jane dukek - 01/21/00 18:52:57
My Email:jdukek@yahoo.com

Comments:
Where can I find the script playing at the bottom of your website? I like what it says. Habukuk 1:6-11. Thanks jane

jane dukek - 01/21/00 18:48:05
My Email:jdukek@yahoo.com

Comments:
Was looking up the history of Dukek's, and stumbled upon this website. I also enjoy history. My son is obsessed with it. I printed it out for him.

Dustin Cannon - 01/08/00 03:45:10
My Email:nothole@clnk.com

Comments:
This was one the best sites I have visted. It is good for people that are doing research papers or people like me who are interested in WWII. If any body has any other WWII stuff you can email me at nothole@clnk.com or vetrans that have story's they wou d like to tell.

Shawn Rasmussen - 12/18/99 20:57:08
My Email:privateer@mytalk.com

Comments:
I thought your editorial on Hitler was quite good; however, i although the man disgusts me, i find him to have had much military genius. His invasion of France was masterfully done; his blitzkreig proved all too effective as he overran his own men (the r ason the Battle of Dunkirk turned out the way it did). He repeatedly defied his general's cautions (paratroopers in Sicily, i think- check me on that one), yet always came away with victory. Indeed, he would have won the war many times had he not vacill ted between options- had he continued the Battle of Britian, he would eventually have won (although at great cost, but a cost he could easily have afforded to pay). His first great mistake came when he invaded Russia before subjugating the Britons- he underestimated their persistence; his second, when he went insane, probably because of excessive stimulant/depressant use. I do not know whether you have heard of th conspiracy of the German generals (one of whom was Rommel) to overthrow him, but it began when he went mad. Had he remained sane, operation OVERLORD would have had no chance of succeeding. Indeed, were it not for strokes of great luck on the Allied part, were it not for the Allied cracking of the Enigma and other code machines, were it not for the American entry into the war (which Germany had the option of not doing), the war would have urned out very differently. To this mass murderer, a despicable man, it must be admitted no small intelligence.

Bog - 06/10/99 01:14:34
My URL:http://www.weh.rwth-aachen.de
My Email:seb@weh.rwth-aachen.de

Comments:
The books by Sven Hassel really give you an impression about the terror called war, even if it is not sure if Hassel participated in combat or if he just made everthing up and is the swindler some people think he is. His books are rare and you won't find hem at amazon or something like that. You have to try 2nd-hand-shops or greater libraries.

Scott Chafin - 06/06/99 23:19:51
My Email:schafin@pdq.net

Comments:
First, as a Baby-Boomer, I commend you, a Generation X-er, for wanting to keep alive interest in World War II. My father, who passed away two years ago on his 74th birthday to the day, was delayed four years in getting on with his life of teaching and co ching in order to serve his country in World War II. He was in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and went to Europe on the Queen Mary, converted during the war to a troop ship. He had brothers and brothers-in-law who served in every branch and in nearly every heater of the war. Notwithstanding popular opinion, I don't believe the men and women of that generation were any braver or "better" than those of my generation or of yours. But as FDR put it, that generation had a "rendezvous with destiny." They happe ed to be alive and to reach the prime of their youths at a critical moment in history, and that moment defined, and will forever define, who they were and are. My generation and yours have not faced (and history being what it is, will never face) anythin even remotely similar. A suggestion: you commented on not having access to first-hand information. While it's true that the generation of World War II is now passing quickly from the scene, there are still plenty of them around, mostly in their 70s an 80s. Go out and look for them and talk to them and tell them you want to keep the memories of their defining time alive. I think you'll find that they'll talk a lot. And they'll be VERY grateful. Even those who weren't in the military were deeply affe ted by the war. Just last week, while watching my youngest daughter in swimming lessons, I encounted a 79-year-old man with tattoos on both arms who served in the Coast Guard and crewed troop ships in both oceans, including a transport that brought a reg ment to Normandy. He was watching his granddaughter swim, and while we watched, he told stories the whole time. Nothing you could do would be more valuable than to help preserve stories like those. Finally, the overarching legacy of World War II was th dawning of the nuclear age. The threat of global nuclear war has dominated world affairs since the end of the war. (In elementary school in the 1950s, I distinctly remember "duck-and-cover" drills, as if they would have done any good!) Your book list ca not possibly be complete without Richard Rhodes's two magnificent studies, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" (1986; won a Pulitzer), and "Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb" (1995). (The latter contains much information about Soviet espionage during orld War II.) Again, my compliments. I hope you stay with it.
Thanks for the encouragement. I am actually in the process of interviewing my grandfather in law, who was a captain in the Army in the Pacific. It is my hope to get it all on audio cassette, and then transcribe the information from the cassettes onto the web. So far I have about two hours of recording, and I feel that we have barely scratched the surface of what I will get out of him through these interviews. So soon there will be original material after all.

