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2 episodes with german pows
2 episodes with german pows
6 episodes with german pows
3 episodes with german pows
2 episodes with german pows
2 episodes with german pows
2 episodes with german pows
2 episodes with german pows
2 episodes with german pows
In this episode, Isabella interviews Alexis Penny Casdagli, the daughter of Major A.T. Casdagli, an Anglo-Greek spy famous for embroidering subversive needlework during his time in German POW camps in WWII. Images and sources are available at @sewwhatpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The podcast has a website, sewwhatpodcast.com.You can read Major A.T. Casdagli's wartime diary, Prouder Than Ever, through Cylix Press here: https://www.cylixpress.co.uk/. Also be sure to check out Alexis Penny's blog here: https://www.cylixpress.co.uk/alexis-pennys-blog/.As a note, the Greek Civil War is mentioned in this episode as being in 1948. The Greek Civil War took place from 1946 to 1949.
Welcome back, ragers, to another thought-provoking episode of History Rage Live! This week, host Paul Bavill is joined by Professor of Modern History at Chester University, Tim Grady, to explore the often-overlooked narratives surrounding the war dead from the First and Second World Wars. Tim, author of the upcoming book "Burying the Enemy," shares his insights on how enemy soldiers were treated in death and the complexities of commemoration.Unearthing the Past: Join us as Tim reveals the surprising history of enemy war graves in the UK, including the story of German POWs who died in captivity and were buried locally, often without the recognition they deserved.Local Burials: Discover how enemy soldiers were buried in British towns and the public's reaction to these graves.Commemoration Practices: Explore how communities honoured enemy dead, often integrating them into local remembrance practices.Vandalism and Attitudes: Delve into the instances of desecration and the changing attitudes towards enemy graves over the decades. Raging Against Division: Tim expresses his frustration with the continued separation of how we remember the war dead, advocating for a more holistic approach that acknowledges all lives lost in conflict, regardless of their nationality.Guest Information:Pre-order Tim Grady's book "Burying the Enemy", released on March 25th here:https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10120/9780300273977Follow Tim on Twitter: @tlgrady68.Support History Rage: For just £3 per month on Patreon or Apple, enjoy early access to episodes, ad-free listening, and exclusive content. Subscribe at www.patreon.com/historyrageStay ConnectedJoin the conversation and keep the rage alive! Visit historyrage.com for past episodes and updates.Follow us on:Facebook: History RageTwitter: @HistoryRageInstagram: @historyrageStay passionate, stay curious, and let the rage for historical truth burn brighter! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
During World War II, approximately half a million German prisoners of war were held in the United States, housed in 700 camps spread across the country, from Florida to Maine. These POWs were treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, often working in agriculture and other industries to alleviate domestic labor shortages. Today, evidence of these POW camps has all but vanished, and with them the harrowing knowledge of what happened beyond the battlefield. But today’s guest, William Geroux (Jer-oh), author of “The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America,” not only exposes the forgotten history of these POW camps on American soil, but of the Nazi power games that dominated life within them. While German prisoners were protected by the Geneva Convention and generally treated fairly by their American captors, ardent Nazis in dozens of the camps began to punish and attack their fellow German inmates who failed to live up to Nazi ideology. What followed was a grisly series of murders in the heart of the United States.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hometown Radio 01/031/25 6p: Today is a 'Two-fer Friday'! featuring: Does alcohol consumption lead to cancer? Then the second half is: There was a German POW camp on the Central Coast in world war II
With From Incarceration to Repatriation: German Prisoners of War in the Soviet Union (Cornell UP, 2024), Susan Grunewald significantly enhances understandings of the fate of Germans captured by the Soviet Union during World War II. Her archival research demonstrates that the Soviets saw the German prisoners of war as a source of labor at a time when the Soviet Union urgently needed to rebuild and lacked manpower after its enormous war losses. Numerous Soviet enterprises, operating under dozens of ministries, used POWs contracted out by prison camp officials. Grunewald argues that the mistreatment of German POWs and their high death rates were the consequence not of retribution but of negligence, lack of coordination, and severe shortages, especially during the famine that followed the war. Those too weak to work were often repatriated. POWs were also subjected to intense antifascist reeducation so that once home, they would help win support among Germans for the Soviet Union; many former prisoners filled leadership roles in East Germany after the establishment of two German states in 1949. The last POWs returned to Germany in early 1956. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
With From Incarceration to Repatriation: German Prisoners of War in the Soviet Union (Cornell UP, 2024), Susan Grunewald significantly enhances understandings of the fate of Germans captured by the Soviet Union during World War II. Her archival research demonstrates that the Soviets saw the German prisoners of war as a source of labor at a time when the Soviet Union urgently needed to rebuild and lacked manpower after its enormous war losses. Numerous Soviet enterprises, operating under dozens of ministries, used POWs contracted out by prison camp officials. Grunewald argues that the mistreatment of German POWs and their high death rates were the consequence not of retribution but of negligence, lack of coordination, and severe shortages, especially during the famine that followed the war. Those too weak to work were often repatriated. POWs were also subjected to intense antifascist reeducation so that once home, they would help win support among Germans for the Soviet Union; many former prisoners filled leadership roles in East Germany after the establishment of two German states in 1949. The last POWs returned to Germany in early 1956. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
With From Incarceration to Repatriation: German Prisoners of War in the Soviet Union (Cornell UP, 2024), Susan Grunewald significantly enhances understandings of the fate of Germans captured by the Soviet Union during World War II. Her archival research demonstrates that the Soviets saw the German prisoners of war as a source of labor at a time when the Soviet Union urgently needed to rebuild and lacked manpower after its enormous war losses. Numerous Soviet enterprises, operating under dozens of ministries, used POWs contracted out by prison camp officials. Grunewald argues that the mistreatment of German POWs and their high death rates were the consequence not of retribution but of negligence, lack of coordination, and severe shortages, especially during the famine that followed the war. Those too weak to work were often repatriated. POWs were also subjected to intense antifascist reeducation so that once home, they would help win support among Germans for the Soviet Union; many former prisoners filled leadership roles in East Germany after the establishment of two German states in 1949. The last POWs returned to Germany in early 1956. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history
With From Incarceration to Repatriation: German Prisoners of War in the Soviet Union (Cornell UP, 2024), Susan Grunewald significantly enhances understandings of the fate of Germans captured by the Soviet Union during World War II. Her archival research demonstrates that the Soviets saw the German prisoners of war as a source of labor at a time when the Soviet Union urgently needed to rebuild and lacked manpower after its enormous war losses. Numerous Soviet enterprises, operating under dozens of ministries, used POWs contracted out by prison camp officials. Grunewald argues that the mistreatment of German POWs and their high death rates were the consequence not of retribution but of negligence, lack of coordination, and severe shortages, especially during the famine that followed the war. Those too weak to work were often repatriated. POWs were also subjected to intense antifascist reeducation so that once home, they would help win support among Germans for the Soviet Union; many former prisoners filled leadership roles in East Germany after the establishment of two German states in 1949. The last POWs returned to Germany in early 1956. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/german-studies
With From Incarceration to Repatriation: German Prisoners of War in the Soviet Union (Cornell UP, 2024), Susan Grunewald significantly enhances understandings of the fate of Germans captured by the Soviet Union during World War II. Her archival research demonstrates that the Soviets saw the German prisoners of war as a source of labor at a time when the Soviet Union urgently needed to rebuild and lacked manpower after its enormous war losses. Numerous Soviet enterprises, operating under dozens of ministries, used POWs contracted out by prison camp officials. Grunewald argues that the mistreatment of German POWs and their high death rates were the consequence not of retribution but of negligence, lack of coordination, and severe shortages, especially during the famine that followed the war. Those too weak to work were often repatriated. POWs were also subjected to intense antifascist reeducation so that once home, they would help win support among Germans for the Soviet Union; many former prisoners filled leadership roles in East Germany after the establishment of two German states in 1949. The last POWs returned to Germany in early 1956. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/russian-studies
With From Incarceration to Repatriation: German Prisoners of War in the Soviet Union (Cornell UP, 2024), Susan Grunewald significantly enhances understandings of the fate of Germans captured by the Soviet Union during World War II. Her archival research demonstrates that the Soviets saw the German prisoners of war as a source of labor at a time when the Soviet Union urgently needed to rebuild and lacked manpower after its enormous war losses. Numerous Soviet enterprises, operating under dozens of ministries, used POWs contracted out by prison camp officials. Grunewald argues that the mistreatment of German POWs and their high death rates were the consequence not of retribution but of negligence, lack of coordination, and severe shortages, especially during the famine that followed the war. Those too weak to work were often repatriated. POWs were also subjected to intense antifascist reeducation so that once home, they would help win support among Germans for the Soviet Union; many former prisoners filled leadership roles in East Germany after the establishment of two German states in 1949. The last POWs returned to Germany in early 1956. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/eastern-european-studies
With From Incarceration to Repatriation: German Prisoners of War in the Soviet Union (Cornell UP, 2024), Susan Grunewald significantly enhances understandings of the fate of Germans captured by the Soviet Union during World War II. Her archival research demonstrates that the Soviets saw the German prisoners of war as a source of labor at a time when the Soviet Union urgently needed to rebuild and lacked manpower after its enormous war losses. Numerous Soviet enterprises, operating under dozens of ministries, used POWs contracted out by prison camp officials. Grunewald argues that the mistreatment of German POWs and their high death rates were the consequence not of retribution but of negligence, lack of coordination, and severe shortages, especially during the famine that followed the war. Those too weak to work were often repatriated. POWs were also subjected to intense antifascist reeducation so that once home, they would help win support among Germans for the Soviet Union; many former prisoners filled leadership roles in East Germany after the establishment of two German states in 1949. The last POWs returned to Germany in early 1956. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day
Hometown Radio 01/07/25 3:30p: There was a German POW camp on the Central Coast in WW II
Longtime PBS reporter/journalist David Tereschuk talks about his latest release “A Question of Paternity: My Life as an Unaffiliated Reporter” about his decades long search to determine the identity of his father thought to be a priest or a German POW using his investigative reporting skills is his attempt to discover his origins and involved the police, the Catholic Church, Red Cross, British military and more! David spent two decades with British commercial TV, reporting, producing and making documentaries before moving to the US involved with CBS, ABC, Discovery Channel, etc., graduated Oxford Univ. later becoming a US citizen in '02, taught broadcast news at Columbia Univ. Grad. School of Journalism and later a consultant for the UN on media issues plus his shares the stories behind the stories! Check out the amazing David Tereschuk and his latest release on all major platforms and www.davidtereshchuk.com today! #davidtereschuk #author #PBSreporter #greatbritian #aquestionofpaternity #journalist #britishtv #CNN #PBS #ABC #CBS #investigativereporting #neyyorkcity #catholicchurch #redcross #spreaker #iheartradio #spotify #applemusic #youtube #anchorfm #bitchute #rumble #mikewagner #themikewagnershow #mikewagnerdavidtereschuk #themikewagnershowdavidtereschuk --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themikewagnershow/support
Longtime PBS reporter/journalist David Tereschuk talks about his latest release “A Question of Paternity: My Life as an Unaffiliated Reporter” about his decades long search to determine the identity of his father thought to be a priest or a German POW using his investigative reporting skills is his attempt to discover his origins and involved the police, the Catholic Church, Red Cross, British military and more! David spent two decades with British commercial TV, reporting, producing and making documentaries before moving to the US involved with CBS, ABC, Discovery Channel, etc., graduated Oxford Univ. later becoming a US citizen in '02, taught broadcast news at Columbia Univ. Grad. School of Journalism and later a consultant for the UN on media issues plus his shares the stories behind the stories! Check out the amazing David Tereschuk and his latest release on all major platforms and www.davidtereshchuk.com today! #davidtereschuk #author #PBSreporter #greatbritian #aquestionofpaternity #journalist #britishtv #CNN #PBS #ABC #CBS #investigativereporting #neyyorkcity #catholicchurch #redcross #spreaker #iheartradio #spotify #applemusic #youtube #anchorfm #bitchute #rumble #mikewagner #themikewagnershow #mikewagnerdavidtereschuk #themikewagnershowdavidtereschuk --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themikewagnershow/support
Longtime PBS reporter/journalist David Tereschuk talks about his latest release “A Question of Paternity: My Life as an Unaffiliated Reporter” about his decades long search to determine the identity of his father thought to be a priest or a German POW using his investigative reporting skills is his attempt to discover his origins and involved the police, the Catholic Church, Red Cross, British military and more! David spent two decades with British commercial TV, reporting, producing and making documentaries before moving to the US involved with CBS, ABC, Discovery Channel, etc., graduated Oxford Univ. later becoming a US citizen in '02, taught broadcast news at Columbia Univ. Grad. School of Journalism and later a consultant for the UN on media issues plus his shares the stories behind the stories! Check out the amazing David Tereschuk and his latest release on all major platforms and www.davidtereshchuk.com today! #davidtereschuk #author #PBSreporter #greatbritian #aquestionofpaternity #journalist #britishtv #CNN #PBS #ABC #CBS #investigativereporting #neyyorkcity #catholicchurch #redcross #spreaker #iheartradio #spotify #applemusic #youtube #anchorfm #bitchute #rumble #mikewagner #themikewagnershow #mikewagnerdavidtereschuk #themikewagnershowdavidtereschuk Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-mike-wagner-show--3140147/support.
