World War II

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Veteran, 100, and Fiancee, 96, Keep Wedding Date in France

Harold Terens evokes other wars in toast to townspeople

(Newser) - World War II veteran Harold Terens, 100, married Jeanne Swerlin, 96, just inland from the beaches of the D-Day landing in Normandy, France, proclaiming Saturday "the best day of my life." The music of Glenn Miller rang out on the streets Carentan, where well-wishers—some in wartime-period clothes—...

An Overlooked D-Day Hero Finally Gets His Due

WWII medic Waverly Woodson Jr. posthumously awarded Distinguished Service Cross

(Newser) - For 30 hours, as mortar shells rained around him on Omaha Beach, Army medic Cpl. Waverly Woodson Jr. treated wounded Allied soldiers, even while wounded himself. For that brave act, Woodson has been posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, "the second-highest military decoration that can be awarded to a...

D-Day: 'No Words to Describe the Immensity of the Debt We Owe You'

World leaders, veterans mark 80th anniversary of D-Day landing

(Newser) - Eighty years ago Thursday, Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy to launch the liberation of Western Europe from the Nazis. More than 150,000 men attacked five beaches in the D-Day landings, and more than 4,400 of them were killed. Around 200 veterans who returned to France, all...

Report Sheds Light on Nazi Camps on British Soil

Some Holocaust victims were killed on Alderney, but island wasn't a 'mini-Auschwitz,' panel found

(Newser) - The savage treatment of slave laborers at the Nazi concentration camps Norderney and Sylt was standard, historians say. What made them exceptional was that they were on British soil. A panel of historians has released its findings on the German occupation of Alderney, one of four Channel Islands seized by...

Search to Begin for 'Marge,' WWII Ace Pilot's Plane
Searchers Say They
Found Ace's Plane
updated
May 23, 2024 4:15 PM CDT

Searchers Say They Found Ace's Plane

In World War II, Richard Bong shot down more enemy aircraft than any other US pilot

(Newser) - "Marge has been identified," a searcher for the remains of World War II ace Richard Bong's plane—named for the pilot's girlfriend—in the South Pacific announced Thursday. Justin Taylan said that his team discovered the wreckage in the jungles of Papua New Guinea's Madang...

Ahead of Soccer Match, Scary Find Near the Stadium

Active WWII bomb discovered near Germany's Mewa Arena to be defused on Friday

(Newser) - Thousands of people have been evacuated from the area around a German sports stadium so that an undetonated World War II-era bomb found near the home of a Bundesliga soccer club could be defused on Friday. Per a statement from the city of Mainz, the 1,100-pound weapon was discovered...

Research Reveals Women Who Secretly Broke Nazi Codes

Recognition was delayed by decades of secrecy

(Newser) - When Jane Monroe was asked what she'd done during World War II, her answer was "Oh, I made tea." Dulcie Klusmann later confessed, "We had to make up a bunch of lies." The reason is that the women spent the war breaking Nazi codes at...

Biden's Cannibal Claim Offends an Ally

Papua New Guinea's PM not a fan of associating his country with cannibalism

(Newser) - The leader of Papua New Guinea has accused President Biden of disparaging the South Pacific island nation by implying that an uncle of the US president had been eaten by "cannibals" there during World War II. The president spoke at a Pennsylvania war memorial last week about his Army...

Biden's Remarks on Uncle's WWII Death Conflict With Records

He claims he was shot down and might have been eaten by cannibals

(Newser) - President Biden misstated key details about his uncle's death in World War II as he honored the man's wartime service on Wednesday and said Donald Trump was unworthy of serving as commander in chief. While in Pittsburgh, Biden spoke about his uncle, 2nd Lt. Ambrose J. Finnegan Jr....

He Survived Pearl Harbor: 'Guys Were Running Out of the Fire'

Lou Conter, last survivor of USS Arizona attack, dies at 102

(Newser) - Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102. Conter passed away on Monday at his home in Grass Valley, California, following congestive heart failure, daughter Louann Daley said, per the AP...