As for the Richard Rhodes books, I own both. I am about 2/3 of the way through the "Making of the Atomic Bomb" but ran out of steam a while back when I got some other book that drew my attention away. Eventually I will finish the book and review it, but the rule for me is that I cannot review a book unless I have read the whole thing. In a way, the book list is a sort of trophy room where I can brag about everything I have read!
Mischa Makortoff - 04/28/99 03:09:58
My URL:http://www.angelfire.com/bc/admiralsden
My Email:mmakortoff@home.com

Comments:
I am from Canada... I am interested in WWII because and I have relatives who served in it.. I like your page and your insite on the war... i am trying to write my page about Canada's role in the war because I feel it is not discussed enouogh... Good pa e ..

Delphine - 03/16/99 08:45:19
My URL:http://www.busfly.com
My Email:Info@busfly

Comments:
I just read your journey along the Normandy landing beaches. Our company is specialised in Landing beaches tours and I was interesting to see what you did learn. First congratulations, you were really brave to ride in that area. Just 2 comments: The artificial harbour of Arromanches is not apart of SWORD sector, it is apart of GOLD sector. At Longues sur mer, the German gun battery, there are only four 155 mn guns not 5. If you come back in Normandy, and if you want to see the rest of Omaha sector seating in a van, we would be pleased to see you! Au revoir.

Oops!! Thanks for the corrections. I have already made the corrections, thanks to your help. I am curious, why was I really brave to ride in the area? Because of the cliffs? The traffic? Am I lucky to be alive today??

Darrin - 03/09/99 18:57:34
My Email:cngo2@hotmail.com

Comments:
I think what your site is about is great and I'm glad there are people out there like you to provide such insights on a topic a lot people don't really understand. People like me for example. I don't really know what really happened, what the out come was for U.S. and the world. I would like to understand. I know that I can read a history book and find out, but I would like to hear from you what you think. My questions are: why is World War II a major turning point in American history? In what ways did thi ideological warfare influence American society? What influences did it have on the enconomy, the American society and the American role in the world? These are some the questions I don't quite understand. I would really appreciate your oppinion. Thanks.

This is the type of open ended question I like to hear!! I have so much to say in reply to this series of questions that I am dedicating an entire new page to it. I am afraid any reply I would make here would be too long for the purposes of this p ge. The link is here.

Donna Hage - 02/15/99 21:20:44
My Email:ddhage@aol.com

Comments:
Date: February 15, 1999 To: Author of Personalities of WWII Dear Webmaster (tjs), I am requesting permission to attach your page "Personalities of WWII" and it's hot links to a Resources page at the REINVENT website [http://reinvent.k12.wv.us ] sponsored by the West Virginia Department of Education and created with the help and funds of IBM. This page was authored on 01-September-97 according to the information on the bottom of the page. I am a teacher, employed by the state of WV, who is authoring internet lesson plans for use by WV teachers and other interested professionals. This is a not-for-profit activity and part of a grant funded by IBM and WVDE. If you need more information before permission is determined, please contact me on the internet at ddhage@aol.com Sincerely, Donna Hage, Grafton High School 400 Riverside Drive, Grafton, WV, 26354

Adrian Hardgrave - 12/04/98 21:36:16
My URL:http://AHardgrave.freeserve.co.uk
My Email:Prof@AHardgrave.Freeserve.Co.UK

