Walker, go and tell Sparta that her children lie here to fulfill her laws . That splendid phrase of Simonides that, in its multiple translations, constitutes the epigraph of the monument to Leonidas at Thermopylae, is too juicy not to take advantage of it in other war memorials with the correspondi
Although war cinema has been at ease with films about the escapes of Allied soldiers from German concentration camps during World War II, it has not done so much the other way around, that is, narrating those of German prisoners. There are some because there were real attempts and there were at leas
The title sounds like an oxymoron but it happened as it is. On May 15, 1961, during the thirty-ninth session of the trial to which he was subjected in Israel and as part of his defense against charges of genocide against him, Adolf Eichmann based part of his argument on the fact that he was obeying
Sometimes war compensates for its savagery and brutality by offering a kinder face that can even be funny. That is why the title of this article is not a joke but reflects a real event that happened in the Pacific during World War II and had as its protagonist the most successful destroyer of the US
One of the mythical films in the history of cinema is, without a doubt, Casablanca , winner of the Oscar in 1943. The story of the American Rick Blaine who during World War II runs a nightclub in the Moroccan city where the lives and destinies of an old lover, her husband, the local police chief and
Some time ago we told here how the Battle of Attu unfolded, which pitted Americans and Canadians against the Japanese on that island of the Aleutian Archipelago. We explained that, despite its apparent lack of importance, it was actually a place of considerable strategic value, not only because it w
In 2007 a Rolex Oyster 3525 chronograph and some letters were put up for auction, paying sixty-six thousand pounds for the whole. Six years later it was learned that another watch of the same make and model sold for sixty thousand pounds. In the first case, it was the one that Corporal Clive James N
Is there or was there an agreement between large companies to manufacture following the principle of planned obsolescence, so that the products have an expiration date that is not strictly necessary other than to force them to be discarded after a time and thus encourage sales? Is it just a legend?
Five users of a comics forum agree to meet because one of them has the original of a strange cult graphic novel whose possession is also wanted at all costs by a mysterious organization called The Network. The five characters are forced to flee and remain hidden from that enemy that seems to be ever
Sonderfahndungsliste GB It is one of those Germanic names that are impossible to pronounce for ordinary mortals. Its literal translation is Great Britain Special Search List , although it may sound more sinister in the later popular version, Black Book. Even worse if you take into account what it
In 1939, before the outbreak of the Second World War and the shadow of Nazi Germany falling over France, the French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier received in his office the unusual request to join the army to fight in defense of his country by of an exile It was not signed by any person but by one
If we ask what the most impressive shipwreck of World War II was, probably most will cite that of the USS Indianapolis , because of her dramatic circumstances; or that of Wilhelm Gustloff , for being the greatest naval tragedy in history; or that of Bismarck , for the charismatic popularity of that
The name of Demetriou Chrysostomos will not mean anything to most people. He was the Orthodox bishop of the metropolis (religious jurisdiction) of Zante, a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, who has gone down in history as a hero along with the local mayor, Loukás Karrer, for having defied the Nazis by
The world of the sea is so exciting because of the combination of adventure and mystery with which it is usually caulked. Territory fertilized for the legend due to the ignorance of what was historically unfathomable, the imagination was in charge of covering the numerous gaps left by that blue imme
Henri Honoré Giraud was one of the outstanding personalities of France during the Second World War , to the point not only of being considered among the fathers of the Fourth Republic but also that shortly before he had been co-president of the CFLN (Comité Français de la Libération Nationale) tog
Barely a month after the start of World War II the British embassy in Oslo received a mysterious unsigned letter offering information detailed information on the state-of-the-art weapons that Germany was developing. That sowed confusion in the secret services because it did not come from any known
What trait did countries like Spain, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Ireland or Switzerland have in common during World War II? The fact of being neutral in the conflict, regardless of their political sympathies for one side or the other. However, declared neutrality is not always enoug
Every May the city of Ottawa celebrates a beautiful event called the Canadian Tulip Festival (Canadian Tulip Festival) in which a million specimens of that flower are planted throughout the city, in addition to organizing a thematic exhibition in the Commissioners Park in which hundreds of thousands
If someone believes that refugee camps are a sad reality of our days, they are mistaken because, unfortunately, there is little left to invent in terms of human catastrophes in times of war. A good example could be El Shatt, a camp located in Egypt that did not take in Palestinians, Lebanese or Syri
In 1938 Nazism was at the height of its power, Austria was annexed and soon after the Sudetenland while British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain tried to placate the beast with good words. In the fall, Polish Jews were expelled from the country and on November 9 there was a step forward against th
Germany had prepared its aggression carefully and long in advance. It is clear from Hitlers many statements and from his book Mein Kampf that the Führer regarded the Soviet Union as his main enemy and the essential obstacle to his domination of Europe and, subsequently, of the world. The circumstanc
The graves of skeletons of eight to twelve feet! Near a place called Arzachena in the northern part of the province of Sardinia in western Italy, there is a site called Coddu Visiu, from where about 800 giant-graves of the Norage-era have been found. These are called megalithic tombs. Local people
That the days have 24 hours is a long-established convention, which is also related to the rotational movement of the Earth. Pliny the Elder already expressed it as a fact that left no room for doubt: But, as surprising as it may seem, the hours did not always last the same. And it is that before t
The Vozdouchno-dessantnye voïska or VDV airborne troops) is a military body of airborne troops of the Russian army, ex-Soviet army. On August 2, 1930, during maneuvers of the VVS in the Moscow Military District, 12 soldiers were parachuted from the wing of an airplane. We quickly realized the capab