'Great Escape' Observances Honor the 50

76 POWs made it through a tunnel out of a German camp, but most were later murdered

(Newser) - Observances were held in Poland on Sunday to mark the 80th anniversary of the "Great Escape," an ingenious act of defiance during World War II in which 76 prisoners of war tunneled out of a German prisoner of war camp into a snowy forest. British soldiers carried photos...

At New Orleans Museum, AI Lets You Talk to WWII Vets

Participants sat for as many as 1K questions each

(Newser) - Olin Pickens sat in his wheelchair facing a life-sized image of himself on a screen, asking it questions about being taken prisoner by German soldiers during World War II. After a pause, his video-recorded twin recalled being given "sauerkraut soup" by his captors before a grueling march. "That...

'Ghost Army' Survivors Get Congress' Highest Honor

Secret WWII units saved thousands of lives by fooling Nazis

(Newser) - With inflatable tanks, radio trickery, costume uniforms, and acting, the American military units that became known as the Ghost Army outwitted the enemy during World War II. Their mission was kept secret for decades, but on Thursday the group stepped out of the shadows as they were awarded the Congressional...

Secret WWII 'Ghost Army' Finally Getting Its Due

US outfit that tricked Hitler will receive Congress' highest honor this week

(Newser) - A once-secret Army unit tasked with the unusual mission of tricking Adolf Hitler about the size of enemy troops will receive Congress' highest honor this week. The "Ghost Army"—more formally known as the Army's 23rd Headquarters Special Troops—will receive the Congressional Gold Medal on Thursday,...

Famous WWII Pic Once More a 'Political Lightning Rod'

Memo said Eisenstaedt's V-J Day pic 'The Kiss' would be pulled from VA venues; VA chief says no

(Newser) - The Veterans Affairs secretary has reversed a department memo that aimed to ban VA displays of the iconic "V-J Day in Times Square" photograph of a Navy sailor kissing a woman he didn't know on the streets of New York at the end of World War II. Secretary...

City Shuts Down to Remove Unexploded Bomb

Plymouth was bombed heavily by Germany during World War II

(Newser) - An unexploded World War II bomb was safely transported Friday through the eerily empty streets of the southwestern English port city of Plymouth before being placed on a boat for its next and final journey to sea, where it will be blown up by naval divers. In what prompted one...

Russia Marks Breaking of the Siege of Leningrad

More than a million residents died when German forces surrounded, attacked city

(Newser) - The Russian city of St. Petersburg on Saturday marked the 80th anniversary of the end of a devastating World War II siege by Nazi German forces with a series of events attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and close allies. The Kremlin leader laid flowers at a monument to fallen...

Last Member of Famed WWII Unit Dies
Last of Merrill's Marauders Dies
Dec 28, 2023 4:19 AM CST

Last of Merrill's Marauders Dies

Russell Hamler, member of famed WWII unit, was 99

(Newser) - The reputed last member of the famed American jungle fighting unit in World War II nicknamed Merrill's Marauders has died. Russell Hamler, 99, died on Tuesday, his son Jeffrey said. He did not give a cause of death. Hamler was the last living Marauder, according to a biography published...

80 Years Later, Soldier X-3212 Finally Has a Name

US Army private Homer Mitchell of New Mexico, killed in WWII, is identified

(Newser) - After years of combing through military records and making some key deductions, a team of US government historians and researchers has finally put a name to case file X-3212, identifying an Army private from eastern New Mexico named Homer Mitchell who died during World War II. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting...

Her D-Day Forecast 'Saved God Knows How Many Lives'

Ireland's Maureen Sweeney warned of impending storm, so 1944 Normandy invasion was postponed

(Newser) - We're used to commemorating June 6, 1944, as D-Day, the day when Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in France, helping to shift the path of World War II and defeat the Nazis. That fateful day actually came close to happening on June 5, but thanks to Maureen...

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