Strange-but-true stories from World War II
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. Escape and evasion files are firsthand accounts of a military personnel's escape from behind enemy lines. In World War II, thousands of U.S. troops crashed in Nazi territory and had to evade capture or escape from German prisons. The National … Continue reading Escape and Evasion files at the National Archives
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. Behind the barbed wire of the Japanese internment camp at Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, a few men received their orders to report for duty. It was 1944, and they had been drafted. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor … Continue reading The draft dodgers of 1944
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. Each of the German victories, and there were a surprising number of these, made [Adolf Hitler] happy, but he was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from … Continue reading How to annoy Hitler
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. Seventy years ago this week, the German blitz on London began, devastating the British capital. The Blitz brought World War II to England's home front. For 57 consecutive days and nights the Blitz raged on. All told the indiscriminate bombings … Continue reading The London Blitz
Americans love Paris. They even ended the Revolutionary War by writing and signing the Treaty of Paris in that city on September 3, 1783. War brought other Americans to Paris. Almost 150 years later, it was home to Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway's experience in Paris was colored by war. He arrived … Continue reading Hemingway, JFK! What else do I have to say?!
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. "They say that in the Army, the chow is mighty fine, A chicken jumped off the table and started marking time. Oh Lord, I wanna go, Oh Lord I wanna go Oh Lord I wanna go home." There's talk in … Continue reading ‘Waist’ not, want not
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. While the Constitution does not say who is eligible to vote, it does say who is eligible to run for Congress. No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five Years, and been … Continue reading Women can’t vote, but they can run for Congress
This year is the big centennial of the Boy Scouts of America. Thousands of young Scouts will gather together next week at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia to celebrate 100 years of scouting. Sixty years ago, Boy Scouts were swarming the towns and cities of North America. But they weren't camping or earning badges. They … Continue reading How the Boy Scouts won World War II
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. While June 6, 1944, is best known as the day when Allied forces invaded Nazi-occupied Europe, there was another invasion that took place on almost the same day, just two years prior: the Japanese invasion of the United States. On … Continue reading The Japanese Invasion of America
