Bill Shea's WWII Memorabilia Blog RSS

  Day 11:  Dachau, Germany     Bill at the iconic gate...     Dachau entrance   Main grounds at Dachau     Site of barracks at Dachau   Site of barracks at Dachau Old picture of the barracks   A memorial at Dachau     Another memorial at Dachau     Perimeter barriers at Dachau.  Beyond the trench (which was then a moat) was "The Kill Zone"!     Perimeter barriers at Dachau     Perimeter barriers at Dachau with one of many guard towers in background Crematorium   Crematorium   The Autobahn ~ unfortunately this section has a...

  The Barracks at Bastogne     Bois Jacques, a.k.a. Jack's Wood, in Foy, which is a Village of Bastogne     A significant monument commemorating those who served, including Easy Company     "May the world never forget"     These are part of the "1,000 Yard Patrol" through the Bois Jacques     Put yourself here in December '44 through January '45     Talk about fate ~ once we left the woods, we encountered two young Airmen.  The Sergeant on the right was taking his oath, having re-enlisted for six more years.  The Captain on the left...his...

  Monument to the heroes on the bridge     Hartenstein Airborne Museum in Arnhem - A MUST-SEE!!     Museum building, Hartenstein House.  This Building was also Headquarters of General Roy Urquhart CO of the British 1st Airborne Division     Fitting tribute at Museum to the local people and their suffering   One of several spectacular dioramas at the museum     Schoonderlogt, 2nd Battalion Headquarters, where Dick Winters stayed during the time on the Island, when his was the 2nd Battalion EXO.  It's also a sneak peek at what's still to come! Major Richard Winters at his HQ...

How do you begin to explain such an “out of body” experience to those who ask you “How was your trip?”...How do you sum up a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, covering over 3,500 km in 14 days, so that you can properly convey what you have seen?!?!?!        If you combined reading the book BAND OF BROTHERS by Stephen Ambrose with watching the HBO mini-series by the same name multiple times, then you can begin to sense the exhilaration of literally walking, or in our case walking and jogging (when it came to Currahee) in the footsteps of these unique...

As the first Black aviators to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps, the Tuskegee Airmen broke through a massive segregation barrier in the American military. Their success and heroism during World War II, fighting Germans in the skies over Europe, shattered pervasive stereotypes that African Americans had neither the character nor the aptitude for combat. And their achievements laid crucial groundwork for civil rights progress in the decades to come.In the summer of 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Civilian Pilot Training Program Act to train civilian aviators at colleges and vocational schools in preparation for a national...