Do not judge others by your own standards, for everyone is making their own way they know best. -Leon Brown Music: Time Has Come Today | The Chamber Brothers | Lyrics ☾☀ (youtube.com) “Trained As A Spy At 10” – Sex Trafficking Survivor Anneke Lucas NAMES Her Billionaire Abusers (youtube.com) Baby Cages: […] The post 2/3**GRAPHIC CONTENT: Where are black children in cages coming from? Cages and Electroshock. Is it multi-generational? Or a simple plan that is not that old. Lying and Cheating Gypsies -German POWs Murdered. appeared first on Psychopath In Your Life.
“Better to be hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.” – Khaled Hosseini Clips played: ✡ Jewish Sabbatean Frankist Satanic Ritual Abuse Survivor Vicki Polin – Child Sacrifice (youtube.com) Laid foundation for Concentration Camps. The Holocaust was not Germany’s first Genocide (youtube.com) Why Was There No German Mafia in the […] The post **GRAPHIC CONTENT: Where are black children in cages coming from? Cages and Electroshock. Is it multi-generational? Or a simple plan that is not that old. Lying and Cheating Gypsies. German POWs went missing – was it murder? appeared first on Psychopath In Your Life.
Joy Jordan-Lake, bestselling author of Under a Gilded Moon, joins the podcast to talk about her latest novel, Echos of Us. Echoes of Us weaves together the past and present as descendants of three unlikely World War II allies—an American farm boy, a Jewish student, and a German POW—clash over the future of their shared company. Hired to organize a family reunion, sisters Hadley and Kitzie uncover deep secrets and old wounds, revealing the story of a courageous woman who binds their histories together.
Elizabeth Farnsworth, former PBS Newshour anchor and reporter turned writer, engaged in a wide-ranging conversation with host Michael Krasny about her career and latest work. The discussion covered her memorable interviews, mentors, and experiences as a foreign correspondent, including traumatic events that led to her leaving that role. Farnsworth reflected on the challenges of modern news reporting and the differences between commercial and public broadcasting. The conversation then shifted to her novel "Last Light," which explores the treatment of German POWs in a fictional Kansas hospital during World War II. Farnsworth shared insights into her creative process, the differences between memoir and fiction writing, and her thoughts on prose style. The dialogue also touched on historical topics such as the underground railroad and school integration, as well as personal reflections from both Farnsworth and Krasny. The conversation concluded with comparisons between broadcasting and podcasting, and reminiscences about notable figures they had interviewed in the past.
German soldiers were kept in the Soviet Union until the late 1950s. Professor Grunewald explains why the Soviets kept the POWs after the war, what they did with them, and why they were incarcerated for so long. Was it retribution for the millions of Soviet war dead? Were the German POWs used as a necessary labor force, helping to rebuild the Soviet Union? Or were there multiple other reasons? Dr. Susan Grunewald explains all! Episode 564.
Susan Grunewald is an Assistant Professor of History at Louisiana State University. She was the Digital History Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh World History Centre from 2019 to 2022. Susan earned her Ph.D. in History at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, US). She specializes in Soviet and German WWII and post-war history, digital humanities, and GIS. We'll discuss her engaging book “From Incarceration to Repatriation. German Prisoners of War in the Soviet Union.” ---------- LINKS: https://susangrunewald.com/ https://x.com/susangrunewald https://www.linkedin.com/in/susangrunewald/ https://www.worldhistory.pitt.edu/people/ant-24 https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501776021/from-incarceration-to-repatriation/ ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyśl https://kharpp.com/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube's algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
TV reporter David Tereshchuk will be our guest on Resiliency Within as he shares his personal journey chronicled in his memoir, A Question of Paternity: My Life as an Unaffiliated Reporter. He has traveled the world questioning perpetrators and victims of war and injustice. He spent decades honing his skills as a journalist, getting tyrants and the oppressed to divulge their secrets. But there was one secret that always eluded him—that of his own origins. His mother, Hilda—the one person who knew—refused to tell him who his father was. Then, in his fifties—after some tense exchanges—she sent him a fax stating a priest had raped her at the age of 15 in the small, Scottish Borderland town where he'd been raised. So began a quest to determine the priest's identity—years of investigations and dead ends. Could his mother—long gone by now—have been lying about the priest? Could rumors of her “walking out” with a German POW housed at a nearby prison camp be the real story behind his birth? In his book, A Question of Paternity, David Tereshchuk brings us with him as he searches for answers—not only to the question of who fathered him but to the larger questions of who he is himself. We learn of his struggle to overcome the shame of his impoverished childhood and his illegitimacy, the almost thirty years he lost to alcoholism, and the insecurity he felt despite national success as a TV journalist. Does Tereshchuk discover the truth of his father's identity, or must he settle for simply a journey of self-discovery? Is it possible to find peace even when the uncertainties of life are impenetrable?
TV reporter David Tereshchuk will be our guest on Resiliency Within as he shares his personal journey chronicled in his memoir, A Question of Paternity: My Life as an Unaffiliated Reporter. He has traveled the world questioning perpetrators and victims of war and injustice. He spent decades honing his skills as a journalist, getting tyrants and the oppressed to divulge their secrets. But there was one secret that always eluded him—that of his own origins. His mother, Hilda—the one person who knew—refused to tell him who his father was. Then, in his fifties—after some tense exchanges—she sent him a fax stating a priest had raped her at the age of 15 in the small, Scottish Borderland town where he'd been raised. So began a quest to determine the priest's identity—years of investigations and dead ends. Could his mother—long gone by now—have been lying about the priest? Could rumors of her “walking out” with a German POW housed at a nearby prison camp be the real story behind his birth? In his book, A Question of Paternity, David Tereshchuk brings us with him as he searches for answers—not only to the question of who fathered him but to the larger questions of who he is himself. We learn of his struggle to overcome the shame of his impoverished childhood and his illegitimacy, the almost thirty years he lost to alcoholism, and the insecurity he felt despite national success as a TV journalist. Does Tereshchuk discover the truth of his father's identity, or must he settle for simply a journey of self-discovery? Is it possible to find peace even when the uncertainties of life are impenetrable?
Webster's Rough Return. Join Cocktails & Classics as we delve into Episode 8 of Band of Brothers, "The Last Patrol." Witness the emotional toll of prolonged war on Easy Company as the previously injured David Webster returns to Easy Company as they take on one of their final missions taking German POWs from across the Rhine River. We'll discuss the complexities of reintegrating returning soldiers, the absolutely bananas plan to put a wounded German out of their misery, and the soldiers' cautious anticipation of the war's end. Don't miss this poignant exploration of brotherhood, sacrifice, and the physically and emotional toll of war in this latest episode of Cocktails and Classics. Don't forget to head over to our website, www.cocktailsandclassicspod.com to sign up for our newsletter, where we will keep you up-to-date on podcast happenings and releases, movie news, new trailers, and supply you with some fun and challenging trivia. Time Stamps: 00:00 Intro to the Episode, catch up on the podcast and show before the finale in two weeks! 01:00 Ben sucks at Geography. 04:14 Is WW2 tourism a little perverse? Do European's care about American Civil War battlefields? 06:25 Ben's ‘Murica Patriotism 10:12 Webster's Un-Warm Welcome Back to Easy Company 15:07 Why slower episodes are beneficial to shows? 18:00 Dissecting Webster's plot to relieve tired soldiers on the patrol 20:21 Colin Hanks with the Nepo-baby role. 23:50 Interesting seeing how the soldiers are dealing with the hardships 26:15 We become educated in battlefield promotions 28:14 Major Winters is still the man. 30:34 Ben compliments the costume departments visual differences in the incoming soldiers and the guys post-Bastogne 33:03 Audible Ad 33:42 Grenades might be the least efficient way to put someone out of their misery 38:00 “I Can't Swim” and the Outpost Outcome 39:00 Ben has seen parts of the next episode and Dylan's hopes they reveal who is who of the real life soldiers. 41:00 Casting for looks vs performance vs star power 46:03 We look forward to doing Movie Reviews again and the lack of conclusion in TV episodes 48:23 Tom Hardy causes our Mid-Life Crisis 50:44 Outro This week's sponsor is Audible, the leader in audiobooks and spoken word originals, if you'd like to get a 30-day free trial and check out all that Audible has to offer head to www.audibletrial.com/cocktailsandclassics. Our Website Our Instagram Our Letterboxd List
Claiming to have found Slumach's legendary motherlode, WWII veteran and German POW survivor, Stu Brown, allegedly hauls ten pounds of gold nuggets out of the Upper Pitt and spends the last three decades of his life trying to convince the government of the riches to be had in its own backyard. Host: Kru Williams Guests: Brian Antonson Daryl Friesen Facebook - @HISTORYCanada Instagram - @deadmanscurse Instagram - @Historyca Instagram - @kru_williams Twitter - @HistoryTVCanada Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Sean and James discuss Part 6, which takes us with Egan and Cleven into a German POW camp. October 1943; Major Egan is taken prisoner and almost dies after he and other downed pilots are attacked by civilians while being marched through a bombed town. He is taken to Dulag Luft for interrogation before being transferred to Stalag Luft III. There, he meets other comrades from the 100th, including Cleven. Meanwhile, Lt. Rosenthal and his crew are sent to a country estate for relaxation and counseling, which Rosenthal resists. Captain Crosby attends a conference at the University of Oxford where he meets a British ATS officer whom he bonds with before she is unexpectedly called away.