Comments:
Hello, Nice page, and it shows me that I really ought to get round to doing something similar, soon. I live in Rugby, Warwickshire, in the middle of England, and so am surrounded by evidence of wartime events, still. If you know where to look, many buildings in Coventry still show signs of bomb damage, and some underground factories and bomb shelters sti l exist. Then, of course, the Cathedral there still remains a ruin after Nov 1940. This area also contains many air bases. Because of the distance involved in reaching Europe from here, they are mainly bomber configured bases, these aircraft having a longer range than fighters. Many of the nearest fields were American operated, and the losest one to Rugby is Harrington. This base was unique, operating black painted Liberator aircraft, and contains a small museum to the secret services, OSS and SOE that were flown into occupied Europe from there. The CIA considers this to be one of the s tes where it first became operational. I have attended several reunions of personnel there over the years, the last one about two years ago where I ended up talking to a small elderly Norwegian Lady, who told me that she and her brother had been responsib e for the destruction of the German Heavy Water in Norway. She was one of the "Heros of Telemark" During your recent trip to Europe, you say that you missed the Omaha Beach Cemetary, and not far from here we have the Maddingly Cemetary in Cambridshire, for U.S. servicemen (Mainly fliers) who died on U.K. soil. It is a quiet, respectful place, like Oma a. And unlike the German wargraves, for those who died on British soil, at Cannock Chase, which is mearly bleak and sad. The majority of these men were fliers, sailors and POW's who died of wounds, but some sad graves from 1946-7 are for those who died of a flu epidemic that winter. The gun site you visited was Les Longues, which was used as a set in the film "The Longest Day" and the observation bunker in front of it is where the actor playing Pluskart first sights the ships coming in. I am not THAT old yet (31) but interest in WW11 is already considered to be fairly unusual. I became interested after reading "The Longest Day" round about 1980. At that time I was interested in any history, but history, by definition, was about "Dead Peo le". One day I mentioned to a friend that I had read this book, and he said that his uncle had been a glider pilot on D Day, and at Arnhem, so I went to see him. This led to a sudden dawning that a lot of the people in these books were still alive, and yo could talk to them. At about the same time I visited Arnhem for the first time, the Hartenstein, which was really still setting up at that point. It was a day trip, but once again showed that it was possible to visit these sites. Finally, myself and some friends also realised that a lot of the equipment shown in Museum cabinets could still be bought in surplus and secondhand shops for pocket money, and so I started collecting these things as a tangible link to the past. Today, I have a large collection of British and American equipment (I could never collect German for some reason) as well as a 1941 Willys jeep. With this, or accompaning friends in theirs, I have travelled all over France Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland, giving a slightly closer impression of what it must have been like. Ultimatly this led to me learning far more about jeeps, and other associated things than was probably good for me, so that I regularly have post from all over the world on the subject.Ove the last 15 year many sites have vanished, and I can still recall standing in the square of the second city of Czech Republic, shortly after the Iron Curtain came down, and seeing buildings with shell damage that had been shored up and never reoccupied 5 years later. These have now all gone. Anyway, Best regards, Adrian Hardgrave.

Krista Dukek - 12/02/98 00:27:38
My Email:dukkri@bethel.edu

Comments:
Well...Pretty impressive for only 25 years of living experience. If you weren't my older brother, I'd say I was proud of you! (J/K) Even though I'm not a war freak like you, I found it informative and well-written. It was especially interesting to read the europe trip commentary due to my differing perspective and personal experience with you. Much love.

Regina - 11/12/98 23:26:24
My Email:beanl69@netscape.net

Comments:
>I'm very interested in WWII. I didn't see the advertisement you said was on your site so I'm glad its not there anymore.

feather 39 - 11/02/98 02:13:08

Comments:
How could you have left out General Patton and included McArthur? General Patton was much more colorful and interesting than McArthur could have ever been, even on his best days!

True, Patton was much more colorful than McArthur. He remains a much more distinguished American hero, especially after McArthur's Korean debacle. However, it was my intention when beginning this site to give pictures of only the highest ranking o ficers of the combating nations. Eisenhower and McArthur were the highest ranking officers of the US, Eisenhower with the European campaign, McArthur with the Pacific. Eventually I plan to make this site far more complete, but until time allows this col ection of pictures and short biographies will be put on hold.
Mike Crane - 10/26/98 22:26:03
My Email:cranemj.dfe@usafa.af.mil

Comments:
A quick note as I surf by: Italy and Germany declared war on the USA, not the other way around. The American declarations were just *pro forma* given the actions of Italy and Germany. Interesting site overall, given our different perspectives. have you looked at any older works on WWII? Liddell Hart did a comprehensive work, BTW. Regards, MC

I am working on fiding where I misspoke myself. If you could point this location out to me I would be most appreciative.

