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The last Australian veteran to have seen active service in World War One dies.
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story. ... PO&coview= There remains an Australian serviceman who was in the Army in World War One, but served in Australia during the war. He's the last of the Australian World War One veterans left alive. Pat
Not cavalry related, but notable none the less:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/natio ... tbush.html Pat
The last known survivor of the legendary WWI Christmas Truce passes on.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10138446/ Pat
Last Titanic Survivor
Not a military item at all, but the last US survivor of the Titanic has died.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12675494/?GT1=8199 This took me by surprise. I wouldn't have guessed that anybody was now living who had been on the Titanic when it went down. I certainly wouldn't have guess that a person old enough to actually potentially be able to remember it would have been alive. Pat
Re: Notable Passings
There actually were many of these outfits in Germany. They were used to augment US Forces with combat service support and base ops functions. I saw personnel from these units performing guard duty at gates to US kasernes in the 70's and performing maintenance in 80's. A history of one such Polish Labor Unit is at this link: http://www.usarmygermany.com/Units/21st ... %20CSC.htm Mike Bunting
Re: Notable Passings
That's an interesting link. I really had no idea of support outfits of that type, particularly ones that lasted so long Pat
Re: Notable Passings
The above posts about the WWII German soldiers and their immigrating to the United States reminds me of one man I knew, Theodore Krein, a Ukrainian school teacher . Ted didn't have a car, he had a team of black Arabians he was proud of. His carriage was a vis-avis(spell?)
Anyway the Germans confiscated the team and gave him two vouchers so he could be paid later. Finally he found a officer to pay him, took both vouchers and paid him for one, told him to be glad he got the one payment and move on. Ted got drafted into the German Army and made a driver for an officer. They were captured by the Russians in about 1943. Ted spent the next 17 years in a coal mines of Siberia. Now for the part about people to remember. Years before I'd read in a San Diego newspaper article about the history of MIA's. So I asked Ted if he ever knew of American GI's imprisoned there. Ted said "Oh ya da were three. They were not friendly with me (Ted being the enemy). Ones name was Albert" . It raised the hair on my neck when he told me that. In 1960 Ted immigrated to NY state where his family had moved to. He would always say "God bless Eisenhower, he got me out". I knew him in Catalina Arizona. He gave me a copy of his manuscript/story and a map of Russia with his marks of where he was imprisoned. yours, Bill Weddle Black Range Mnts.of New Mexico
Re: Notable Passings
<font size="3"><font face="Book Antiqua">Greetings All,
The movie "Coming Out of the Ice" which had Willie Nelson in a supporting role, and which came out in the late 70's or early 80's discussed very realistically the plight of Americans in Soviet Gulags. Also was spot on about Soviet brutality. The protagonist in what is purported to be a true story was arrested when he was 18 and didn't return to the United States until he was 65. His folks had gone to the Soviet Union where his dad was to work in a Ford factory which Stalin had bought and transported to Mother Russia. Well worth watching. <i><b>Terroriferi delende est</b></i>,</font id="Book Antiqua"></font id="size3"> Jeffrey S. Wall
Re: Notable Passings
There was a report put out by Jesse Helm's office back sometime in the early '90s(?) (as no one else apparently had the cajones to do so) that was very compelling, regarding these lost POWs. The case was made that this was a common strategy used by the communists, to take prisoners and hide them for some future purpose. The first were taken from the 1919 expeditions, quite a number during WWII (many were airmen), lots from Korea and conjectured that some were obtained from North Vietnam.
