World War II

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Showbiz Scribe Army Archerd Dead at 87

Column appeared in Variety for 52 years

(Newser) - Army Archerd, who chronicled Hollywood for 52 years as a columnist for Variety, died today of mesothelioma, the showbiz publication reports. He was 87; the cancer was thought to be related to exposure to asbestos during World War II. He was known for injecting a social consciousness into his reporting,...

Pope Recalls Holocaust Horrors, Forgets Jews

Benedict XVI has testy relationship with Jewish community

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI recognized the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II today by paying tribute to Poles and the “tragedy of the Holocaust,” but did not mention its Jewish victims, the New York Times reports. The omission may further strain relations between Jewish leaders and...

Pentagon Steps Up Hunt for Missing WWII Soldiers

Search intensifies as aging witnesses die

(Newser) - After years of searching for missing US soldiers in the jungles of Southeast Asia, the military's POW/MIA Accounting Command has intensified the hunt for the 74,000 WWII troops still unaccounted for, reports the New York Times. Searching for the nearly-65-year-old remains is a race against time, however, as historians...

Fury Mounts Over Treatment of Gay WWII Codebreaker

Petition seeks posthumous apology for computing genius Alan Turing

(Newser) - A campaign to win a pardon and apology for gay World War II codebreaking genius Alan Turing is gathering steam, CNN reports. Turing—considered by many to be the father of modern computing—made a vital contribution to the Allied effort with his invention of a machine to crack German...

Poland Marks 70th Anniversary of WWII's Start

Leaders gather at Polish fort where Nazis launched blitzkreig

(Newser) - Polish leaders gathered at dawn today at the fort the Nazis attacked to begin World War II exactly 70 years ago, the BBC reports. A German battleship attacked Westerplatte on September 1, 1939, as German troops launched a blitzkreig attack on three fronts. The invasion triggered declarations of war from...

Basterds Should Be Last WWII Movie Ever: Pitt

...and calls Tom Cruise's Valkyrie 'ridiculous'

(Newser) - Brad Pitt thinks Inglourious Basterds is so good that no one should ever bother making a World War II movie again, People reports. “I believe that Quentin put a cover on that pot. With Basterds, everything than can be said to this genre has been said,” he said...

Critics Find Basterds Glorious
 Critics Find Basterds Glorious 
Movie Review
Aug 21, 2009 10:34 AM CDT

Critics Find Basterds Glorious

(Newser) - Not every critic loves Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, but many do, and they really love it. Here’s what they’re saying.
  • It’s not just Tarantino’s best movie, “It's the first movie of his artistic maturity,” writes Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle. It
...

Killer Nazi, 90, Jailed for Life

(Newser) - A former commander in Adolf  Hitler's army has been sentenced to life imprisonment for a massacre in Italy he ordered 65 years ago, the BBC reports. In what is expected to be one of the very last Nazi trials, a Munich court found Joseph Scheungraber guilty of murder in the...

Andy Rooney at Cronkite Funeral: 'I Can't Get Over It'

Memorial service honors legendary TV news anchor

(Newser) - Family and friends of Walter Cronkite remembered the venerable television news anchor today at a memorial at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan, CBS News reports. Speakers at the service remembered Cronkite’s sense of humor, his love of sailing, and the strong emotions that lay beneath his calm, collected...

Churchill's WWII Bunker Was Bogus
Churchill's
WWII Bunker Was Bogus
Jul 20, 2009 7:00 AM CDT

Churchill's WWII Bunker Was Bogus

War rooms, in barely converted basements, weren't bomb-proof

(Newser) - Winston Churchill kept the British government running through World War II from a bunker underneath central London, but a new exhibition reveals the prime minister's fury that his office was vulnerable to attack. The hastily converted war rooms, where Churchill and his staff worked and slept, lay only 10 feet...

Long Buried, PTSD Emerges in WWII Veterans

1 in 20 surviving vets affected

(Newser) - For many World War II veterans, decades-old memories of war aren’t as deeply buried as they once believed. The veterans administration estimates that 5% of the 2.5 million US World War II vets suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Older vets came of age...

Demjanjuk Charged With 27,900 Holocaust Deaths

(Newser) - German prosecutors formally charged John Demjanjuk today with 27,900 counts of being an accessory to murder at a Nazi death camp during World War II, reports the AP. The 89-year-old retired auto worker, who was deported from the US in May, faces 15 years for every count. Prosecutors accuse...

Global Warming Threat Akin to Nazis': Gore

(Newser) - Al Gore today likened the challenge of global warming to the threat from Nazi Germany and the Axis powers, the Times of London reports. Gore reminded a British audience that “Winston Churchill aroused this nation in heroic fashion to save civilization in World War II,” saying the situation...

Dad Was Not Only a General, But a Patton
 Dad Was Not Only a 
 General, But a Patton 
fathers day INTERVIEW
Jun 21, 2009 2:33 PM CDT

Dad Was Not Only a General, But a Patton

Grandson remembers his famous forebears

(Newser) - Living up to the legacy of one’s father can be hard, but it’s particularly trying for Benjamin Patton, the son of decorated Korean and Vietnam vet Maj. Gen. George Patton—himself the offspring of World War II titan Gen. George S. Patton. Immortalized by George C. Scott in...

Hardship Made Them the 'Greatest': Brokaw

(Newser) - Even before enlisting, World War II soldiers were made great by the “deprivations and lessons of the Great Depression,” Tom Brokaw writes in the Wall Street Journal. Shared sacrifice and lack of staple goods forged the outlook of the "Greatest Generation," and made the Army almost...

Obama: D-Day Is 'Story of America'

(Newser) - President Obama today paid homage to the men who stormed the beach at Normandy on the 65th anniversary of D-Day, reports the Los Angeles Times. Speaking at Omaha Beach, Obama called the invasion the "story of America" and said it can provide inspiration "for the hardships and struggles...

Air Force Ship Becomes Artificial Reef Off Fla. Keys

WWII cargo ship also tracked missiles and spacecraft

(Newser) - Demolition experts sank an Air Force ship this morning to create an artificial reef in the Florida Keys, the AP reports. The 17,000-ton, WWII-era cargo ship took less than 2 minutes to sink after a series of explosions. The new "reef" is expected to bring in about...

Queen Livid at French Snub for Obama D-Day Fete

Sarkozy wants to focus on 'main event' of US prez visit

(Newser) - Queen Elizabeth is furious at not being invited by the French for D-Day ceremonies next week that will include President Obama, reports the Daily Mail. The French never had any intention of inviting members of the British royal family to the 65th anniversary commemoration in Normandy in order to allow...

10 Odd Facts About World War II
 10 Odd Facts 
 About World War II 
memorial day weekend
May 23, 2009 4:35 PM CDT

10 Odd Facts About World War II

(Newser) - With Memorial Day and the 65th anniversary of Normandy coming up, it's time for a World War II history review. The Chicago Tribune has dug up ten strange facts:
  • Elsie Mitchell and five children died in Gearhart Mountain, Ore., in May 1945, by touching a Japanese "balloon bomb" 
...

By Tarantino Standards, Basterds Indeed Inglourious

(Newser) - Festival fave Quentin Tarantino opened his comic-fantasy take on World War II, Inglourious Basterds, at Cannes today. The film traces Jewish-American soldiers, led by Brad Pitt, as they annihilate as many Nazis in France as three grisly hours can fit. Some early sentiment:
  • "It's western meets war movie, with
...

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