German police have recently recovered 1,500 mostly modernist works of art - including from artists such as Picasso, Chagall, and Matisse. The entire haul, estimated to be worth over €1 Billion, was discovered in the flat of a Munich resident late last year.
The art was originally confiscated by the Nazi's during the 1930's and 1940's. From there it ended up in the hands of art collector Hildebrand Gurlitt who upon his death passed on the trove of great works to his son Cornelius.
On January 16, 2014 former Imperial Japanese Army Intelligence Officer Hiroo Onoda passed away in Tokyo at age 91. Onoda, a veteran of the Second World War, had an otherwise unremarkable wartime service record but for what he did after the Japanese September 1945 surrender to the Allies.
In December of 1944 Onoda had been ordered to Lubang Island in the Philippines (which the Japanese had taken from the U.S. in 1942). In October of 1944 U.S.
Though the Third Reich started it, the Allies ended it in spectacular fashion: with that "it" being WWII. As part of the comprehensive crushing of Germany required to defeat Hitler's regime the Allies dropped roughly 1.9 million tons of bombs on Germany during the war, with the vast majority of this destruction coming in the war's final year. During the entirety of the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive (a round the clock offensive led by the British Royal Air Force at night and United States Army Air Force during the day) approximately 500,000 Germans were killed.
For naval enthusiasts and historians, there exists a unique opportunity on the Philadelphia / Camden waterfronts of the Delaware River. There one can physically walk through nearly a hundred years of naval history and technological development.
Berthed on the Pennsylvania side of the river are the cruiser USS Olympia and the submarine USS Becuna (see first picture). Just a couple hundred yards away on the New Jersey side sits the battleship USS New Jersey (see second, or bottom, picture). Having completed their service to the Navy and the nation, all three retired
The Michigan War Studies Review (MiWSR) has just published my latest book review. This is my third review for MiWSR (a scholarly journal affiliated with the Michigan War Studies Group) and it is of David Stahel's Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941. Unlike the previous two work's I have reviewed for MiWSR this is unfortunately a book that I found quite lacking.
Though the book has some commendable qualities, it's overall impact is to further obscure just why and how the Second World War reached the conclusion it did.
The Prague Uprising (not to be confused with the Prague Spring of 1968), occurred from May 5 to May 8, 1945. With the Third Reich collapsing on all fronts the last significant German military grouping was that of Army Group Center, which early in May 1945 controlled, among other areas, the better part of Bohemia and Moravia - including the Czech capital of Prague.
When it comes to the Holocaust, and its attendant concentration and extermination camps, the names most commonly resonating in our minds are those such as; Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald, Dachau, or Treblinka.
That said, there were many other camps that played a crucial role in the mass murder of millions of human beings. Many times their role in the Nazi camp system is often overlooked, but they were no less important in terms of perpetrating one of history's greatest crimes against humanity.
Wednesday night an 88 year old WWII veteran named Delbert Belton was attacked and beaten by two teenagers outside the Eagles Lodge in Spokane, Washington. He died Thursday of massive head injuries.
During WWII Belton (see picture) had fought in the Pacific, and survived being shot in the leg during the Battle of Okinawa. That's right, he survived the bloodiest battle of the Pacific Theater of Operations; a nearly three month death match where a U.S.
Last year we reported on the discovery of and subsequent arrest of Nazi war criminal Laszlo Csatary in Budapest Hungary. Regrettably, the now 98 year old Csatary escaped justice when he died in Budapest last weekend while awaiting trial for his crimes.
Csatary is best known for being responsible for/participating in the deportation of an estimated 15,700 Jews while serving as a senior Hungarian police officer in the Hungarian ruled Slovakian city of Kosice.
The Telegraph is reporting on how, following the September 1938 Nazi initiated dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, the Bank of England transferred to Germany Czech gold held in its vaults. This gold, valued at 5.6 million pounds, was sent to the Reichsbank in spite of the fact Czech assets had been frozen in response to what was essentially an invasion of Czechoslovakia enabled by British and French efforts to avoid outright war via acquiescing to Hitler's demands.
The actual transfer of the roughly 2,000 bars of gold to the Reichsbank took place in March of 1939, and was done at the behest of
