WHAT YOU MUST KNOW

Knocked-out T-26 and its dead crew . WHY OPERATION 'BARBAROSSA' FAILED?? Operation 'Barbarossa' had clearly failed. Despite the serious losses inflicted on the Red Army and extensive territorial gains, the mission to completely destroy Soviet fighting power and force a capitulation was not achieved. One of the most important reasons for this was poor strategic planning. The Germans had no satisfactory long-term plan for the invasion.  They mistakenly assumed that the campaign would be a short one, and that the Soviets would give in after suffering the shock of massive initial defeats.  Hitler had assured the High Command that 'We have only to kick in the front door and the whole rotten edifice will come tumbling down'. But Russia was not France.  The shock value of the initial Blitzkrieg was dissipated by the vast distances, logistical difficulties and Soviet troop numbers, all of which caused attritional losses of German forces which could not be sustained. The...

Largest- invasion in history of war  began on 22 June 1941. Operation Barbarossa: 80 years of Germany’s invasion of Russia. The largest invasion force in the history of warfare  invaded the western Soviet Union along a 2,900-kilometer (1,800 mi) front, with 600,000 motor vehicles and over 600,000 horses for non-combat operations. On June 22, 1941, Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, codenamed Operation Barbarossa.  Nazi leader Adolf Hitler predicted a quick victory, but after initial success, the brutal campaign dragged on and eventually failed due to strategic blunders and harsh winter weather, as well as a determined Soviet resistance and attrition suffered by German forces. On June 22, 1941, more than 3 million German and Axis troops invaded the Soviet Union along an 1,800-mile-long front, launching Operation Barbarossa.  It was Germany’s largest invasion force of the war, representing some 80 percent of the Wehrmacht, the German...

Postcard depicting British soldiers during the Battle of Mons with the "Angels of Mons", August 23, 1914. . Today 108 years ago, on August 23, 1914, the Battle of Mons began, in which a strange, mythical event known as the "Angels of Mons" occurred. .  The British troops were heavily outnumbered, but managed to hold off the German attacks time after time.  After 48 hours, the Germans finally broke through, in part due to the sheer number of German troops and artillery overwhelming the exhausted British defenders, and the British and French withdrew to the Marne. .  On September 29, 1914, Welsh author Arthur Machen published a short story named "The Bowmen" in a London newspaper.  The story described how phantom bowmen from the Battle of Agrincourt on October 25, 1415 in the Hundred Years' War came to the aid of the British soldiers at Mons and helped them repulse the Germans. . Despite Machen stating it was fictional numerous times, the story went vira...

The worst and terrible dead of Mary Elizabeth Cuthbertson, who wasPopularly known as “Beth”, Mary: killed on this day in 1942. Popularly known as “Beth”, Mary Cuthbertson was born on 5 March 1910 to William and Lillian Cuthbertson. She had two younger brothers and a younger sister, Joan. She trained as a nurse at Ballarat Base Hospital, and went on to study at the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne.  In August 1937 her engagement to Dr John Scholes was announced, but he died suddenly the following March.  Cuthbertson was living in Ballarat when she enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 20 August 1940. She embarked for Singapore in July 1941 and was attached to the 10th Australian General Hospital. Once the fall of Singapore became inevitable most Australian personnel were evacuated from the island. Cuthbertson was one of 65 Australian nurses who left Singapore aboard the Vyner Brooke on 14 February 1942. Two days later the ship was bombed by the Japanese and many live...

Hans-Georg Henke - 16 year old German Flakhelfer crying after being captured by the US 9th Army in Germany on April 3, 1945. (Flakhelfer; anti-aircraft warfare helpers of 15 to 17 year old German students during World War II.)  According to the story that Henke maintained throughout his life, he was based in Stettin with a battery of 88mm guns.  As the Soviets advanced so the German forces were pushed back towards Rostock.  It was here where the Soviets finally overran their unit, that these photographs were taken. The alternative story is given by the American photojournalist John Florea.  He alleges that he took these photographs in Hessen, in the village of Hüttenberg-Rechtenbach, which is just north of Frankfurt am Main.  The area in which the photos of Hans-Georg were taken is incontrovertibly Hessen. John Florea is adamant that Hans-Georg is not sobbing because his world had crumbled but rather due to combat shock after being overrun by the American forces...

