World War II

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He Survived Pearl Harbor: 'Guys Were Running Out of the Fire'

Lou Conter, last survivor of USS Arizona attack, dies at 102

(Newser) - Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102. Conter passed away on Monday at his home in Grass Valley, California, following congestive heart failure, daughter Louann Daley said, per the AP...

Search to Begin for Ace Pilot's Plane

In World War II, Richard Bong shot down more enemy aircraft than any other US pilot

(Newser) - A Wisconsin museum is partnering with a historical preservation group in a search for the wreckage of World War II ace Richard Bong's plane in the South Pacific. The Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior and the nonprofit World War II historical preservation group Pacific Wrecks announced...

'Great Escape' Observances Honor the 50

76 POWs made it through a tunnel out of a German camp, but most were later murdered

(Newser) - Observances were held in Poland on Sunday to mark the 80th anniversary of the "Great Escape," an ingenious act of defiance during World War II in which 76 prisoners of war tunneled out of a German prisoner of war camp into a snowy forest. British soldiers carried photos...

At New Orleans Museum, AI Lets You Talk to WWII Vets

Participants sat for as many as 1K questions each

(Newser) - Olin Pickens sat in his wheelchair facing a life-sized image of himself on a screen, asking it questions about being taken prisoner by German soldiers during World War II. After a pause, his video-recorded twin recalled being given "sauerkraut soup" by his captors before a grueling march. "That...

'Ghost Army' Survivors Get Congress' Highest Honor

Secret WWII units saved thousands of lives by fooling Nazis

(Newser) - With inflatable tanks, radio trickery, costume uniforms, and acting, the American military units that became known as the Ghost Army outwitted the enemy during World War II. Their mission was kept secret for decades, but on Thursday the group stepped out of the shadows as they were awarded the Congressional...

Secret WWII 'Ghost Army' Finally Getting Its Due

US outfit that tricked Hitler will receive Congress' highest honor this week

(Newser) - A once-secret Army unit tasked with the unusual mission of tricking Adolf Hitler about the size of enemy troops will receive Congress' highest honor this week. The "Ghost Army"—more formally known as the Army's 23rd Headquarters Special Troops—will receive the Congressional Gold Medal on Thursday,...

WWII Vet, 100, Is Getting Married Near D-Day Beaches

American Harold Terens' fiancee is four years his junior

(Newser) - Harold Terens and fiancee Jeanne Swerlin kissed and held hands like high school sweethearts as they discussed their upcoming wedding in France, a country the World War II veteran first visited as a 20-year-old US Army Air Forces corporal shortly after D-Day. Terens, a gregarious and energetic 100-year-old, will be...

Famous WWII Pic Once More a 'Political Lightning Rod'

Memo said Eisenstaedt's V-J Day pic 'The Kiss' would be pulled from VA venues; VA chief says no

(Newser) - The Veterans Affairs secretary has reversed a department memo that aimed to ban VA displays of the iconic "V-J Day in Times Square" photograph of a Navy sailor kissing a woman he didn't know on the streets of New York at the end of World War II. Secretary...

City Shuts Down to Remove Unexploded Bomb

Plymouth was bombed heavily by Germany during World War II

(Newser) - An unexploded World War II bomb was safely transported Friday through the eerily empty streets of the southwestern English port city of Plymouth before being placed on a boat for its next and final journey to sea, where it will be blown up by naval divers. In what prompted one...

Russia Marks Breaking of the Siege of Leningrad

More than a million residents died when German forces surrounded, attacked city

(Newser) - The Russian city of St. Petersburg on Saturday marked the 80th anniversary of the end of a devastating World War II siege by Nazi German forces with a series of events attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and close allies. The Kremlin leader laid flowers at a monument to fallen...

Last Member of Famed WWII Unit Dies
Last of Merrill's Marauders Dies
Dec 28, 2023 4:19 AM CST

Last of Merrill's Marauders Dies

Russell Hamler, member of famed WWII unit, was 99

(Newser) - The reputed last member of the famed American jungle fighting unit in World War II nicknamed Merrill's Marauders has died. Russell Hamler, 99, died on Tuesday, his son Jeffrey said. He did not give a cause of death. Hamler was the last living Marauder, according to a biography published...