As far as older works on WWII are concerned, I have read many books written in the 1960's and 1970's. For instance, William Shirer's classic "The rise and fall of the Third Reich". I have also read Liddell Hart's "Rommel Paper's", though that was bas cally written by Rommel himself. Frankly, however, any book written during the war or immediately afterwards is going to be less accurate than something written 50 years later. The reasons range from biases tainted by recent hatred of the enemy, as well as many papers that were labeled "top secret" at the time that have since been declassified. It is fun, though, to read books like this in order to purposefully find the taste of the views held at the time. Few books now would use the word "Japs", for i stance, but 50 years ago this was common place.

Natasha - 10/25/98 21:33:05
My Email:natasha_4@hotmail.com

Comments:
I really learned a lot from your page!

10/25/98 12:19:04

Name: Bad Bunny	My URL: Visit Me
My Email: Email Me

Comments:
Just surfing. Thanks.

Andy Gough - 09/18/98 02:28:43
My Email:agough@primenet.com

Comments:
A couple of good books I can recommend to you: "Marching Orders" by Bruce Lee. A book written about what Allied leaders learned from decrypted Japanese diplomatic messages. All of the decrypted messages were recently declassified, and he excerpts many of them in this book. He covers the whole war, relating what happened, and what they were learning from decrypted Japanese messages as they went along. A lot of intelligence on Germany was gathered, from the messages of the Japanese diplomat in Berlin back to Tokyo. For example, Hitler didn't believe the D-day invasion was the "real thing" because Patton wasn't present. But, the most valuable t ing you will find in this book is the discussion of the events around the decision to drop the atomic bomb. The decrypted messages show, amoung other things, that 1) Japan was trying to make a separate peace with Russia (but was continually rebuffed by S alin), and 2) after the surrender, the Japanese propaganda strategy to portray Japan as a victim of a needlessly cruel weapon (the a-bomb). You'll note that #2 continues to this day. Writing can be a little dry (until the end, when it's hard to put it d wn)--I managed to make it through it by reading it 20 minutes at a time. "Prisoners of the Japanese," by Gavin Daws. Covers the Japanese mistreatment of prisoners from the capture of Wake Island through the post war years. Excellent book. Will make you angry, though--most Japanese were not punished for their war crimes. Th American military had documented war crimes by 300,000 Japanese soldiers (if they were all prosecuted, we'd be having war crime trials still going on today). So it was impossible to prosecute them all; others, however, escaped due to political reasons. Covers treatment of American, British, Dutch, and Australian prisoners. Thoroughly documented. Keep up the work on the site. Put more book reviews up as you read 'em.

Thank you for the suggestions. I know what you mean about books that make the reader angry at the Japanese. After reading about the various axis powers I generally come away with a grim admiration of the Germans, pity for the Italians, and anger f r the Japanese. Some would say it is a racist tendency, but I think it has to do with a combination of ability in the war and post war apologies. Italy was a misguided puppet of Germany under the faltering hand of Musselini. Germany was a genocidal mani c who apologized profusely afterwards for its sins and truly repented. Finally, Japan was a racial supremacist who, in my opinion, never apologized for its expansionism and yet managed to pin the onus of the war on the US.

Antero Kuusi - 08/17/98 16:54:41
My Email:antero.kuusi@pp.inet.fi

Comments:
I recommend reading some of Sven Hassel's books if you can find them. Hassel was a danish who "volunteered" fighting in german army and books are about his experiences. Especially those books that tell about his experiences in the eastern front show well he brutality and senslesness of the war.

I have looked for this book through Amazon.com, and there is no mention of it anywhere. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Matt - 07/31/98 01:55:08
My URL:http://members.spree.com/airwar/
My Email:staylor43@hotmail.com

Comments:
Great site! Very informative! I wish you have more info on WWII air combat though. It's hard as hell to find any on the internet. Anyway check out my site, it's about new WWII flight simulator that has 20 flyable planes(from the us,britain, and germany) a d a fully dynamic campaign.

