SSG Harold George Bennett: A Heroic Legacy of Valor and Sacrifice Harold George Bennett, born on August 1, 1921, in Washington, D.C., was a remarkable soldier who left an enduring mark on World War II. Enlisting in the United States Army in 1942, Bennett was assigned to the renowned 30th Infantry Division, known as the "Old Hickory" division. This division played a significant role in the European theater, and Bennett would prove himself as an exceptional soldier during his service. One of the defining moments of Bennett's military career came during the Battle of Mortain in August 1944. In a harrowing situation, his unit found themselves surrounded by German forces.  Despite the overwhelming odds, Bennett's courage and leadership shone through. With unwavering determination, he single-handedly eliminated an enemy machine gun position, allowing his fellow soldiers to break free from the encirclement. For his extraordinary bravery, Bennett was awarded the Distinguished

Clyde Lee Choate of West Frankfort, Illinois, a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary actions on October 25, 1944, near Bruyères, France. Choate enlisted in the Army as a private and served 31 months overseas in the European Theatre. By October 25, 1944, he was serving as a staff sergeant in Company C, 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion. On October 25, near Bruyères in eastern France, his tank destroyer was hit and set on fire in an attack by German forces.  He ordered his crew to abandon the destroyer and reach safety but then returned through hostile fire to ensure no one was trapped inside. Seeing a German tank overrunning American infantry soldiers, he single-handedly attacked and destroyed the tank. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on October 25, 1944. Choate was honorably discharged from the Army in 1946. In 1946, he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives.  After three decades in the legislature, he retire

Imagine if we inflicted corporal punishment on criminals today? 😳 During the medieval period, whipping was a regular form of punishment utilized for minor criminal offenses. Public whippings in town squares served as a deterrent against petty crimes as locals were reminded of the consequences of unlawful acts.  Corporal punishment referred to physical forms of discipline administered to the body. It was a common method employed not only on children but adults as well. Whippings and floggings were frequently used to punish people across all age groups for various infractions.    Some of the minor crimes against adults that were disciplined through corporal punishment included theft, public drunkenness, and disorderly conduct. More serious offenses such as assault or burglary could result in stockading or time in the town jail in addition to physical beating.   While children may be the group most associated with corporal punishment today, it was widely practiced on the entire populatio

I liked to shoot women pushing prams": Secret Nazi tapes shocking Germany Horrific new transcripts reveal ordinary soldiers and airmen bragging about their role in the Hiler's atrocities Game:  A Luftwaffe boss reveals shooting children was a sport (Image: Getty) IT wasn’t their fault, has been the lame excuse. Ordinary German soldiers had nothing to do with the atrocities committed by Hitler and his hardcore Nazi henchmen. But now a disturbing – and at times ­horrifyingly graphic – new book has laid to rest the myth that only the likes of the SS and Gestapo were responsible for war crimes and acts of rape, murder and genocide. And the German people have been forced into ­reassessing their past. Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs, which is published in English for the first time next week, contains shocking transcripts of ordinary soldiers, sailors and airmen condemning themselves from their own mouths. We are printing so

The Story Of Marcy Borders, The ‘Dust Lady’ Of 9/11 On September 11, 2001, Marcy Borders escaped her office in the World Trade Center just before the Twin Towers collapsed. Soon after, she was photographed covered in ash from head to toe and became known as the "Dust Lady." After the 9/11 terrorist attacks destroyed New York City’s Twin Towers, countless heart-wrenching photos from the tragedy began to emerge. Among them was the iconic photo of the “Dust Lady,” a woman named Marcy Borders who was dressed in professional attire — and covered in concrete dust from head to toe. Underneath the layer of soot, her expression clearly conveys the shock of what she’d just survived. But although she lived through 9/11, Marcy Borders would later endure a decade-long struggle with trauma before she succumbed to cancer in 2015. This is the haunting story of the “Dust Lady.” How Marcy Borders Survived The Terror Attacks At The World Trade Center At 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, Marcy Border

