Hannah Senesh – an SOE war hero. 23 year old Hannah Szenes (Angicised spelling Senesh) was born in Budapest, Hungary on the 17th of July 1921, into a middle-class and well-educated Jewish family. She was a good student and wanted to become a poet and writer. In 1938, the Nazi persecution of Jews was underway and Hungary sided with Germany.  Rumours were rife that Germany would invade Palestine.  Hannah volunteered to serve in the Jewish underground army and wanted to help Jews escape from Europe.  She became a Zionist and moved to British Mandate Palestine in 1939.  Here she joined a Jewish commando group that was set up to assist British operations in Europe.  In March 1944, Hannah was parachuted by the British Special Operation Executive into Yugoslavia near the Hungarian border with 36 other resistance fighters. Their mission was to save Jews and Allied airmen but before she had a chance to achieve anything, she was captured at the border by Hungarian police ...

THE "Original" RIZAL EXECUTION PICTURE, AUTHENTIC OR FAKE? The execution by firing squad of José Rizal was captured in a photograph attributed by modern-day Filipino historians to Manuel Arias Rodríguez. However, the picture does not bear the signature MA that appears on most of this photographer’s works. There is also some controversy regarding the authenticity of the shot. Austin Craig credited Mr. Dumas [not Manuel Arias!] as the photographer and creator of the so-called "original" execution photograph of Rizal that appeared in his book "The Story of José Rizal, The Greatest Man of the Brown Race" published in 1909. P.O. RELATED INFO: THE RIZAL EXECUTION PICTURE IS A BIG FRAUD! by Pio Andrade "The picture is the only known photograph of Rizal’s execution. The picture has been reproduced so many, many times in books and popular publications that its image is deeply imprinted in Filipino minds. But is the picture authentic? This question, it seems, h...

Richard Ira Bong of Superior, Wisconsin, a Major in the U.S. Army Air Forces, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary actions on October 10, 1944, over Borneo and Leyte, in the Philippines. Bong enlisted in the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program in May 1941, was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and was awarded his pilot wings in January 1942. By October 10, 1944, he was serving as a major in the 49th Fighter Group. From October 10 to November 15, Bong was assigned to duty as a gunnery instructor and not required to perform combat duty.  However, he voluntarily engaged in repeated combat missions. He was one of the most decorated American fighter pilots and the country's top flying ace in the war, credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft, all with the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions from October 10-November 15, 1944. Bong then became a test pilot and flew P-80 Shooting Star jet fighters out of Lockheed Ai...

🇺🇲WWII uncovered: Private Cleto L. Rodriguez: Hero of the Battle of Manila and One of the Most Decorated Warriors of the PTO "On February 9, 1945, 21-year-old US Army Private Cleto L. Rodriguez, of San Antonio Texas, rushed across smoking rubble and into Japanese gunfire on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. For nearly a week, he and his fellow soldiers from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 148th Infantry Regiment of the 37th Infantry Division battled to liberate the capital city from a determined enemy.  Rodriguez and Private First Class John N. Reese, Jr., a fellow 21-year-old automatic rifleman from Pryor, Oklahoma took action living up to the words on their regimental patch, “WE’LL DO IT". The two grabbed as many grenades and magazines for their Browning Automatic Rifles as they could carry and ran through enemy fire toward the train station." (National World War II Museum) Private First Class John N. Reese, Jr was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for this her...

Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was born on July 18, 1887, in Fyresdal in southern Norway. His parents were Jon Lauritz Quisling and Anna Caroline Bang. His father was a Lutheran minister and genealogist. His mother came from a wealthy family in Grimstad.  In 1905, Quisling entered the War College. Of the 250 cadets, he had achieved the highest score on the notoriously difficult entrance exams. From the War College, Quisling entered the Military Academy to pursue a career in the army. Quisling graduated with the best grades in the history of the Academy since its founding in 1817. The King of Norway rewarded him by inviting the young Quisling to an audience with him. In 1911, Quisling joined the General Staff of the Norwegian Army. Over the next 18 years, he traveled extensively on diplomatic and humanitarian missions. Quisling lived in Russia, Finland, England, France, Armenia, Switzerland, and Germany. His five years in Russia, however, had the greatest impact on Quisling...

