ITT: Moments in history that give you feels

ITT: Moments in history that give you feels

>"Dear Mother, I am writing from the trenches. It is 11 o'clock in the morning. Beside me is a coke fire, opposite me a 'dug-out' (wet) with straw in it. The ground is sloppy in the actual trench, but frozen elsewhere. In my mouth is a pipe presented by the Princess Mary. In the pipe is tobacco. Of course, you say. But wait. In the pipe is German tobacco. Haha, you say, from a prisoner or found in a captured trench. Oh dear, no! From a German soldier. Yes a live German soldier from his own trench. Yesterday the British & Germans met & shook hands in the Ground between the trenches, & exchanged souvenirs, & shook hands. Yes, all day Xmas day, & as I write. Marvellous, isn't it?"

Other urls found in this thread:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_and_let_live_(World_War_I)
youtube.com/watch?v=bWzB8IkXWJI
youtube.com/watch?v=DNfBdzpG6L4
youtube.com/watch?v=1INaeku36L4
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_and_let_live_(World_War_I)

>Diocletian became the first Roman emperor to abdicate willingly after twenty years of rule. Diocletian and Maximian were both present on 11 November 308, to see Galerius appoint Licinius to be augustus in place of Severus, who had died at the hands of Maxentius. He ordered Maximian, who had attempted to return to power after his retirement, to step down permanently. At Carnuntum people begged Diocletian to return to the throne, to resolve the conflicts that had arisen through Constantine's rise to power and Maxentius' usurpation. Diocletian's reply: "If you could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn't dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed."
>He lived on for four more years, spending his days in his palace gardens. He saw his tetrarchic system fail, torn by the selfish ambitions of his successors. He heard of Maximian's third claim to the throne, his forced suicide, his damnatio memoriae.
>In his own palace, statues and portraits of his former companion emperor were torn down and destroyed. Deep in despair and illness, Diocletian may have committed suicide. He died on 3 December 312.

The whole story of the female SOE agents and the aftermath of the war in which Vera Atkins searched for information on what had happened to them as the night and fog policy meant civilian spies like them were to disappear and never have their fates discovered. Noor Inayat Khan's last words were Liberte and she was from indian royality, a children's author and basically a cinnamon roll yet when it came to the nazis she was fucking badass and survived much longer in the field as a wireless operator than many others when the spy ring prosper collapsed. The story of the four spies killed by lethal injection then cremation in the ovens at a male camp is also depressing as fuck. They were Andrée Borrel, Sonia Olschanezky, Vera Leigh, Diana Rowden.One of them woke up during the process of putting them into the oven.

>Andrée Borrel
>Evidence collected immediately after the war by Squadron Officer Vera Atkins and Major Bill Barkworth of the SAS War Crimes investigation team indicates that she regained consciousness before being placed in the cremation oven and fought to save her life, facially scarring the camp executioner who was placing her in the oven. However, she was unable to escape and was put into the flames whilst still alive. Both the doctor who administered the injection and the camp executioner were later executed by the Allies for war crimes.

Damn

I'm no storm fag, but how the fuck could you have evidence of such an occurrence? What would it be? A written memo by someone? Film?

In the opening hours of what would be the first Battle of Grozny, the commanders of the 131st Maikop Motor-Rifle Brigade (which was two battalions strong) was hailed by a Chechen militant commander, who begged the Russians to rethink their push into the city with tanks, armored personnel carriers and infantry. The chilling conversation was recorded and has been featured in videos and documentaries in what was one of the bloodiest Russian conflicts in history.

youtube.com/watch?v=bWzB8IkXWJI

the mechanized Russian units -staffed mostly by conscripts – were overwhelmed by the rebel fighters, surrounded and begging for reinforcements over the radio. Within sixty hours, the 1,000 man-strong Maikop Brigade -including Lieutenant Colonel Savin- would be wiped out of existence by the rebels.

Witness testimonies.

...

The Schoolhouse Blizzard. 235 deaths, many of them children. "The Children's Blizzard" basically had an entire chapter describing in detail how these children would have slowly died, to say nothing of those who survived the night in freezing temperatures, only to die after they were able to stand up and walk to look for help.