80 Years Later, Soldier X-3212 Finally Has a Name

US Army private Homer Mitchell of New Mexico, killed in WWII, is identified

(Newser) - After years of combing through military records and making some key deductions, a team of US government historians and researchers has finally put a name to case file X-3212, identifying an Army private from eastern New Mexico named Homer Mitchell who died during World War II. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting...

Her D-Day Forecast 'Saved God Knows How Many Lives'

Ireland's Maureen Sweeney warned of impending storm, so 1944 Normandy invasion was postponed

(Newser) - We're used to commemorating June 6, 1944, as D-Day, the day when Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in France, helping to shift the path of World War II and defeat the Nazis. That fateful day actually came close to happening on June 5, but thanks to Maureen...

American WWII Gunner Is Finally Coming Home

Remains of Florida's Franklin Hall identified in France, 80 years after his plane was shot down

(Newser) - A US Army Air Force gunner's remains have been accounted for nearly eight decades after the heavy bomber he was flying in was shot down over France during World War II, per the AP . Staff Sgt. Franklin P. Hall, 21, of Leesburg, Florida, was identified in July by scientists...

Japan Slams 'Unacceptable' Ruling in 'Comfort Women' Case

South Korean court orders country to compensate women forced into sexual slavery

(Newser) - In a seven-year court case that has outlived almost all of the women affected by it, Japan has been ordered to compensate so-called "comfort women" who were forced into sexual slavery by its military during World War II. The Seoul High Court in South Korea overturned a lower court'...

Investigators Find Remains of US Airman Lost for 80 Years

Remains of Gilbert Myers recovered at 1943 crash site in Italy

(Newser) - It wouldn't have taken long for the family of Gilbert Haldeen Myers to conclude the US Army Air Forces pilot was dead. Though he was declared missing in action, there were no reports of survivors after his crew's B-25 Mitchell bomber, tasked with attacking the Sciacca Aerodrome in...

Dutch Prince Who Fought the Nazis Was a Nazi Himself
Dutch Prince Who Fought the
Nazis Was a Nazi Himself
in case you missed it
Oct 8, 2023 4:20 PM CDT

Dutch Prince Who Fought the Nazis Was a Nazi Himself

Prince Bernhard's original Nazi party membership card surfaces

(Newser) - The Dutch government has confirmed that the grandfather of King Willem Alexander was a Nazi. Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, a German nobleman, married the future Queen Juliana in 1937, three years before he would escort the Dutch royal family to exile in England as the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, reports...

New Evidence Shows Convents in Rome Hid Jews During War

Research finds names of 3,200 people sheltered during Nazi occupation

(Newser) - Researchers have discovered new documentation that substantiates reports that Catholic convents and monasteries in Rome sheltered Jews during World War II, providing names of at least 3,200 Jews whose identities have been corroborated by the city's Jewish community, officials said Thursday. Researchers from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Israel'...

Archaeologists Find Evidence of Mass Execution of German WWII Soldiers
Archaeologists Find Evidence
of Mass Execution of Nazis
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Sep 2, 2023 1:15 PM CDT

Archaeologists Find Evidence of Mass Execution of Nazis

French resistance fighters reportedly shot them after D-Day, buried them in mass grave

(Newser) - Months after a French resistance fighter came forward to reveal that his detachment executed 46 German soldiers during World War II, a dig has found evidence that such a mass execution did take place. Archaeologists from both Germany and France excavated an area near Meymac in the remote part of...

Scientists Uncover What's Left of the Battle of the Bulge

Groundbreaking survey reveals dugouts, bomb craters left from WWII's Battle of the Bulge

(Newser) - It was, as National Geographic describes it, "one of history's greatest battles." The last major German offensive of World War II, the Battle of the Bulge, fought from December 1944 to January 1945, saw more than 1 million Allied troops repel attacking Germans on a 500-square-mile battlefield...

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