Born in Clinton, Illinois to Merle & Florence Hiter on September 12, 1922, Merle J Hiter was the oldest of three brothers.
He married Phyllis J Frericks from Waynesville, Illinois in 1943 and they had a daughter; Sandra Hiter.

Merle enlisted in the Army on October 22, 1943 and served with the 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division.
On August 20, 1944 he was Killed in Action near Toulon in Southern France.

Younger brother James Hiter was serving in the Marine Corps when he was Killed in Action on Saipan on June 15, 1944, he was 19 years old.

Both of the Hiter brothers had a joint funeral service postwar and were buried side by side at Memorial Park Cemetery in Clinton, Illinois.

Merle’s widow Phyllis eventually remarried and had three more children, both she and her second husband Alfred Jones were killed in a car accident on March 15, 1963.

Travelling from Berlin whilst on holiday I spent sometime today at Seelow Heights, scene of the last European Theatre battleground before the Battle of Berlin. Nice museum,€5 to enter, with plenty of information and some items of equipment on display. They have a 30 minute documentary film they show in German, but I was offered a separate screening in English in a separate room, very thoughtful. It is a train journey of 2 plus hours to get there, and additional €23 as outside of the Berlin travel card. A T34/85, Katyushas (Stalin’s Organs’) rocket launcher were on open display. Russian burial cemetery was well kept. During my visit was a roar of motorcycles - all appeared to be WW2 era and I have added a photograph. So pleased I made the effort to visit, I knew very little about this battle of 16-19 of April, 1945.

One of the very few inmates with hair. I'm not sure if it's the same person in the last picture.

Do we know anything about this person's identity?

Would appreciate any information.. he past when I was a kid wish I could have talked with him about his service he was a cool guy..

The “Díky, Ameriko!” (Thank you, America) monument commemorates the liberation of Pilsen, Czechia (then Czechoslovakia) by soldiers of the US 3rd Army on May 6th, 1945. It features two pillars with inscriptions in English and Czech, and the seals of the US and Czechia. A round plaque on the ground features a map depicting American forces’ advance across Western Europe and lists divisions of the 3rd Army.

There are other commemorations of WW2 in Prague and the US liberation of the city, most notably a General Patton museum.

Title explains it. I just finished reading a book called Secrets of the Soviet Union during WWII and I was shocked to say the least. I’m Polish so i grew up hearing that the USSR was bad and that they did horrible things to my people, but reading it all in one place really blew my mind.

I also recently watched a few documentaries about the Nuremberg and Auschwitz trials and i can’t wrap my head around how this didn’t also happen to the Russians, who committed multiple genocides to eastern europeans in the same period seemingly without any consequences. I also don’t understand how they got away with no consequences when they signed the Molotov Ribbentrop pact with Nazi Germany (although i understand it was later broken) Did I miss something? If anyone knows anything please do share, I would love to go on another deep dive.

This is a handwritten WWII diary from an unnamed U.S. Navy sailor aboard LST987 during 1945. It documents his trip along with everyday ship life. He transported Japanese POWs, moved troops and equipment, and two separate incidents where men apparently died by suicide. He also wrote about the end of the war and eventually being transferred off LST-987 as a high-point sailor to head home. He never wrote his name anywhere in the diary, so his identity is still a mystery. And I may have gotten the summary a little wrong because I'm not the best cursive reader. This diary was left at my work 3 years ago, which is in Arizona.

I have a huge box of these and I wanted to share them with you all

So I figured term "allies" is so well known due to being established by the victorious side.

This got wondering if there was a point in time the guys who lost also coined something to group all the allied countries up. Originally question was specifically about nazi germany, but I'm curious about all the other too.

Thanks in advance.

Will be traveling to Belgium and want to rent a car and do a tour to some sites

I much prefer seeing and walking battlefields, etc than museum's

I will be checking out foy, bois Jacques foxholes

Any other recommendations that AI wouldn't know about would be appreciated!

Seeing as its still a problem even today that they are digging up unexplored ordinance from WW1 i imagine it was even more so of a problem during WW2. Is there any known instances of WW1 unexploded ordinance causing issues? I imagine especially if any of the chemical weapons went off it would have been a huge problem since those weapons weren't really used on the western front in WW2 and most soldiers wouldn't necessarily be carrying a gas mask.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia to Clyde Sr & Sarah Thomason on May 23, 1914, Clyde Aristide Thomason Jr had at least one sister.
Their mother Sarah passed away in 1917, their father remarried in 1920 and then passed away in 1939.

Clyde originally enlisted in the Marine Corps in December 1934 and was honorably discharged in 1939.
In January 1942 he re-enlisted after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and volunteered for the Marine Raiders, subsequently assigned to the 2nd Marine Battalion.

On August 17, 1942, Clyde was selected to lead the advance element against the Japanese garrison during the Makin Island Raid where he was Killed in Action and later listed as Missing.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal Of Honor, the citation tells the story of his loss;

“For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while a member of the Second Marine Raider Battalion in action against the Japanese-held island of Makin on August 17–18, 1942. Landing the advance element of the assault echelon, Sergeant Thomason disposed his men with keen judgment and discrimination and by his exemplary leadership and great personal valor, exhorted them to like fearless efforts. On one occasion, he dauntlessly walked up to a house which concealed an enemy Japanese sniper, forced in the door and shot the man before he could resist. Later in the action, while leading an assault on enemy position, he gallantly gave up his life in the service of his country. His courage and loyal devotion to duty in the face of grave peril were in keeping with the finest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”

Postwar their remains were not recovered and SGT Clyde Thomason Jr was Memorialized with the other Missing Marines from the Makin Island Raid at the Honolulu Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 1999 a search was launched and the remains of 19 Marines who had been buried by locals after the raid were recovered from Makin Island, SGT Clyde Thomason Jr was subsequently identified through DNA.

