Remember Today 75 Years on the bridging incident at Piettratgliata that sacrificed the lives of 23 members of 626 Field Squadron Royal Engineers, Never Forgotten All Gave Some Some Gave All
Remembering, today, 13th August 1942 The following four airmen lost their lives on this day when B-24 Liberator IIIA LV341 Z/120 ditched into the North Atlantic. P/O. Victor Dennis James 40976 RNZAF. Captain. http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1801085 F/S. Alfred Burton Craig R/50369 RCAF. Navigator. http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1085169 Sgt. Seymour Clare 652303 RAF. Flight Engineer. http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1084448 F/S. Kenneth Henry Watson 749427 RAFVR Wireless Operator Air Gunner. http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1809768 Thursday 13 August 1942 the loss of Liberator IIIA LV341 Z/120.
Remembering today Trooper Bert Midlane. KIA Nispen Holland, age 21. Buried Bergen Op Zoom War Cemetary. 107 RAC, 5th Batalion Kings Own. Rest easy uncle Bert.
OPERATION VARSITY REMEMBERING TODAY In Memoriam (my uncle) Lt. Robert Stoddart Preston KIA 24 March 1945 18 Platoon B Company 2 Oxf Bucks Coup de Main, Glider CN2 Time of landing 10.21 and Bob’s friend CANLOAN officer Lt James Cochrane MC 17 Platoon B Company 2 Oxf Bucks Coup de Main, Glider CN1 Best of mates in the two leading gliders died within a minute of each other and all those who did not make it home. Remembering also, one of the survivors Godfrey Yardley, sadly no longer with us, who it was a pleasure to have known.
D-Day on the Rhine .. last night 21st Army Group launched Operation Plunder - the Crossing Of the Rhine in the north. See: RHINE CROSSING 1945: The Rees bridgehead (30 Corps in operation 'Turnscrew')
This week-end marks the 100th birthday of Sophie Scholl of the White Rose, German resistance movement. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57008360 What amazingly brave people. RIP
What is the opinion of the members: Was Sophie too optimistic? Too careless? Without a chance, or else. Just recently I came across new historic evidence about Sophie. Should I start a new thread and where? Stefan.
Stefan - I really only know what I read from the BBC article but taking it at face value: Too optimistic - yes Too careless - yes Too brave - yes Excellent idea to have a new thread but advice needed from a mod on that. BTW - have you read Hans Fallada's novel 'Jeder stirbt für sich allein' (the English version is called 'Alone in Berlin')? It's a spooky, gripping story of a husband and wife team of resistance pamphleteers. I will say no more! John
There's a few White Rose threads scattered about. Eg. The White Rose & Internal Resistance to Hitler. White Rose members executed 22. Feb. 1943
Stefan.... would be interesting to hear of your historic evidence relating to Sophie Scholl. History will record that the White Rose was a kernel of hope that a fire of resistance led by university students would lead to the "knocking down the iron wall of fear and terror" of the Third Reich regime. Their motivations were overt and they were arrested on 18 February 1943. The regime was shocked by this lack of fear by standing out against the regime that they despatched their People's Court judge enforcer, Freisler to Munich to hold one of his condemning sessions...convicted after a three hour session ,Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans and Chistoph Probst were executed the same day on 22 February 1943..........Theirs was a self sacrifice that they hoped would inspire others. For regimes to fall there has to be strong alliances of opposition. It would appear that with the stranglehold on dissent association by the Gestapo and SD, there was not much likelihood of the regime being toppled. Then above all for effective action against the regime, military intervention was of paramount importance and that was not forthcoming. Apart from those of the July 1944 plot, the Wehrmacht had given their utmost loyalty, by oath, to Hitler which is well documented in military history.
It's not the regimes that are dangerous - it's the all-too-willing followers: Jakob Schmid, a most decent German Schmid had worked as a pedlar at Munich University since 1926. He had been a member of the SA since 1 November 1933 and a member of the NSDAP since 1 May 1937. On 18 February 1943 at about 11:15 a.m., he noticed that the Scholl siblings were handing out leaflets in the atrium of the university and confronted them as they were about to leave the building again. Schmid received a reward of 3,000 Reichsmarks for his arrest and was promoted from worker to employee. At a thank-you party organised by the University of Munich for the successful crushing of the student resistance, hundreds of students cheered Jakob Schmid, which he accepted standing with the outstretched arm of the Hitler salute In a trial in 1946, the 10th Munich Spruchkammer, chaired by Judge Karl Mayer, classified him as a "principal incriminated person" („Hauptbelasteter“) and sentenced him to five years in a labour camp. In addition, he lost his entitlement to public emoluments and the right to hold public office. He appealed against this sentence twice without success on the grounds that he had "merely done his duty": The content of the leaflets had not interested him, but the distribution of leaflets in the university had been forbidden. He was released from prison early and his pension entitlement was restored in 1951. The Scholl siblings remained dead.... Sometimes you can't eat as much as you want to vomit
OPERATION VARSITY REMEMBERING TODAY In Memoriam (my uncle) Lt. Robert Stoddart Preston KIA 24 March 1945 18 Platoon B Company 2 Oxf Bucks Coup de Main, Glider CN2 Time of landing 10.21 and Bob’s friend CANLOAN officer Lt James Cochrane MC 17 Platoon B Company 2 Oxf Bucks Coup de Main, Glider CN1 Best of mates in the two leading gliders died within a minute of each other and all those who did not make it home. Remembering also, one of the survivors Godfrey Yardley, sadly no longer with us, who it was a pleasure to have known.
Today was a sunny day with clear blue skies in Germany - just like that day 77 years ago: Saturday, March 24th 1945, the day the Allies launched Operation Varsity. It was considered a tactical success - but it cost many lives... This is to remember the the men who died.