John McGrath - a rapist. John McGrath, an Aboriginal, was charged at the Central Criminal Court in Sydney on Tuesday the 10th of August 1875 "with having on the 16th of May last, at Warragubra, in the colony of New South Wales, Australia, committed a rape upon one Sarah Murfin." The crime was committed at night, at Warragubra, three miles from Bega, when Mrs. Murfin was home alone. Her husband and daughter, John and Martha, were at church at Bega.  John and Martha returned to the house before John McGrath had left the neighbourhood. He was arrested soon after by Constable Preston, and charged with rape.  He was tried before Mr. Justice Hargrave at the Central Criminal Court.  The jury retired for half an hour before returning their guilty verdict.  McGrath was then sentenced to death.  It was reported that “the Executive has given his case the most careful consideration, but found nothing in the circumstances connected with the crime which would at all justify a commutation”.

British (Scottish) soldiers from the Seaforth Highlanders with a dog in a trench at La Gorgue near Loos, August 5, 1915. Today 109 years ago, on October 13, 1914, the Battle of Armentières began on the Western Front, as part of the "Race to the Sea."  . In September 1914 the First Battle of the Aisne was fought in which neither the Allies nor the Germans had broken through, resulting in a trench stalemate. .  Both sides then began maneuvering north towards the North Sea in an attempt to turn the northern flank of each other, known as the "Race to the Sea". .  The British took up positions in French and Belgian Flanders between Béthune and Ypres, north of the French Army's line. The British 2nd Army Corps was positioned on the La Bassée Canal, while further north the 3rd Army Corps was positioned near Méteren. .  On October 12, the Germans captured the city of Lille and broke through the French lines south of La Bassée, prompting the British 2nd and 3rd Army Corp

British sailor Willie Vicarage, wounded during the Battle of Jutland, prior to his surgery, 1916. Today 108 years ago, on October 13, 1915, British poet and Captain Charles Sorley was killed in action during the Battle of Loos. Sorley is best remembered for his poem "When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead". . Charles Hamilton Sorley was born on May 19, 1895 in Aberdeen, Scotland as the son of a philosopher. Sorley was described as a precocious and academically gifted child, and in college he began writing and publishing poetry. .  In January 1914, his poetry got him a scholarship at Oxford University, but he decided to study abroad in Germany instead, where he spent some 6 months. When the war broke out, Sorley was interned in a prison for a night, but was released and ordered back to Britain the following morning. .  Once back in Britain, Sorley immediately enlisted into the British Army, joining the Suffolk Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant. After going through training, So

The Billingtons - a family of hangmen. James Billington was born at Preston in Lancashire in 1847 and had a life long fascination with hanging. As an eleven year old boy he had built a model gallows and practiced hanging dummies on it. He had unsuccessfully applied to succeed William Marwood but only managed to secure the Yorkshire hangman's position, where he was used rather than James Berry.   James ran a barber shop in Farnworth near Bolton in Lancashire when not engaged in executions.  In the period he was on the Home Office List, 1884-1901, he carried out 151 hangings in total, executing 141 men and five women in England and Wales, plus two men in Ireland and three men in Scotland. James' first execution was at Armley Gaol in Leeds on the 26th of August 1884, when he hanged Joseph Laycock, a Sheffield hawker, for the murder of his wife and four children.  Laycock was to have said just before being hanged, "You will not hurt me?" to which James Billington replied,

Execution by cannon in Shiraz, Iran, circa 1890s. The prisoner is generally tied to a gun with the upper part of the small of his back resting against the muzzle. When the gun is fired, his head is seen to go straight up into the air some forty or fifty feet; the arms fly off right and left, high up in the air, and fall at, perhaps, a hundred yards distance; the legs drop to the ground beneath the muzzle of the gun; and the body is literally blown away altogether. "Blown from a gun" was a punishment often used by colonial powers against locals who believed their body parts must be together to enter the afterlife.  It was reserved as a special punishment when just death wasn't enough. Local feral dogs would usually eat the pieces of the dead that could be found. Related Top 15 most evil men in history  2. Adolf Hitler Hitler was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to his death in 1945, becoming Germany’s Fuhrer. Before he gained power, he wanted to be an artist, but he failed.