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Submitted by
Steve Mercatante
on: Jun 9 2012 - 4:59pm

On May 27, 1942 a joint British, Czech, Slovak commando operation attacked Reinhard Heydrich, one of history's truly vile human beings he is best known as being the founder of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and chair of the January 1942 Wannsee Conference laying out the scope of the Final Solution, as he travelled near Prague in Czechoslovakia. He would die from his wounds shortly thereafter.

Then on June 9, 1942 Adolf Hitler, infuriated by Heydrich's assassination, set in train orders meant to

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Submitted by
Steve Mercatante
on: Jun 6 2012 - 12:21am

As we celebrate yet another anniversary of the tremendous Allied victory of June 6, 1944, or D-Day, let us take a closer look at the role played by German command decisions as one element in enabling the Allied establishment of a lodgment in France. From the beginning, Germany's approach to defending against an Allied liberation of Western Europe was overshadowed by the war waged in Eastern Europe.

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Submitted by
Steve Mercatante
on: May 31 2012 - 4:11pm

Heads up everybody. The Association of Royal Air Force Fighter Control Officers is looking to get in touch with all operators, male or female, of the Royal Air Force's World War II era (1939-1945) warning system known as the "Dowding System" as follows:

“Working under the closest secrecy since 1939, over 4,000 Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) personnel have played an important part in the air victories achieved by radiolocation (Radar). They tracked hostile and friendly aircraft, flying

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Submitted by
Steve Mercatante
on: May 28 2012 - 5:38pm

It is my hope that everybody in the United States is spending at least some time today thinking of the sacrifices made by our veterans over the two plus centuries of our nation's existence. In particular, and given this website's focus, I hope people take a moment to think of those who gave their lives during the Second World War - the last time this nation's independence and way of life has truly been threatened during an actual shooting war.

As such, and in special remembrance of our Second

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Submitted by
Steve Mercatante
on: May 23 2012 - 3:16pm

During World War II Nazi Germany primarily encoded its messages through the use of what was known as the "Enigma" machine. Enigma’s use by the Wehrmacht stretched back to the early 1930s and originated from a design created by Hugo Alexander Koch in the Netherlands.

Although heavily modified prior to the Second World War’s onset, the Enigma machines used in 1939-1945 remained similar to Koch’s prototypes from two decades prior.

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Submitted by
Steve Mercatante
on: May 19 2012 - 8:16pm

This final part in our series on the human cost of the Second World War in Europe will look at the nation most responsible for plunging humanity into global warfare: Germany. Though in the United States of America the Second World War is often cast today as the last "good war", in reality there were few nation's that participated in the war, willingly or not, and emerged from the war with entirely clean hands.  

I make this observation because the people of Germany were both the perpetrators

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Submitted by
Steve Mercatante
on: May 17 2012 - 8:14pm

Part II of our series on the human cost of the Second World War in Europe detailed Eastern Europe and Poland’s immense suffering. Part III now turns to the country that bore perhaps the worst of Nazi Germany's aggression; the Soviet Union and its Red Army.

Beginning with military losses, the Red Army suffered 29 million casualties during the Second World War; including 11,444,100 killed, missing, or captured with 8,668,400 killed in action.

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Submitted by
Steve Mercatante
on: May 11 2012 - 11:48am

This is the second in a series of posts detailing the human cost of the Second World War in Europe. Today we take a closer look at the toll in Eastern Europe.

In spite of the staggering human loss and destruction across all of Western and Southern Europe it could barely compare to the horror of Eastern Europe’s devastation.

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Submitted by
Steve Mercatante
on: May 7 2012 - 8:57pm

On May 7, 1945 the Germans finally surrendered to the Allies, with the surrender executed at 11:01 p.m. the following day, officially ending the Second World War in Europe.

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Submitted by
Steve Mercatante
on: May 2 2012 - 6:15pm

The Battle of Britain remains today one of the more heavily focused upon events of the Second World War. In particular, events that occured in English skies from August of 1940 through early 1941 attract the lion's share of attention.

What must be remembered however, is that the horror of facing random death, injury, or loss of possessions facing the average British citizen continued throughout World War II.

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