Thoughts on WWII » Entries tagged with "World War II"
Perspective on the Attack on Pearl Harbor
I’m reading the book OVERLORD: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy by Max Hastings and on the very first page of chapter 1 he says something that really gave me a new perspective on the attack on Pearl Harbor. He said “Then, in the dying days of the year, came the miracle of Pearl Harbor.” The attack on Pearl Harbor will never be forgotten by the United States, it was an inexcusable act by the Japanese that brought us into the war. As Americans, it is a very dark day in our history and I personally wish it did not happen as it did and I suspect most Americans feel the same. However, that is a very centralized and narrow view of that event. It does not look at the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Book, Japan, Pacific Theater, Pearl Harbor
Review: “Tears in the Darkness” The Story of the Bataan Death March and its Aftermath.
The first thing that I can say about this book is WOW! This is a book that I will read again. It was a story, a visual experience, and a historical experience. My hats off to the authors Michael and Elizabeth Norman for a well researched, well documented, and well written narrative that had me smiling at times, angry at times, and teary eyed at times. But most of all this book opened my mind to the horrors that our POW soldiers endured in the Pacific Theater of Operations. I am the first to admit that I am not an expert on WWII, especially the Pacific Theater, but I am a enthusiast that wants to learn as much as possible. I thought I already knew quite a bit about the war … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Book, Pacific Theater, Review
60th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge
We are in the midst of the 60th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge and I would be ashamed of myself if I didn’t post some comments. The Battle of the Bulge is the more common name given to this offensive by us Americans but the official name of the operation was Wacht am Rhein (Watch on the Rhein) by the Germans. This was Hitler’s last chance of the war to “save some face.” I don’t believe anything the Germans could have done at this point would have won the war for them; they had been fighting too long on too many fronts to have the manpower and resources needed to beat the Allies. One of Hitler’s objectives of this operation was to try and split the Allied command and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Battle of the Bulge, European Theater (ETO), Germany
Fallen But Not Forgotten
I will post links to some good websites that I find through my surfing of the net. The one that I post today was actually sent to me by a friend from AWON, American WW II Orphans Network. The website is called Fallen But Not Forgotten. This website is dedicated to paying tribute to the 8301 American heroes buried at the Netherland American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. The authors of this site want publish the story of every soldier buried there and make sure it is not forgotten. I browsed through the pages today and I am very impressed by the amount of detail and respect the site pays our fallen service members of WWII. I emailed the site authors using their contact form and will hopefully soon have my grandfathers … Read entire article »
Filed under: European Theater (ETO), Web Site
