Nasty Austrian🇦🇹 Conquers da 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇦

[big oil]

Imagine lying in a battlefield hospital, in a foreign country, shrapnel riddled, wound maggot infested, 18-2?. 

Forgive me, I have watched all the war documentaries and Hollywood action films depicting WW1 & WW2, I cannot imagine such conditions.

Much respect for the men and woman, regardless where their ancestry lied, faith, or lack thereof, I simply cannot imagine what it must of been like to see such death and destruction on a monumental scale.




I am debating whether this legless soldier is smiling or smirking

[big oil]

[big oil]

[big oil]

[Oubones]

The WW1 and WW2 conditions and suffering should be revisited by us to remind us of how cruel and inhumane war is sothat we can treat each other better and rather talk things right than fight each other!
Many can learn from your example as to changing for the better and bringing a positive contribution to the people that you come into contact with!

[big oil]

WW1 German Nurses Uniform

[big oil]

Imagine being a farm boy or girl, you had not ever seen a ship so massive in your life, now you are on the vessel knowing most likely you'll die and not ever return to your loved ones.

[big oil]

Hard to fault the US government in their decision, though still a sad time in our history.

[big oil]

[big oil]

Women played such a vital and important role during the war effort.  If it hadn't been for them busting their asses back home manufacturing everything, I'm not convinced the allies would've have won.

[big oil]

D-Day Normandy, France







The Battle of Okinawa (Japanese: 沖縄戦 Hepburn: Okinawa-sen) (Okinawan: 沖縄戦, romanized: Uchinaa ikusa), codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Marine and Army forces against the Imperial Japanese Army.  The initial invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945, was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II.  The 82-day battle lasted from April 1 until June 22, 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were planning to use Kadena Air Base on the large island of Okinawa as a base for Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, 340 mi (550 km) away.

The United States created the Tenth Army, a cross-branch force consisting of the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th infantry divisions of the US Army with the 1st, 2nd, and 6th divisions of the Marine Corps, to fight on the island. The Tenth was unique in that it had its own tactical air force (joint Army-Marine command), and was also supported by combined naval and amphibious forces.

The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or tetsu no bōfū ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of Japanese kamikaze attacks, and the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific, with approximately 160,000 casualties on both sides: at least 75,000 Allied and 84,166–117,000 Japanese, including drafted Okinawans wearing Japanese uniforms. 149,425 Okinawans were killed, committed suicide or went missing, a significant proportion of the estimated pre-war 300,000 local population.

In the naval operations surrounding the battle, both sides lost considerable numbers of ships and aircraft, including the Japanese battleship Yamato.  After the battle, Okinawa provided a fleet anchorage, troop staging areas, and airfields in proximity to Japan in preparation for a planned invasion.




Notice this soldiers eyes, I see a man attempting to make sense of everything he has witnessed in Okinawa, Japan.





Military use of children

On Okinawa, middle school boys were organized into front-line-service Tekketsu Kinnōtai, while Himeyuri students were organized into a nursing unit.

The Imperial Japanese Army mobilized 1,780 middle school boys aged 14–17 years into front-line-service. They were named Tekketsu Kinnōtai (ja:鉄血勤皇隊, "Iron and Blood Imperial Corps"). This mobilization was conducted by an ordinance of the Ministry of the Army, not by law. The ordinances mobilized the students as volunteer soldiers for form's sake; in reality, the military authorities ordered schools to force almost all students to "volunteer" as soldiers; sometimes they counterfeited the necessary documents. About half of the Tekketsu Kinnōtai were killed, including in suicide bomb attacks against tanks, and in guerrilla operations.

After losing the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese government enacted new laws in preparation for the decisive battles in the main islands. These laws made it possible for boys aged 15 or older and girls aged 17 or older to be drafted into front-line-service.

[big oil]

[big oil]

U.S. Marines rest on a transport ship after the battle of Eniwetok Atoll in 1945

[dirt rat]

How fucked up that was - How little we've learnt .
I remember the tv series The World At War as a young boy - scared me shitless.

[dirtyXT]

  awesome thanks for this! welcome back and keep it coming please!