Kara Townsend - 07/02/98 22:18:46
My URL:http://www.dynamicSex.com
My Email:dwebmistress@yahoo.com

Comments:
Hi! I was surfing through GeoCities and saw your page. Pretty Cool! My name is Kara. I am 24 years old and live in San Diego, CA. I have been teaching myself HTML for the last several months. Please visit my site, Kara s dynamicSex and tell me what you think of it. I will be adding pictures of myself within the next couple days. I would love to exchange links with you!

I have checked into this "Kara's Dynamic Sex" site to make sure that there are no links to sexually explicit materials on my pages. Indeed, I can assure you that Kara's site has no sexual content whatsoever. Apparently Kara has tapped into a URL t at she hopes will direct more traffic to her page. In other words, by calling her site "Dynamic Sex" she hopes that she will attract men looking for nudie pictures, and that they will stay to see pictures of her cat. If you are looking to nudge up that its counter this might be a good strategy, but otherwise I find the tactic a bit lame myself.
michael - 07/01/98 00:26:47

Comments:
no advertisement seen

Mike Fuller - 06/01/98 23:04:08
My Email:mulsannemike@magicnet.net

Comments:


robert - 06/01/98 16:49:07
My Email:robertn@nbnet.nb.ca

Comments:
We are looking for the names of some men that my father was in the war with. His name is Louis J Noel Lance-corporal in the 85th bridge regiment RCASC stationed in Horsham England. He is now in Canada and would like to know if any of his comrades overseas or here in Canada would remember him and let him know where they are so he could correspond with them. If anyone reading your web page has any information about this matter please send an e-mail to me and I will give him the infor mation.

James - 05/29/98 07:10:56
My Email:theburritoman@yahoo.com

Comments:
I once got into an arguement with a friend of mine about who was more "evil," the Nazis or the Communists? I picked the communists on the ground that the general cry for the nazis was "we are the suprme beings of this planet and we intend to make everyon our slaves" while communists gernally proclaimed "We are not conquering you. We're LIBERATING you." What do you think?

Now that is an interesting question. You are suggesting, I assume, that because the Nazis were up front with their reasons for conquering weaker nations they were at least honest, while the Communists lied about it, adding to their sins.

Here is my take on it. The German people knew very well what their government was doing. From the richest housewife to the poorest foot soldier, they knew that they were the "master race", and that this was one of the reasons why they fought. On he other hand, the Soviet soldier was the only lower class person who had any idea about what went down in Communist USSR's less than honorable military operations (Occupation of Poland, 1939, attacking Finland 1939, attacking Checkoslavakia, 1960's).

So my opinion is that the Nazis as an entire people was evil, while the Communists were evil only at the leadership level.

Daniel - 05/16/98 00:12:06
My URL:http://shillelagh.org
My Email:nospam.com

Comments:
Nice work for a basic site, WW2 is such as vast topic that even sites which focus on small elements of the war will ever be complete. I noticed that you bring up some of the more awful aspects of the war; and if you are inclined to research further, I suggest the following books: Treblinka by Jean-Francois Stiener Treblinka was the largest of the extermination camps, in one year over 800,000 men, women, and children were murdered there. The camps only purpose was to murder and loot those who were brought there, it was not a 'work camp'. The prisnors eventually re olted and some managed to escape to tell the tale. This is one of few books that actually explains the psychology used by the technicians of the holocaust to lead the Jews to their great disaster. The Battle of Hamburg by Martin Middlebrook This book describes how the British killed 40,000 German civilians in one night in 1943 with their 'area bombing' tactics.

Thanks for the reading suggestions.

violet - 05/03/98 22:04:05

Comments:
I was on the browse for some WWII war stories, but i have come up empty handed in my quest. your guestbook caught my attention, so here i am raising my leg to leave my mark!

Um, thank you?

Melanie M - 04/21/98 00:53:56
My Email:smorrow@neo.lrun.com

Comments:
I am doing a project for my high school Global Studies class and I just stoped in to see if you possibly had some WWII pictures. You have an enteresting page. Keep up the good work.

- 04/16/98 03:04:37
My Email:beforeal

Comments:
Thanks for the info. I'm writing a paper for a college history course and your thoughts are welcomed.