John Joseph Pershing GCB (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was a senior United States Army officer.  He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Western Front in World War I, 1917–18.  In addition to leading the A.E.F. to victory in World War I, Pershing notably served as a mentor to many in the generation of generals who led the United States Army during World War II, including George Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Lesley J. McNair, George S. Patton and Douglas MacArthur.  During his command in World War I, Pershing rejected British and French demands that American forces be integrated with their armies, essentially as replacement units, and insisted that the AEF would operate as a single unit under his command, although some American divisions fought under British command, notably serving within or alongside Australian troops led by General John Monash, initially in the Battle of H...

🇿🇦 Group Captain A G Malan when Officer Commanding No. 20 Wing. Photograph taken at the Air Ministry Studios, London  🇿🇦    Adolph Gysbert Malan, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, RNR (3 october 1910 – 17 September 1963), better known as Sailor Malan, was a South African World War 2 fighter pilot and flying ace in the Royal Air Force who led No. 74 Squadron RAF during the Battle of Britain.[1] He finished his fighter career in 1941 with 27 destroyed, 7 shared destroyed and 2 unconfirmed, 3 probables and 16 damaged.  At the time he was the RAF's leading ace, and one of the highest scoring pilots to have served wholly with Fighter Command during World War II.  𝓓𝓾𝓷𝓴𝓲𝓻𝓴  After fierce fighting over Dunkirk during the evacuation of Dunkirk on 28 May 1940, Malan was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross having achieved five 'kills'.  During this battle he first exhibited his fearless and implacable fighting spirit. In one incident he was able to cooll...

⭐ＭＥＤＡＬ ＯＦ ＨＯＮＯＲ ⭐                 101st Airborne. Lieutenant Colonel Robert George Cole  (March 19, 1915 – September 18, 1944) was an American soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the days following the D-Day Normandy invasion of World War II. Lt Col. Cole parachuted into Normandy with his unit as part of the American airborne landings in Normandy. By the evening of June 6, he had gathered 75 men.  They captured Exit 3 at Saint-Martin-de-Varreville behind Utah Beach and were at the dune line to welcome men from the U.S. 4th Infantry Division coming ashore.  After being in division reserve, Cole's battalion had guarded the right flank of the 101st Airborne Division attempts to take the approaches to Carentan. On the afternoon of June 10, Cole led 400 men of his battalion single file down a long, exposed causeway (Purple Heart Lane), with marshes at either side. A hedgerow behind a large farmhouse on the right wa...

Desmond Thomas Doss (February 7, 1919 – March 23, 2006). was a United States Army corporal who served as a combat medic with an infantry company in World War II.  He was twice awarded the Bronze Star Medal for actions in Guam and the Philippines.  Doss further distinguished himself in the Battle of Okinawa by saving 75 men  becoming the only conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor for his actions during the war.  His life has been the subject of books, the documentary The Conscientious Objector, and the 2016 Oscar-winning film Hacksaw Ridge. Before the outbreak of World War II, Doss was employed as a joiner at a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. He chose military service, despite being offered a deferment because of his shipyard work, on April 1, 1942, at Camp Lee, Virginia.  He was sent to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for training with the reactivated 77th Infantry Division. Meanwhile, his brother Harold served aboard the USS Lindsey. Doss refu...

Cpl. Thomas F. O’Brien (#31233198)  of the United States Army is pictured during the Battle of the Bulge campaign in January, 1945. He was a technician fifth grade with C Company of the 101st Infantry, Yankee Division, and was seen sitting on a snow bank eating a meal from his mess kit.  The story line with the picture reads “Blanketed in all the clothing he could commandeer to try to keep out the penetrating cold, Infantryman Thomas O’Brien, Middleboro, Mass., squats in the snow on the Western front to eat a cold ration in a momentary lull in the fighting of his regiment, the 101st Infantry Born on June 10, 1921 at Providence, R.I. and raised in Woonsocket, O’Brien resided at 45 West Street in Middleboro, where his widowed mother had moved the family in June of 1941.  O’Brien, called “Red” by the family for his bright red hair, entered the service on Nov. 28, 1942.  Following training at Camp Maxey and Camp Swift in Texas, O’Brien was shipped to England for assignme...

THE TERRIBLE ATTACKS OF Capt. F. I. "Ike" Fenton. In hilly terrain near Pusan, South Korea, Capt. F. I. "Ike" Fenton of the U.S. Marines hears more bad news.  It is August 1950, and his company has been fighting all night. More than half of his 190 men are wounded or killed.  They are out of ammunition. He has lost radio contact with his superiors. And now, he is told, his first sergeant is mortally wounded. U.S. Marines had been in Korea barely two weeks when the 27-year-old Fenton, who had fought in World War II, is plunged into a critical battle. In June, the North Korean Army crosses the 38th Parallel into South Korea.  After the United Nations Security Council votes to authorize force to repel the surprise invasion, U.N., South Korean and U.S. troops establish a 150-mile-long defensive perimeter around Pusan, a port on the southeastern coast. Fenton’s company is sent into a breach in the perimeter and ordered to "hold at all cost," lest the attacking ...

