War
History of Juneteenth: and the Emancipation Proclamation
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF JUNETEENTH: and the Emancipation Proclamation une Nineteenth, or Juneteenth, historically marked the celebration of the emancipation of African-American slaves in Texas in 1865. While the annual celebration started in Texas the following year in 1866, and became an official Texas state holiday there in 1980, this formerly obscure holiday is now observed across…
Read MoreHistory of D-Day: 82 Years Ago
Reading Time: 6 minutesHISTORY OF D-DAY Podcast version Why has D-Day captured the imagination of American consciousness for over three-quarters of a century? Eighty-two years ago, on June 6, 1944, the Allies launched an offensive on the Normandy coast of France to liberate continental Europe from the Nazi German occupation. On Twitter/X, the hashtag is #DDay82…
Read MoreMovie Review: Pressure – the Weather Before D-Day
Reading Time: 4 minutesMovie Review: Pressure – the Weather Before D-Day “The eyes of the world are upon you.” – General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “Order of the Day” to the Allied Expeditionary Force on D-Day It was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The Allied Expeditionary Forces, commanded by General Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower, had assembled an armada to…
Read MoreHistory of Memorial Day: Why We Fight
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY: WHY WE FIGHT As we celebrate Memorial Day, the world is different from what it was two and a half decades ago. We have troops in countries that we didn’t have then, and after 9/11, we now remember why we fight. The History Channel often reruns the HBO series Band of…
Read MoreHistory of VE-Day: End of WWII in Europe 81 Years Ago
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF VE-DAY ighty-one years ago today, World War II ended in Europe with the Allies accepting the unconditional surrender from Germany on VE-Day. Or did it? May 7, 1945, VE-Day Adolf Hitler had committed suicide in his Berlin bunker a week earlier on April 30, 1945, as I describe in my article on…
Read MoreHistory of the Liberation of Dachau: Present Day. Part 3
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF THE LIBERATION OF DACHAU: Present Day. Part 3 n Part 1, I discussed the Nazi Concentration Camps and Dachau. In Part 2, I talk about my father’s involvement in the liberation as part of the 42nd “Rainbow” Division and his subsequent capture of the Nazi general in charge of Munich’s anti-aircraft artillery. …
Read MoreHistory of the Liberation of Dachau, Part 2: April 30, 1945
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF THE LIBERATION OF DACHAU: APRIL 30, 1945. Part 2 n Part 1, I discussed the Nazi Concentration Camps and the initial movement of US Army divisions into Dachau. Dachau: The Camp As my father and the 42nd “Rainbow” Division moved into the Dachau Concentration Camp, of the 32,000 survivors still alive in…
Read MoreHistory of the Liberation of Dachau, Part 1: April 29, 1945
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF THE LIBERATION OF DACHAU, PART 1: APRIL 29, 1945 remember what my father had told me of his participation in the liberation of Dachau shortly before he died in 1976. Some of his war buddies discovered the tribute site I’d created for my father and called or emailed me to recount stories I’d…
Read MoreHistory of April 19: Three Reasons Why It’s Significant
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF APRIL 19 any of my Facebook friends have asked me to write an article on the History of April 19th. Why? Statistically, this date is slightly more likely to fall on Tuesday, Thursday, or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Friday or Saturday (57 each), and somewhat less likely to occur…
Read MoreHistory of the Civil War: When was the First Shot?
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR: FIRST SHOT FIRED Podcast version hat was the “trigger” that started the American Civil War? On April 12, 1861, the first formal hostilities of the American Civil War occurred when Confederate troops attacked the military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The Fort, located in Charleston Harbor,…
Read MoreHistory of the Liberation of Auschwitz: January 27, 1945
Reading Time: 7 minutesHISTORY OF THE LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ: JANUARY 27, 1945 anuary 27, 1945, was the liberation of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, one of the most notorious camps of World War II, by the Soviet Red Army. This date is now known by the United Nations and the European Union as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In America,…
Read MoreHistory of Christmas Eve and the Battle of the Bulge: 81 Years Ago
Reading Time: 5 minutesHISTORY OF CHRISTMAS EVE AND THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE: 81 YEARS AGO Podcast version n Christmas Eve, 1944, my father, Staff Sergeant John Petro, entered the frontline at Strasbourg with the 42nd “Rainbow” Infantry Division in 20-degree weather. He was part of three regiments – hurried from training in the U.S. – to…
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