Category: World Wars
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The Nazi Massacre at Distomo, Greece
Resting on a hill above the town of Distomo, Greece, is a massive memorial and ossuary. It contains the names and skulls of victims from a 1944 German massacre in this town where 218 men, women, and children were slaughtered. ((Stephanie Bird, et. al., eds., Reverberations of Nazi Violence in Germany and Beyond: Disturbing Pasts (London:…
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Verdun and the Village that Was
There were 9 villages around Verdun before World War I. Now there are none. A 303-day battle will do that to a region, especially during that war. At Verdun alone, the Germans and the French collectively exchanged 60 million artillery shells, 300,000 deaths, and an additional 450,000 wounded or captured. ((Paul Jankowski, Verdun: The Longest…
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The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the Low Countries. Among my list of must-do’s was the Somme and of course, the Thiepval Memorial. I plugged the address in and headed off in my rental car. [huge_it_maps id=”8″] The memorial is 150 ft tall, so I assumed I’d see it as…
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12 War Lessons from the Movie Patton (1970)
There is no question that Patton (1970) is my favorite movie. Since I was a kid, I have seen it more times than I can count and this project took much longer than necessary, as I kept watching large chunks of the movie. Of course, the real person is much more complex than the Hollywood version…
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Russian Interest in the Mediterranean before World War I
As many have learned recently, Russia has a naval base in Tartus, Syria. More importantly, we should understand that Russia’s interest in the Mediterranean is a tradition dating back before World War I, an interest that shaped Russia’s position in that war. When Russia was still an empire, Tsar Nicholas II (r. 1894-1917) saw the…
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Forget August 1914, if you want to understand World War I
We are one year from the centennial of World War I, and by this time next year, there will be streams of articles and books on how the war started. Some believe it was “tragic and unnecessary,” others claim that the British sought a world war, and more recently, Christopher Clark theorizes that the participants…
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When History Becomes More Like Professional Wrestling
“FDR was a piece of shit. If you disagree, you don’t know history.” That is what someone said to me during a stream of articles last month about President Roosevelt’s attitude and policy toward Jews during World War II. While everyone piled on the president, I pointed out that his attitudes toward Jewish people was…
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Norfolk, just one cemetery in the Somme
There are three predominate features of the Somme—farms, woods, and cemeteries. The French and British took a different approach with this massive battlefield. Instead of having one giant cemetery, they have numerous “small” ones. When you consider that the Allies suffered nearly 700,000 casualties in a mere 4 and a half months of fighting in…
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The Bastogne Mardasson Memorial
While in Luxembourg, a Belgian coworker harassed me, “You’re an American and you’ve never visited Bastogne?” It was true. I was visiting the Low Countries for the third time and I had zero plans to visit the famous town from the Battle of the Bulge. To redeem myself, I showed him a picture of the…
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A Tale of Two Luxembourg Cemeteries
Visiting both the Luxembourg American Cemetery and German War Cemetery consecutively provided an interesting perspective on how two peoples on opposing sides have chosen to remember their war dead. Both cemeteries hold soldiers who fought during World War II, many during the Battle of the Bulge. There is a heavy dose of crosses at both,…
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Luxembourg German War Cemetery
After visiting the Luxembourg American Cemetery, I convinced my German coworker that we should visit the Germany War Cemetery as well. It just over a mile away. The following description, photos, and video comes from my trip there on April 18, 2013. The German cemetery holds over 10,000 fallen German soldiers who fought…
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Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial
When I learned that Patton was buried 10 minutes from my hotel in Luxembourg, I had to make the pilgrimage. The Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial is a bit of touristy place, but it is well worth the trip. The following description, photos, and video comes from my trip there on April 18, 2013. There…