We’ve had the Secret Spitfires documentary and DVD, then the stage play (Shadow Factories). Now the book is published.
Secret Spitfires: Britain’s Hidden Civilian Army by Karl Howman, Etham Cetintas, Gavin Clarke.The History Press. Hardcover. ISBN: 9780750991995. Also available on kindle…
Merian C. Cooper was born in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. He was the youngest of his siblings and at the age of six, he started to dream about exploration and adventures, a common dream am…
Source: Merian C. Cooper, extraordinary life of a hero of 2 nations and King Kong | Pacific Paratrooper
Jimmy Stewart suffered such extreme PTSD after being a bomber pilot in World War II that he acted out his mental distress during ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’. Stewart played George Bailey in the classi…
Source: Intermission Story (8) – Jimmy Stewart | Pacific Paratrooper
“In the ocean of the military, reflective of all distinguished pilots, an honored Buddhist person.” So translates the name awarded to Japanese pilot Hiroyoshi Nishizawa following his death i…
Source: Intermission Story (4) – A Japanese Ace | Pacific Paratrooper
Cpl. Magdalena Leones
The Silver Star is the third-highest honor for gallantry in the U.S. Armed Forces. Previous recipients include Audie Murphy, Chuck Yeager, and Norman Schwartzkopf. But few people have heard of Magd…
All told, Irena Sendler saved about 2,400 Jewish children and infants and about 100 teenagers, who went into the forests to join partisan bands fighting the Nazis. The far better known Oskar Schind…
So what or who is a Tokyo Rose and how are they/it a traitor? Spoiler alert – Tokyo Rose is not a new racially appropriated perfume from a global beauty powerhouse who should know better, the return…
People around the nation, including some vocal congressmen, asked why America had been caught off guard at Pearl Harbor. President Franklin D. Roosevelt said he would appoint an investigatory commi…
Source: The Other Pearl Harbor Story – Kimmel and Short | Pacific Paratrooper
Can you imagine what it must be like to be marched out to face a firing squad, say goodbye to your closest friend who is standing next to you and then have the squad shoulder their rifles and march…
Source: Intermission (5) – POW in Japan
Hitler was famously a private man and it remains the case today that we don’t know a huge deal about what he was like behind closed doors. Granted, we do get an idea of his character through other peo…
![Colditz Castle [Wikimedia]](https://firstnighthistory.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/574px-colditz_castle1.jpg?w=676)
Colditz Castle [Wikimedia]
In late July I was fortunate enough to travel Germany, taking in many of its cultural and historical sites. It is fair to say Germany did have plenty to offer in the famous cities and towns of Berl…
The ordeals of the POWs put to slave labour by their Japanese masters on the ‘Burma Railway’ have been well documented yet never cease to shock. It is impossible not to be horrified and moved by their stoic courage in the face of inhuman brutality, appalling hardship and ever-present death.While Barry Custance Baker was enduring his 1000 days of captivity, his young wife Phyllis was attempting to correspond with him and the families of Barry’s unit. Fortunately these moving letters have been…
Source: Two Bloggers Tackle WWII – Book Reviews | Pacific Paratrooper
A thread has recently blown up on Reddit which asked the question: Germans, Japanese, and Italians of Reddit, What did you learn about WW2 in School? The questioner was specific to the axis countri…
On February 23rd, 1942, a B-17E Flying Fortress bomber crashed in one of the most remote and wild places on Earth: the impenetrable Agaimbo swamp located in the island nation of Papua New Guinea. …
Source: Intermission (11) – Swamp Ghost
The prominent heights of Pointe du Hoc on the Normandy coast were the scene of a desperate battle during the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944. The strategic promontory overlooks Utah Beach to the wes…
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