In this episode of Battleground 44' Saul and Patrick take a deep dive into a host of fascinating listeners questions, anecdotes, and family stories from the Second World War. If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - podbattleground@gmail.com Producer: James Hodgson X (Twitter): @PodBattleground Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Masters of the Air on AppleTV+ is about the pilots who served in the 100th Bomb Group in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. Cinematographer Richard Rutkowski shot episodes 107 and 108, which included both aerial flying, bombing and imprisoned airmen at a German POW camp. From the beginning, Richard was impressed with how everything was organized on such a massive scale. The props, set design and costumes were extremely exact to the time period. “I really am attracted to stories that have authenticity in them,” says Richard. “And they put the authentic on camera. It is all exactly what it's meant to be, what it was at the time, as close as they can get.” Richard worked with director Dee Rees on their block of Masters of the Air. The prison camp scenes involved working with searchlights, mud and absolute darkness at night, with up to 250 people in a scene. He chose to light in a way that would emphasize the dim lighting, gray atmosphere and unhealthy look for the POWs. Some of the Tuskegee Airmen, the legendary African-American fighter pilots, are also brought to the POW camp and the prisoners are integrated into the previously racially-segregated fighting force. Shooting the action inside the planes involved large-scale LED volume screens surrounding the aircraft sections, with an LED roof overhead, which created most of the lighting for the scene. The actors were placed on a gimbal controlled articulated steel deck so they could react to the motion. The cameras tracked with the video system, and had GPS locators that allowed the background to respond to where the camera was so that it knew how much background to put in. Richard was the sole cinematographer on the FX series The Americans for several seasons. The Americans was about a Russian spy couple posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C. during the Cold War in the 1980's. Richard established the look of the show, with the couple's “normal” DC life leaning into bolder primary colors, in a kind of red, white, and blue cleanliness. By contrast, in their double life as spies, Richard chose a grittier, darker and grainy look. On The Americans, Richard says he learned the value of letting the actors do their work. “(There is) an unspoken connection being made about whether a scene is moving well, whether a take is truly finished. I would learn to stop reaching for that cut button. No matter who said what, if the actor was in it, we don't cut. You leave the boom up, keep out of the frame. If the actor's in it, we're not cutting. We'll go till they're ready.” As a kid, Richard's father was a fine art painter and he grew up all over the country. He began making 16mm films in college and working with theatrical director Robert Wilson. After college, Richard started working on small budget films, working his way up through the camera department, including being a second assistant camera on School Ties with cinematographer Freddie Francis, a two time Oscar winner. After School Ties, Richard wrote Ed Lachman asking to work with him, and he went on to work with Ed on several movies. He feels that working your way up and learning all the different crafts in the camera department is a great education for a DP. Masters of the Air is available on AppleTV+. Find Richard Rutkowski: Instagram @richardrutkowskidp Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by Aputure: https://www.aputure.com/ The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz
Last time we spoke about the Twenty-One Demands and the rise of the Walrus Emperor, Yuan Shikai. Japan certainly had their work cut out for them during WW1. Seizing upon every possible opportunity Japan occupied Shandong province after the siege of Tsingtao and forced China to accept the unbelievable twenty-one demands. Yuan Shikai tried to stall and negotiate, eventually reaching thirteen demands, but yet again China was served a terrible humiliation that even became a national day henceforth. Then Yuan Shikai completely, organically, not fault of his own because the Hongxian emperor over a new dynasty. The new monarchy of China lasted a solid 83 days, before Yuan Shikai was forced to abdicate lest every single province declare their independence. All of this was occurring during the vacuum of WW1, which was still raging on. Yuan Shikai was back to being president, over a fractured nation. #91 China & the Treaty of Versailles Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Yuan Shikai's short-lived monarchy did not end China's national crisis. When he abdicated, you would assume this would have eased tensions a bit, but then the people of China found out Yuan Shikai was going to stay on as president. The people were livid. As you can imagine, the calls for his abdication were followed up by calls for him to step down as president. In early April of 1916 Cai E, speaking on behalf of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi put forward 6 demands to solve the crisis. 1) Yuan Shikai had to step down and go into exile 2) his stooges, 13 principal monarchist supports were to be executed 3) Yuan Shikai's vast property was to be confiscated 4) Yuan Shikai's descendants were to be stripped of citizenship. Apparently Yuan Shikai ignored these demands off the bat, prompting Cai E to add 5) Yuan Shikai would be charged with treason and punished by law passed by Congress. In April and May of 1916, more provinces declared independence, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Hunan. Their provincial leaders, many of whom were Yuan Shikai loyalists like Chen Yi of Sichuan or Tang Xiangming of Hunan labeled him an illegal leader, condemned him as a villain and severed their ties to him. Talk about choosing your friends wisely eh? Thus by May of 1916 most of southern china was independent, waiting for Yuan Shikai to step down, and most likely it would be Li Yuanhong who would take the presidency. Dr Sun Yat-Sen did not play a significant role in this anti-Yuan Shikai movement. He did make grand speeches, in April of 1916 for example he said “only after the principal culprit Yuan is exterminated could the constitution be restored and the republic be revived. If Yuan continues to rule, the country cannot be preserved. All Chinese must annihilate the evil thoroughly and never be tolerant towards Yuan, for only after the national thief is wiped out could the republic attain peace.” A barrage of telegrams, letters and personal envoys showed up to Yuan Shikai's offices asking him to step down. Yuan Shikai's initial reaction was simply to try and suppress his challengers. On April 1st he proposed conditions to Cai E for solving the “crisis”, these were, repealing provincial independence, returning administrative order, disbanding new military units and halting conflicts. Meanwhile Yuan sent secret telegrams to his military commanders at the frontlines ordering the annihilation of the rebels. These men working under him basically had to go with it, his fortune was theirs as they say. But as we have seen, the battles were not going well for him. While he had the best army in China, he could not stand alone against everyone else. Thus he began talking to his closest officials about leaving politics. He also began talking about who would pick up after him. His successor would need to be capable of controlling his northern army, to coordinate his network of military leaders and address the current nations financial issues. Yuan Shikai also began screaming and lashing out at those who were once close to him and betrayed him. Such men Chen Yi in Sichuan, Tang Xiangming in Hunan, but above all, Feng Guozhang made him most bitter. As Yuan Shikai thought over his retirement plans, his enemies did not let up at all. Liang Qichao set up the “Junwuyuan”, Military Affairs Council in Zhaoqing, Guangdong on May 8th, 1916. This was a rival government to the Beiyang republic, who began issuing proclamations and coordinated with rebel provincial leaders. The council supported Li Yuanhong as president and according to Liang Qichao's speeches to the public “the existing national crisis was single-handedly created by Yuan. If Yuan remains in office, the country will confront upheavals and tumult continuously. Once Yuan departs from politics, all military conflicts will immediately vanish.” Yet again China was seeing a north and south governmental divide. According to Yuan Shikai's daughter, Yuan Jingxue, his health deteriorated in early 1916 and he suffered from major depression. Now Yuan Shikai was certainly not a physically healthy guy, again the Walrus quips hold validity. He often got ill, he rarely left the presidential palace, and kept himself very isolated. I would imagine this was to thwart assassination attempts. Apparently all the men in his family lineage tended to die before 50. Regardless, his overeating probably was the main culprit. Despite all of this, he stubbornly would not step down, even while sick in bed he continued to read official documents at the bedside. By June he was quite bedridden and few came to see him, just his closest friends and colleagues Xu Shichang and Duan Qirui. Yuan Shikai was a strong believer in Chinese medicine and tried to fight off his family who emplored him to seek western medicine until he allowed the French doctor J.A Bussiere to treat him. Dr. Bussiere diagnosed him with uremia and tried to treat him, but it was not working. Anticipated death was at the door, Yuan Shikai called upon Xu Shichang, Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen to his bedside where he handed over his last will. He told them he bitterly regretted the monarchy move and blamed everyone for misleading him, what a mensch. Now he trusted these 3 men to care for his family and as for his successor, he told them it clearly needed to be Li Yuanhong. He asked them to swear to him that they would submit to Li Yuanhong for the good of the nation. Then he breathed his last breath and was dead by June 6th of 1916. At the age of 56 Yuan Shikai, a colossal figure of modern Chinese history was gone. Now this was perhaps one of the most pivotal moments in modern Chinese history, for you see Yuan Shikai had ushered in something. Yuan Shikai from the beginning of his rule, did so with the might of his Beiyang Army. He built up this army, he modeled it a lot upon the imperial Japanese army. He had procured, some would simply say embezzled and stolen funds to make this army the best in China. His intentions can be seen as merely to solidify his power, but in the long term it was also to build a modern unified army for China. Like everyone else before him, he was tackling the issue of modernization. His process was a lot like a mafia however. He installed men loyal to him in various positions, by this point I've named countless of them. Many of these men were basically military-governors. They were trained to lead armies and they all had ambitions politically. There were of course those outside the Beiyang Clique as it came to be called, such as Dr Sun Yat-Sen's Kuomintang and the provinces that all declared independence like Sichuan, Guangdong, Hunan, Guangxi, Yunnan, later on the CCP will be a player as well. He had set up this elaborate system, that we will call Warlord control, I literally just made that up. Yuan Shikai's warlords were the baddest of the bunch and with him as the father of Warlords he at least had a firm grasp over China. However when Yuan Shikai decided to play monarch, he royally, pun intended screwed up his own system. This caused what has occurred throughout China's history, a North-South divide. New Warlords were emerging in the south, but even Yuan Shikai's Warlords were slowly breaking off from him. When Yuan Shikai died, while on the surface it looked like China would unify….it most certainly was not. Its honestly a very complex and confusing situation, known as China's Warlord Era. On the face of it, China had the “Beiyang Government”, who at all times had a president, cabinets etc etc, but it was all a charade. In reality, the Warlords would fight another for dominance over the military forces in China, as that was what really controlled China. The Beiyang Clique would divide into other cliques, and all over China numerous Cliques and associated Warlords would come and go. But, I just wanted to tease you a bit, for coherency sake I'd like to finish China's experience of WW1. After Yuan Shikai's death, Li Yuanhong assumed the presidency on June 7th. Li Yuanhong ordered a state funeral costing half a million dollars, taken from Yuan Shikai's associates such as Xu SHichang and Duan Qirui. In his presidential order Li Yuanhong praised Yuan Shikai for his vital role in the Xinhai revolution and for his industrious spirit, not saying a thing about the monarchy phase. The government flew the Beiyang flag at half mast. With that the anti-Yuan war was over. Liang Qichao dismantled his rival government and the anti-yuan provinces repealed their independence proclamations. All provinces recognized Li Yuanhong as president, a very good start. Now the historical narrative had it, that Li Yuanhong's rise to the presidency was actually at gunpoint. After Yuan Shikai's death, there was a sealed box with the names Xu Shichang, Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui found in it. None of the men wanted to stick their neck out to seize the presidency. Its said Duan Qirui forced Li Yuanhong to take the job, but Li Yuanhong was very nervous about it. Why was he? The Beiyang military leaders were all northerners, Li of course was a southerner who also had been the enemy. Duan Qirui consulted his senior military colleagues who all hated the idea of Li Yuanhong being president. But Duan Qirui fought to get the unpopular man as president, because he thought he would make for an excellent puppet. Duan Qirui meanwhile maintained his current position, which was premier. For you Americans who might not be familiar with Parliamentary type systems this is how the Beiyang Government quasi worked. The National Assembly aka parliament elects a president and vice president for 5 year terms and a premier who chooses and leads a cabinet. Typically in these types of systems, the Presidency is more of a ceremonial role. Li Yuanhong's vice president was Feng Guozhang, Yuan Shikai was rolling in his grave. Meanwhile with the provisional constitution restore, political parties were allowed back and 3 factions emerged: Dr Sun Yat-Sen's Kuomintang; Liang Qichao's Constitution Research Clique and Tang Hualong's Constitution Discussions Clique. The first order of business for the new government was the creation of a national army. You might be thinking, err what about WW1? Well with southern China armed and dangerous still, there was a looming fear of further rebellions. There was also the enormous fear, some Beiyang general would renegade and overthrow the government. Meanwhile there was of course WW1. Last episode we talked about China sending laborers to work for France, Britain, Russia and later America. 