WORLD HISTORY AND FACTS

Enubuj island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, February 4th, 1944. A view of an M1 155mm howitzer which blew up, killing five of its crew and injuring several others quite seriously. Cause of the accident was believed to be a defective fuse. Another cause for these type of accidents was the separately loaded powder. It was vital that the powder chambers of the 155mm tubes were to be swabbed and inspected after each round was fired.  If too much powder residue built up in the barrel, it could cause a catastrophic explosion when a round was fired. Amazingly, those incidents were relatively rare. The origin of the M114 actually lay in an initiative by the US Army to design and develop a modern carriage system for its aged M1918 155mm guns.  The M1918 was nothing more than a copy of the World War 1-era French Canon de 155 C modele 1917 Schneider system which was procured in number by the American military.  When it was decided against modernizing the older M1918 guns in th...

In early 1945, the Germans were starting to lose the war. In early 1945, the Germans were starting to lose the war. The signs of ultimate losers who were bound to lose a war which they started were starting to visibly show.  The Germans knew that their mission to silence their victims had failed. So they attempted to destroy Auschwitz’s gas chambers and flee, taking with them thousands of remaining prisoners which were all suffering from multiple illnesses such as starvation, malaria, pneumonia etc.  Their ‘solution’ to covering up their crimes was to kill off the rest of all victims and witnesses. They piled the bodies of their victims on top of one another as though they were nobody.  It is wrong for a single individual to think that in such a diverse world, they’re nobody. Everyone is somebody.  They failed to do so. They lost the war hard but in all honesty, not hard enough.  It is difficult to come to forgive such irreversible and horrific events and we com...

Manila Massacre: A Painful Reminder of War’s Impact   During World War II, the City of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, was the site of a horrific massacre that claimed the lives of at least 100,000 Filipino civilians. The Manila Massacre, also known as the Rape of Manila, was one of several major war crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army during the war. In this article, we will delve deeper into the events that led up to the Manila Massacre, the atrocities committed by Japanese troops, and the aftermath of the massacre. The Battle of Manila: Prelude to the Massacre The Battle of Manila was a major battle fought between Allied forces and the Imperial Japanese Army from February 3 to March 3, 1945. The battle was a key part of the campaign to liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation, and it was one of the most brutal and destructive battles of the Pacific War. The Japanese army, aware of their impending defeat, resorted to a strategy of destruction. The...

  This photo was taken in a concentration camp liberated by British soldiers. They forced the Nazi SS troops to load the bodies of their victims onto trucks for burial. This was later discovered to be the camp where Anne Frank lost her life. World War II: The Holocaust  One of the most horrific terms in history was used by Nazi Germany to designate human beings whose lives were unimportant, or those who should be killed outright: Lebensunwertes Leben, or "life unworthy of life". The phrase was applied to the mentally impaired and later to the "racially inferior," or "sexually deviant," as well as to "enemies of the state" both internal and external. From very early in the war, part of Nazi policy was to murder civilians en masse, especially targeting Jews. Later in the war, this policy grew into Hitler's "final solution", the complete extermination of the Jews. It began with Einsatzgruppen death squads in the East, which kill...

The Nazi Occupation in Poland This picture has been taken by a German soldier... a "souvenir". W hen the German army invaded Poland in September 1939, the Nazis were determinated to transform Poland into a huge reserve of slave labor ready to be used by the German war industry. In order to reach this goal, the Nazis adopted a policy immediately: To exterminate the Polish elite (professors, lawyers, scientists, etc...). To exterminate any potential opponent. To close all places of education (school, college, universities) excepting professional schools. To forbid any cultural or political activities under death sentence. To create an exclusively German Zone by confiscating all private property and or simply killing the original Polish population. D uring the winter of 1939, the Polish elite and anybody who had a role in the cultural or scientific life in Poland is exterminated: "the slaves don't need culture". At the same time, the entire population of ...

Hannah Halley - for infanticide.  Hannah Halley like so many young women at the time found herself in a seemingly impossible situation.  She murdered her new born infant because she could not keep her job and nurse a baby and without the job she could not afford to support the child.   Thirty one year old Hannah worked at the Darley cotton mill in Derbyshire and gave birth to the baby on Tuesday, the 14th of August 1821 at her lodgings in Brook Street, Derby. Earlier that day her landlady and a friend of the landlady had noticed that Hannah looked very unwell and she agreed that she felt ill.  She went up to her room where she gave birth a little later and the two women heard the cries of a new born baby and went up to offer assistance.   When they entered the room Hannah denied that she had given birth and was seen putting a jug under the bed which she had previously been trying to conceal under her clothes.   Hannah continued with the denia...

The Man Who Refused A Pardon Imagine being convicted of a crime you deeply regretted – intentional or unintentional – and being offered a pardon to absolve you of any penalty. Would you accept it? Let me tell you about a man who did not. In 1829 two men, George Wilson and James Porter, robbed a United States mail carrier. Both were subsequently captured and tried in a court of law. In May 1830 both men were found guilty of six charges, including robbery of the mail “and putting the life of the driver in jeopardy.” Both Wilson and Porter received their sentences: Execution by hanging, to be carried out on July 2. Porter was executed on schedule, but Wilson was not. Influential friends pleaded for mercy to the President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, on his behalf. President Jackson issued a formal pardon, dropping all charges. Wilson would have to serve only a prison term of 20 years for his other crimes. Incredibly, George Wilson refused the pardon! An official...