Filed under: POWs, Veterans, WWII | Tags: Berlin, Bomber, Closure, France, RAF
Since my wife and I have an abiding love for France, I read a number of blogs about France. Sometimes, it’s just an entry or two in a blog about something else entirely, but mostly, it’s blogs by Americans or Brits who’ve transplanted themselves to France.
Among the blogs I follow is pépère the cat. It’s written by a young English woman with French boyfriend who spent some time living in Paris and also visited Normandy (ding, ding, that’s what brought me to her blog!) It’s mostly slice-of-life things, with some nice photos while she was in France. However, she posted the most interesting thing the other day, about her grandfather, who fought in WWII in the RAF.
On 21 January 1944, during a bombing raid on Berlin, his plane was hit and he was forced to bail out. Not all of the crew did so, and after spending a year in a German prisoner of war camp, not knowing what happened to his friends haunted him. I’d heartily recommend you go read her piece as it is well-written and contains details which we have only sampled here.
You might also check the story of the funeral, with video, on the RAF website or the one from The Daily Mail, which has some outstanding photos. Neither is as well written as his granddaughter’s, but they do help round out the story.
Filed under: Leadership, Normandy, POWs, Veterans, Weekend Wanderings | Tags: Anniversary, Baseball, Veterans
One of the most tragic events for Americans in World War II unfolded 69 years ago. Approximately 75,000 Americans and Filipinos who had surrendered on Bataan were force-marched to prisoner of war camps. At least 6,000 to 11,000 never reached the camps. Another example of man’s inhumanity to man….
- I found a wonderful post on two survivors of the Death March that explains the event very well, and can’t help but move you to tears.
- Fortunately, there was one young boy in Japan who fed one of the Death March survivors working in a factory during the war.
- Our Canadian on travel in France posted a great note entitled Things I Learned while in France that will make anyone who has visited feel nostalgic and want to go again….
- Baseball just started the regular season, so some folks have Opening Day Jitters.
- Another Canadian (Caleb) has started Bloggy Wogg and reviewed a book on Football in Germany.
- We lose WWII veterans by the hundreds every day, but for the children of those men, it’s a percentage. It’s 100% of their father. Louis Cohen’s sons learned a lot from him.
- Mitch wrote a nice piece on the defining characteristic of Normandy: the Hedgerow and the tools the Americans improvised to defeat them.
- Another reminder of good leadership can be found over at XBradTC’s Bring the Heat, as he relates the story of a company commander, a General and a father-to-be. Take care of your people. They remember that forever.
Filed under: Books, Films, POWs, Weekend Wanderings, WWI, WWII | Tags: Arlington Cemetery
A thought I’d see a lot of the posts this week concerning Christmas at war, but sadly not yet.
- We start with a story from Time magazine about a British officer Lieutenant Michael Heming, who wished to learn to conduct after the war…
- Lichanos posted an interesting bit on racism in War and Peace. Despite my interest in military history and time spent as an aspiring Sovietologist (back when that was political science and not history), I’ve never read Tolstoy. Maybe I can get it on Kindle after I finish The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After….
- Sometimes, one person out-performs everyone else in an organization. One of the best cryptanalysts of the first half of the twentieth century worked for the Navy as a civilian and as a Yeoman Chief Petty Officer, was without peer among cryptanalysts and was credited with making breaks into most of the Japanese naval codes. It’s not surprising that you’d find that person buried in Arlington Cemetery, but it is surprising that she was known as “Miss Aggie”.
- Today’s best Christmas present is The Best Picture Project, which is blogging about every Best Picture nominee from the Oscars. The review of Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion is intriguing enough that I recommend you try tracking it down (Netflix even has it on their ‘instant’ viewer). It’s about two French officers captured during World War I and sounds very interesting. Read that review for more information….
- I found a woman who’s working on a WWII graphic novel and she has some great sketches. Make sure to check the comments on her About page, as there is an interesting rant on re-enacting authenticity.
- More on the French resistance, this time on film AND made during the war. Sadly, it’s not available on Netflix.
We're not lost, Sergeant, We're in ... France 