[eberhard]

Long time ago I scratched through the R5 (then +- $0.70) box at an antique store. I got hold of a brass / copper emblem that caught my attention. It was a combination of a star and half moon. Seemed to me like something from the middle east. What did it for me was that it was old. That I could see, and it was handmade (not a mass machined product), which reinforced my estimate as to its age. So why not, for R5 I bought it. As I did not know the background thereto and had no real use for it at that stage, I put it in a drawer. And forgot about it.

About two years ago I watched the movie Ride With The Devil. Halfway through the movie there was a large gathering of irregular soldiers. The head honcho who addressed the gathering had a pin on his hat. That was my badge! As the camera panned over the gathering I noticed that quite a few of the actors had the same badge on their hats / uniforms. I went to a drawer that could possibly be the one I had put it in and I found it again. I compared it to the movie and it was exactly the same.

I started searching the army regalia of that war. Was not easy. Eventually I traced it - it was the badge of the VII Corps, Department of Arkansas. To me it appears original. If a copy, it is well done.

[big oil]

The WW1 and WW2 conditions and suffering should be revisited by us to remind us of how cruel and inhumane war is sothat we can treat each other better and rather talk things right than fight each other!
Many can learn from your example as to changing for the better and bringing a positive contribution to the people that you come into contact with!

Wise words, Hennie and thank you for your syrupy compliment.

I am becoming a better man little by little everyday, with a few setbacks along my path.

With the help of friends, some from this forum via email correspondence, I began to see some light awhile ago, though dim, it is a light I'm going to reach for.

I'm happy to announce my jump out of bed nightmares, nightmares so horrible, I'm out of my bed in a defensive pos, it feels like my muscles are in a seizure, brain on fricken fire, visions of electrical currents flying everywhere in my brain, my eyeballs move uncontrollably, I do 360 degree spins up down and around, scanning my room for threats, sometimes I reach for chambered metal, this all happens in very little time .............................  have subsided. 

I'm looking forward to some short trips to enjoy and photograph Michigans amazing autumn colors soon and I've decided since I no longer ride snowmobiles, I may jump in my new toy and go explore somewhere much warmer during Michigans winter months, find myself again.  I've got a fire under my ass, Hennie, it's time to get my ass in gear and start making some plans, put a little more coin in the coffee cans.

[big oil]

How fucked up that was - How little we've learnt .
I remember the tv series The World At War as a young boy - scared me shitless.

sure was, dirt rat.  I've heard some horrific tales in my time from guys who were right in the thick of it. 

A wonderful Belgian man shared tales with me about his surviving the Battle of Okinawa.  The lovely old white haired man would get teary eyed speaking of the death and suffering he witnessed.  Imagine the worse conditions possible, bombs, shrapnel, soldiers trying to crawl without legs and arms, just a torso and head with guts hanging out for the few seconds until they died.  Soldiers with maggot infested wounds laying in tropical conditions for days.

It's a better world because of what the soldiers, regardless of flag sewn to cloth, suffered back then. 

[big oil]

awesome thanks for this! welcome back and keep it coming please!

hi dirty, thanks, will do.  Hope you and yours are well.

[big oil]

Long time ago I scratched through the R5 (then +- $0.70) box at an antique store. I got hold of a brass / copper emblem that caught my attention. It was a combination of a star and half moon. Seemed to me like something from the middle east. What did it for me was that it was old. That I could see, and it was handmade (not a mass machined product), which reinforced my estimate as to its age. So why not, for R5 I bought it. As I did not know the background thereto and had no real use for it at that stage, I put it in a drawer. And forgot about it.

About two years ago I watched the movie Ride With The Devil. Halfway through the movie there was a large gathering of irregular soldiers. The head honcho who addressed the gathering had a pin on his hat. That was my badge! As the camera panned over the gathering I noticed that quite a few of the actors had the same badge on their hats / uniforms. I went to a drawer that could possibly be the one I had put it in and I found it again. I compared it to the movie and it was exactly the same.

I started searching the army regalia of that war. Was not easy. Eventually I traced it - it was the badge of the VII Corps, Department of Arkansas. To me it appears original. If a copy, it is well done.

Very cool man, loved reading that.  I wouldn't have though the emblem was anything US upon first glance.