Todd
Re: Notable Passings
That's the biography of Victor Herman, which was first a book. I haven't read it. Herman's father was employed in some capacity by Ford Motors. Ford contracted with the Soviets to build a plant in the Soviet Union during the New Economic Order period. Lenin had realized that Communism was not working, and the Soviets contracted with Western companies for the construction of industrial plants. The idea was to give Communism a jump start, and then the Soviets planned on going back to their original economic views, which is more or less what they did. This is why some smaller WWII vintage Soviet trucks look just like Model As. They went over in 1931. During this same period of the early Great Depression the Communist Party attracted some sympathy and adherents in the US, particular in certain industrial and intellectual quarters. It's more or less forgotten now, but there actually were a not unnoticeable number of Communists in some sectors. It isn't as if they were a huge number, of course, but they were there. This helped contribute to some sympathy for the Soviets for this sort of project, and it also very much helped to turn a blind eye to what was going on in the Soviet Union. The fact that Americans went over to help build these plants (and not just Americans, the Germans were quite involved with industrial projects in the Soviet Union) should have informed us as to the nature of Soviet repression, but people wanted to put a happy face on the USSR to a degree, and these things were ignored. Herman was only 16. His mother died while his family was in the Soviet Union, and his father had Communist leanings. His father remarried a Russian woman, and decided to stay there. Herman, for his part, became involved in sport parachute jumping, and set a world record, which started off the process that would lead to his long exile. The fact that he was a notable parachutist involved him with the Soviets, and also caused them to claim him as a Soviet citizen. He refused to renounce his citizenship, which is really remarkable under the circumstances. He ultimately was exiled to Siberia before WWII, and married a Russian woman. He did receive permission to leave the USSR as an elderly man, and upon returning to the US, wrote his memoirs.
There's persistently been rumors that American pilots shot down during the Korean War were interned by the Soviet Union, and never released. Also, of course, there were B29 crews that were interned, and I thought that they were, but I might be wrong about all of them coming back. The USSR denied that they had anyone in captivity, but they did keep German prisoners for decades, so it's not at all impossible that they also kept US aircrewmen from the Korean War. Just this last week a Japanese WWII POW, captured by the Soviets, came to light as he was going back to Japan. The story is unclear, and he's married to a Russian woman. He may have elected to stay there, or maybe not. The same story indicated that there's two other Japanese citizens, captured WWII Japanese soldiers, who remain in Russia, apparently under their own volition. Pat
Re: Notable Passings
I was posting at the same time as Todd, so I hadn't read this when I posted. The 1919 prisoner thing is shocking, as is the WWII item. Then again, the Korean War and Vietnam War items are as well. I suppose we might expect it from the Korean War, but not the others, particularly not WWII. I'd guess that any 1919 American prisoners taken by the Soviets were probably executed by 1930. It would be nice to know what really happened to these people. Quite a story, really. Pat
Re: Notable Passings
Ted Krein's story, once I asked him "So what did the Americans say or think, you must have heard them" and he replied "they were very bitter, they could not believe their country left them".(exact words)
When Ted came to the United States he told his story to American authorities but nobody believed him, or blew him off. Whatever the people thought that Ted talked to, nothing was done, so he quit talking about it. He told me they ate what the guard dogs wouldn't eat, rotten fish heads to make soup. Said that the Russians never forget, never forgave. He was always a very religious man, even before captivity, had to hide a bible as they were contraband. I have no reason to think he'd lie about this. He never talked about it unless I asked him. I found that title "Coming Out of the Ice" on eBay, VHS for $8.99 and books. In 1998 a Japanese soldier made headlines when he returned to Japan. The Japanese government paid him back pay since he never surrendered. He had a Russian family, but couldn't leave the area/town he was assigned to live in. Even CNN reported on it. yours, Bill Weddle Black Range Mnts.of New Mexico
Re: Notable Passings
Some interesting testimony before Congress on the item Todd mentions, the possible abaondonement of US missing in action in Russia at the end of WWI.
http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/memoir/aef_cong.htm Pat
Re: Notable Passings
And here's a small portion of a huge on line document detailing the work of a joint US Russian Commission looking into this item. This is the Russian side of the report, in part, and I haven't looked at the rest of it.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/tfrussia/tfrh ... 018-1.html This part of the report pretty much concludes that anyone in the Soviet Union was there incidentally, and that the Soviets returned everyone who didn't die an accidental death. I'll leave it to the reader to conclude whether or not they believe this is conclusive, or self conclusory. The index of it can be viewed here: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/tfrussia/tfrhtml/ Pat
Re: Notable Passings
Sort of an interesting one listing internees, and others, whose fates are unknown. Some really late escapes by internees in WWII. You don't really think of internees escaping. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/tfrussia/tfrh ... 006-1.html Pat This one is somewhat amusing, in a grim sort of way, regarding a civilian.