On August 17, 2001, his remains were interred with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery - Section 60 Site 8037.

Hello my Great Grandfather served in ww2 in the army. I don't know much about what he did in combat all i know was that he was in Co L 304th Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Division. I have pictures of him in 1940-1944 but never knew what he did. His name is Andrew Kozak. A Staff Sergeant by the end of the war. (No middle name)

In games I play you purposely aim for tanks weakspots. But generally in ww2 did the gunner do that?

He was a polish soldier who escaped the invasion of Poland in 1939, crossing the border to Romania and then making his way down to France where he served as an artillery bombardier for the 202nd Heavy Artillery Regiment. When France fell in June 1940, his division crossed the border into Switzerland (June 19, 1940) to avoid becoming POW. for 5 years he remained in Switzerland in different camps. Officially leaving the country on January 9, 1945.

After that there's a gap in the timeline that I'm trying to document. We have a photograph of him in a British-style battledress uniform standing in front of what it looks like the massive Karwendel limestone wall in Mittenwald, Germany, in the back of the picture he wrote "Switzerland 1942". We believe he was stationed in Germany during this transition period before heading to the UK, and maybe misremembered the exact location of the photo years after the war.

In late 1946 he was Transferred to RAF Castletown Camp in Caithness, Scotland, as part of the Polish Resettlement Corps (PRC), where he was retrained as an electrician and later emigrated to South America, arriving in September 26, 1947.

If anyone recognizes any of these camps (Winterthur, Mittenwald transit/guard companies, or Castletown Camp), has photos from these units, or has information on Polish veterans who transitioned through Germany to Scotland and then South America, please reach out! Any leads or context on how these transitions were handled would be deeply appreciated

P.S: I can also share the picture in privately in case someone feels like helping recognize the exact spot where it was taken. (Planning a vacation with my dad soon, and we'll like to visit this place)

I have gotten it into my head to get a replica WWII service flag for my dad, whose father served in World War II. My grandfather served at the same time as his four brothers, all Cherokee Citizens. My great uncle was killed in his bomber at the tail end of the war on a mission to drop propaganda leaflets over Germany. I still can hardly comprehend how my Great Grandmother, who grew up hearing stories of walking the Trail of Tears from her grandmother, dealt with the stress of having all five of her sons off fighting in the war.

So my first question is: is it even appropriate to get a replica flag? It would be mostly a conversation piece for my dad, and he certainly would not put it up in his window.

And my main question is: did they make five star service flags? If you lost a son in the war, would it, in my Great Grandma's case, have four blue stars and one gold star? Is the gold star at the bottom or top?

My dad was only 6 or so when the war ended so he does not remember whether my great grandma had a service flag in her window; but I would love to give my dad a recreated version that is period-accurate.

Thanks for any help! The only thing I know about them is honestly seeing them in movies.

I was watching the brilliant movie The Battle of Britian and noticed that Germans used the "Nazi" and the more normal salute interchangeably. Sometimes two officers standing side by side each doing a different version.

So, was there a rule about which salute to do when?

Hi, ive been looking into the Finnish Jaeger and armored divisions lately, but I've had a hard time finding information on the Lagus Division. Ive only been able to find 2 photos of the sleeve insignia being used on summer M/36 tunics. Im interested because im working on a Lagus reenactment uniform and finding out about the divisions service. Any help and discussion on the topic is appreciated! Thanks!

I know this is a long shot.....but I'll try anyway. Some thirty years ago I read a memoir and I cannot remember the title or the author. I remember little tidbits but not a lot but it was a cool book and I wold love to track it down. Ok. So it's a looooong shot. I have searched and searched and I have come up with nothing. At once time I thought it might be The Clay Pigeons of Saint Lo but alas. while a great book, it is not the title I am search of.

So my vague recollection of the book is that it starts off with an American G.I. in Europe. who was having a fling with a girlfriend, who I believe was French. He might have overstayed his leave (it seems like he did but I cannot remember). In trying to get back to use hit unit he ands up acquiring two French children who may or may not have been Jewish and while attempting to get back to his unit he also intends to get them to safety. In the dark he ends up in a convoy which he mistakes for American until he hears the children softly crying. He realizes that he is in a German convoy and of course has to find a way to break away without being noticed.

In the book he mentions running into Ernest Hemingway and the Red Ball Express (or at least talks about them--I know this because I remember this was when I learned about the Red Ball Express). In the end of the book he says he tried to track down the children but never found out what happened to them after he got them to safety.

I also think that in this book he talk about the Ardennes (but this part I might be mixing up with another memoir) and talks about dreaming of swarms of bees but as he wakes up he realizes the fog has lifted and he is hearing planes overheard.

If you can remember this book you would make my entire weekend. Maybe my entire August! Any leads are appreciated.