Frank - 03/24/98 05:38:12
My URL:http://members.aol.com/Razor6666/index.html
My Email:Razor6666@aol.com

Comments:
Excellent job on your web page, the web needs more pages dedicated to educating GenX on WWII. Again great job.

- 03/17/98 18:19:53

Comments:


Homer Leichliter - 03/09/98 15:48:36
My Email:homerl@juno.com

Comments:
Great page!!! Much more so than you led me to believe. I enjoyed Deja vu also. I do need to talk to you about "old men" with "wrinkled hands" born in 1945!! (:

Thanks for checking out the page, Homer! As far as Dejavu's "old men" born in 1945, this story is not set in 1998. It is set in the near future, somewhere on the order of 20 years from now.

Shane Phillips - 02/12/98 03:39:14
My Email:wnp.@rconnect.com

Comments:
more info on the weapons of WWII would be helpful. but overall a good page

Thank you for the input. I eventually plan to include information on weapons of WWII, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. It is a huge field, and needs to include tanks, bombers, fighters, and even ships to be complete.
James - 02/10/98 00:34:55
My Email:theburritoman@yahoo.com

Comments:
I once heard an interesting fact about the Battle of Britain. When it first started, primary goal for the German generals was to destry the RAF first. They were doing fairly well through by attacking air fields and only military targets. Sure, they we e losing planes at a 2-1 ratio, but they had roughly 5 times as many planes than Britain. Simple strategy would dictate running them into the ground through artition and rebuilding later. But the British inadvertedly saved their air force by mustering a bomber force and attacking civilian targets in Germany. This caused Hitler to become enraged for revenge and to focus his air force on attacking civilians in Britain rather than first finish off the RAF as planned. Thus, Britian managed to save their ai force by sacrificing civilians.

It is true, Germany was winning the Battle of Britain until they changed strategies from attacking the British airforce to attacking the British cities. I am not sure that England struck at German cities with the intention of diverting Germany's at entions, though. I suspect the reason for attacking German cities was as much to help bolster British moral as reduce German moral.
Matt Groff - 02/01/98 19:28:25
My Email:talbot@mtcnet.net

Comments:
I am doing a project in American History. We are having a trial over whether Harry S. Truman was innocent or guilty of "crimes against humanity". The German and Japanese troops were convicted of these crimes, but was Harry Truman? I am playing the role of the lead defense attourney and must prove Harry Truman innocent of the "crimes against humanity" when he ordered the atomic bombs to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Would you be so kind as to send me or give me any information you have on this topic that would help me in my case. Thank You, Matt Groff

No, Harry Truman was never convicted of any war crimes. Since the Allies won, they were in charge of the war tribunals responsible for trying German and Japanese war criminals. If the Allies would have lost, however, it may have been a different s ory.
Murgatroyd - 01/30/98 06:28:57
My Email:murgtryd@concentric.net