THE HORRIBLE STORY OF GUTH: Guth was of German heritage and grew up speaking fluent German. He enlisted in the Army with his two childhood friends Rod Strohl and Carl Fenstermaker, on August 8, 1942.  All three volunteered for the paratroopers and were placed in 3rd platoon, Easy Company, 506th PIR, at Camp Toccoa, Georgia.  Guth had a talent for modifying weapons and could make M1 rifles fully automatic. He became one of the company's armorers, as well as an interpreter.  He jumped on D-Day and landed over 2 miles from his intended Drop Zone.  He met up with other Easy men and they joined with 502nd paratroopers led by Major John Stopka to fight at Ravenoville for several days before making their way back to their unit.  Guth had Strohl's camera with him and took many iconic photos of D-Day and the campaign in Normandy.  Guth also jumped into Holland in September, 1944, but was wounded on landing by a malfunctioning parachute, and evacuated.  He rejoi...

An interesting story of Margaret  Bourke white  by Alfred Eisenstadt in 1943.  Margaret Bourke-White ( ; June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971) was an American photographer and documentary photographer Margaret Bourke-White was the first known female war correspondent[5] and the first woman to be allowed to work in combat zones during World War II.  In 1941, she traveled to the Soviet Union just as Germany broke its pact of non-aggression.  She was the only foreign photographer in Moscow when German forces invaded. Taking refuge in the U.S. Embassy, she then captured the ensuing firestorms on camera. As the war progressed, she was attached to the U.S. Army Air Force in North Africa, then to the U.S. Army in Italy and later in Germany. She repeatedly came under fire in Italy in areas of fierce fighting. "The woman who had been torpedoed in the Mediterranean, strafed by the Luftwaffe, stranded on an Arctic island, bombarded in Moscow, and pulled out of the Chesapeake wh...

Artillery Division Commander Brig Gen Joseph V. Phelps. Gen. Phelps, who was born in Missouri, was a 1919 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He later graduated from the Army's Command and General Staff School.  Among his assignments before World War II was teaching mathematics at West Point. Passed away at 82 years old.  Operation Varsity (24 March 1945) was a successful airborne forces operation launched by Allied troops that took place toward the end of World War II.  Involving more than 16,000 paratroopers and several thousand aircraft, it was the largest airborne operation in history to be conducted on a single day and in one location Varsity was part of Operation Plunder, the Anglo-American-Canadian assault under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to cross the northern Rhine River and from there enter Northern Germany.  Varsity was meant to help the surface river assault troops secure a foothold across the Rhine River in Western Germany by landin...

THE TERRIBLE STORY OF Benjamin Hayes: Who was an officer of the United States Army, who fought with distinction in World War II.  He was twice awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He was portrayed by John Wayne in the 1962 war film The Longest Day. Vandervoort transferred to the newly established paratroopers in the summer of 1940, and was promoted to first lieutenant on 10 October 1941.  Promoted to captain on 3 August 1942, almost eight months after the American entry into World War II, he served as a company commander in the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), commanded by Colonel James M. Gavin.  He was promoted to major on 28 April 1943,[2] a few weeks after the 505th had been assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, then commanded by Major General Matthew Ridgway, and served as operations officer (S-3) in Colonel Reuben Tucker's 504th Parachute Regimental Combat Team in the Allied invasion of Sicily and in the landings at Salerno. Promoted to lieutenant colo...

THE TERRIBLE BATTLE OF Gerald Joseph Higgins (August 29, 1909 – December 20, 1996). was a highly decorated officer in the United States Army with the rank of major general.  During the Second World War, he served consecutively as the Chief of Staff and Assistant Division Commander, 101st Airborne Division, making him the youngest general officer in the Army Ground Forces at the age of 34. Following the United States entry into World War II, Higgins was promoted to major on February 1, 1942 and to lieutenant colonel on October 1 that year.  He then joined newly activated 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, which was part of the 101st Airborne Division under Major General William C. Lee.  Higgins participated in the early regimental training at Camp Toccoa until August 1942 when he joined General Lee's divisional headquarters as Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations (G-3). Higgins was appointed Divisional Chief of Staff in March 1943 and promoted to...