>They froze alone or with their parents or perished in frantic, hopeless pursuit of loved ones. They died with the frozen bloody skin torn from their faces, where they had clawed off the mask of ice again and again. Some died within hours of getting lost; some lived through the night and died before first light. They were found standing waist deep in drifts with their hands frozen to barbed-wire fences, clutching at straw piles, buried under overturned wagons, on their backs, facedown on the snow with their arms outstretched as if trying to crawl. Mothers died sitting up with their children around them in fireless houses when the hay or coal or bits of furniture were exhausted and they were too weak or too frightened to go for more.

Blizzards get pretty rough out on the prairie. I had a great uncle who died when his truck broke down 300 feet from home and he tried to walk the rest of the way.

My very dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days—perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing—perfectly willing—to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.

The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us.

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm.

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.

Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again.

>Farewell, my brother, tomorrow I shall be no more. The peace of my heart is a sure sign of my innocence. The tribunal has decided that I am guilty and must die. Die! At 36 on the scaffold. It is a terrible, unbearable idea.

From a farewell letter written by a man executed during the French Revolution, just before his death.There's an entire book of these letters ("Last Letters: Prisons and Prisoners of the French Revolution")

>ashokan farewell starts playing
;_;

You only care because they're women.

...

Damn it. To think that if sanity had prevailed, they could have simply hashed things out and ended the war.

>Continuing to act as a priest, Kolbe was subjected to violent harassment, including beating and lashings, and once had to be smuggled to a prison hospital by friendly inmates.[2][16] At the end of July 1941, three prisoners disappeared from the camp, prompting SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men to be starved to death in an underground bunker to deter further escape attempts. When one of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, "My wife! My children!", Kolbe volunteered to take his place.[8]

>According to an eye witness, an assistant janitor at that time, in his prison cell, Kolbe led the prisoners in prayer to Our Lady. Each time the guards checked on him, he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looking calmly at those who entered. After two weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe remained alive. “The guards wanted the bunker emptied, so they gave Kolbe a lethal injection of carbolic acid. Kolbe is said to have raised his left arm and calmly waited for the deadly injection.[11] His remains were cremated on 15 August, the feast day of the Assumption of Mary.[16]

> Early that morning, a wounded American could be heard calling from the middle of a German minefield in a no man's land separating the combatants. "Help me" the man cried. His unit had withdrawn , however, and no U.S. troops were close enough to hear. Lengfeld ordered his men not to shoot if Americans came to rescue the man. But none came. The soldiers weakening voice was heard for hours.

> "Help me" he called, again and again. At about 10:30 that morning, Lengfeld could bear the cries no longer. He formed a rescue squad, complete with Red Cross vests and flags, and led his men toward the wounded American. He never made it. Approaching the soldier, he stepped on a land mine, and the exploding metal fragments tore deeply into his body. Eight hours later Lengfeld is dead. The fate of the American is unknown.

Better known, I guess:

>By July 1944, Germany was losing the war; the SS began closing down the easternmost concentration camps and deporting the remaining prisoners westward. Many were killed in Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen concentration camp. Schindler convinced SS-Hauptsturmführer Amon Göth, commandant of the nearby Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, to allow him to move his factory to Brünnlitz in the Sudetenland, thus sparing his workers from almost certain death in the gas chambers. Using names provided by Jewish Ghetto Police officer Marcel Goldberg, Göth's secretary Mietek Pemper compiled and typed the list of 1,200 Jews who travelled to Brünnlitz in October 1944. Schindler continued to bribe SS officials to prevent the execution of his workers until the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945, by which time he had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black-market purchases of supplies for his workers.

also incidents like pic related are beautiful

>Karl-Heinz Rosch was employed in October 1944 as a gunner on a farm in Goirle in the Netherlands. Under Allied fire, he secured two young children who were still playing in the courtyard. When he returned to the farm, he was killed by a grenade at the place where the children had been playing. [1]

during the My Lai Massacre:

>Warrant Officer (WO1) Hugh Thompson, Jr., a helicopter pilot from Company B (Aero-Scouts), 123rd Aviation Battalion, Americal Division, saw dead and wounded civilians as he was flying over the village of Sơn Mỹ providing close-air support for ground forces.[47] The crew made several attempts to radio for help for the wounded. They landed their helicopter by a ditch, which they noted was full of bodies and in which there was movement.[48] Thompson asked a sergeant he encountered there (David Mitchell of the 1st Platoon) if he could help get the people out of the ditch, and the sergeant replied that he would "help them out of their misery". Thompson, shocked and confused, then spoke with 2LT Calley, who claimed to be "just following orders". As the helicopter took off, Thompson saw Mitchell firing into the ditch.[49]

>Thompson and his crew witnessed an unarmed woman being kicked and shot at point-blank range by Captain Medina, who later claimed that he thought she had a hand grenade.[50] Thompson then saw a group of civilians (again consisting of children, women, and old men) at a bunker being approached by ground personnel. Thompson landed and told his crew that if the soldiers shot at the Vietnamese while he was trying to get them out of the bunker that they were to open fire on these soldiers.[51] Thompson later testified that he spoke with a lieutenant (identified as Stephen Brooks of 2nd Platoon) and told him there were women and children in the bunker, and asked if the lieutenant would help get them out. According to Thompson, "he [the lieutenant] said the only way to get them out was with a hand grenade". Thompson testified that he then told Brooks to "just hold your men right where they are, and I'll get the kids out". He found 12–16 people in the bunker, coaxed them out and led them to the helicopter, standing with them while they were flown out in two groups.[52]

When Germany surrendered in WW1.

"Hold the corridor"

Diary of Tanya Savicheva, 11 years old, December 1941-May 1942, Leningrad:

>Zhenya died on December 28th at 12 noon, 1941

>Grandma died on the 25th of January at 3 o'clock, 1942

>Leka died March 17th, 1942, at 5 o'clock in the morning, 1942

>Uncle Vasya died on April 13th at 2 o'clock in the morning, 1942

>Uncle Lesha May 10th, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, 1942

>Mama on May 13th at 7:30 in the morning, 1942

>The Savichevas are dead

>Everyone is dead

>Only Tanya is left

>The sentence was carried out in the Cerro de las Campanas on the morning of 19 June 1867, when Maximilian, along with Generals Miramón and Mejía, were executed by a firing squad. He spoke only in Spanish and gave his executioners a portion of gold not to shoot him in the head so that his mother could see his face. His last words were, "I forgive everyone, and I ask everyone to forgive me. May my blood, which is about to be shed, be for the good of the country. Viva Mexico, viva la independencia!"[40] Generals Miramón and Mejía were shot after him. Both died shouting, "Long live the Emperor."

The siege of Leningrad must have been extremely bad man, I've read the people grew cabbage on cemetaries and even had to resort to cannibalism sometimes...

>Anne de Gaulle was the youngest daughter of General Charles de Gaulle

>She was born with Down syndrome and lived with her family until her death. De Gaulle's relatives all testified that the General, who was normally undemonstrative in his affections for his family, was more open and extroverted with Anne. He would entertain her with songs, dances, and pantomimes

>She could only utter one word: Papa

>Anne died of pneumonia on 6 February 1948, aged 20, at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises. Upon her death, her father said: "Now, she's like the others."

>On 22 August 1962, Charles de Gaulle was the victim of an attempted assassination at Petit-Clamart. He later said that the potentially fatal bullet had been stopped by the frame of the photograph of Anne that he always carried with him, placed this particular day on the rear shelf of his car. When he died in 1970, he was buried in the cemetery of Colombey beside his beloved daughter.