Comments:
Regarding Hitler, his military bungling is much easier to comment on from the perspective of the winner writing the history rather than the loser suffering the results of it and the opprobrium of the triumphant. In fact, he resisted his staff often not t his detriment but to his war's benefit. Yet his military acumen in popular discussion is often caricaturized. The seemingly foolish sweep into Russia is often seen as particularly nazi-ish over-aggrandizement of German military prowess, yet, if you con ider the balance of forces and their objectives during the war, it seems less doubtful that Germany would go to war sooner or later against Russia anyway, the real question being upon whose terms the war would be waged, and when. I'm reading a book now c lled Panzer Battles by Maj.Gen. F.W. Von Mellenthin, one of the 3 books Schwarzkopf kept on his nightstand during the gulf war, in which the general states that no one expected the peace with the Russians to last; it was untenable from the start. Similar y, the outbreak of the war against the Japanese was almost inevitable too, considering the Japanese shortage of oil and our attempts to circumscribe their empire-building and defense by restricting it. The Japanese were not as foolish and aggressive as i might seem; they were actually following a course with some reason. Regarding your discussion of using the nuclear bomb on the Germans first, I have to say that I think that America might well have considered using the bomb somewhere besides a European nation first. We have only to look at Vietnam and the generals there tating that "gooks" don't hold life as sacred as we do to imagine American military thinking about the value of European lives versus Asian lives some 30 years earlier. Indeed, when Ho Chi Minh made repeated overtures to Geneva to get a hearing on his pl ns for a free nation, he was simply ignored, even though his Vietnamese constitution began with a long string of text lifted directly from our own declaration of independence. "Gook" life was simply not taken as seriously as American life back then, of w ich "gooks" like the Japanese were not considered really a part (witness Manzanar). This is only a speculation, but I think there were other considerations besides who was the most fearsome enemy that went into dropping the bomb. Also, wasn't the German nuclear effort substantially crippled in an attack on a Swedish research installation at some point by British (or perhaps American) commandos? My memory is a little dim on this one. The Japanese fighting spirit is interestingly discussed in one of this month's military history magazines you may find on your newstands; I can't recall the name right now, but I have it around here somewhere. I can back up the claims about the Japanese ighting spirit somewhat anecdotally. Having practiced and taught martial arts for a number of years (though inactive now), it was clearly notable how few people could put up with the grueling conditioning and could master the fear and pain and discomfort in martial arts training. I have to say that the Chinese and Japanese beat every other race hands-down, because their culture (not their race) gave them little tolerance for failure compared to the European culture I was raised in, and a remarkable abili y to absorb hardship as a matter of the natural course of things one deals with on the way to achieving one's goalm as wekk as a tremendous pride in accomplishment. With today's channel-changing, 7-11 get it in five minutes mentality and short attention pan, an incredibly small percentage of Americans - white, black, or other - were able to stick it out in classes until they had accomplished something notable. Almost every single one, with rare exception, quit either almost immediately, or, if they coul master the physical trauma, shortly thereafter when their patience simply gave out and they expected too much progress too soon. But the Asians were there. And they had practiced. And they always showed up on time. Their discipline was just cut from different cloth entirely. And thought it hardly excuses the death marches, it is worth noting that the Japanese walked enormous distances on few or no rations all through the war, both because of their lack of fuel to carry soldiers and their frequent l ck of concern for the brutality of daily living in war.

Wow, that was quite a mouthful. First, yes, it is easy to talk about Hitler's mistakes 50 years later. In fact, I would have to say that Hitler did one heck of a job, militarily speaking. He made it much further to European domination than any le der or country since Rome. At the same time, however, I have to question the judgement behind deciding to tackle the Soviet Union, England, and the U.S. at the same time. At that point, no matter how well Germany fought they were destined to lose.

Similarly, Japan's decision to fight the U.S. was foolish as well. Though they had well defined goals, they actually thought that bombing Pearl Harbor would destroy the American will to fight and thus cut a war off before it began. After Pearl Harbor Japan had a series of fantastic initial victories, but only because the U.S. and other European colonial powers were completely unprepared for a full scale war in the Pacific. Once the U.S. got truly involved in the Pacific fighting, however, the Japanes were in a hopeless situation.

As far as our desire to use the atomic bomb on Japan because of racially aggrevated reasons, all I have to point out is America and England's "Germany first" approach. I don't think racism, no matter how powerful, would have been enough to derail stra egic thinking.

Yes, the U.S. bombed a heavy water plant and derailed the German atomic project, but that was actually at Vemork Norway, not Sweden.
Robyn Dowsett - 01/16/98 19:15:24
My URL:http://geocities.datacellar.net/Pentagon/9656/index.html
My Email:britvet@lks.net

Comments:
A well-done, information-packed website! Very enjoyable and throught provoking. Thank you for providing it.

fran - 12/03/97 03:05:19

Comments:
Hi Grandson Got your letter today. My first time on internet.

mary - 12/03/97 02:50:27

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Hi Brian! THIS IS FROM YOUR GODMOTHER, MARY! It was interesting looking at this. I think that it was GREAT! Your the first person that I know that has a home page. I hope that I will get one too.