THE TERRIBLE STORY OF FRANCIS SHERMAN CURREY: Highest decoration for his heroic actions during the Battle of Bulge. Francis Sherman Currey (June 29, 1925 – October 8, 2019) was a United States Army technical sergeant and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor, for his heroic actions during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Currey landed at Omaha Beach in July 1944, a few weeks after D-Day.  On 18 October, he was assigned as a replacement without winter gear (he later suffered from frostbite) to 3rd Platoon, K Company, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division, at Herzogenrath, Germany.  He saw his first combat action that month. Six weeks later, he was a sergeant and 3rd Platoon Leader in K Company.  On December 21, 1944, Private First Class Currey was an automatic rifleman in a rifle squad which was guarding a bridge crossing and strongpoint.  He repeatedly exposed himself to hostile fire while firin...

US Navy medic of the 2nd navy battalion beach (USN) writing a letter of his family  on Utah Beach ( photography by Morris Engel). Navy medical personnel could be found on ship and shore during the invasion.  They served aboard land craft bringing the soldiers to the fight; and they were aboard battleships, cruisers, and destroyers that pounded German fortifications and cleared the way onto the beaches.  Navy physicians and hospital corpsmen also served with the 2nd, 6th and Naval Beach Battalions landing on the fabled Normandy shoreline.  Frank Snyder, a corpsman with the 6th Beach Battalion later remembered their mission was simple: “Treat the casualties and get them wherever we could find safe cover for them.”  Conditions for this were anything but ideal. These highly trained Sailors and officers treated an assortment of penetrating wounds to the head, face, neck, and extremities, and fractures, burns and blast  injuries and served as the evacuation link ...

A smiling and lucky to be alive Tech Sgt. Meredith J. Rogers, 30 from Sunburst, NC shows how lucky he is when his helmet was punctured by a sniper's bullet during fighting in Normandy with the US 2nd Infantry Division, 13 July 1944. Meredith J Rogers of Sunburst, enlisted in the Army in June 1940. He served in the 2nd Division and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.  He received a presidential citation for bravery and was promoted to sergeant. Sergeant Rogers remained in the military. Meredith J Rogers died in 1994. After the United States entered the war in 1941, the 2nd Infantry Division (nicknamed “Indianhead” because of its badge) left New York harbor for Belfast on October 8, 1943 and arrived in Northern Ireland nine days later.  She then arrived in England where she began her training to fight the Germans in Europe. Attached to the 1st American Army, it landed in Normandy on June 7, 1944 at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer on the beach of Omaha and immediately began the fighting. ...

Units of the 2nd Infantry Division of the American Army during battles in the area of the commune of Saint-Georges-d'Elle against units of the German 3rd parachute division of the Luftwaffe; July 1944. History As of July 10, 1944, the Americans are only about three kilometers from their objective: Saint-Lô.  The 2nd Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Walter M. Robertson, is progressing towards a high point which is located one kilometer south-west of the commune of Saint-Georges-d’Elle.  The area is defended by the paratroopers of the Fallschirmjäger Regiment 5 and the Fallschirmjäger Regiment 9 (3. Fallschirmjäger-Division).  To the east of the 2nd Infantry Division, the 23rd Infantry Regiment commanded by Colonel Hurley E. Fuller faces the town of Saint-Georges-d’Elle defended by the 1st Battalion of the Fallschirmjäger Regiment 5. On July 11, 1944, Lieutenant-Colonel Jay B. Loveless replaced Fuller. The attack on the 2nd Infantry Division must be preceded by...

German Obergefreiter of 13th flak division  captured 1st July 44 during the battle of Cherbourg. Assault on Cherbourg A German gun emplacement On 18 June the US 9th Infantry Division reached the west coast of the peninsula, isolating the Cherbourg garrison from any potential reinforcements.  Within 24 hours, the 4th Infantry, 9th and 79th Infantry Divisions were driving north on a broad front.  There was little opposition on the western side of the peninsula and on the eastern side, and the exhausted defenders around Montebourg collapsed.  Several large caches of V-1 flying bombs were discovered by the Americans in addition to a V-2 rocket installation at Brix. In two days, the American divisions were within striking distance of Cherbourg. The garrison commander, Lieutenant General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, had 21,000 men but many of these were hastily drafted naval personnel or from labour units.[citation needed] The fighting troops who had retreated to Cherbourg ...