He was a good man

Holy shit what a poet

>Sophie, Sophie, don't die, you must live, for the children

All the good ones are dead.

blablabla, just appreciate the heroes, no need to talk shit

and YOU must live for the 20th century

Was it normal for a soldier to be this articulate? This is beautifully written

Hélène Berr (1921-1945, beaten to death at Bergen-Belsen); from a journal she left behind in Paris:

I think about history. I think about the future. And when we will all be dead. Life is so short, and so precious. And now that I see it being squandered criminally or pointlessly all around me, on what can I rely? Everything loses its meaning with death constantly staring you in the face. I fear that I won’t be here when Jean returns. It’s a very new feeling. I still imagine him coming back and I still think of the future. But when I am fully in reality, when I see it clearly, I am gripped by anguish.

But it is not fear as such, because I am not afraid of what might happen to me; I think I would accept it, for I have accepted many hard things, and I’m not one to back away from a challenge. But I fear that my beautiful dream may never be brought to fruition, may never be realized.

I’m not afraid for myself but for something beautiful that might have been.

"You know what's gonna happen? I'll tell you what's gonna happen. Troops are now forming behind the line of trees. When they come out, they'll be under enemy long-range artillery fire. Solid shot. Percussion. Every gun they have. Troops will come out under fire with more than a mile to walk. And still, within the open field, among the range of aimed muskets. They'll be slowed by that fence out there, and the formation - what's left of it - will begin to come apart. When they cross that road, they'll be under short-range artillery. Canister fire. Thousands of little bits of shrapnel wiping the holes in the lines. If they get to the wall without breaking up, there won't be many left. A mathematical equation... But maybe, just maybe, our own artillery will break up their defenses. There's always that hope. That's Hancock out there, and he ain't gonna run. So it's mathematical after all. If they get to that road, or beyond it, we'll suffer over fifty percent casualties. But, Harrison... I don't believe my boys will reach that wall."

Almost certainly a fictitious quote, but I imagine it captured the actual Longstreet's despair perfectly.

...

He was a lawyer and politician before signing up and was a major. The fact he's known specifically for this letter implies that writing of that quality was uncommon, especially considering his background and rank elevates him far above your average soldier.

...

This was actually brought up in one of my history courses at uni. We had to write a paper (it may have been a take home essay test, can't remember, but it was only a couple pages at most) and when the prof returned them he basically said that the majority of the class was writing at a middle school level. He brought up the letters of civil war soldiers and how, despite often being written by men with very little formal schooling, they were very well written and articulate. He basically said that most of the class could not write as well as someone from 150 years ago that dropped out of school in second grade. (I got an A on it so I was fine, though.) He didn't say anything about why that was, unfortunately.

Context needs to be considered. First, what said. This wasn't just a random guy who didn't finish but a few years of schooling, it was someone with a highly educated background who would have specifically known how to write well because of his professions.

Second, consider the fact that the letter was saved and passed down because it was eloquently written. The reason why there is the misconception that Civil War soldiers all wrote these beautiful, eloquent poetic letters is because that's what people tended to save for posterity. It's not that everyone wrote like that, all the time, in any situation--it's that those well-written letters are the ones people saved and that historians savored. They're the best highlights.

Third, these letters which were saved were written by men who had no other means of correspondence with their loved ones, and who (especially as the war continued and they witnessed the horror of it themselves) knew that they could be dead soon. So there was often more care put into their letters compared to a letter they would have written before the war. This is especially noticeable when they were writing home to their wives or mothers or children. If you compare letters that men wrote to their brothers or sons or male friends with letters written to wives or sweethearts or daughters or sisters, there's a definite difference in how eloquent and flourished they are.

Because no one reads anymore.

That's it.

When General Burnside arrived at Fredriksburg in preparation for the retreat he saw the piles of dead Union soldiers and the wounded who slept under them to shelter from the cold. He became hysterical and broke down in tears in front of his command staff, where he proclaimed that he would personally lead the rearguard.
The other officers talked him down of course, but It's too bad modern historians think of him as a careless idiot.

During the horrifically bloody Civil War battle of Fredericksburg, the Confederate Army devastated Union troops as they tried to charge the hill at Marye’s Heights, leaving wounded and dying soldiers scattered across the battlefield

Kirkland gathered all the canteens he could carry, filled them with water, then ventured out onto the battlefield. He ventured back and forth several times, giving the wounded Union soldiers water, warm clothing, and blankets. Soldiers from both the Union and Confederate armies watched as he performed his task, but no one fired a shot.

