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World War II Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 19, 2018 22 Comments
It's unclear at this point whether there will be a short-term budget deal, or a government "shutdown." Despite the drama, a shutdown is not really a shut down. Essential services continue. It's more of a scale-back, and the government has a lot of discretion as to what gets scaled back. In a press conference today OMB Director Mick Mulvaney made the point that many agencies have reserve funds that can be used, but weren't used in the 2013 shutdown.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 24, 2017 9 Comments
On Christmas Eve 1944, U.S. troops were in the freezing cold of the Ardennes forest during the Battle of the Bulge, waist-high in snow. We have remembered and told that story on recent Christmas Eves: I encourage you not only to read the posts and the comments, but also the comments to our prior Facebook threads [here and here] and our current Facebook thread [here] in which people recounted their family experiences.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 07, 2017 9 Comments
There are days in the year we should commemorate yearly: 9/11, D-Day, V-Day, July 4. December 7, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, is one of those days. We lost 2,400 in the attack, the majority on the USS Arizona. Today at Pearl Harbor, a sailor who saved six men finally received his recognition. Also, President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation to recognize December 7 as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Seven survivors joined him for the event.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 14, 2017 13 Comments
The only state which still celebrates Victory Over Japan Day is my home State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Except, we can't call it Victory Over Japan Day. Because that is a microaggression against Japan, even though they did start the war and we are celebrating victory over Japan. I've covered this holiday numerous times in the past.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 06, 2017 7 Comments
On this day, 73 years ago, the Allies stormed into Normandy, France, and led an invasion to liberate Western Europe from the Germans. These men risked everything to bring an end to one of the most evil regimes in history. American, British, and Canadian soldiers took part in Operation Overloard, also known as D-Day, along the 50 miles of five beaches. D-Day is "one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history."

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 08, 2017 7 Comments
On May 8, 1945, the German army collapsed around Europe after Adolf Hitler's successor Karl Dönitz officially surrendered to the Allies. This date has become known as Victory Day in Europe, aka VE Day, to mark the end of World War II on the continent. At first, the German High Command led by General Alfred Jodl only wanted to surrender to the Western Allies. General Dwight D. Eisenhower demanded the Germans surrender on both fronts. Dönitz told Jodl to comply. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced the surrender on May 8:
Yesterday morning, at 2.41, at General Eisenhower's headquarters, General Jodl, the representative of the German High Command and of Grand Admiral Doenitz, the designated head of the German State, signed the act of unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces in Europe to the Allied Expeditionary Force, and, simultaneously, to the Soviet High Command. General Bedell Smith, who is the Chief of the Staff to the Allied Expeditionary Force-and not, as I stated in a slip just now, Chief of the Staff to the United States Army-and General François Sevez, signed the document on behalf of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, and General Susloparoff signed on behalf of the Russian High Command.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 24, 2016 4 Comments
The posts I most enjoy writing about are the ones I didn't plan, but somehow found. I've written about Christmas Eve in World War II before, including in 2014, Christmas 1944: The Battle of the Bulge. and a follow up with reader memories in 2015, Christmas Eve in the Ardennes 1944. In searching for another story to tell this Christmas Eve, I stumbled upon memories of Christmas Eve 1943 at Stalag Luft 1, a POW camp for captured Allied airmen.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on November 02, 2016 7 Comments
The election is less than a week away. It's been an awful cycle. You deserve to have some feel-good story in your day. Like this one... Erling Kindem and Emmett Rychner are the best of pals. They're also 86 years apart.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 15, 2016 19 Comments
The New York State Attorney General's office has been on an over 10 year long jihad against former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg over alleged accounting fraud. Though he now is age 90, Greenberg continues to fight
Standing on principle may be partly generational. Mr. Greenberg is one of a dwindling number of “the Greatest Generation,” as Tom Brokaw called World War II veterans who grew up during the Depression and fought “because it was the right thing to do.” Mr. Greenberg spent much of his childhood on a small farm in an impoverished area of the Catskills near Liberty, N.Y. His father died when he was 6, and his mother worked as a manicurist. At age 17, he dropped out of high school and lied about his age to enlist in the Army, where he learned “discipline, focus and loyalty,” Mr. Brokaw wrote in his 1998 best seller.
The ongoing trial has the bizzarre aspect that the AG's office is trying to use Greenberg's military service against him by claiming that the military precision with which he ran the company made him culpable for the acts of underlings. The Wall Street Journal reports:
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