1916 for the most part saw China providing the labor services, while trying to fix their own nation. Then on February 17th of 1917, the French cargo ship SS Athos was sunk by German U-boat U-65. The ship was carrying 900 Chinese workers on their way to France and 543 of them were killed. Premier Duan Qirui and Liang Qichao both wanted to join the war on the Entente side, seeing it as a tool to help China. President Li Yuanhong and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen both opposed the idea. Duan Qirui strong armed the issue, having China break diplomatic ties with Germany. Duan Qirui also was up to something else. In January of 1917, Prime Minister Terauchi of Japan sent a secret envoy who happened to be a private business man named Nishihara Kamezo. Nishihara was given the task of finding out who really controlled the current Beiyang Army, or better said, who controlled the strongest inner clique within it. That man was Duan Qirui. Nishihara had the financial backing of the current minister of finance, Shoda Kazue who also was the former president of the Joseon Bank in Korea. Together they were offering a private loan, done so through private banks to quote “help develop China”. This was absolutely not the case. They negotiated a series of 8 loans totaling 145 million yen to Duan Qirui, to assist him in maintaining his cliques military. You see like everyone else, Duan Qirui feared other northern warlord types would become stronger than his group, can't let that happen now. To receive these loans, Japan was asking for confirmation of its claims over the former German empires concessions, ie : Kiautschou Bay in Shandong; control over the Shandong railways and some additional rights within Manchuria. All of this was to be kept hush hush, but it would not remain so. I can't get into it too much here, it will be covered in another episode, but a Duan Qirui's deal was leaked and it looked to the public that Duan Qirui was trying to take over China using Japanese aid. Li Yuanhong had Duan Qirui removed from his position as Duan Qirui and the majority of the Beiyang Generals ran over to Tianjin forming a sort of base of operations. Then in a rather insane twist, General Zhang Xun offered to mediate the situation between the Government and Duan and by mediate, I mean he showed up to the capital with his army literally besieging it. Yes, boy that escalated quickly, can't get into the insane story here, again it will be told in a future episode, but Zhang Xun with German funds and arms occupied Beijing and tried to dissolve parliament in an attempt to install Puyi as emperor over the rebirthed Qing dynasty. Needless to say, Li Yuanhong freaked the hell out, reappointed Duan Qirui as premier and begged him to come save Beijing. Duan Qirui defeated the rebels and forced Li Yuanhong to resign as president so Feng Guozhang could take up the role. Duan Qirui then refused to restore parliament which will literally blow the door open to the Warlord wars, but for out story we return to the issue of WW1. Having already broken diplomatic ties to Germany, there was still the issue of whether or not to declare war. An intense debate was ignited involving nearly all the influential figures in China. It constituted an unprecedented movement for China. China had neer before taken an active role in a global event, one being played out very far from her borders. By participating in the war, some hoped to regain sovereign rights to Shandong. Liang Qichao criticized German militarism and said he believed Germany could not win. He also argued in order to improve China's standing, they had to align her with the victors of the war. On the other side, Dr Sun Yat-Sen argued entering the war would alienate China from Germany. Unlike Britain, France and Russia, Germany had not inflicted as much harm to China in the past. He believed Britain and Russia were far more imperialistic and thus bigger threats. He also argued it would be a material gain at the loss of spirit, thus he wanted to see China remain neutral. Duan Qirui was frustrated as Li Yuanhong added his voice to the matter saying he also did not want to enter the war. While this argument was going on, the KMT began establishing a military government in southern China and elected Dr Sun Yat-Sen to be their generalissimo. Regardless, Duan Qirui took matters into his own hands and declared war on the Central Powers on August 14th. German and Austro-Hungarian concessions in Tientsin and Hankow were quickly seized. Duan Qirui hoped by entering the war, China might gain some international prestige and eliminate some unequal treaties. He alongside many others hoped to get rid of the indemnity payments, like the Boxer Protocol and to regain control over the Shandong Peninsula. Notably China continued to send laborers to help the war effort, but never sent troops. China's actual participation in the Great War remained very minimal. It was constrained to confiscating some German ships along their coast and continuing to support the allies with labor. China tried multiple times to offer naval and military assistance, or even a token combat unit to the western front, but it never came to be. Honestly a lost opportunity. If you check out my episode on southeast asia during ww1 or my Asia during WW1 documentary, you will see nations like Thailand did send forces and profited pretty heavily from the experience. Germany surrendered on November 11th of 1918, and hopes were so high in China they declared a 3 day national holding. China had achieved her primary goal, being granted a seat at the Paris Peace Conference. She had been given two seats as she had not provided combat troops like other nations who had more seats. For example Japan was given 5 seats since they did provide combat troops. Now because of Dr Sun Yat-Sen's southern government, there basically was two sets of envoys sent to Paris. The Beiyang or Northern government members and Sun Yat-Sen's southern government members. Heading the Beiyang was Lu Zhengxiang who was accompanied by Wellington Koo, Cao Rulin, Hu Weide, Alfred Sze and some other advisors. On behalf of the southern government was Wu Chaoshu and although not an official delegate so was C.T Wang. Overall Lu Zhengxiang was the leader of China's delegation, but Wellington Koo, sort of a master negotiator came to become the main man. China's demands at the conference were territorial, economic and political. In regards to territory, the “delegation proposed the internationalization of the Manchurian railways and rivers” and for foreign treaty ports and communities to remain short-term in order for China to transition them back into her ownership for a long term strategy. In regards to politics, China wanted “the elimination of all legation guards, removal of all foreign troops stationed in China, and the abolition of extraterritorial rights”. In regards to economics, China sought to regain full sovereignty over her tariffs and railways. All together these demands would be a dramatic improvement of her international standings. It would place her on a much more equal footing with the great powers. Now for those of you less familiar with WW1, this came directly at the time of one of America's worth presidents in my opinion, President Woodrow Wilson's 14 points. Again I will do the boring professor like thing by listing the points, but dont worry its in a summarized form: 1. Open diplomacy without secret treaties 2. Economic free trade on the seas during war and peace 3. Equal trade conditions 4. Decrease armaments among all nations 5. Adjust colonial claims 6. Evacuation of all Central Powers from Russia and allow it to define its own independence 7. Belgium to be evacuated and restored 8. Return of Alsace-Lorraine region and all French territories 9. Readjust Italian borders 10. Austria-Hungary to be provided an opportunity for self-determination 11. Redraw the borders of the Balkan region creating Roumania, Serbia and Montenegro 12. Creation of a Turkish state with guaranteed free trade in the Dardanelles 13. Creation of an independent Polish state 14. Creation of the League of Nations Given the points, such as the right of self-determination of peoples, the Chinese delegates felt pretty good about their stance. However, what would prove to be the crux between China and her goals were a series of secret agreements and treaties between the Great Powers, China and Japan. Remember Duan Qirui's little loans? Well when China declared war on the Central Powers, this put her in alliance with Japan, as now they were both part of the Entente. Another large event had unfolded in 1917, the October revolution, seeing Russia fall to communism. The Entente declared the communist government a threat. Vice chief of the Imperial Japanese army general staff, Tanaka Giichi sought to form a military pact with China, including a military alliance against the new common enemy. In late January of 1917 Tanaka sent a message to the Japanese military attache in Beijing to form a Sino-Japanese agreement, but to try and get the Chinese to suggest the idea first. The Chinese obviously would be suspicious of forming any type of agreement with Japan given the Shandong situation and Japan's encroachment into Manchuria. Japanese foreign minister Motono Ichiro offered a military cooperation similar to what the Entente were doing in France, stating if they could operate their military forces in France, why not in Manchuria. The Japanese also hinted as the possibility of just sending troops into Manchuria even if China didn't agree to it. On March 3rd, 1918 the Germans and Soviets signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, leaving some 100,000 German POW's scattered about Siberia and this scared China quite a bit. Thus on March 8th, the Japanese government began forming plans for a Sino-Japanese agreement and informed the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo, Zhang Zongxiang about it. A team led by Major General Saito Suejiro went to Beijing to negotiate the terms of the agreement. On March 25th, Zhang Zongxiang and Minister Motono both agreed enemy forces were spreading rampantly along the Russia border, threatening the far east. Thus they agreed to a joint defense agreement. This got leaked to the public in early April and opposition in China spread dramatically. Japan pretty much made its intents with the Sino-Japanese alliance known. The alliance would allow for free movement of Japanese troops with Chinese territory, that some resources would be commandeered for the military, a bit of domestic politics would probably be interfered with also and they pretty much were going to plant pro-Japanese forces across China. On May 3rd, Tanaka Giichi visited Zhang Zongxiang and demanded an apology from the Chinese side for doubting Japans intentions and failing to ratify things. He stated if China did not agree to the alliance, the Nishihara loans would be withheld. Duan Qirui could not stomach that so negotiations recommenced on May 16th and the agreement was signed. The Sino-Japanese agreement consisted of 12 major articles: The second article establishes the parties of the agreement were equals,; the third article specified that the Chinese authorities must "try their best" to cooperate with the Japanese military in the relevant regions and prevent them from "experiencing any obstacles" in their operations. The fourth article specified that Japanese troops would be "entirely withdrawn" from Chinese territory at the termination of the war. The seventh article specified the placement of liaison officers in each party's military to facilitate communication between the two parties and specified that both parties must provide whatever resources are required to facilitate their joint defense. As usual, Japan demanded the negotiations be made secret, but it was leaked immediately. Now back to Paris, China had thus agreed to grant Japan several things and it contradicted what she sought at the peace talks. For one thing, she sought to reclaim the Shandong Peninsula. Back in 1915 Yuan Shikai's government had signed the thirteen-demands, but Wellington Koo argued that it had been an unequal treaty imposed upon China in a moment of weakness. Wellington Koo, gave an impassioned speech about the importance of Shandong province to China, describing it as "the cradle of Chinese civilization, a Holy Land for the Chinese. It was the birth land of Confucius and Mencius. If Japan was allowed to continue its lease of the Shandong territory, then it would provide the government of Tokyo with a strategic "gateway" to all of north China”. As for the second Sino-Japanese treaty in which China agreed to allow Japan's occupation of Shandong amongst other things, well the Chinese delegation had no idea about this agreement. Yes the delegation team found out about this agreement at Paris, go figure. So yeah it was a pretty big surprise when the Japanese delegation literally read out the treaties signed with Duan Qirui et al, very embarrassing for the Chinese delegation. Then to make matters even worse the Entente powers, specifically Britain and France also acknowledged they had signed secret agreements with Japan giving her the rights to Shandong since she had entered the war to help them. You could hear the sad violin music beginning to play. The Chinese delegation in absolute desperation looked towards the United States for help, hoping Woodrow Wilson's right to self-determination would bend to their favor. Woodrow said Shandong should be given to Japan, probably hoping to add Japan's favor in forming the League of Nations. The global powers then pretty much ignored the Chinese delegation. Hence forth the Chinese felt Woodrow Wilson had betrayed China, though as much as I hate to say it, it really wasn't his fault. He was simply balancing a number of secret agreements made and there were many promising Japan Shandong. Thus in article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles the official transfer of the Shandong peninsula was given to the Empire of Japan rather than being returned to China. China denounced this transfer stating Shandong was the birthplace of Confucious, the greatest Chinese philosopher and it would be on par to Christians conceding jerusalem. China demanded Shandong Peninsula be returned to China, an abolition of all the privileges afforded to foreign powers in China such as extraterritoriality and to cancel the thirteen demands with the Japanese government. The Western powers refused all of China's demands and dismissed them. As a result Wellington Koo refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles in protest. Thus China was yet again humiliated. Worse, the ongoing news of what was going on at Versailles had caused probably one of the greatest movements in modern Chinese history to be unleashed back home. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. China was absolutely devastated by the treaty of versailles. Their fractured nation had been the victim of double dealings and now the Shandong problem would plague them for some years. However back home, an incredible movement was quicking up fueled by the anger of students and workers.
This week Sarah, Luke, Colin, and I continue to follow the Bloody Hundredth in what amounted to a tonal shift for the series. We talk about life inside German POW camps, the Great Escape, the Battle of Berlin, and Black Monday. We dive into the Red Cross and also compare the experiences of American prisoners in Europe and the Pacific, along with those of German prisoners in the United States. We also talk about Crosby's affair with Landra, as well as the arrival of the P-51 Mustang over the skies of Europe in 1944. And maybe you hear my Bill Clinton impression for the very first time. This is our best pod on this series yet.
This week Sarah, Luke, Colin, and I dive into the latest episode of Masters of the Air, talking specifically about the experiences of Americans in German POW camps, heterosexual and homosexual relationships of American servicemen, a perceived anti-British bias on the show, and our first glimpses of the Holocaust on the series. This is our deepest dive yet. Hope you like it.