Kirkland went on to fight at the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Chickamauga. At the last of these, he and two comrades advanced too far in front of their unit, and he was mortally wounded while trying to cover their retreat. Refusing his friends’ offers to assist him, he gasped: “I am done for. You can do me no good. Save yourselves and please tell my pa I died right.” Kirkland was barely 20 years old.

they deadass just made shit up didn't they

>tfw he was actually based and would have confounded the eternal Teuton's desire for ww1

Franz pls save

we've got a wealth of letters and the like from this period, and it becomes evident that even people who never went to a real school were eloquent and literate. Also only the good ones are still preserved so that might be skewing the data a bit in favour of all correspondence being very good. I think if you were smart enough to write letters back then you wrote some patrician tier stuff, and that a letter (especially home to someone from the US civil war) was a BIG deal back in the day, so you'd craft this incredible paean to home and family that might take a month to write and go for 6 pages.


Mass literacy (obviously a great thing) has likely devalued old fashioned writing, and reading for pleasure (cures brainletism) now that everyone can do it, few do it as well as it should be done, and the fact that we can talk on the phone or through instant messaging in our fucking pockets from someone on the other side of the earth any time we want (also amazing) and also that travel is so much faster and easier that you can be in front of someone before mail would reach them, it's sadly a lost art. But it's an art we can bring back anytime we like too, write and send someone letter they'll be blown away. getting that kind of mail is pretty much unheard of for most people.

youtube.com/watch?v=DNfBdzpG6L4
I encourage everyone to listen to this if you already haven't.

Fuck.

our literacy rates are lower now than in the mid 19th century

made me feel

;_;

For you, its just another WWII moment, but for me and my country, this is the decisive and worst moment in history.

>one of most industrialized countries
>deep democratic roots (only democratic country east of rhine)
>proud and willing people

>sold out to Hitler by the people who we trusted the most
>sold out to evil without getting any chance to fire one shot back, because then we would be marked as the aggressors
>proud nation willing to defend itself was by international pressure forced to become Hitler's slaves

>after the war was over we were in between West and East and had a choice
>we didn't trust West anymore so we chose East
>because of that distrust, we voted to become commie and fucked ourselves over for the next 50 years

Because of this one moment, we lost all our national pride, our hope, our economy and our future.

Bit of a brainlet are you Czech/Slovak or Polish

Not him but either Czech or Slovak, not Polish of course

Read up the Munich agreement if you're interested

You can thank Džugašvili for forcing the civilian population to stay in Peter.

Cannibalism caused by famine was a mainstay of communist rule; frequent happening in Bolshevik concentration camps, especially in the Far East during 30's, happened at least in Volga region during 1919 and 1921 famines, in Ukraine during the hunger-genocide of 1932; during Great Leap Forward in Mainland China; In North Korea during the early 90's famine.
Also Chinese communists ate (or forced other to eat) childred of 'bourgeoise' as retaliation.

Siege of Leningrad was nothing compared to what the Bolsheviks had already endured on Russian muzhik and on the other Soviet 'citizens'. Finns even kept a corridor open for evacuating civilians, but Chekists forbade any such evacuation.

>voted

I am Czech and please elaborate on what is wrong with that, since i am very interested about what can you teach me about my country

We literally did in 46th

top kek

>non nation created by antant
>cowardly not even trying to defend itself
>cries MUH NAZI OPPRESSION, collaborate on a massive scale to a point where czechs are drafted into the wehmacth
>slow-aki is just a straight fascist puppet state
>LEGALLY elect communists
>suprised it sucks
>blame everyone around themselfs for their own retardation

The Spanish Civil war.

There's nothing wrong with it, I didn't say there was? Was just wondering what country

you're trying too hard dude

oh right, that brainlet was about you, not about me

It was about Czechoslovakia, who was forced to give their whole massive defenses to Hitler (who they were built against)

Are you really trying to pin the results of a German military action resulting from an unprovoked German invasion and campaign of genocide as not being the fault of the Germans?

