Saw that the Fieseler Storch at the Shuttleworth Aircraft Collection was outiside its hanger, so took this quick photo today on my phone while on a bike ride. This is a fully restored and flying Storch that is at the collection near where I grew up. Worth a visit if your in Bedfordshire, UK.
“New York, May 15 (ANI): As the D-Day anniversary approaches, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, Frank J. Dinan, has revealed what could have happened if Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had used the deadly nerve gas Tabun.
According to Professor Dinan, had Hitler used Tabun, the Allies could have been forced back into the sea with enormous casualties.”
LINK – Read the full article
Source – OneIndia
“Russia on Monday accused the European Court of Human Rights of going along with people who seek to rehabilitate Nazis by upholding Latvia’s appeal in the case of a Soviet World War II veteran.
Vasily Kononov, 87, who led a group of resistance fighters against Nazi Germany in the Baltic state during World War II, was jailed by Latvia in 1998 after he was convicted of ordering the killing of nine villagers in 1944. He admitted to the killings, but said the dead were Nazi collaborators who were caught in crossfire.
Earlier on Monday, the upper chamber of the European Court of Human Rights upheld the appeal by Latvia against the court’s 2008 ruling that the conviction of Kononov was illegal.”
source – RIA Novosti
LINK – full article
Google Earth image showing Dusseldorf in 1943
Fascinating arial reconnaissance photographs, dating from various points thought out World War Two are now available in Google Earth. They mostly show bomb damage in some 35 major cities across Europe. To view the images, make sure you have the latest version of Google Earth installed. To activate the time line, click the clock icon in the status bar at the top, then use the slider to go back in time to 1943.
I hope they continue to add more historical reconnaissance photographs from the period. The Atlantic Wall and the areas around Normandy would be particularly fascinating. Many areas were extensively photographed during the war by both sides, and it is no doubt possible that it could be extended to include these. Adding additional photos to Google Earth would provide some very useful research and educational tools, and could lead to some interesting map ‘mash-ups’. For instance, using the timeline feature you could add a strategic map layer showing major campaigns / battles and the front line across Europe/Russia, North Africa and the far East. You could then track through the timeline day by day and follow individual battles and movements of Divisions. Just a thought really. I have thought that type of thing, would be a great history resources for a long while. Guess I need to get busy and attempt it myself., with one or two battles, and see if it can be done.
In announcing the feature, Ed Parsons, Google’s Geospatial Technologist, said, “Many of us have heard stories, read books and watched films which show the many impacts of WWII across the world. We hope that this World War II imagery will enable all of us to understand our shared history in a new way and to learn more about the impact of the war on the development of our cities.”
Edumnd Meschke as a 12-year-old in postwar Berlin in “Germany Year Zero.” Rossellini had moral courage to find sorrow whre others had understandably found horror. By DAVE KEHR Published: January 22, 2010
Had to give this a quick mention Roberto Rossellini‘s War Trilogy (Rome Open City/Paisan/Germany Year Zero) recently released by Criterion Collection as a box set – classic war films, and certainly some of the best war films in my opinion; all the more fascinating as they were made very shortly after the war finished. Worth seeing if you have never seen them before, and this release is remastered by the Criterion Collection is going to be of the highest quality.
Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy (Rome Open City/Paisan/Germany Year Zero) (Criterion Collection)
Other films of note that where made in the immediate period after the war are:
– a docu film featuring many of the men who actually fought in the battle.
– German made film.LINK from NY Times : In Rossellini’s War Movies, the Naturalism Survives
Petro Kasinchuk, who was a member of the Ukrainian underground, receives a flower from a supporter during a rally in 2006 in Kiev calling for official recognition of the fighters as World War II veterans. (Efrem Lukatsky/associated Press)
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA fought for independence for the Ukraine throughout World War II and beyond. During the German occupation it was aligned with Nazi Germany in its struggle for independence. Today the movement to pay tribute to those who fought for independence is marred with controversy over its involvement in ethnic cleaning and it alignment with Nazi Germany.
LINK - In Ukraine, movement to honor members of WWII underground sets off debate – The Washington Post January 6, 2010
WW2 German radio collection. All radios are operative. Kw.E.a, T9K39-main, E52b, Lo6K39a, Torn.Fu.b1, Torn.E.b, Fu.NP.E a/c, Fu.H.E.c, Fu.H.E.u1. d
One of may favorite sites, run by a group of Norwegian electronics enthusiasts. A fantastic collection of German World War Two radio & communication equipment can be found on LA6NCA’s WW2 Radio Page at http://www.laud.no/ww2/. This impressive collection includes all types of communication equipment from the German armed forces in WW2, including army, navy and air-force equipment. Some of the more interesting items include the Li Spr 8; which could tansfer an audio signal using a light beam across terrian too difficult to lay cables over. The website has some great period photos of communication equipment in use. Much of the restored equipment is fully working and there are some impressive videos demonstrating some of the devices in use.
Link - http://www.laud.no/ww2/
also see: Foundation for German communication and related technologies
(History of Technology)
An undated reproduction of a pre 1939 post card showing the town of Malbork. Remains of over 2,100 people including women and children believed to be German civilians buried at the end of World War II, were found in Malbork. (AP Photo) (AP)
MALBORK, Poland — Germans and Poles held a ceremony on Friday 7th August 2009 to rebury remains found in a mass grave in the town of Malbrok.
“uncertainties about who the dead were and who killed them may never be resolved. All that authorities can say with some assuredness is that they were probably German civilians who died in the ferocious final months of the war,”
From Deutsche Welle website -
The “Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft” (Remembrance, Responsibility and Future) Foundation told the Sunday edition of Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper that the money remaining at the foundation’s disposal had been earmarked for other purposes.
[LINK]
STRASBOURG, France, May 30 (Reuters) – Britain and the United States should reveal the location of chemical munitions seized from Nazi Germany at the end of World War Two and dumped in the Baltic Sea, the Council of Europe said on Friday.
The human rights watchdog said the exact location of the dumps, a military secret, should be made public to ensure that environmental risks connected with a planned underwater gas pipeline between Russia and Germany can be properly assessed.
[LINK]
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