World War II News

21/03/2025

Last surviving Battle of Britain pilot dies
— The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, John "Paddy" Hemingway, has passed away at the age of 105.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg1z42pkj8o
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01/09/2024

Churchill's Battle of Britain bunker was hidden by a decorative garden
- A new study of historic aerial photographs shows that the underground control room, which coordinated Britain's defences and response to attacks from the Luftwaffe, was camouflaged to look like part of the garden of nearby mansion Hillingdon House.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/churchill-s-battle-of-britain-bunker-was-hidden-by-a-decorative-garden/ar-AA1oUxKF
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26/08/2024

Flak Tower: Germany’s Newest Luxury Hotel Has A Dark And Bloody Secret History
— Since the exterior walls are over 8 feet thick, with an 11.5-foot reinforced concrete roof to boot, a demolition turned out to be logistically impossible, and so city officials chose renovation... During WW2, up to 25,000 civilians took refuge in the St. Pauli bunker during the disastrous Allied bombings of Operation Gomorrah in 1943.
https://www.dmarge.com/nazi-bunker-luxury-hotel-hamburg
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18/08/2024

Switzerland offers cash prize to get munitions out of lakes
— For years the Swiss military used the lakes as dumping grounds for old munition. In Lake Lucerne there are 3,300 tonnes of munition, and 4,500 tonnes in Neuchatel. Now, the Swiss defence department offers $58,000 in prize money for the best idea to get it out.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdd7y3nm09lo
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01/07/2024

German robots hunting the sea for WW2 bombs
-- The project is part of a wider €100 million programme by the German government that aims to develop a way to safely remove munitions littering the German parts of the North and Baltic Seas – a toxic legacy that amounts to 1.6 million tonnes of dumped explosives and weapons.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240621-the-robots-hunting-ww2-bombs-in-the-sea
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Remote-controlled seabed crawlers and robots with "smart grabbers" are cleaning up some of the 1.6 million tonnes of toxic munitions in the North and Baltic seas.

26/06/2024

Bud Anderson, America’s last WW2I ‘triple ace,’ dies at 102
— Brig. Gen. Clarence “Bud” Anderson, the last American fighter pilot known as a “triple ace” for downing 16 German planes during WW2, passed away in California at the age of 102.
https://www.airforcetimes.com/veterans/military-history/2024/05/20/bud-anderson-americas-last-world-war-ii-triple-ace-dies-at-102/
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Bud Anderson, the last American fighter pilot known as a “triple ace” for downing 16 German planes during World War II, died May 17 at 102.

22/06/2024

How N**i 'gray wolves' terrorized the Texas Gulf Coast during World War II
-- A few months after Pearl Harbor, N**i submarines roamed the Gulf of Mexico more or less at will, meeting little to no resistance from a nation that had been caught flat-footed and was slow to mobilize for the mounting threat overseas. It was open season on the Eastern Seaboard. More concerned with evaporating tourism dollars than public safety, cities like Miami and New York resisted imposing nighttime blackouts for months. Silhouetted against illuminated skylines, cargo ships were sitting ducks. In the first half of 1942, more ships went down at the hands of the grey wolves than had been lost at Pearl Harbor.

A few months after Pearl Harbor, N**i submarines roamed the Gulf of Mexico more or less at will, meeting little to no resistance from a nation that had been caught flat-footed by the Japanese attack and was slow to mobilize for the mounting threat overseas. But the danger was also lurking only a few...

22/06/2024

The story of how a captured Luftwaffe Fw 190 led to the development of the Spitfire Mk IX, the best close-in fighter of WWII
-- The capture of an Fw 190A belonging to JG26 on Jun. 23, 1942 led to the production of the Type 361 Mk IX Spitfire. This had a strengthened airframe, a four-bladed propeller and a 6o-series Merlin engine.

The story of How a captured Luftwaffe Fw 190 led to the development of the Spitfire Mk IX, the best close-in fighter of WWII

22/06/2024

Divers find remains of Finnish WWII plane that was shot down by Moscow with a US diplomat aboard
-- The plane was carrying American and French diplomatic couriers in June 1940 when it was downed just days before Moscow annexed the Baltic states.

A Finnish passenger plane was shot down over the Baltic Sea by Soviet bombers during WWII. Now divers have found remains - but there are still some questions.

22/06/2024

Meeting Japan’s WW2 orphans born to US soldiers and Japanese mothers
-- In Japan, they are known as "children of mixed blood": those born after 1945 to an American GI and a Japanese woman and abandoned due to stigma. Eighty years after the end of World War II, we went to meet some of these orphans to understand more about their painful past.

In Japan, they are known as "children of mixed blood": those born after 1945 to an American GI and a Japanese woman and abandoned due to stigma. Eighty years after the end of World War II, we went to…

12/06/2024

USS Harder: Wreck of famed US Navy WWII sub found off the Philippines
-- The USS Harder lies under 3,000 feet (about 900 meters) of water off the Philippine island of Luzon, sitting upright and intact except for damage behind its conning tower from a Japanese depth charge

The wreck of one of the most storied US Navy submarines of World War II has been found in the South China Sea eight decades after its last patrol, the Navy’s History and Heritage Command said Thursday.

10/06/2024

100-year-old vet returns to Normandy and marries bride, 96, near D-Day beaches
-- Centenarian Harold Terens, who served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, married Jeanne Swerlin in a symbolic ceremony during D-Day celebrations in France.

Centenarian Harold Terens, who served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, married Jeanne Swerlin in a symbolic ceremony during D-Day celebrations in France.