That's horrible.

The Munich Betrayal is the most terrible stain upon Anglo civilization. We trusted the Teuton. I'm so sorry.

Well, treatcherous frogs were the ones who had a direct deal with us about guaranteeing our borders.

Holy shit how did that happen? No sight, no orientation, too much snow tp reach the house?

...

As the battleship Bismarck neared completion in 1940, her neighbor on the Blohm & Voss slipways was the Type VIIC U-556. When U-556 launched, Bismarck lent her marching band to celebrate the occasion. In gratitude, the sub commander presented Bismarck's captain with pic related.

>We, U-556 (500 tons), hereby declare before Neptune, Lord over oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, brooks, ponds, and rivulets, that we will provide any desired assistance to our Big Brother, the battleship Bismarck (42,000 tons), at any place on the water, under water, on land, or in the air.
Hamburg, 28 January 1941
Commander & Crew U556

The cartoons depict U-556 defending Bismarck from aerial torpedo attack and towing her to safety.

On May 26, 1941, Bismarck, her North Atlantic breakout thwarted, was fleeing south for the safety of the French Coast. Though wounded by naval gunfire and air attack, she was still mobile, and had broken contact with the British pursuit force.

Both admiralties scrambled to save or sink the Bismarck. On the British side, Force H - the battlecruiser HMS Renown and the carrier Ark Royal - sortied from Gibraltar to cut off Bismarck's line of retreat. The Kriegsmarine had one vessel in the area: U-556, Bismarck's sworn protector, returning from her maiden patrol.

By chance, U-556's course intersected Force H's northward approach. The submarine commander was astonished to find Ark Royal and Renown alone - desperate to avenge HMS Hood, the British capital ships had outrun their escorts in order to gain position. Ark Royal, the last obstacle between Bismarck and safety, was defenseless in U-556's sights.

But U-556's magazine was empty. She could do only watch as the carrier's air wing left the deck on the fatal run.

On the horizon, Bismarck's guns flashed against the failing light. U-556 lost track of her big brother in the dark. She did not hear Bismarck's final transmission: "Ship unmaneuverable. We will fight to the last shell. Long live the Fuhrer."

a shame how many brave men died because of these Nazi bastards

>czechoslovakia please

did you lose two-third of your country too?

and this gives you feels?
longwinded and too detailed

Shame he didn't. Would've at least showed he was willing to risk himself.

Burnside's plan for the Crater was brilliant, but Meade's autistic racism derailed the entire operation. The war lasted a year longer and hundreds of thousands died because of it too.

Fun Fact: Adm. Lutjens was Jewish, as was his wife. He only kept his commission (and his head) through the intervention of Dönitz.

"Lafayette, we are here!"

Bullshit. At least 20% of the population couldn't read, and that's just the black population.

>Badly mishandled. Nose broken at last interrogation. My time is up. Was not a traitor. Did my duty as a German. If you survive, please tell my wife. I die for my fatherland. I have a clear conscience. I only did my duty to my country when I tried to oppose the criminal folly of Hitler....

Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, former head of the Abwehr's final tapped morse code message to his Danish cell neighbor before he was dragged out, stripped naked and hung on a meathook, April 5th 1945

April 9th*

Did he get SOVIET'd or was that in a western camp

And they still can't read.

He was arrested by the Gestapo following the July 20th plot. He had spent the war sabotaging the Nazis from within. From persuading Franco not to let Hitler move troops through Spain to take Gibraltar, to letting his spy network be turned by the British, to plotting Hitler's assassination.

KMS Scharnhorst was cornered by the fast battleship HMS Duke of York, a cruiser, three light cruisers and nine destroyers. Blinded by a snowstorm, and a lucking hit to the radar dish from days prior, Scharnhorst returned the attack. It took twelve hours, 52 salvos and four direct torpedo hits to capsize the Scharnhorst. Scharnhorst rolled, still firing every gun that worked. Of the 1,968 men on Scharnhorst, only 36 survived.