This is an oral testimony of Captain Frank Murphy from The Frank Murphy Collection at the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force. Throughout our episodes, you have been hearing audio clips from this interview. Here is the interview with Frank Murphy in its entirety. Sitting on jeep, left to right: Lt. Frank Murphy and Lt. Charles Cruikshank. Standing far right is Capt. Albert “Bucky” Elton, 418th Sq. Operations Officer. Others kneeling and sitting, left to right: Lt. Augie Gaspar, Lt. Glenn Graham, and Lt. Burr, 418th Sq. Intelligence Officer. Murphy Collection. Frank Murphy survived German POW camps after being shot out of his B-17 Flying Fortress. His bravery earned him the Prisoner of War Medal, Purple Heart, and Air Medal. The incredible stories of Murphy and his 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group is now being featured in the Apple TV+ Series, Masters of the Air. Murphy's story documents his order of assignments, the everyday adversity of war, his downing and his custody--all told with unembellished, yet searing objectivity. Members of the 100th Bomb Group at RAF Thorpe Abbotts on August 17, 1943. Frank D. Murphy is kneeling on the left with a dagger in his pocket. Below is an excerpt from his memoir, Luck of the Draw: On Monday, June 28, 1943, along with seventeen other [100th Bomb Group aircrafts], and three other 4th BW groups equipped with Tokyo tanks, Crew No. 31 set out to attack the German submarine pens at Saint-Nazaire, France. Because of the large number of antiaircraft guns ringing the port, it was known as “Flak City.” Out of respect for this formidable array of defensive weaponry, our bombing altitude would be twenty-eight thousand feet, the highest bombing altitude of our combat tour. With our long-range fuel tanks, it was not necessary for us to fly over France; instead, we departed the English coast at Land's End at the southwestern tip of England, flew entirely over water around the Brest Peninsula, and made our bomb run from the sea over the Bay of Biscay. It was a beautiful sunny day, but as we turned to our bomb run at the IP, I saw antiaircraft fire for the first time. It horrified me. The flak was easy for me to see since my navigator's table was immediately behind the bombardier, whose position was in the Plexiglas cone that formed the nose of the bomber. I could easily see past the bombardier and, of course, I had windows of my own, so getting an eyeful of flak bursts was unavoidable. When we entered the flak, it was an almost uninterrupted cloud of swirling black smoke filled with angry red explosions. Plainly, any one of those exploding shells could obliterate an aircraft and its crew without warning. When the group ahead of us entered this inferno, they all but disappeared. My heart felt as if it would stop. It did not appear possible that anyone or anything could fly into that hell and come out alive on the other side. But somehow, despite being buffeted by thunderous explosions and the incessant clinking, clanging, and pinging of shell fragments striking our airplane, we made it through. I quickly learned to hate flak—it frightened the life out of me. We could not see it coming, nor could we fight back as we could with enemy fighters. The German gun-laying radar was incredibly accurate. The standard German antiaircraft gun, the 88 mm flak cannon, was capable of hurling an eighteen-pound shell to a maximum slant range of nine thousand yards. It took the shell twenty-five seconds to cover this distance, and during this time, its target would move almost two miles. Yet we seldom knew we were under fire until the antiaircraft shells began exploding in proximity to us, usually in simultaneous bursts of four black puffs from a single battery if it was light, or in thick concentrations of random explosions if several batteries were zeroed in on us. We couldn't take evasive action until we were already in the middle of it, and on a bomb run, we took no evasive action regardless of how intense the flak was. We had to fly straight and level so the bombardier could drop the bombs on target. The din inside the airplane was horrific—the continuous roaring of our four Wright Cyclone engines was almost deafening. Still, we could easily hear the muffled explosions of nearby flak bursts, and if they were really close, they made loud, cracking sounds like near-miss lightning strikes or breaking tree limbs. If German fighters attacked us, the airplane shook and vibrated violently from the operation of our flexible machine guns and power turrets, sounding much like someone thumping on washtubs with sticks. Dust and threads of insulation flew about the airplane, and shrapnel from flak, which varied in size from as big as baseballs to as small as gravel, rained on and often penetrated the thin skin of the airplane. Inside the Plexiglas nose of the airplane, it was as if we were in a fishbowl in a shooting gallery five miles up in the sky in an already-unforgiving environment. It is difficult to describe how exposed and unprotected we felt. Wreckage of Frank Murphy's B17, shot down over Münster, Germany Mission 21, Münster, Germany The Battle over Munster was a pivotal moment in the war, and it played a significant role in the eventual Allied victory. By targeting the railroad marshalling yards, the Allies were able to disrupt the flow of supplies and reinforcements to the German front lines, weakening their position and ultimately helping to turn the tide of the war. Shot down During this hazzardous mission near Münster, on October 10th 1943, Frank (on his twenty first mission) was aboard the B-17 Flying Fortress "AW-R-Go" (#42-30725) when the plane was shot down. Crew members B-17 Flying Fortress "AW-R-Go" Captain Charles B.Cruikshank, Pilot, POW 1st Leutenant, Glenn E.Graham, Copilot, POW Captain Frank D.Murphy, Navigator, POW 1st Leutenant, August H.Gaspar, Bombardier, POW T/Sergeant Orlando E. Vincenti, Radio operator, KIA T/Sergeant Leonard R.Weeks, Top Turret, POW S/Sergeant Robert L.Bixler, Ball Turret, POW S/Sergeant James M.Johnson, Waist gunner, POW S/Sergeant Donald B.Garrison, Waist gunner, POW Sergeant Charles A.Clark, Tail gunner, KIA Atlanta Journal Constitution Article from early November 1943 after Frank Murphy and his crew were shot down. Taken prisoner Captain Frank D. Murphy (22) was taken prisoner of war for the remainder of the war, which lasted for another nineteen months. He was first sent to Stalag Luft III in Sagan, a prisoner of war camp for captured airmen. In January 1945, as the Russian Army advanced on the camp, the prisoners were moved to Stalag VIIA in Moosburg, which was a work camp for Allied prisoners of war. After enduring a grueling march in sub-zero temperatures, with little rest or food, many soldiers did not survive the journey. Frank even traded his shoes with a fellow soldier to survive. They were then crammed into boxcars for two days and three nights with no access to sunlight or fresh air. Preparing to depart Stalag Luft VIIA on May 10, 1945. Frank D. Murphy standing third from the left. Liberation Upon arrival in Moosburg, where he was assigned to Work Camp 3324-46 Krumbachstrasse and later to Work Camp 3368 in Munich, the conditions were horrific. Frank referred to it as a "living hellhole of all hellholes." However, on April 29th, 1945, General George S. Patton's American Third Army liberated over 100.000 POWs, including Frank. He had lost over 50 pounds, weighing only 122 pounds at the time of liberation. During his time in service, Frank earned among others, the Air Medal, The Purple Heart, The US Prisoner of War Medal and the European Campaign Ribbon.
#6 - We're counting down the best Breakdowns of 2023. Coming in at #6 - "When Lena Horne Refused to Sing for German POW's."Support the show
Libby Fischer-Hellmann is the author of two mystery series separately featuring single mom and freelance video producer Ellie Foreman and PI Georgia Davis. At Bouchercon 2023, she was researching an historical fiction novel about the Ritchie Boys, a group of Jewish immigrants and refugees who were drafted into the U.S. Army and assigned to interrogate German POWs. Alexia Gordon the author of the Gethsemane Brown mystery series. This series features classical musician turned reluctant sleuth Gethsemane Brown. The series began in 2016 with Murder in G Major which aired as a Hallmark movie just a few weeks after we met her at Bouchercon 2023 in San Diego.
How did British agents bug German PoWs during the Second World War? What qualities do you need to be a successful spy? And how are deepfakes changing the face of modern warfare? Amanda Mason introduces Spencer Mizen to some of the 150 objects starring in the new Imperial War Museums' exhibition, Spies, Lies and Deception. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
An escape German POW will die if Dr. Christian doesn’t perform emergency surgery. He’s not sure if he wants to operate. Original Radio Broad Read more ...
The split-time Amish Memories series by Leslie Gould continues with book two, This Passing Hour, releasing in just over a week, and oh wow does this series sound exciting. Listen in as we discuss history, its echoes, and the series that illustrates them through the stories of different plain people through the years. Note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you. Can Anything Be Better than a Gripping Split-Time Story? Author of numerous bestselling Amish novels, Leslie Gould does something I've never seen before--she writes AMISH split-time! The influences of World War II on Mennonites and Amish in both Germany and America? Well, how could it not be riveting? I loved hearing about her research into Nazi sympathies both in America and in Germany and comparing research and other books that use similar situations in different ways. Leslie Gould also writes Amish rom-coms! How cool is that? And her next series? Yep, heading back that way. The Passing Hour by Leslie Gould After the death of her parents, Mennonite Brenna Zimmerman relocates to the Lancaster County farm of her Old Order Amish grandparents. There, she befriends Rylan Sanders, a disabled veteran, and commits to rising above her own grief to help him as much as she can. But when things take a turn for the worse, Brenna finds herself at a loss for what to do. As Brenna struggles, her Mennonite friend Johann Mazur, a soldier in the Ukrainian Army, encourages her to distance herself from Rylan. But when she discovers that Rylan's army buddies are withholding secrets that could help with his psychological healing, Brenna is torn between her feelings for Johann and her commitment to help Rylan. Inspired by the story of her distant relative who served with the Red Cross and supervised German POWs during World War II, Brenna considers her own future and must decide whether she has the courage to give up the comforts she craves for the life she truly wants. The Passing Hour is available at BakerBookHouse for 40% off with free shipping through 11/27/23! Learn more about Leslie Gould on her WEBSITE and follow her on BookBub and GoodReads. Like to listen on the go? You can find Because Fiction Podcast at: Apple Castbox Google Play Libsyn RSS Spotify Amazon and more!
Today we have a BBC broadcast of an interview with Major C.E. Page, a Canadian soldier who had recently been released from a German POW camp. Be sure to visit our website at BrickPickleMedia.com/podcasts for past episodes and more or find us on Facebook at facebook.com/ww2radio.
Things We Didn't Say by Amy Lynn Green was a book out of the ordinary. She weaves a tale using only letters, telegraphs, and notes. This piece of history was unknown to us, German POWs were brought to America to work with farmers. We were taken back in time to January 1944 to Ironside Lake, Minnesota. We met Johanna Berglund, a determined linguistic student that was coerced into returning to her hometown to work as a translator at the nearby POW camp. She couldn't wait to leave her hometown and now, ironically, she is headed back. Peter Ito, Jo's closest friend, is a language instructor at a school for military intelligence officers, he encourages her to do her best to give Ironside Lake a second chance. Peter has a lot of wisdom: “God never promised us an easy path. But He did say He'd be with us through it all.” “The past is never in the past. But we have to have the courage to move beyond it.” “We can do anything we must. How we do it is up to us.” “Don't hold on so tightly to one idea of what you want that you don't let God push you In another direction.” Jo was a guarded: “I don't have enough charm to spare and have to ration it for general interaction with humanity.” “Real life is dreadfully tedious, the way it interrupts reading.” She cleverly began her letters to Peter with German idioms, such as: “To add one's mustard=put in one's opinion” “The fish begins to stink at the head=the source of trouble is often at the top” “To howl along with the wolves=do as those around you are doing” As Jo's adventure continues she battles with owner of the newspaper, Mr. McHenry, who prints anonymous negative letters about the POWs in the name of freedom of expression. Her attempt to show him the wrongness of his practice is priceless. “As I see, no one should be able to sling mud from a dark and shadowed corner…” Pastor Sorenson wrote, “Sometimes showing grace breaks us before it heals us. Forgiveness can feel like a betrayal of justice.” Powerful message from a man that lost his son in battle from the same place the POWs were captured, yet he agrees to let the prisoners attend church. Why was Jo on trial for treason? What will be revealed in the trial? Will Peter survive his time in the army? Who was Jo's scholarship donor that told her to choose the better dream, not the bigger dream?” How can letters alone paint a picture of days gone by, but connect so amazingly to the world we live in? Please, join us as Kate ‘adds her mustard' and I add mine about Things We Didn't Say. “ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/recapbookchat/message
On Episode 103 of The Film ‘89 Podcast, Skye is once again joined by seasoned podcaster, cinephile and expert on film scores and composers, Stephen Simpson to celebrate, for its 60th anniversary, one of the Film ‘89 team's all-time favourite films, The Great Escape. Director John Sturges, hot off the success of 1960's, The Magnificent Seven, once again assembles an epic international cast including Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Donald Pleasence, Charles Bronson, James Coburn and many more, in an adaptation of Paul Brickhill's book of the same name. The story of the real life breakout of Allied officers from a German POW camp in WWII, Sturges' film, aside from garnering considerable critical acclaim, would go on to become a perennial Sunday afternoon TV classic with a memorable Elmer Bernstein score, and moreover, go on to be regarded as one of the greatest war films ever made.
If you're making a list of the creepiest looking sh*t in the world, ventriloquist dolls would definitely be near the top, and "Mr. Fritz" is no exception. Made in a German POW camp during WW2, Mr Fritz survived the war and was passed around for years before ending up in a museum for paranormal oddities. Why? Because every night around 3am... Mr. Fritz comes to lifeLIVE TOUR - www.thisparanormallife.com/tourFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Can you dig it? A tunnel out of a German POW camp that is! It's our brand new episode going over 1963's classic The Great Escape. Get your pick axe, some wood from your bunk bed, settle down and get ready to laugh. Please give us a rating and a review on ApplePodcasts. It helps potential sponsors find the show! You can also watch the show on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@reviewinghistory6455 Buy Some Merch: www.reviewinghistorypod.com/merch Email Us: Reviewinghistorypod@gmail.com Follow Us: www.facebook.com/reviewinghistory twitter.com/rviewhistorypod letterboxd.com/antg4836/ letterboxd.com/spfats/ letterboxd.com/BrianRuppert/ letterboxd.com/brianruppert/list…eviewing-history/ twitter.com/Brianruppert
It's the end of May 2023 and we've handpicked a few of our favorite history stories from this month. Today, we'll be talking about… The 98-year-old Frenchmen who revealed the secret massacre of German POWs during WWII… …the 7,000-year-old tomb discovered by archaeologists in Oman… …how an Italian historian claims to have identified a bridge in the Mona Lisa… …the stone age dagger discovered by an eight-year-old in Norway… …why severed hands may have been seen as spoils of war in ancient Egypt… …as well as a number of historical anniversaries, including the first reported Loch Ness Monster sighting, the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the first men to scale Mount Everest https://allthatsinteresting.com/tell-el-daba-severed-hands credits: https://allthatsinteresting.com/podcast-credits Thanks HelloFresh! Go to HelloFresh.com/uncovered16 and use code uncovered16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping History Uncovered is part of the Airwave Media network: www.airwavemedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week the Troika discuss German Prisoner's of War in America during WW2. We also delve into driving distance in the US vs. Europe, Tallahassee, Liverwurst and more. Enjoy.
