still, quiet corpses of even more Russian and German soldiers.
While not marking the eastern-most advance of Germany’s territorial conquests (those [...]

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The last two months had been particularly unkind to the Afrika Korps.  Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s gamble at Alma el Halfa had not paid off, and early advances merely gave way to a retreat that, ten days later, found them back where they started…with a smaller force.  And that was the good news.  Two weeks [...]

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We rarely visit the movie theater.  Occasionally, we’ll go and watch a movie, but even “occasionally” is too strong a word.  The last time I occupied a theater seat was in December of 2006, when I took my wife to a show as part of a Christmas present.  I don’t remember when I went before [...]

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Italian dictator Benito Mussolini clearly had a flair for ineptitude.  He may have made the trains run on time in Rome and he may have made the grapes more delicious in Tuscany.  He might have even single-handedly kept Venice from sinking deeper into the Adriatic.
But on military matters…well…most people wanted him fighting for “the other [...]

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For the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Battle of Santa Cruz was one of those battles that was looked back on with downcast eyes, heavy sighs, and lots of phrases that began with “If only we…” and “It almost…” and “We just about…”.  Fought to the northest of the Santa Cruz Islands (several hundred miles east of [...]

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The Battle of Leyte Gulf needs no serious introduction to regular readers of Today’s History Lesson, as we spent several days looking at it a year ago.  If you’d like a refresher, here are the three articles from last year, which should give you an above-and-below-water overview of what is considered to be the largest [...]

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It was October 21, 1942.  In Virginia, the mid-afternoon sun shone down on an invasion fleet.  To date, it was largest of its kind ever assembled.  It’s destination?…the coasts of North Africa where Operation Torch would be unleashed.
An ocean away, off the coast of North Africa, it was also October 21, 1942.  But the sun [...]

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Today, East Airfield is just a field.  Every year, a crop of sugar cane is grown there.  When the time is right (like it is at some point every year), the sugar cane is harvested and turned into whatever sweet things it becomes.  And it’s then, when the sugar cane is removed, that the field [...]

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As October 13, 1939 ended, the HMS Royal Oak was sitting in the relative quiet of Scapa Flow.  Located within the Orkney Islands off the northern tip of Scotland, Scapa Flow was a natural harbor surrounded by islands (right about here).  Its beauty as a harbor had been recognized as far back as ships had been [...]

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Vicissitudes.
I love that word.  The way it rolls off the tongue…it’s smooth.  Vicissitudes.  The first time I heard that word was, somewhat surprisingly, during an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Mike and the Bots were making fun of the short A Date with Your Family, which preceded the movie Invasion USA (which happens to be [...]

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As I’ve been reading “To the Far Side of Hell“, I’m reminded again that history looks back on the Battle of Peleliu with an extremely critical eye.  The garrison there was strong and well-entrenched, but the island’s airfield was useless and its aircraft destroyed.  The general principle of “island-hopping” (bypassing Japanese strongholds and letting them [...]

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The early days of Operation Barbarossa were heady ones for the German Wehrmacht, and hapless ones for their Red Army opponents.  The Soviet military had been caught in a pretty bad state of preparation by the well-oiled machine that was their enemy, and they could do little but fall back, die, or surrender.
The small city [...]

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I’ve been off for a couple days, fighting a case of the blah’s.  I would go to the office in the morning, then end up working from home in the afternoon.  And by the time 4:00pm got here, I was pretty wiped out.  This evening I’m better, though still not great.  But let’s talk about something…and try [...]

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Most people have never heard of Usedom Island.  Admittedly, it’s pretty unfamiliar to me, too.  But that’s why we have maps…to find places we don’t really know.  And the map shows me that Usedom is in that V-shaped area between German-Polish border on the Baltic Sea.  Right about here.
I read that Usedom is quite the [...]

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On June 21st of 1942, the Japanese carried out a daring raid on Fort Stevens.  Situated at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, the fort put up a desperate fight in this evening encounter, but was overwhelmed by the superior Japanese firepower.  Fort Stevens was largely destroyed with a large number of the garrison killed.  The [...]

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The fall of France in June of 1940 gave the British a new next-door neighbor.  And without a doubt, the Germans that moved in to the French countryside were most unpleasant.  Within weeks, the Germans were knocking on British doors, but they weren’t asking for tea and crumpets or Yorkshire pudding or even those delicious doughnuts that I [...]

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When the 1st Marine Division saw their “R and R” destination in the distance, they saw an island paradise.  And that was just fine with them.  After the tought fighting on New Britain, they needed rest, they needed to recover, and they needed to refill their ranks with new recruits.  And there on the horizon, [...]

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When we last visited North Africa, things were going pretty well for the Germans.  It was July of 1942, and Erwin Rommel was having a field day at British expense.  The Field Marshal had pushed his opponent out of Libya and 200 miles east into Egypt.  The British ended their retreat and threw down their [...]

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