>"Gentlemen, the battle against Scharnhorst has ended in victory for us. I hope that if any of you are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, you will command your ship as gallantly as Scharnhorst was commanded today." -Admiral Bruce Fraser upon the mission debriefing.

>German released from Soviet captivity in 1948

Sort of. The 20% wasn't "just" the black population, it included all adults. In 1870, 20% of the adult population was illiterate. Of that percentage, 11.5% of the illiterate people were white and the rest were black. So the primary illiterate population at the time were black people, for obvious reasons as many of them lived in places where they were not legally allowed to learn to read or write.

Now it's about 14% illiteracy, and almost 50/50 in terms of black or white.

I see. Thanks for the info user

>youtube.com/watch?v=1INaeku36L4
This fucking video. For context the old man is a vietnamese navy officer, Saigon had just fallen and he'd basically had everything taken away from him. The video wrecks me every time

“Why do you weep? Did you think I was immortal?"
-Louis XIV last words

all.
To this day, in many parts of the rural midwest, you will see a cable or rope running from the door to the garage and/or barn. You grab hold of it and don't let go until you've reached your destination. Though the trip is short, if you lose your way in white out conditions, you can die a stone's throw from your house completely lost in the snow.

>Read the excellent book Fortress Malta by James Holland
>Interweaves the stories of many people, soldiers, sailors, pilots, important officials and common civilians.
>One sticks out: Adrian Warburton
>Yank, so unfamiliar with "Warby" and the RAF in WWII.
>Plucky little cunt is all balls and no brain
>Can barely land a fucking plane
>Excels at reconnaissance somehow
>Plane gets chewed up with flak while photographing Axis battleship in Sicily
>Co-pilot shits himself when Warby makes a second pass
>He thought he could get better photos
>Shoots down enough pursuing fighters to become an ace
>An ace
>In a recon plane
>Siege of Malta wears on
>Disease
>Bombing
>Starvation
>When the book gets too solemn, the author brings up another "Warby does something else hilariously fucking bonkers" episode
>Favorite guy in the book
>Last chapter, get to see how everyone turned out
>The Maltese nurse that volunteered for duty in Italy
>The intrepid submarine captain that lived out a long, content life with his native sweetheart
>Finally get to Warby

>MFW he died in '44.

he was a hero, just like this guy

>Johann Georg Elser (4 January 1903 – 9 April 1945) was a German worker who planned and carried out an elaborate assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi leaders on 8 November 1939 at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich.[1] A time bomb that Elser constructed and placed near the speaking platform failed to kill Hitler, who left earlier than expected, but killed eight people and injured over sixty-two others.

>On 9 April 1945, four weeks before the end of the war in Europe, Georg Elser was shot dead and his fully dressed body immediately burned in the crematorium of Dachau Concentration Camp.[2] He was 42 years old.

I fucking hate the Nazis

German camp, he was one of the very few brave members of the German resistance like pic related

Communists aren't people, dude was a hippie faggot.

whatever, he saved civilians therefore I consider him a hero

>village is merely suspected of having NLF insurgents
>therefore may as well off the lot of them

I mean may as well make North Vietnam's job easier and entirely depopulate south Vietnam, yeah?

He was tasked with providing CAS to those troops on the ground, what he did instead was abandon his post and endanger the lives of his fellow Americans for what was, in all likelihood, a VC sympathetic village. In a better world he would be put up against a wall and shot. He ordered his crew to use lethal force against friendly forces, he disregarded his mission and endangered the lives of his crew. For what? A few gooks.

What you are talking about is a massacre on defenseless civilians, one doesn't have to be a fucking communist to see that.
Easier to end a life than to save one.

>"In a better world..."
If you can't deal with conditions as they are, you've really got no leg to stand on when commenting on military matters, do you?
You're justifying an abject pr disaster, the worst sort of disaster in a counter-insurgency campaign, on the grounds that the world does not conform to your standards.

Thompson should have gunned down that entire unit of subhuman vermin, it would have been more justice then what the courts gave them.

Not sure why you're defending a stain on the history and honor of the US Army.