Last time we spoke about the situation in the north pacific and the grand conclusion of the Chindits Operation Longcloth. The battle of the Komandorski islands had basically put a nail in the coffin that was the Aleutian islands campaign for japan. They could not hope to resupply Attu and Kiska properly, therefore America had a free hand to build up to invade them. Also the crazed Onion man Wingate had taken his boys in the fray of Burma and they paid heavily for it. Yes despite all the glory and fame that the propaganda perpetuated the operation had done, in reality, Wingate had sacrifice many lives for little gain. His erratic behavior led to dangerous decision making which took a toll on the men. In the end what can be said of the operation was it atleast provided something positive to boost morale for the British in the far east. But today we are going to speak about the falling of a major giant of the pacific war. This episode is Operation Vengeance Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945. Now two weeks ago I covered Operation I-Go and you may have noticed I sprinkled a bit of foreshadowing information here and there. But to catch you back up to speed so to say let me just summarize those events and the dire circumstances what person would find himself in. It can easily be deduced by early 1943, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto knew Japan was staggering towards a catastrophic defeat. Rather ironically, he was one of those figures in Japan that tossed as much as his political influence could against the decision to go to war with america. He warned his high ranking colleagues of the great industrial might America held and that it would inevitably overwhelm Japan. His obsession over a decisive naval victory was driven mostly because he knew the only possible way for Japan to come out of WW2 positively was to bring America to the negotiating table as early as possible. But how does one do that exactly? Well Japan held a significant advantage over America in 1941, their Pacific Fleet was by far larger, vastly better trained and held considerable technological advantages. Thus like a game of Axis & Allies, a game I have been playing since I was a teenager and hope to livestream now and then for audiences like yourself, well like a good old game of Axis & Allies if you are the Axis you typically toss the kitchen sink at the offset of the war hoping to break the allies before their productive advantage gradually wins them the board. Yamamoto engineered the raid on Pearl Harbor to smash the US Pacific fleet enough to thwart them of any offensives for 6 months at minimum, though he definitely hoped for a year. After that his plan had always been to force america into a naval surface battle in the hopes of taking out their fleet and forcing them to negotiate. If they did not negotiate after that, well he hoped to buy Japan enough time to build a complex defensive perimeter which perhaps could be used to bleed Americans dry and thus gradually get them to come to terms. Well his obsession for the grand naval battle led him into a trap. Yes, a critical thing the Japanese overlooked during most of the Pacific War was code breaking. The Cryptanalysts at Station Hypo did miracles breaking the JN-25 code, leading them to deduce Admiral Yamamoto's operation MI was directed at Midway atoll. They had knowledge of the locations, the units and the timetables and they used this intelligence to set up a major trap for the combined fleet. The June 1942 disaster at Midway had been a major gambit aimed at forcing the war to an early conclusion, a gambit which fell apart. The losses at Midway meant the war was not to be a prolonged one, though it might surprise many of you to know, the chance of another decisive naval battle was not all but lost, it would just be harder to configure. Regardless the overall viewpoint after the failure at Midway now meant Japan had to fight a war of attrition, something Japan could not hope to win. Yamamoto had obsessed himself and countless other high ranking figures that Midway was to be the decisive battle, but in reality it fell upon Guadalcanal. Yes the battle for Guadalcanal emerged the decisive battle they had all sought, but the Japanese high command were late to this conclusion. The Americans basically snuck onto the island in an extremely bold manner, forcing what became a horrifying bloody war. In the end the Americans won the battle for Guadalcanal and because of Japan's lackluster planning, this simultaneously led to the major loss of the Buna-Gona-Sanananda front as well. New Guinea and the Solomons were intertwined and Japan kept fumbling back and forth between them which inevitably was leading to them losing both. After the loss at Guadalcanal, Japan had lost the initiative for the Pacific War, now America was in the drivers seat. The battle of the Bismarck Sea proved to the Japanese high command, their sealanes were no longer safe. America was dominating Japan's ability to move men and supplies across the ocean through a war of attrition using airpower and submarines. The Japanese planners understood the allies were going to advance in two prongs; one through New Guinea and the other up the central and northern solomons. For the allies to advance, they required the construction of airfields along the way to provide air superiority to cover their surface fleets and transports of men and supplies. Japan had been massively depleted of ships, aircraft, trained men, resources in general, but one thing they still had an advantage over the allies was their airfields scattered about the Pacific. On March 15th Japanese high command in Tokyo demanded plans be made to build a new defensive strategy in the central Pacific. The main idea was to build a stronger defensive perimeter emanating from Rabaul. Thus on the morning of April 3rd of 1943, Admirals Yamamoto and Ugaki, accompanied by more than a dozen officers of the combined Fleet staff boarded two Kawanishi flying boats and headed for Rabaul. Yamamoto and the high ranking figures scoured their maps and came up with what was needed to be done to meet this new demand. They needed to hinder the American airpowers advance up the Solomons and New Guinea, this meant hitting allied forward airfields. Four locations were chosen: Guadalcanal, Oro Bay, Port Moresby and Milne Bay. It was to be called Operation I-GO Sakusen and would be the responsibility of the IJN. Admirals Yamamoto and Jinichi Kusaka established temporary headquarters on Rabaul and began planning. The planning led to an incredible concentration of Japanese airpower. The 11th airfleet and 4 aircraft carriers of the 3rd fleet: Zuikaku, Zuiho, Junyo and Hiyo would amass a force of 224 aircraft. The airpower was going to be used to smash the 4 targets and then they would be dispersed to several airfields to mount a new defensive perimeter. They would be sent to places like Buka and Kahili on Bougainville and Ballale in the Shortland Islands. Admiral Yamamoto would personally supervise Operation I-GO as he took up quarters on a cottage high on a hill behind the town of Rabaul. He spent weeks inspecting airfields and other military installations, meeting with local army and navy commanders at various headquarters scattered about New Britain. As was his typical behavior, he bid farewell to departing air squadrons waving his hat to them. For 10 consecutive days, Japanese bombers and fighters hit their designated targets. More than 200 aircraft attacked Guadalcanal on April 7th, a raid larger than any attempted during the 5 month battle over the island. The Japanese pilots came back with extremely exaggerated claims of success. They claimed to have destroyed dozens of ships and hundreds of aircraft. In reality operation I-Go amounted to the destruction of 25 aircraft, 1 destroyer, 1 corvette, 1 oil tanker and 2 transports. The Japanese had lost around 40 aircraft for this. The Japanese high command including Yamamoto and even Emperor Hirohito bought the success stories. Hirohito send word stating “Please convey my satisfaction to the Commander in Chief, Combined Fleet, and tell him to enlarge the war result more than ever.” On the other side of the conflict, General Kenney had a more damning critique of the way Yamamoto used his air forces during Operation I-Go, “… the way he [Yamamoto] had failed to take advantage of his superiority in numbers and position since the first couple of months of the war was a disgrace to the airman's profession.” The reality was, the aircrews were not the same types that raided Pearl Harbor in 1941, no these men in 1943 were forgive me to say, kind of the bottom of the barrel types. Sure there remained some veterans and experiences men, but far and too few to trained what should have been a brand new generation of Japanese airpower. Japan had squandered their veterans and now she was paying a heavy price for it. On October 25th of 1942, Rear-Admiral Ugaki had written this in his diary “every time it rained heavily, about ten planes were damaged due to skidding.” The Japanese airfields were no match for the American Seabees who were performing miracles across the pacific building superior fields for their airpower. By contrast the Japanese could not hope to match this, they lacked resources and trained personnel. Operation I-GO in the end costed the allies advance 10 days. Yamamoto had his spirits lifted somewhat by Operation I-GO believing it to be a triumph. He announced he would conduct a one-day tour of forward bases at Buin, Ballale and Shortland Island set for April the 18th and this is where our story truly begins. Yamamoto's tour was sent over the radio waves using the JN-25D naval cypher to the 11th air flotilla and the 26th air flotilla. Admiral Yamamoto's operations officer Commander Yasuji Watanabe would go on the record complaining that the information about Yamamoto's visit to the Ballalae Airfield should had been done by courier and not by radio, but the communications officer replied “this code only went into effect on april 1st and cannot be broken”. The message was picked up by three stations of the “Magic” apparatus, the United States cryptanalysis project. One of the three stations ironically was the same team responsible for breaking the codes that led to Midway, station Hypo at Pearl Harbor. Major Alva B. Lasswell, a duty officer at Joseph Rochefort's Combat Intelligence Unit Station HYPO deciphered it and pronounced it to be a "jackpot". The message contained highly detailed information and it was easy to deduce the message was about Yamamoto. It contained his departure time: April 18, 06:00 Japanese Standard Time, 08:00 Guadalcanal Time set for Ballale, 08:00 Japanese Standard Time, 10:00 Guadalcanal Time.; his aircraft which was a G4M Betty and the number of his escorts, 6 Zeros; as well as the entire itinerary for his tour. Admiral Yamamoto's plane was going to be heading over the southern end of Bougainville on the morning of the 18th, a location that happened to be just within the fighter range of Henderson Field. Alva Bryan Lasswell and intelligence officer Jasper Holmes took the decrypted message to CINCPAC headquarters and handed it to the fleet intelligence officer Ed Layton who tossed it upon Admiral Nimitz desk a few minutes after 8 on April 14. Nimitz scrutinized the chart on his wall and confirmed himself that Yamamoto's plane would enter airspace that could be reached by american fighters from Henderson. “He asked Layton “Do we try to get him?”. The question honestly was a tough one. Was it wrong to target the combined fleet chief based on some sort of convention upon military chivalry? Like most naval officers, Nimitz had interacted socially with Japanese officers during the interwar years. Nimitz was not a particularly vengeful nor bloody-minded man. In era's past, an American flag or general officer would certainly refuse to have his rival commander assassinated. For you American listeners, can you conceive George Washington ordering a hit on William Howe? How about Robert E Lee ordering a hit on Ulysses Grant? However war in the 20th century was not like the previous centuries. Hell even by the standards of the war in europe, the Pacific War was unbelievably more brutal. Honestly if you wanted a good book on the subject of how brutal the Pacific war was, try John D Dowers “War without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War”. Now during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, cough cough if you want to hear about that one check out my Youtube channel, the IJA and IJN had strictly adhered to the rules of war. Russian prisoners were housed well, fed well, provided good medical care, given cigarettes and alcohol, the 2nd one very important to russians as we know haha. Those who died within captivity were even buried with military honors. During WW1 the Japanese took German prisoners after the siege of Tsingtau and treated them extremely well in Japan, let them parade the country with a band and such. In fact the treatment of the German POW's had a small hand to play in how Japan got into bed with Germany later, and honestly to this very day Japan and Germany have this special relationship. However, Japan certainly did not bring this type of chivalrous etiquette into the Pacific War. Nimitz may have hesitated to give the order, but he knew full well of the Japanese actions in China, the Philippines, Malaya, Hong Kong, the East Indies, the Solomons. I guess you can say barbarity dishes out barbarity. Yet aside from the morality question, was it wise to kill Yamamoto? This was after all the man who planned and executed the disastrous Midway offensive losing 4 aircraft carriers with nearly all their aircraft. Yamamoto had also mismanaged the guadalcanal campaign by deploying air and troop reinforcements in piecemeals. He arguably was doing a good job losing the war. Layton knew Yamamoto personally and argued that he was the best-respected military leader in Japan and that his death “He's unique among their people… Aside from the Emperor, probably no man in Japan is so important to civilian morale. [His absence] would demoralize the fighting navy. You know Japanese psychology; it would stun the nation.”. Layton said to Nimitz “You know, Admiral Nimitz, it would be just as if they shot you down. There isn't anybody to replace you”. To this Nimitz smiled amusingly and replied “it's down in Halsey's bailiwick, if there's a way, he'll find it. All right, we'll try it”. Thus sealed the fate of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Thus Admiral Nimitz sent a “your eyes only” message to Admiral Halsey, alerting him to the situation and ordering a fighter interception with the concluding remarks “best of luck and good hunting”. Codenamed Operation Vengeance approved on the 14th, the assassination of Admiral Yamamoto was done under utmost secrecy to protect the cryptanalysis teams. It just so happened Halsey had already been informed of the operation in a chance encounter in Melbourne Australia. He was inspecting naval facilities in the city and dropped by the communications intelligence office where a yeoman named Kenneth Boulier was working on one of the draft decrypts. Halsey came to his desk and asked “what are you working on son?”. And when Boulier explained, Halsey raised his voice and addressed the entire unit “Goddamit, you people knock off this Yamamoto business! I'm going to get that sonofabitch myself!”