World War I & II topic

About time ...

(CNN)Japan and South Korea have reached an agreement over the long-standing issue of "comfort women," a term that describes sex slaves used by the Japanese military during World War II.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said his government will give 1 billion yen ($8.3 million) to a fund to help those who suffered.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said that as long as Tokyo sticks to its side of the deal, Seoul will consider the issue "irreversibly" resolved.
 
Many of the comfort women who are still alive are not pleased by the agreement as Japan still is not taking responsibility for sex slavery.
 
True .. just getting to this point seems like a small miracle with them ... while any of them are still alive
 
Just saw two good documentaries: One Day In Auschwitz (survivor's memories and tour through the camp) and Nanking (2007) documentary which interviews survivors from BOTH sides of the massacre of Chinese by the Japanese just prior to WWII.
 
76 years ago since Germany invaded Norway.

Today i was running 5 km into the woods and i came to a fact spot on the WW2 (in Lørenskog outside Oslo) The war was on going here with " Gutta på skauen " direct transelated - something like : Boys from the forrest. (maybe some other Norwegians here know a better transit)

It said alot but heres some of the main points: They vere NOT as voilent as roumers say. in the beggining they had more anti war stuff, informing and things like that, they were set upp by differnt local military men. It was death sentence, but they rearly got folowed trough. Atleast in the beginning. around 1942 they started actually going trough with it. And then the "Gutta på skauen" started to get violent and sabotage the germans.

The Germans did not enter the Lørenskog forrest at the end of the war.

There was also info of some local leaders there. A dude name Ola that was tourtured and killed (while the boys still was non-voilent) He was a teacher at the scool i went to. Before my time ofcourse.
 
The last surviving dive bomber pilot (U.S.) who took part in the Battle of Midway died. Dusty Kleiss was 100 years old.


This month I must start off with the sad news that Norman "Dusty" Kleiss passed away on April 22nd, 2016 at the age of 100. Dusty Kleiss was the last surviving dive bomber pilot from the Battle of Midway. He served with VS-6 on the Enterprise and flew in the morning attack on the Japanese fleet scoring a hit on the Kaga. Later in the afternoon he flew on the mission to find and destroy the last Japanese carrier Hiryu also scoring a hit on that carrier.

You can see the hits on the Japanese carriers as best I could determine with the help of many other people and publications on our page here. Bomb damage of IJN Carriers

Although he served with VS-6 for the first 7 months of the war Midway was his last combat mission. He returned to the states to get married in July 1942 and retired from the Navy in 1962. It seems that much of his wartime service following Midway was training the next generation of Dive Bomber pilots for the Navy although I only find short references to that. I have not found any history of his deployments after Midway but it was obvious he had a long career in the Navy. No matter his further contributions to the war, which I'm sure were considerable, he did his duty and more at Midway.

Dusty Kleiss received the Navy Cross for his two hits on the Japanese carriers at Midway although at the time his were probably among many that were claimed. He also received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his participation in the raids on the Marshall Islands February 1st of 1942. In 1944 he received a Presidential Unit Citation although I have yet to find the exact reason or what unit he was serving with at the time.
For his actions at Midway, Kleiss received the Navy Cross. He also received a Presidential Unit Citation in 1944. He also received the Distinguished Flying Cross for action at the Marshall Islands. - See more at: http://www.navyhistory.org/2016/04/dusty-kleiss-a-hero-of-midway-remembered/#sthash.AXTNgaKO.dpuf
For his actions at Midway, Kleiss received the Navy Cross. He also received a Presidential Unit Citation in 1944. He also received the Distinguished Flying Cross for action at the Marshall Islands. - See more at: http://www.navyhistory.org/2016/04/dusty-kleiss-a-hero-of-midway-remembered/#sthash.AXTNgaKO.dpuf

It is sad to think that we now have seen the last of the dive bomber pilots from The Battle of Midway pass on. With that I leave you with a story on how Norman "Dusty" Kleiss got his nickname in case those any of you don't know.

In Hawaii during 1941 he was training to qualify in the SBD. He and his gunner John Snowden were assigned to tow a gunnery sleeve off Barbers Point for the day. When finished he decided to land at nearby Ewa Field so they could pack the sleeve unaware until just before landing that quite a few marine fighters were lined up behind him to land. Mistaking the green landing light as an indication the strip was cleared for landing when communication with the tower was not answered he landed and then taxied off the landing strip to make room for the fighters behind him onto adjacent red clay dirt field. The prop wash from his plane sent up a huge cloud of red dust completely obliterating the view of the strip and preventing the marine pilots from landing.

The silent tower operators radio was now suddenly very communicative with a loudly irritated "Unknown Dust Cloud, who the hell are you?"

Seeing the cloud of dust behind him he quickly returned to the strip and cleared the dust cloud. The next time fellow pilot Cleo Dobson who had seen the incident from his own SBD greeted him he did so with "Hello, Dusty." And so "Dusty" became his nickname for life.
 
WWII Propaganda posters. Thought these should be shared here as well. Click for large image.

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Brigantium said:
That looks fantastic.
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We have gone to the national World War II museum in New Orleans .. it started as the D-Day museum (they made many of the landing craft near there). That was incredibly cool .. very powerful stuff, it has been about 10 years (the year before Katrina) since I went there, I should go again .. when we went they were transitioning from D-Day to WWII.

Looking forward to seeing this one as well in Colorado Springs.
 
bearfan said:
We have gone to the national World War II museum in New Orleans .. it started as the D-Day museum (they made many of the landing craft near there). That was incredibly cool .. very powerful stuff, it has been about 10 years (the year before Katrina) since I went there, I should go again .. when we went they were transitioning from D-Day to WWII.

Looking forward to seeing this one as well in Colorado Springs.
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While in Colorado Springs, I recommend the Pioneers Museum. It is a 100 year old converted restored courthouse that has a 3 story history of the area. Very cool.

http://www.cspm.org/
 
Denver also has the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum I recommend. It has real and fictional aircraft, a history of Colorado's connection to NASA and WWII as well as the Gulf War. Saw it last week for first time and enjoyed it. Did not have time to eat in the former aircraft hanger next door which is now a beer garden. Next time!

http://wingsmuseum.org/
 
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