WAR HISTORY AND FACTS

Battle of Verdun, impressions of the fight in the Reduce of Thiaumont Testimonial passages of German soldier Wilhelm Hermanns of the 67th Infantry Regiment, who was destined in the abusive structure of the Thiaumont Reduce, at the end of October 1916, within the scope of the colossal battle of Verdun: "The entrance was a simple hole in the desolate field of the countryside" battle, and the silhouettes of men shrunk with fear, constantly going out and in cramped, looked like giant ants in the middle of darkness. I went down an iron staircase to that concrete cave about twelve feet deep. It was a huge place, filled with hundreds of soldiers. Some were in their bunk beds, sleeping, snoring or whining.  Others crowded the hallways between the bunk beds, chatting or writing letters. And some were sitting or kneeling in a corner, picking up their stuff or pulling it out of the ditches. The reflection of a lantern or that of a candle, a match or a lit cigarette flashed the darkness

A Tunnel Dug by a Giant Ground Sloth in Brazil Over 10,000 Years Ago Known as Paleoburrows, these enormous tunnels can measure up to 2,000 feet long and over six feet tall. It is believed that the Brazilian tunnels were created by giant ground sloths. How were they discovered? In the early 2000s, Professor Heinrich Frank of the University of Rio Grande do Sul was driving by a construction site when something caught his eye. There was a strange hole that had been revealed by the site's excavators, and Frank wondered where it led. A few weeks later, he made his way back and entered the hole. Crawling down the 15-foot-long opening, he noticed claw marks across the ceiling of the cave. Given his expertise, he knew that no natural phenomenon would create a cave with those characteristics, and that it must have been done by a large animal. The animal would have been what is known as a Megatherium, an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to South America. Twitter Cre

A watch discovered amidst the debris of Hiroshima bore witness to the fateful moment of the atomic bomb's detonation on August 6th, 1945, precisely at 8:15 AM.  This tragic event occurred near the end of World War II when an American B-29 bomber unleashed a nuclear bomb upon the Japanese city, resulting in the immediate loss of approximately 80,000 lives.  Several days later, Nagasaki faced a similar fate as another nuclear bomb claimed the lives of 40,000 people.  The aftermath of these bombings led to the gradual demise of thousands more individuals due to the devastating effects of radiation.  Among the artifacts recovered from the ruins of Hiroshima were numerous timepieces, frozen forever at 8:15 AM, the precise moment when the city was forever altered by the destructive power of the nuclear bomb.

A Baby Was Just Born From An Embryo That Was Frozen 27 Years Ago Molly Gibson's birth is believed to have set a world record for the oldest-known frozen embryo to result in a successful delivery. An embryo that was frozen in 1992 was implanted into the uterus of a woman earlier this year — and now, that embryo has just successfully been born as a healthy baby girl named Molly Gibson. The embryo from which Gibson was born also may be the oldest-known embryo in the world to result in a successful birth. According to CNN, Gibson’s birth was made possible through the services of the National Embryo Donation Center, a faith-based nonprofit in Knoxville, Tennessee, that stores frozen embryos donated to patients hoping to become pregnant through vitro fertilization (IVF). Parents who are unable to have children the traditional way, like Molly’s parents Tina and Ben Gibson, are able to “adopt” these unused embryos and have them surgically implanted into the adoptive parent’s uterus. In thi

The Thinking Man's ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ In 1930 Georg Pabst’s ‘Westfront 1918’ was Germany’s most anticipated cinema release.  It chronicled the shattering impact of the Great War upon four German soldiers on the Western Front.   The film lived up to expectations. At its premiere in Berlin, its unsparing realism reportedly caused 20 people to faint.  In the film’s most harrowing scene, a disillusioned lieutenant suffers a nervous breakdown and slides into insanity. He repeatedly shouts ‘Hurrah’ as he salutes a pile of corpses. The film was a critical success. A correspondent dubbed it ‘the most vivid argument yet contrived against war.’ The film has also stood the test of time.  In 1995 it was selected as one of the 100 most significant German movies ever made.  ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ scored it 100%, with one critic labelling it as ‘the thinking man's “All Quiet on the Western Front”.’ Yet the obvious question is, why have so few people ever heard of it?  Firstly, it cam