. I guess one can say he was enthusiastic about the job. Halsey informed his subordinate air commanders, Admirals Aubrey Fitch and Marc Mitscher about the details of Operation vengeance. Southern Bougainville was roughly 400 miles away from Henderson field and the aircraft would need to take a roundabout route to evade detection. Thus the mission would require 1000 miles or so of flying, a range that would test the capabilities of even the longest legged American fighters. AirSols commander Mitscher called for a secret meeting of his staff on April 16th to figure out the logistics of the operation. It was determined that to intercept Yamamoto's flight, they should use Lockheed P-38 Lightnings which held a comparable range to that of the Zero fighter, though it would not alone be enough. They would need to use a lean fuel mixture and drop tanks to barely make the long flight. It was going to be quite tight, thus the timing had to be precise, or else the aircraft would burn their fuel while waiting for the enemy to make their appearance. Major John Mitchell of the 339th fighter squadron was assigned the commander of 18 P-38's piloted by handpicked airmen. 4 P-38's would be designated as “killers”, ie: the guys who would target Yamamoto's G4M Betty, while the other pilots would cover them against the Zero escorts. The killers were to be Captain Thomas Lanphier, Lieutenants Rex Barber, Joseph Moore and James McLanahan. They were going to intercept Yamamoto in the air just south of Empress August Bay. Now the direct flight to Bougainville meant crossing over or very close to Japanese held islands which held observers. This meant they would need to veer far out to sea to avoid any visual contact made by Japanese coastwatchers. Likewise they would skim the ocean at wave-top height to avoid detection by Japanese radar. Mitchell plotted their missions course to remain at least 50 miles offshore. This also meant they would have no landmarks to use as checkpoints: it would have to be dead reckoning the entire way, flying by airspeed, clock and compass under strict radio silence for over 2 hours, until they saw the Bougainville coast. The strike force would depart guadalcanl at 7:20. Even after all the precision and planning, the lightning force would only have around 15 minutes to shoot down Yamamoto, this was a extremely tight one. Mitchell gave the odds of the operation succeeded about a thousand to one. Back over in Rabaul commanders like Admirals Ozawa and Jojima were trying to change Yamamotos mind about making the tour to the forward airbases thinking he was taking a large risk. Adamiral Ozawa argued with Captain Kameto Kuroshima, a senior member of Yamamoto's staff “If he insists on going, six fighters are nothing like enough. Tell the chief of staff that he can have as many of my planes as he likes.” Admiral Ugaki who was sick in the hospital with dengue ever tried to send a message to Yamamoto to not go on the tour. That message though it did not make it to Yamamoto directly was interceived by Admiral Jojima. Admiral Jojima argued “what a damn fool thing to do, to send such a long and detailed message about the activities of the Commander of the combined fleet so near the front. This kind of thing must stop” Jojima had actually flown over to Rabaul to stop Yamamoto, but Yamamoto did not back down. Yamamoto was a stickler for punctuality, he alongside his party arrived to Rabaul's Lakuni field a few minutes before 6am Japan time, thus around 8am rabaul time. The party wore their field green khai uniforms and airmens boots, aside from Yamamoto who wore his customary white dress uniform, with his usual white gloves carrying his ceremonial sword. Yamamoto climbed into one of the two G4M Betty medium bmbers and Ugaki climbed into the other. Yamamoto's Betty had the number 323 painted on its vertical stablizer. The planes roared down the runway and climbed. The weather was clear, with excellent visibility above and below the high ceiling. The aircraft leveled out at 6500 with the bombers holding a close formation, enough for Ugaki to clearly see Yamamoto through the windshield of the other plane. The fighters hung out at 8200 feet above them and around a mile around them. The formation headed southeast making its first landfall on the southern tip of new ireland, then south along the coast of Bougainville, past the Japanese bases at Buka and Kieta, then on to Ballale. Ugaki began to nod off as the group began its descent towards Ballale. Major Mitchells strike group launched at 7:10 guadalcanal time, seeing 2 lightnings fail as a result of a blown tire for one and a fuel transfer problem for the other. Both aircraft were part of the killers team, thus Lieutenants Besby Holmes and Raymond Hine, were replaced with Joseph Moore and James McLanahan. Not a great way to start such a precise mission by any means. As they made the first leg of their route, the P-38's descended to 50 feet to avoid radar detection while the pilots had to endure extremely hot temperatures due to the sea level. The temperature was above 90 degrees as the sun blazed through their Perspex canopies causing the pilots to sweat like pigs. The P-38 was a high altitude fighter and its canopy could not open in flight to regulate the cockpit temperature. Thus instead it kind of acted like a convection oven, building up heat as the sun beat down on it. With nothing but hte sight of rolling waves for over 2 hours, the pilots could have very well dozed off. After 55 minutes of hte first leg, Mitchell turned right to 290 degrees then after another 27 minutes, 305 degrees. 38 minutes after this another 20 degree turn to make the 40 mile leg to the south edge of Empress Bay, all using clocks & compass. As they crossed the bay they turned 90 degrees and were around 4 minutes from their calculated interception point. The lightnings began to close in and made sight of the southwest corner of Bougainville. In an act of extraordinary navigation they hit the precise location intended at 9:34am, a single minute ahead of schedule. Right on top of them, passing serenly overhead was the Yamamoto and unfortuntately for him, security was quite lax. You see the Japanese held air superiority at Buin, thus they did not anticipate any enemy action. Alongside this the escort zero's had their radiots stripped out to reduce their weight. This meant they would not be able to communicate with the Betty's. Ugaki's Betty was carrying its regular armament of 3 13mm guns and 1 20mm gun, but because of the weight of the munition boxes, only a single belt was filled up for each. As for Yamamoto's Betty, there does not seem to be evidence it was armed at all. Mitchell was shocked to see the two Betty bombers, the intelligence had told them one. This somewhat disrupted his plan not knowing where the escorts were hiding, futhermore 2 lightnings piloted by Lieutenants Besby Holmes and Raymond Hine had to pull out when their belly tanks were released and it caused a technical problem. Thus Mitchell had only half the fighters as planned and now faced double the Betty's. He did not know which Betty was Yamamoto's, but with icy resolve he did not improvise the plan and ordered Captain Lamphier to attack as planned stating “he's your meat, tom”. The rest of the lightnings climbed to perform CAP actions as Mitchell expected the Japanese air base at Kahili to toss some zeros over to greet Yamamoto. None would come, another toss of the dice of fate as it were. As Ugaki recounts the event, at 9:43 he was awoken when his plane suddenly began a steep diving turn. The pilot was unsure what was happening, but all of a sudden evasive maneuvers of the Zero escorts alerted him something was wrong. The dark green canopy of the jungle hills were closing in on them as the gunnery opened up the gun ports to prepare firing. Between the rushing wind from the openings and the guns things were incredibly noisy. Ugaki told the pilot to try and remain with Yamamoto's plane, but it was too late. As Ugaki's plane banked south he caught a glimpse of Yamamoto's plane “staggering southward, just brushing the jungle top with reduced speed, emitting black smoke and flames.” Ugaki lost visual contact for some time then only saw a column of smoke rising rom the jungle. Ugaki's pilot flew over Cape Moira and out to sea, descending steadily to gain speed. Two lightnings were on their ass and some .50 caliber rounds slammed into their wings and fuselage. The pilot frantically trid pulling up, but his propellers dug into the sea causing the Betty to roll hard to the left. Ugaki was tossed from his seat and slammed agianst an interior bulkhead. As water flooded the aircraft he thought “this is the end of Ugaki”. But luckily for him, and 3 other passengers they managed to get free and swim to the beach as they were helped ashore by Japanese soldiers and transported to Buin. Despite his miraculous survival, Ugaki's injuries were severe, including a severed radial artery and compound fracture of the right arm, which would leave him out of action until 1944 From the American point of few, they came upon the Japanese formation catching them by complete surprise. The escorting Zeros were flying above the bombers, scanning hte horizon ahead of them to the south and now suspected American fighters would be approaching them from behind at a lower altitude. There are quite a few accounts of how this went down, but by all of them Lamphier climbed to the left, going nose to nose with 3 escorting Zeros, while Lt Rex Barber banked to the right. In response all 6 of the Zeros made a straight dive from their higer altitude position to get between the bombers and the lightnings. Rather than firing directly at the American fighters, they kept their firing infront of the lightnings trying to prevent their line of sight meeting up with the bombers. With the eruption of the choas, both Betty's accelerated into their dives, distancing themselves. One plane banked right going southwest towards the shoreline while the other banked left going east. Now what follows next has actually been a fight going on for decades with all participants going to their grave swearing their perspective was the legitimate account of the event. Lamphier's story, which is by far the most well known, states he quickly engaged the 3 diving Zeros to the left, managing to shoot down one before twisting away to attack the Betty's. He found the lead Betty skimming the jungle, heading for Kahili and dived in pursuit of it. With the other 2 zeros chasing to cut him off, Lamphier held course and fired a long steady burst across the Betty's course of flight. He watched the Betty's right engine and right wing catch on fire and in his words “the bomber's wing tore off. The bomber plunged into the jungle. It exploded. That was the end of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.” While racing out over the open sea towards Moila Point, Ugaki himself was horrified to see the funeral pyre of Yamamoto's crashed bomber. But at the same time, Rex Barber tells a different story. Rex claims Lamphier's initial maneuver going to the left was smart, as it allowed Barber the opportunity to attack the bombers without the Zeroes being on his tail. Thus Rex banked sharply to the right to fall in behind one of the Betty's. At around 1000 feet above the jungle canopy, Rex opened fire, aiming over the fuselage at the right engine. Rex could see chunks of the Betty's engine and fires emerge as he continued to ranke the Bettey with his guns, until the Betty suddenly stopped in mid-air, nearly colliding with him before crashing into the jungle below. Rex also claimed the Betty did not fire back at all. The zero escorts however did catch up to him, but the sudden appearance of Lt's Besby Holmes and Raymond Hine saved him as they shot down the 3 zeros. Heading to the coasts, Holmes and Hine pursued the remaining Betty and fired upon it scoring some hits. Rex also dropped in behind what is assumed to be Ugaki's Betty firing a burst over it before it hit the water. Holmes claimed to have shot down Ugaki's Betty by himself. Rex states that “Holmes rounds must have hit the tanks and filled the bomber swings with gas fumes, because the ship exploded in his face”. As Rex flew through the black smoke and debris a large chunk of the Betty hit his right wing cutting out his turbo supercharger intercooler. Meanwhile Holmes and Hine were dog fighting two more Zeros. Holmes would claim to have shot one of the zeros down, making his total around 3 Zeros and one betty; Hine's lightning was damaged in the fight forcing him to head east out to sea with smoke trailing his engine. Hine would be last seen around 9:40am, he was to be the only allied casualty of operation Vengeance. With both Betty's down, the mission was done and Mitchell ordered a withdrawal. The lightning's each headed home individually, operating at the limit of their range and suffering the hot weather. The controversy over who shot down Yamamoto's aircraft would begin the moment the pilots got back to base. In the words of Lt Julius Jacobson “there were 15 of us who survived, and as far as who did the effective shooting, who cares?” Yamamoto's plane had gone down about 4 miles inland, in a remote part of the jungle. Search parties took over a day to find the wreck. On April 20th they found the wrecked aircraft, there were no survivors. According to eyewitness testimony, Yamamoto was found sitting upright, still strapped to his seat, with one white gloved hand resting upon his katana. Yamamoto's watch had stopped at 0745hrs. A bullet had entered his lower jaw and went out from his temple; another pierced his shoulder blade. Yamamoto's body was wrapped in banyan leaves and carried down a trail to the mouth of the Wamai River, where it was taken to Buin by sea. His body would be cremated alongside the 11 other men aboard that Betty, in a pit filled with brushwood and gasoline and his ashes were flown back to Truk and deposited on a Buddhist altar in the Musashi's war operations room. New's of Yamamoto's death was at first restricted to a small circle of ranking officers, and passageways around the operations room and the commander in chiefs cabin were placed off limits. But the truth eventually leaked out to the crew of Musashi. Admiral Ugaki was seen in bandages holding a white box containing Yamamoto's ashes as he came aboard and the smell of incense wafted from his cabin. Admiral Mineichi Koga was named the new commander in chief. For over a month the news was kept under wraps. On May 22nd, Yamamoto's death was heard on the NHK news. The announcer broke into tears as he read the announcement. A special train carried the slain admiral's ashes from Yokosuka to Tokyo. An imperial party, including members of the royal household and family greeted its arrival at Ueno Station. As diarist Kiyoshi Kiyosawa noted “There is widespread sentiment of dark foreboding about the future course of the war”. Admiral Yamamoto was awarded posthumously the Grand Order of the Chrysanthemum, first class and the rank of Fleet admiral. His funeral was held on June 5th, the first anniversary of the battle of Midway, which also coincided with the funeral of the legendary Admiral Togo Heihachiro, 9 years previously. It was held in Hibiya park with hundreds of thousands coming to pay their respects. Pallbearers were selected from among the petty officers of the Musashi, carrying his casket draped in white cloth past the Diet and Imperial Palace. The Navy band played Chopin's funeral march as the casket was driven to Tama Cemetery where it was placed in a grave alongside that of Admiral Togo. Some sought to make a Yamamoto shrine, but his close friend Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai said “Yamamoto hated that kind of thing. If you deified him, he'd be more embarrassed than anybody else”. The new commander in chief of the combined fleet, Admiral Koga Mineichi would later say “There was only one Yamamoto and no one is able to replace him. His loss is an unsupportable blow to us.” I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Operation Vengeance was a success, leading to the death of the legendary, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Would his death help or worsen the allied war effort? For that question to be answered only time could tell.