Audie Leon Murphy (20 June 1925 – 28 May 1971) was an American soldier, actor, songwriter, and rancher.  He was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II.  He received every military combat award for valor available from the United States Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism.  Murphy received the Medal of Honor for valor that he demonstrated at the age of 19 for single-handedly holding off a company of German soldiers for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France in January 1945, and then leading a successful counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition On January 26, 1945, 2nd Lieutenant Audie L. Murphy was commanding company B of the 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, near the French village of Holtzwihr when six German tanks and several hundred infantrymen attacked his company.  Murphy ordered his men to fall back to defensive positions in nearby woods while he covered their withdrawal and called down artill...

 🇫🇷 in 1918.Division took part, the Marne, St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne.  The blue stands for the loyalty of those who placed their lives on the altar of self-sacrifice in defense of American ideals of liberty and democracy. The division is known as the Marne Division. The division was organized on November 21, 1917, at Camp Greene, Charlotte, N.C. The first units sailed from the United States on April 4, 1918, and the last units arrived in France, May 30, 1918.  The division went into the Chateau Villain training area. Part of the division entered the line at Chateau-Thierry and Hill 204, May 31st.  The entire division entered the Chateau-Thierry sector in June. On July 15th they met the Germans who crossed the Marne.  On July 21st the division attacked across the Marne east of Chateau-Thierry and advanced to the Ourcq, where it was relieved on July 29th.  On September 10th the 3d Division entered the St. Mihiel sector and formed a part of the 4th Co...

Joy Lofthouse (14 February 1923 – 15 November 2017)  was a British pilot having joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) as an ab initio pilot in December 1943.  She went on to fly Spitfires and bombers for the Air Transport Auxiliary, and was one of only 168 "Attagirls" who served In 1943, 20-year-old Lofthouse and her elder sister Yvonne joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, after they saw an ad in a magazine which was seeking women to learn how to fly.  Only 17 out of 2,000 applicants were accepted, including Joy, who had never even driven a car, and Yvonne. She was one of a total of 168 women who were members of the Air Transport Auxiliary.  Her job was to deliver aircraft from the factories where they were made to the airfields where they were to be flown from by Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots.  Lofthouse was able to fly 38 different types of aircraft. During the war, they were based at White Waltham, in Berkshire. After World War II, she became a teacher....

S/Sgt. John F. O’Brien of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, while in a foxhole, decorates a Christmas tree with C ration can and tinsel dropped from U.S. planes, in the Monschau area, Germany.  Tinfoil is dropped by American planes to interrupt the enemy radar system.” Photographer: Spangle. Date: December 23rd, 1944  Info :  The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge refers to the northernmost German attacks during the Battle of the Bulge; the area from Elsenborn Ridge itself to Monschau was the only sector of the American front line attacked during the Battle of the Bulge where the Germans failed to advance.   The battle centered on the boomerang-shaped Elsenborn Ridge east of Elsenborn, Belgium.  In this region, Elsenborn Ridge marks the westernmost ridge of the Ardennes, rising more than 2,000 feet (600 m) above sea level; unlike the uplands further north, east and south, it has been extensively logged.  West of Elsenborn Ridge, where the land descends in gentle hills ...

Cross-section of prisoners taken by 26th Division of U.S. 1st Army near Butgenbach, Belgium. 37-year-old prisoner in service 9 months. 24 January, 1945. 24 January 1945 At 0400 hours the 1st Battalion attacked. As planned, the drive developed South to the main road to secure the crossroads at 930007. "C" Company moved out in the lead, worked East to crossroads and above the crossroads to clear out the woods.  "B" Company then pushed through "C" Company on the South down the main road and seized positions astride the road.  "A" Company entered the woods at 926016, swinging South to clear woods, then moved to the Southwest road leading away from Büllingen at 950008.  By 1000 hours the 1st Battalion reported it was on its objective. Light enemy small-arms and mortar fire has been met. Main obstacle had been snow.  At 1100 hours the 3rd Battalion jumped off to seize the high ground at 927997. "L" Company led the attack, with "K" a...

Ernst Jünger  29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier:  philosopher, and entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir Storm of Steel.  On 1 August 1914, shortly after the start of World War I, Jünger enlisted as an Einjährig-Freiwillige (one year volunteer) Füsilier-Regiment Generalfeldmarschall Prinz Albrecht von Preußens" (Hannoversches) Nr. 73 named for the former regent of Hannover, Albrecht von Preussen of the Hannoverian 19th Division and after training was transported to the Champagne front in December.  He was wounded for the first time in April 1915. While on convalescent leave he took up a position his father arranged for him to become an officer aspirant (Fahnenjunker). Jünger was commissioned a Leutnant (2nd Lieutenant) on 27 November 1915.  As platoon leader, he gained a reputation for his combat exploits and initiative in offensive patrolling and reconnaissance.  During the Battle of...