On November 22, 2011 Josef Stalin's sole surviving child, Lana (formerly Svetlana) Peters (her married name following her 1967 defection from the Soviet Union and marriage to her third husband - an American) died of cancer. Born on February 28, 1926 she was 85 years old.
The house where Anne Frank famously hid from the Nazi's during their Second World War occupation of the Netherlands is being opened to the public for a single day in December, 2011. Though able to escape Nazi capture for two years ultimately Anne Frank and her family were found - resulting in Anne Frank's death in a concentration camp in 1945. Anne Frank was one of over one hundred thousand Jews from the Netherlands killed by Germany during WWII.
The remains of six former soldiers from the Red Army are to be reinterred from their current burial location in Finland. Currently located in South Karelia the remains were discovered outside the city of Lappeenranta and will be moved to an official cemetary for Soviet prisoners of war who died during the 1941-1944 war fought between the Soviet Union and Germany and its Axis allies - including Finland.
Russian soldiers of the 90th Special Search Battalion of the Western Military District, along with staff from the Museum of the Battle for Leningrad, have recovered a KV-1 tank from the Neva River near Leningrad. Thankfully no crew remains were found, thus meaning they likely escaped, and the tank itself is in relatively good condition. It is expected the tank will be able to be fully restored and be used in parades as a living historical artifact.
The KV-1 was the primary heavy tank in the Soviet arsenal when Hitler launched his attack on the Soviet Union in June of 1941. No German tank,
A slew of new pictures of the often forgotten dark side of the Dunkirk rescue operation, taken by a German soldier after the battle, provide chilling evidence of the scope of the disaster suffered by Allied forces following the German invasion of Western Europe in May, 1940.
Within ten day of the German invasion, tanks from the 2nd Panzer Division had crossed the Somme River and reached the English Channel at Abbeville, completing the encirclement of approximately 1.7 million British, French, Dutch, and Belgian soldiers in an enormous pocket 120 miles long and 72 miles wide.
Today the United States Marine Corps celebrates 236 years of protecting US interests abroad. It has been a busy 236 years: from seizing Britain's Fort Nassau, Bahamas in March of 1776 during the Revolutionary War - the Marines first amphibious operation; to protecting US merchant shipping from pirates and foreign navies in the early years of the republic; to playing a leading role in the US march to victory against Japan in WWII's Pacific Theater of Operations; to today - with operations ongoing around the world.
In April of 1915 soldiers from the British Army and Commonwealth, including the Australia-New Zealand Army Corps, and French Army and Empire, landed on the Gallipoli penninsula in an effort to open the route to Russia and seize Constantinople. There they faced Turkish troops from the Ottoman Empire in a brutal campaign fought in rugged terrain featuring extensive trench systems separated at certain points by as few as 10 to 20 yards. An ongoing archaeological survey has uncovered not only artificacts from ths First World War battle, but also has led to a greater understanding of how the men
World War II is widely rememberd as the most expensive war ever fought by the United States. In constant dollars, World War II's portion of our nation's GDP reached 35.8% at its height, and ultimately cost a staggering $4.1 trillion in FY2011 dollars. Many have long thought that, short of a feared WWIII, it would hardly be likely that today's unconventional wars could approach such costs. However, a recent report has found that, when it is all said and done, the war in Iraq will end up costing more, in constant FY2011 dollars, than even WWII.
Lying underwater in the English Channel off the coast of Kent, United Kingdom is the world's last known surviving Do-17 bomber. In a joint attempt the Royal Air Force Museum and Imperial College of London are attempting to salvage the well preserved Do-17 - found in 2010 after sands shifted that had previously hidden the bomber, and have now left it exposed to seawater that can corrode the aircraft very quickly. Shot down during the height of the Battle of Britain this aircraft, as the last of its kind, is of considerable historical importance.
Australian and New Zealand warships clearing World War II era munitions from the harbor at Rabaul have found what is believed to be a Japanese midget submarine. The wreck was found sitting upright on the sandy bottom at 180 feet underwater. Rabaul was one of the most important Japanese Naval bases during the War, and the site of sharp combat in January 1942 - when Japanese forces seized the harbor and associated military installations from Australian forces.