- 12/03/97 02:35:56

Comments:
Hi

Thomas Wieland - 11/04/97 00:09:50
My Email:wieland@nortel.ca

Comments:
Just wanted to let you know I liked your WWII site. I definitely agree with you that history is important to understand today's world. Comments on your editorial: - re: "Germany mobilized for war in 1941"; not entirely true. Germany did NOT put its economy on a war-footing until relatively late in the war (1944), under Speer's direction. Even in 41/42, Germany was much less mobilized than England or the U.S., let alone Russia, and it never reached the levels of female employment as in the Allied nations. For political reasons (e.g. memories of WW1), the war was portrayed as short-term until even the dumbest must have realized they were stuck in another world war. Example: not supplying winter gear to the army in 1941 until it was too late because the Russian campaign was to be over before winter. German production of war material actually reached its peak in summer 1944, i.e. after years of bombing. - re: "German armies grew restless in 1941". Not true; the German generals and General Staff were scared to death of a two-front war against Russia and it took direct orders from Hitler to start the planning (which, of course, then was undertaken efficiently and effectively). Who was getting restless was Hitler who wanted to fight for "living space" in the East and against the Communists, much more than against the "Aryan" English. In addition, the NS Party needed new successes to keep the populace from asking themselves what they were getting into and the war against England wasn't providing them. The German generals, overall, regarded politics and politicians below them and were not interested in political power. Unfortunately, this greatly aided Hitler's takeover of the German state and (later) delayed or prevented efficient resistance from within (read about the problems the July 20 resistance had in recruiting military leaders for their cause, even though Hitler was almost universally despised by them). - re: "nuclear experiments on American soldiers" You argue that the US military was unaware of the effect of radiation and fallout on humans, which is why they conducted the A-bomb tests with military personal in the 50s. I would think after Hiroshima and Nagasaki these effects should have been plenty clear to anyone. I believe these test were a result of the US war fighting doctrine at the time, which considered A-bombs just as a "bigger bomb", not a new type of weapon. They needed these tests to ensure themselves that it would be possible to conduct breakthrough attacks after the A-bomb(s) had paved the way. Well into the 60s, US doctrine in Europe was one of massive first strike/retaliation from the moment Russian troops tripped the "nuclear tripwire" in Central Europe. Only after the USSR had achieved nuclear parity, this doctrine was modified to Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), i.e. counter-population instead of counter-force. Talk of fighting a nuclear war then pretty much disappeared for 20 years until in the mid-80s improved guidance and missile technology, and US technology lead in general, made a decapacitating first strike again a possibility. It is not for nothing the USSR regarded Reagan's "Star Wars" as an offensive rather than defensive program (i.e. to protect the US from retaliation by the USSR after its nuclear capabilities had been greatly weakened by a US first strike). I'm not saying that it was really Reagan's intention to fight such a war, btw, only that "Star Wars" makes much more sense in that context than as an umbrella against a full-scale Russian first strike. But I digress. Some books you might enjoy reading that I didn't see in your list are: "Fatherland" by (?) Harris; alternate history in which Germany won the war and a look at what life might be like. Deals with the "Final Solution". "The Longest Day" by (?) Ryan(?); eye-witness account of the D-day invasion (was made into a movie with John Wayne). "The Road to Moscow"/"The Road to Berlin" by Dunnigan(?); extensive look at the War in the East "The Other Side of the Hill: The German Generals Talk" post-war interviews of German generals by Allied historians. Sorry I'm not more specific about the books, I'm doing this from memory. Regards, Thomas Wieland

TYLER KEYS - 10/31/97 17:30:38

Comments:
THIS IS NOT WHAT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE

hawkmoon2 - 08/30/97 22:09:07
My URL:http://geocities.datacellar.net/TimesSquare/Alley/4595/index.html
My Email:bbackas@ix.netcom.com

Comments:
hehe... Are you a U2 fan? You took the name I wanted!

You bet I am a U2 fan!
Matt Grinsteinner - 06/25/97 00:09:35 GMT
My Email:scatman@usinternet.com

Comments:
no comments, just wanted to sign your guestbook!

netscape - 06/23/97 14:08:46 GMT

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Testing Netscape 2.x

S.D. - 06/22/97 00:52:12 GMT

Comments:
I enjoyed your comments on De Gaulle and Churchill. Nice page.

Brian - 06/21/97 20:21:41 GMT
My URL:http://geocities.datacellar.net/Athens/9797/
My Email:brian.dukek@mci2000.com

Comments:< r>Hey, I guess I am lame enough to sign my own guestbook. Just wanted to make sure it really works!