World War II
From the Archives: Road Trip Through History–The American Cemetery
It is Memorial Day here in the United States: a time to remember soldiers fallen in our country’s service. Instead of writing a new post on the subject, I’ve chosen to share this post from 2016. * * * People often visit the English Cemetery* when they go to Florence. The final resting place of…
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Operation Cornflakes
On February 5, 1945, near the end of WWII, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) began a widespread propaganda campaign in Germany with the unwitting help of the German postal service. As a first step, Allied bombers derailed a German mail train, scattering its cargo in the process. A second wave of bombers followed and…
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Word With a Past: Care Packages
When World War II ended, Europe faced a serious food crisis. Millions of people had suffered from malnutrition during World War II.* Cities were destroyed. Agricultural areas were not only ravaged by troop movements, but tainted by the remains of the dead and dying. (In the Falaise Pocket, for instance, it was two years before…
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