Evacuating wounded in Normandy (Lee Miller archives, England 2014. All rights reserved) Aerial bombardment of St Malo (Lee Miller archives, England 2014. All rights reserved) Fred Astaire signing autographs (Lee Miller archives, England 2014. All rights reserved) Miller regretted leaving the front, and wrote in a letter to her Vogue editor “it is very bitter to me to go to Paris now that I have a taste for gun powder”.  Scherman described the scene that met them in the liberated city: “It was an orgy of tanks, flags, newsmen, German snipers, cheering crowds and crazy, over-elaborate Paris fashions. We expected ill-clad grey mice and found cork-shod, balloon-skirted, high-coiffed beauties… Lee immediately looked up old friends, including a delighted Picasso.” A world away from the battlefront, in Paris Miller photographed Marlene Dietrich in a satin coat by Schiaparelli and Fred Astaire signing autographs for the “bare-bottomed girls of the cast in feathers”. Yet she never settled back

This is the Legend of Anna Maria Stockhausen.👻 "This is Anna Maria Von Stockhausen’s corpse, strapped to keep her coming back from the dead. She was accused of being a witch during the Middle ages and Black Plague. This folklore about Anna was that she was killed about 6 times. She was first hanged and later clawed herself out of the grave. The town people captured her in a nearby town and quickly drowned her in a lake, by tying her to a plank. The townspeople said they checked her several times after dragging her lifeless body out of the water.  They buried her again, only to see an empty grave 2 days later! It was said they found her rotting corpse dwelling in her old place, with worms, dirt and water spitting out of her. So the townspeople dragged her out, drove a stake in her heart and once again buried.  They placed a guard at her grave and felt she was finally buried for good. The guard failed to check in for 4 days, so a local priest went to find him, it was said that he h

This weekend marks another milestone for me – it’s exactly 50 years since I set a record I believe remains unbroken.  The 16-year-old me had landed in New Zealand the day before, an immigrant from the UK. At 5pm on Sunday, October 4, I was delivered by relatives to Wellington College where I was to become a boarder for the final school term of 1970.  A few minutes after 9pm, I was marched from my dormitory to an empty corridor by a teacher who insisted I bend over. He then belted me six times with a heavy leather strap across my pyjama-clad rear. My crime? I’d been talking (no surprise there). I’d owned up to it when the teacher stuck his head through the door, asking who was breaking the rule of silence after lights out.  My beating earned me instant notoriety among my new peer group for getting “six of the best” before I had seen the inside of a classroom – an all-time school record for corporal punishment in the shortest possible time. The welts (sitting was awkward for a few days)

In the 1720s, a Scottish woman named Margaret Dickson was found trying to abandon the body of her newborn baby near the banks of the River Tweed. It isn’t known whether she lost the child in the late stages, or whether it died shortly after being born. Nonetheless, she was arrested charged and taken to Edinburgh to face trial, where she was found guilty and sentenced to death. In 1724, Dickson was hanged but somehow survived. She was then  allowed to go free because under Scots Law, her punishment had been carried out, she could not be executed for a second time for the same crime. This prompted the wording of the law to be changed to hanged “until dead".

In August 1961, a daring East German soldier defied orders to aid a young boy's escape across the newly built Berlin Wall.  The picture capturing this act likely dates back to when the wall was first erected. The boy was caught on the wrong side, separated from his parents who were in West Berlin visiting relatives. Despite the stern commands of the East German government prohibiting passage, the soldier chose to help the boy cross the barbed wire to rejoin his family.  As this moment was captured, his superior reportedly noticed him, leading to his removal from the unit. His fate remains unknown. Speculation ranges from him possibly being reassigned away from the wall if fortunate, to serving a prison sentence for insubordination if not.  It is unlikely he was executed, as capital punishment was generally reserved for those guilty of high treason.

Pictures taken during the Battle for Hill 192 in Normandy - June/July 1944 Note that some of these pictures were taken in or near Saint-Georges-d'Elle Hill 192 was located between the cities of Saint-Lô and Bayeux in Normandy. The Battle was fought between elements of the 2nd US Infantry Division and the 16,000 strong 3rd German Fallschirmjäger (Parachute) Division, commanded by Generalleutnant Richard Schimf. Hill 192 gave the defending German forces good observation for miles in every direction. It needed to be taken in order for US General Omar Bradley to drive behind the German left flank and break out of Normandy; the attack that would become Operation Cobra. The terrain around Hill 192 also provided the German defenders excellent cover & concealment. US Lt. General Joseph Lawton Collins, found it worse country to fight in than Guadalcanal. The long battle among the Hedgerows finally culminated on July 10 when US forces captured Hill 192 and the surrounding area LIFE Magaz