World War I

  • I watched All Quiet on the Western Front, last night. I thought that November 11 would be the perfect date to watch a World War I movie. It is a very powerful retelling of the story. Although I thoroughly liked the movie, this is not going to be a review of it, suffice to say…

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  • Les Morts Dansant

    Les Morts Dansant is a 1984 song by Magnum. from their classic album “On a Storytellers night” The song was initially called “Cannon”, this Tony Clarkin composition is about one of the horrors of war. In World War I, a surprising – some would say disgraceful – number of British soldiers were executed by firing…

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  • Growing up in the Netherlands there was a tradition on Good Friday. Every year on Good Friday the Dutch radio would play the ‘Top 100 of all time’, basically the greatest songs ever recorded. The majority would be rock songs. The top 4 would always be ‘Child in Time’ by Deep Purple; ‘Stairway to Heaven’…

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  • This most be one of the most intriguing WWII stories,not is it only one of those rare positive WWII stories it also ties in to WWI and the effects of it still apply today. We have no name for this hero, all we know him as is J.D. .  We know of J.D is that…

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  • Ever since I was a young lad I was interested in WWII,mainly because I had a personal connection to it. But for some reason I was never really that interested in WWI, probably because the Netherlands had managed to stay out of it. However the last few years I have become more interested in the…

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  • I have to confess that the the title is somewhat misleading because Hugo Gutmann was not a typewriter salesman as of yet when he recommended Hitler’s award of the Iron Cross First Class. Hugo Gutmann was one of the 12,000 Jewish military who fought for Germany during WWI. from 29 January to 31 August, 1918…

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  • Opha May Johnson-US Marine

    Today marks the 100th anniversary of real girl power. Om August 13th 1918,Opha May Johnson became the first Female US Marine. World War I was drawing to an end when the Marine Corps decided to fill some of the gaps left behind by all the men fighting overseas. In 1918, Johnson was the first of…

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  •   Who hasn’t heard of the Sound of Music, an immensely popular movie about the von Trapp family. But behind the idyllic portrayal of the family lies a darker origin. I will not focus on the singing legacy in this blog but more on that ‘darker side of the story. Georg von Trapp’s first wive…

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  • For all of you who don’t know German, the second part of the title translates to “that we will never see you again” It has always been a puzzle to me why the death of Adolf Hitler was not turned into a global holiday. Maybe it is because of fears it also may be used…

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  • “Only the good die young, all the evil seem to live forever” are lyrics from an Iron Maiden song. For many years—I thought this to be a true statement, as I saw so many evil men living long lives. However, luckily, I was wrong in that assumption. Sometimes, a good man does live a long…

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