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The jungle sweltered, a thick canopy choking out the sun. Insects buzzed in a relentless symphony, punctuated by the occasional screech of unseen creatures. For 28 years, this had been Shoichi Yokoi’s world, a far cry from the rice paddies of his Japanese village. A soldier declared dead, he was a ghost haunting the verdant shadows of Guam, oblivious to the war’s end and the life that had moved on without him.
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Bamse, a Saint Bernard, was inducted as an official crew member of a Norwegian fighting ship during World War 2. The canine was known for breaking up fights amongst his crew-mates by putting his paws on their shoulders and calming them down.
Despite the numerous published testaments, photographs, and films that depict smiling pilots saluting or waving goodbye as they take off on their final mission, a rare description of the night before departure tells a very different story. It occurs in a letter written on June 21, 1995, by Kasuga Takeo, who was eighty-six years old at the time, addressed to Umezawa Shōzō.Kasuga was drafted and assigned to look after the meals, laundry, room cleaning, and other daily tasks for the tokkōtai pilots at the Tsuchiura Naval Air Base. He describes the night before their final flights:
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Hans Georg Henke’s story is a poignant illustration of the impact of World War II on the lives of young Germans. At just sixteen years old, Henke, a member of the Hitler Youth, became a symbol of the devastation wrought by the war.
Born into a family soon to be struck by tragedy, Henke’s life took a dramatic turn after the death of his father in 1938 and his mother in 1944. The loss left the family destitute, forcing a young Hans Georg, at just 15, to join the Luftwaffe anti-air squad to support his siblings. His role involved manning a battery of 88mm guns, a significant responsibility for someone so young.
Henke’s life during the war is marked by two contrasting narratives. According to his own account, he was stationed in Stettin and was eventually pushed back towards Rostock as the Soviets advanced. However, American photojournalist John Florea presents a different story. Florea claims to have captured the iconic photographs of a tearful Henke in Hessen, in the village of Hüttenberg-Rechtenbach, north of Frankfurt am Main. These images show a young soldier in despair, overwhelmed by the horrors of war.
The photographs depict Henke crying from combat shock. Florea asserts that Henke’s tears were not due to his world crumbling but rather the immediate shock of combat.
He lived until October 9, 1997, passing away at the age of 69 in Brandenburg, Germany. His story, particularly the powerful images of his capture, has been widely used to
They were certainly brave, but they lacked experience of the British and ran into ambushes that the Brits had learned to avoid in 1941.
Their equipment was generally good, and they were well supplied.
So well supplied in fact, that you and your unit was evacuated to Sicily after your own supplies dwindled to nothing and the Americans were able to flank you.
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Immediately after the war, a large number of medical clinics were set up in Japan to treat wounded Japanese soldiers.
Of approximately 30,000 patients seen in these clinics, around 10,000 of them suffered from mental illnesses, such as “war neurosis.”
The Japanese government did their best to suppress any knowledge of said psychological trauma (indeed a 1938 Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) statement declared how Japanese soldiers did not suffer war neurosis unlike Western soldiers).
For the IJA, “war neurosis” was something that detracted from the “masculinity” of the IJA, and it was utilized and associated with “hysteria,” which was often used as a blanket diagnosis for women in the West.
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The most important difference between 1944 and today would be in the realm of guided munitions.
I once heard that a single F-15 packs as much firepower as an entire squadron of World War II–era bombers when you take into account explosive weight and the percentage of ordnance you can get on target. (Keep in mind, the F-15 is a fighter/bomber, not a dedicated bomber. If we start talking about the B-52, things get even crazier.)
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In the evening of 14 March 1939, Hitler invited President Hácha to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Hitler deliberately kept him waiting for hours, while Hitler watched a film.
Finally, at 1:30 a.m., on 15 March 1939, Hitler saw the President. He told Hácha that as they were speaking, the German army was about to invade Czechoslovakia.
All of Czechoslovakia’s defences were now under German control following the Munich Agreement in September of the previous year.
The eyes of four men, captured in a single photograph, tell a story of approximately 80 years of warfare. The horrors they witnessed and the experiences they shared are reflected in their eyes, growing more profound as they aged. Each of these men went to war, yet their experiences spanned completely different types of warfare.
Bat bombs were an experimental World War II weapon developed by the United States. The bomb consisted of a bomb-shaped casing with over a thousand compartments, each containing a hibernating Mexican free-tailed bat with a small, timed incendiary bomb attached. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats, which would then disperse and roost in eaves and attics in a 20–40-mile radius (32–64 km).
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