U-47 Threads the Needle and Fells the Mighty Oak

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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The Space Race Begins as the War Ends

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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German Coach Opens Playbook and Calls for Blitz

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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The Tail of the Dragoon

The invasion of France in 1944 has, for more than 60 years, lived in relative obscurity when compared to the invasion of France in 1944.
Confused?
Don’t be…there were two.
The first invasion you already know about.  It’s the famous operation, code-named Sledgehammer during the planning stages, that became Overlord and was launched on June 6th.  This invasion [...]

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Treblinka: “Revolution in Berlin!”

©David Shankbone

For the people living in Treblinka, their one-year anniversary brought little joy, for reasons obvious and less-known.  In case you aren’t familiar with it, Treblinka was one of six extermination camps created by the Third Reich to rid Germany territories and, ultimately, the world, of the Jewish people as well as numerous other people-groups [...]

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Operation Gomorrah: Fire Down Below

When I published yesterday’s piece on Tears in the Darkness, I forgot that I still had a history lesson for the day.  So now that it’s the 28th and I’ve checked my spreadsheet, we get to play a bit of “catch-up”.  My apologies for missing this.
Operation Gomorrah was a joint U.S. – British air operation [...]

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Operation Gomorrah: Reaping the Whirlwind

Revenge is a dish best served cold.
It’s an axiom long used and pregnant with wisdom.  If someone does me wrong, it’s best to walk away and give myself some time for reflection and thought before responding.  Otherwise, my immediate reaction, in the heat of the moment, is often more wrong than that which was done to [...]

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The Fall of France Finalized in Compiègne

It had been a disaster from the first shot.  ”Complete debacle” was probably a better term.  From the moment the German vanguard passed through the supposedly impenetrable Ardennes Forest in May of 1940, the collapse had begun.  The Netherlands were the first to surrender, buried under the weight and power of German bombs.
The Belgians were the next.  The [...]

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Operation Overlord: The Liberation Begins

At 0016 hours on June 6, 1944, the Horsa glider carrying Lieutenant Den Brotheridge and his men landed right near the Orne River Bridge.  That bridge, as we saw a year ago, was a crucial target for Allied capture.  Brotheridge led his platoon across the bridge, in the process killing a German sentry…the first German [...]

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Overlord: Dwight Says “We Go!”

There had been months and months of planning.   Hundreds of thousands of men had been gathered, as had million of tons of supplies and ammunition.  A vast deception operation had been in play, making every attempt to convince German leadership that the French coasts of Normandy were not the destination of the long-awaited cross-Channel attack.  Thousands of ships had [...]

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Dunkirk: Where Retreat was a Major Victory

When we left the British last week, they had just begun the process of attempting to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force (or BEF, as well as French and some Belgian troops) from northwest France.  As we saw, this effort, called Operation Dynamo, was something reminiscent of a football game’s last-second “hail mary” play…a desperation play [...]

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“Let’s Get Outta Here!!”

A couple of days ago, we discovered that, early on in the Second World War, the British had been able to decipher some of Germany’s coded message traffic.  A couple of days ago, we also learned that the British Expeditionary Force (or “BEF”) was about to be trapped in the northwest corner of France.  Combined with the French [...]

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Enigma Brings Bad News with the Good

I’ve been..well…just about everywhere other than here the last couple days.  I started writing a piece about encryption and Enigma yesterday, but couldn’t really conclude it.  I suppose its the fickle side of inspiration and its corresponding creative juices.
But it’s a new evening, things are flowing a little better and, coincidentally, today’s topic is also about encryption…and Enigma.
By [...]

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Auschwitz’s First Inmates

It’s late, and I’m pretty tired, so this is going to have to be really short.
We’ve already spoken a couple times about the Nazi Party’s Final Solution and all of the terrible things that happened because of it.  We’ve talked of Wannsee, where the Final Solution was actually “unveiled” to German leadership.  And we’ve talked [...]

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Rotterdam: Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

When I was growing up, I heard the phrase “Shoot first, ask questions later” an awful lot on Hogan’s Heroes.  It was always accompanied with the background audience laughter, because the “audience” and I all knew that it was pretty much an empty threat when it came from Colonel Klink or Sergeant Schultz.
But for the [...]

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Martin Bormann’s 27-Year Death

With the death of Adolf Hitler on 1945’s last day of April, the mass exodus from the massive underground bunker below the bombed out Chancellery began in earnest.  Those left with the German dictator professed their unwavering loyalty and commitment to him, but when he downed his final cocktail of cyanide (with a bullet chaser), [...]

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Operation Manna: A Modern-Day Miracle

The penultimate day in April of 1945 was pretty eventful.  Deposed Italian strongman Benito Mussolini was now one day dead (but still hanging around), German forces were in the process of ending all fighting in Italy, and there were wedding bells (well, sort of ) ringing below the Chancellery in Berlin.  Those things are pretty [...]

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Adolf Hitler’s Last Live Show

April of 1945 was not a good time to be vacationing anywhere in Germany.  In fact, being German and living in Germany at that time was just about the worst thing ever.  They were being bombed mercilessly, shelled incessantly, and shot at constantly by the Russian army.  For those that think Alexander’s day was terrible, horrible, [...]

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Yugoslavia Pays for Prince Paul Putting Pen to Paper

Prince Paul.  His picture there on the left makes him out to be pretty unhappy.  I don’t suppose he was unhappy all his life, but the stuff we’re going to talk about today is less than pleasant.
First, his cousin Alexander (the King of Yugoslavia) was assassinated in France in the mid 1930’s.  And because the King’s [...]

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The Great Escape, MacGyver-Style

Sometimes we find ourselves up against a home-repair challenge.  Well, maybe I use the word “we” too loosely.  I should just speak for myself.  For me, if the challenge involves much more than shutting off the lights, closing the garage door, or emptying the dishwasher, I’m in trouble.  I’m not a handy-man in the slightest.  If you’re [...]

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