In this episode, we welcome Chloe Melas to the show. She is a journalist and entertainment reporter for CNN and HLN. She's also the granddaughter of World War II pilot Frank Murphy, who authored the book which is the main subject matter for today's interview, Luck of the Draw. In that book, Frank Murphy details the almost-unbelievable air war that took place during WWII. Murphy was one of the few survivors from the 100th Bombardment Group, aka “The Bloody Hundredth”. Also in the book, Murphy details when his B-17 was shot down over enemy territory in Germany and time in German POW camps. Frank Murphy's story is going to be featured prominently in an upcoming Apple TV+ television show called Masters of the Air, which will release later this year. The project is headed up by Steven Spielberg and stars Tom Hanks. In this interview, we discuss her hearing stories about the War from her grandfather, how she became so interested as an adult in the details of the air war during WWII, the extreme loss of life suffered by pilots during the war, the circumstances that led to her grandfather's B-17 being shot down, him being captured in enemy territory, his time in a German POW camp, how she wants her grandfather to be remembered, and much more. Let's get into it… Episode notes and links HERE. Donate to support our mission of equipping men to push back darkness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zibby interviews CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas and her mother Elizabeth Murphy about their late grandfather and father Frank Murphy's book, Luck of the Draw: My Story of the Air War in Europe, which tells the epic true story of a WWII hero who cheated death for months in a German POW camp after being shot out of a plane. Elizabeth shares how shocked her family was when her father finally decided to share his story after years of silence, and Chloe describes the tremendous, years-long process of re-publishing the book. She also tells the story of the 100th Bomb Group (the Bloody Hundreth), highlighting her grandfather's pivotal role and tremendous courage. Finally, the two share how thrilled they are for Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's TV series Masters of the Air, which will feature Frank Murphy as a character! Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3m0ToFeSubscribe to Zibby's weekly newsletter here.Purchase Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books merch here.Click below to watch Chloe interview both Zibby and Zibby Books author, Alisha Fernandez Miranda, about their books:Alisha Fernandez Miranda's memoir is being hailed as the next 'Ear, Pray, Love'Zibby Owens, podcaster and 'bookfluencer' discusses her new memoir Now there's more! Subscribe to Acast+ and get exclusive access to the in-store author events at Zibby's Bookshop in Santa Monica, CA. Join today! https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
LUCK OF THE DRAW: MEMOIR BY WWII AIRMAN FRANK MURPHY - CHARACTER IN APPLE+ "MASTERS OF THE AIR"CNN Correspondent Chloe Melas, Her Mother, and Her Grandmother Band Together to Honor His LegacyMurphy was a member of the 100th Bomb Group, aka "The Bloody Hundredth""In the pursuit of authenticity, of accurate history and undeniable courage, no words matter more than 'I was there.' Read LUCK OF THE DRAW and the life of Frank Murphy and ponder this: How did those boys do such things?"-Tom HanksChloe Melas is a much-recognized CNN Entertainment correspondent by day, but she has a passion that bridges her chosen field with the legacy of her late grandfather, Frank Murphy.Last year, Melas and her family visited the set of Masters of the Air, the Playtone (Tom Hanks)/Amblin Entertainment (Stephen Spielberg) Apple+ series coming in early 2023. Her grandfather is the basis of the character featured in the series and planed by Jonas Moore.Now, along with her mother and grandmother, she has shepherded the reissue of Murphy's 2001 memoir, LUCK OF THE DRAW: My Story of the Air War in Europe (St. Martin's Press Griffin; on sale February 28, 2023; $18.99 USD) to coincide with the premiere of the series."My grandfather once told me he spent the rest of the life walking with ghosts but looking back with pride,"Melas writes in the foreword she co-wrote with her mother, Elizabeth Murphy and with the support of her grandmother, Ann Murphy. "Our family's goal is to keep Frank's memory and that of his fellow men alive and pass on the greatness to the next generation."Murphy was a member of the 100th Bomb Group, one of five B-17 bomb groups sent to England in the spring of 1043 to form the new 4th Bomber Wing. He landed in England in June and by the time his plane was shot down in October, her served 126 hours in combat over Europe, experiencing some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.In 2001, Murphy wrote about his combat tour, "It lasted only four months - four months, however, in which were compressed many of the most exciting, and all of the most frightening and life-threatening, experiences I have known in my entire life."Given today's technology, stepping into a WWII vintage B-17 is akin to entering a tin can - one that flies and is manned by a crew of ten. Four of the crew members were officers in the front, the pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, and the navigator - the position held by Murphy. The navigator, Murphy wrote, "climbed aboard lugging a briefcase crammed with maps, Mercator charts, books, paper, pencils, drawing instruments, a hand-held calculator, and strange looking optical instruments. He was invariably hunched over his narrow shelf-like table in front of which was a repeater set of basic flight instruments and radio controls. He looked at his watch constantly, drew lines, and scrobbled notes to himself on the papers, maps, and charts in front of him, much like Scrooge's wretched drudge, Bob Cratchet, in Dicken's classic tale, A Christmas Carol."In typical self-deprecating style, Murphy neglected to mention that he also led them to their target and got them home safely.The six sergeants in the rear were aerial gunners and a radio technician. "No fighting men in military service anywhere, anytime, would be more deserving of respect," Murphy wrote. "The risks they took were all out of proportion to their military ratings or pay. Their job was difficult mentally and physically, and fraught with the danger of injury or death, almost always deep in enemy territory."The 100th Bomber Group lost forty-five aircrafts together with their crews in less than 4 months of combat operations. Because of its heavy losses at Regensburg, Bremen, and Muster in August and October 1043, they became known throughout the Army's Eighth Air Force as The Bloody Hundredth.LUCK OF THE DRAW features Murphy's harrowing descriptions of the battles, including the "suicide mission" that he and his fellow crewmen survived deep over enemy territory in Regensburg, and their final battle over Muster during what came to be known as Black Week (October 8-14, 1943), what Murphy describes as "a staccato succession of trials of fire on a scale unprecedented in aerial warfare."Shot down over enemy territory, Murphy and the other surviving crew members were arrested by the German police. With the same eye for detail and storytelling ability that serves his combat writing, Murphy shares the highs and lows of his internment in the infamousStalag Luft III, later made famous by the Hollywood feature, The Great Escape. The men survived freezing conditions, near starvation and a last-minute forced march as the Russian Army approached. He was liberated on April 29, 1945.Although he is not here to further describe those 22 months himself, his granddaughter Chloe Melas is available to share the stories learned at her grandfather's knee.Among the items she could discuss are:*The ragtag group of twenty-somethings, hailing from cities and small towns across the U.S. that made up the crew of Murphy's plane, The Bastard's Bungalow.*Early flight technology described in minute detail by Murphy in the book.*Bombing strategies that were only just taking shape as the war started, and the heroism involved in flying over fortified enemy territory.*Conditions in the World War II POW camps, and how The Great Escape and Hogan's heroes barely scratched the surface.*The trip forty years after the war that nudged Murphy to talk about his WWII experienced, and the camaraderie that developed among the survivors over the years.*Why it is so important to share stories like this with a new generation.In a tribute to his comrades, Murphy made this observation: "There was no single reason why men who looked death in the face over Europe in 1943 went back into battle day after day. The airmen of the Eighth were amateurs, not professional soldiers. We had no idea whether we were good soldiers or not, but we had not collapsed in the face of a difficult enemy. Duty, honor, country played their part, certainly, but not because these precepts were drilled into us by the Army. It was just the way we were. In my view, however, the single driving force that kept us going was the bond one felt with the men who stood steadfastly beside him when all their lives were at stake."PRAISE FOR LUCK OF THE DRAW"Murphy describes some of the bloodiest air battles of the war as only a person who was actually there can. Luck of the Draw is a riveting and often harrowing must-read for anyone interested in military aviation, the second world war, or just plain real-life adventure."- John Orloff, writer, HBO's Band of Brothers and Apple+'s Masters of the Air"Navigator Frank Murphy's propulsive account of the American bomber war against Nazi Germany is also a powerful and poignant memoir of survival in a German POW compound. The books' heart-stopping account of the brutal Winter March of the captured Allied airmen across the heart of Hitler's dying Reich placed it with Twelve O'Clock High as a classic of World War II literature." -Donald L. Miller, author of Masters of the Air: The Greatest Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany"A gripping, inspirational account of incredible bravery, resilience, and sheer will to survive. Frank Murphy was a true American hero who served courageously in the skies over Europe during WWII and who then demonstrated extraordinary fortitude and determination in the face of unimaginable challenges as a prisoner of war. A truly extraordinary story!"- General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), former Commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and NATO and US Forces in Afghanistan, and former Director of the CIA"Ever wonder if you had what it took to stare death in the face and push it aside and go forth into the unknown? That is what these young airmen of the 8th Army Air Force accomplished every time they leaded up for another mission. Frank Murphy has eloquently described the harrowing experiences of a B-17 crew from the loss of crewmembers, confronting his own mortality and ultimately the trauma of incarceration as a prisoner of war. This account is partly to honor his noble brothers of the air but also a reminder to future generations of the heroic young men of the Bomber Command."-Rick Perry, son of B-17 tail gunner BG, 14th Governor of Texas, and 7th Secretary of Energy"Every generation needs a spokesman for it endeavors. In this respect Murphy does the young men of VIII Bomber command proud."-Roger A. Freeman, author and Eighth Air force historianABOUT FRANK MURPHY AND CHLOE MELASFrank D. Murphy survived months in a German POW camp after being shot out of his B-17 Flying Fortress. He withstood a harrowing death march in sub-zero temperatures - and his bravery earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart, and the Air Medal. The incredible stories of Frank Murphy and his 8th Air force's 100th Bomb Group - nicknamed The Bloody Hundredth - will be featured in the upcoming Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks Apple+ TV Series, Masters of the Air.Chloe Melas is an entertainment reporter for CNN, covering breaking celebrity news, industry analysis and in-depth investigations. She currently resides in New York with her husband and their two sons.https://twitter.com/ChloeMelashttps://www.cnn.com/profiles/chloe-melas
Chloe Melas is an entertainment reporter at CNN. She recently rewrote the foreword to her grandfathers book, "Luck Of The Draw by Frank Murphy." In the book, Frank unpacks his experience in World War 2 as a bomber who got shot down, spent months in a German POW camp, and eventually got back home safely. The book is an incredible tale of what so many people in the greatest generation went through. I really enjoyed talking to Chloe about the book, why they are republishing it, how her & her mother rewrote the foreword, and what they hope people take away from reading it. ======================= Announcing LYCEUM | Miami, a day-long event on March 4th in Miami Beach hosted by Pomp. We're gathering an explosive group of experts to engage in a series of bold discussions, covering topics from investing, emerging tech, longevity, space exploration, entertainment and more.The speaker lineup includes names such as investing legend Cathie Wood, NYT bestselling author Vivek Ramaswamy, billionaire Christian Angermayer, master of Contrarian Thinking Codie Sanchez, Modern Wisdom host Chris Williamson plus many more. Listeners will receive an exclusive 40% discount on VIP and Insider Pass tickets with code POMP40. General Admission tickets are free of charge. Spots are limited so head to lyceummiami.com to buy your ticket today. ======================= Pomp writes a daily letter to over 200,000+ investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy-to-understand language while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://pomp.substack.com/ =======================
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