In July 2012, 16-year-old Rachel Shoaf conspired with her friend Shelia Eddy to murder Skylar Neese by literally stabbing her in the back. From the outside, it seemed as though West Virginia teenagers Rachel Shoaf, Shelia Eddy, and Skylar Neese were best friends. But on July 6, 2012, Shoaf and Eddy lured an unsuspecting Neese into the woods of Pennsylvania, counted to three — and stabbed her to death. For several months, the teenage killers kept their horrific crime a secret. Then, Shoaf finally broke under the pressure and confessed to the murder, leading the police to where they’d hidden Neese’s body. When asked why they killed her, Shoaf would say it was because “we just didn’t like her.” This is the true story of Rachel Shoaf, the murderous teen who allegedly told her best friend, “Die, b****!” as she stabbed her to death. Who Is Rachel Shoaf? Born on June 10, 1996, Rachel Shoaf seemed to have a lot of promise. Described by those who knew her as an adventurous and happy girl, Shoaf...

Writings by Shaheed Bhagat Singh in Jail Kindly produced by Web Punjab Bhagat Singh, a great reader and thinker was able to break the jail conditions, even when officially not allowed he was reading and writing but finally after long hunger strike got the right of reading & writing included in Jail Manuals. Thus he maintained a note book of 404 pages and kept notes & quotes from the books he read. Here are few of these. "Ah my beloved, fill the cup that clears Todays of past Regrets and future Fears Tomorrow? _ why, Tomorrow I may be Myself with yesterdays Sevn's thousand year." *** Here with a loaf Bread beneath the Bough A flask of wine, a Book of verse-and thou Beside me signing in the widerness And wilderness in paradise now! "Ummar Khayyam" Natural and Civil Rights Man did not enter into society to become worse then he was before, but to have those rights better secured. His netural rights are the foundation of all his civil rights. Natural rights a...

At the beginning of WWII, women were not allowed to join the Russian Army, but as time passed and the need for soldiers to stop the German offensive grew, women became eligible to the draft.  Natalia Peshkova was one of the women who ended up drafted into the Russian Army when she was just 17.  She trained with weapons that rarely worked as part of a unit that was poorly supplied. At one point a horse ate one of her boots as she slept. Her unit was so poorly equipped that she was forced to go without a boot for an entire month. Her unit was also poorly fed with little more than pea flour and a piece of horse sausage as her daily ration. Despite this, she did everything she could to protect and help soldiers that were wounded on the front lines as a combat medic. She was trained to protect wounded soldiers from the front and get them safely to hospitals. While she was trained to apply first aid, her main duty was always to remove wounded men from the front line. She herself was...

Unable to bear the shame of being captured as a prisoner of war, Shoichi Yokoi hid in the jungles of Guam until January 1972 When Japanese sergeant Shoichi Yokoi returned to his home country after almost three decades in hiding, his initial reaction was one of contrition: “It is with much embarrassment that I return.” Then 56, Yokoi had spent the past 27 years eking out a meager existence in the jungles of Guam, where he’d fled to evade capture following American forces’ seizure of the island in August 1944. According to historian Robert Rogers, Yokoi was one of around 5,000 Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender to the Allies after the Battle of Guam, preferring life on the lam to the shame of being detained as a prisoner of war.  Though the Allies captured or killed the majority of these holdouts within a few months, some 130 remained in hiding by the end of World War II in September 1945. Yokoi, who only rejoined society after being overpowered by two local fishermen in Janu...

Robert “Bobbie” Evan Brown Jr. of Dublin, Georgia, a Captain in the U.S. Army, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary actions on October 8, 1944, on Crucifix Hill, Aachen, Germany. Brown was the First Sergeant in the Headquarters Company of Patton’s 2nd Armored Division when World War II began.  After fighting across North Africa, he received a battlefield promotion to second lieutenant and transferred to the 1st Infantry Division. While fighting across France, he assumed command of his unit when his company commander was killed. On October 8, 1944, he received orders for an attack on Crucifix Hill. He single-handedly destroyed several enemy pillboxes under heavy fire. Despite being wounded three times, he did not seek medical attention until his company’s position was completely secure. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on October 8, 1944. Brown left the Army in 1952 after 34 years of service. Tragically, Brown was tormented by traumatic memories of h...