Random events of historical note

[Yoused]

The last of the pilots to drop bombs on Pearl Harbor has died.

Masamitsu Yoshioka, last Pearl Harbor bombardier, dies at 106

'I’m ashamed that I’m the only one who survived and lived such a long life,” Yoshioka said in an interview last year.

www.japantimes.co.jp

The possibility exists that there may be another surviving pilot, as there were claims of really, really old people in Japan, but it seems unlikely, as those claims were dubious.

 

[GermanSuplex]

I remember thinking that World War II seemed too horrific to have happened only fifty years prior to me learning about it. If not for the weapons and technology, it sounded like something that would have happened centuries ago. But seeing how things are going at home and abroad, I’m starting to see things haven’t really changed that much, people are still falling for the same old BS.

Anyways, as to the pilot, I love reading bits of info like that. WWII-era vets are slowly leaving us. I probably need to see if there’s some material on what people who lived through that think of current events in America.

 

[Herdfan]

Anyways, as to the pilot, I love reading bits of info like that. WWII-era vets are slowly leaving us. I probably need to see if there’s some material on what people who lived through that think of current events in America.

They are. My dad was on the front end of WWII as he graduated from HS in '38, went to college in the fall of '38, but then enlisted in the Marines. He served in the Pacific during WWII and then he was also in Korea before he was RIF'd out. He would have been 105 on his birthday on October 13th. So even those who came in at the late stages are going to be approaching 100.

I did have the pleasure to meet Major Charles Sweeney while I was in military school. He was the pilot who dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Don't remember why he was on campus, but it was great to meet him.

 

[GermanSuplex]

They are. My dad was on the front end of WWII as he graduated from HS in '38, went to college in the fall of '38, but then enlisted in the Marines. He served in the Pacific during WWII and then he was also in Korea before he was RIF'd out. He would have been 105 on his birthday on October 13th. So even those who came in at the late stages are going to be approaching 100.

I did have the pleasure to meet Major Charles Sweeney while I was in military school. He was the pilot who dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Don't remember why he was on campus, but it was great to meet him.

I hope you got a lot of historical knowledge and stories from your dad. All the elders in my family were gone by the time I was 16, and I wasn’t wise enough or interested enough at the time to think of asking them questions.

 

[shadow puppet]

I'm still hoping to find the turrret gunner's journal my Dad shared with me 30 years ago. My Dad was part of the Mighty 8th Air Force, 98th bombardment group (working with the RAF in Snetterton Heath). He was his squadron's commander who flew B17s over Germany. I think I've shared these here before but just in case:

Receiving his DFC:

From the B17 cockpit:

Although he's gone now, I'm pretty proud of my old man.

 

[Citysnaps]

I'm still hoping to find the turrret gunner's journal my Dad shared with me 30 years ago. My Dad was part of the Mighty 8th Air Force, 98th bombardment group (working with the RAF in Snetterton Heath). He was his squadron's commander who flew B17s over Germany. I think I've shared these here before but just in case:

Receiving his DFC:

View attachment 31725

From the B17 cockpit:

View attachment 31726

Although he's gone now, I'm pretty proud of my old man.

A huge hat-tip to your dad and for his service during WWII.

Mine was also a B-17 pilot, for the 8th AF, 2nd bombardment group, and was based in Foggia Italy. He flew missions over North Africa, Italy, and Germany, and also received the DFC.

One mission he led was very controversial, and that was the bombing and destruction of the Monte Cassino Abbey in Italy, which was built in 529 AD, and was home to Benedictine monks. Located high on a 1,700' mountain top, it was believed to be holding/hiding German troops and war material, and was also used as an observation post keeping an eye out for allied troops below.

Allied commanders (US and British) made the decision to destroy it, and my dad led the first mission of 140 B-17 bombers to carry it out. That was soon followed by other missions using B-25 and B-26 bombers.

It was later revealed that while there were nazi troops in the valley below the abbey, there were none in the abbey itself. IIRC, that assessment is still believed to be true to this day, though some strongly claim otherwise. Needles to say, that was somewhat of a burden my dad carried for many years later.

 

[Yoused]

A high-ranking member of Der III Weg ("the third way", a German neo-Nazi group) tripped on an exposed root, falling a couple hundred feet of the side of one of old Adolph's favorite mountains in Bavaria (the group was almost in sight of The Eagle's nest). A helicopter retrieved his remains.

(More of those guys need to do Darwinian stuff like that.)

 

[GermanSuplex]

“Did you guys have a good trip?”

 

[KingOfPain]

A high-ranking member of Der III Weg ("the third way", a German neo-Nazi group) tripped on an exposed root

The linked story sent me down a rabbit hole in a totally different direction, because below it was another news story with the title: Jack the Ripper‘s true identity unveiled after DNA breakthrough
To summarize: A shawl found near the murder site of Cathrine Eddows was taken home by a police man back in the day and finally bought by the author of a new book in an auction.
The author had DNA on the shawl tested and apparently blood matched a descendent of Eddows, while semen matched a distant relative of suspect Aaron Kosminski.

This all sounded a bit too good to be true, since I don‘t expect any definitive reveal after 136 years.
Therefore I headed over to Casebook.org to see if there have been comments about this new book.
Turns out, this is actually the second book by author Edwards about the exact same topic and it apparently was more or less debunked the last time. I somewhat doubt that the author has revealed much additional evidence since then.
Also, the tested mitochondrial DNA, which could probably have matched thousands of people back in 1888, and maybe millions nowadays. And the distant relative of Aaron Kosminski remains anonymous, which makes this pretty hard to check. I‘m also curious about how the author might have managed to find that relative…

Long story short, another one of these final solution books, which is most likely false.
BTW, someone gave the book a one star review on Amazon. I had to laugh, because the reviewer claims the royal conspiracy had been proven in 1994, while I‘m pretty sure that this theory had been debunked back in the 70s when it first came up.

A bit of a tangent, but I think it still fits the thread title.

 

[GermanSuplex]

I watched mini-documentary on the history of lead in products (mainly gasoline) and how spiked crime rates and mental disabilities rose with the use of lead products, and decreased with the subsiding of use. It does make you paranoid about breakthrough tech, drugs and chemical products.

 

[shadow puppet]

I finally found my Dad's B17 turret gunner's journal.
What's a safe place to upload and share a downloadable link?

 

[Yoused]

Dropbox offers that capability.

 

[GermanSuplex]

Perhaps not so random, but certainly of historical note…

Today marks the anniversary of Lincoln’s reading of the Gettysburg Address - one of the shortest, well-known and most succinct speeches ever spoken by a president.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. - Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 19, 1863