Geez, went to Poland in 38, and the USSR in 45, and is now regarded as moody. What a surprise.
Re: Notable Passings
The reports listed above make for some interesting, if grim, reading. Whatever the true story may be, it's hard not to be moved by some of the stories which are detailed in the various reports.
Pat
Re: Notable Passings
<font size="3"><font face="Book Antiqua">Greetings All,
As this thread has morphed a bit I am not reluctant to add a couple of items vis the Soviet Union as there pertain to the topic of the last few posts. The Soviet Union was a nation ruled by thugs. This is of course not a surprise statement to many who participate here. The excellently researched book <u>Death by Government </u> examines the murders of citizens by their own country in the 20th century. Surprising none but the leftists who admire communism, Red China, the defunct Soviet Union, Castro and now Hugo Chavez; the Soviets have the record with a tally of 69,000,000 of their own citizens they murdered establishing their worker's utopia. By the way, my father has personal experience with this as he was a displaced persons camp commander at the end of WWII. The above figure is virtually incomprehensible and it does not include the numbers of the those Soviet citizens - soldiers and civilians alike - who were killed in WWII as war casualties. With that as an introductory comment, believing the Soviets about virtually anything is a bit difficult. I would comment too that there was more than a little "sympathy" and more than a few "adherents" to Communism/the Soviet Union in the 1930's in the United States. The Venona Project - a special branch effort led by an Army Col Carter to break the Soviet diplomatic code was begun in 1943 and succeeded in 1945. This was a super secret project - so secret that Carter never told FDR what he was doing, nor was Truman read into it. Venona's initial objective was to learn what Soviet plans for East Europe after the war were. What Carter learned in addition to that was who the Soviet's agents in the United States were and what their orders were. There was a reason that Carter never told his own President[s] about Venona. That reason was that he, Carter, knew that Alger Hiss, Undersecretary of State and confidant of FDR was in fact a Soviet spy. Carter also knew that Harry Dexter White, Undersecretary of the Treasury in Truman's administration, was a Soviet spy. To put this in a modern perspective. The value to the Soviets of having Hiss as a spy in his position as Undersecretary of State today would be like Paul Wolfowitz in his position as Undersecretary of Defense being an agent of al Qaeda. The Venona transcripts are now available on line; they were declassified and translated in the 1990's. I believe Senator Moynihan was responsible for that - a great act of patriotism in my mind. As a side note, the democrats who never stopped declaring that Hiss was not a Soviet spy simply shut up on the issue after Venona was released and have never apologized for so staunchly defending a traitor. The point here is that it takes a while to get an agent into positions like those occupied by Hiss and White. This means that Soviet espionage in the United States was very active well before WWII. To get two men into those kinds of positions, a broad base of agents had to exist as the Soviets couldn't precisely predict who was going to make it to the top of the political heap. To expand that point we know now that while White was Undersecretary of the Treasury there were 11 other Soviet agents in high level positions in the Treasury Department. To round out then how thorough Soviet penetration of the United States government was: The Soviet penetration of the War Department was so complete that Joe Stalin knew we had detonated a test Atomic bomb before President Truman did. The "gift" of Eastern Europe to the Soviets at Yalta [over Churchill's strong objections], was the result of Hiss' work on orders from his Soviet case officer - who was of course operating on orders from Moscow. After the Communist victory in China, the democrats long cried that "no one lost China" to the Communists but it was Harry Dexter White who prevailed upon the President to not make a massive loan to the Nationalist Chinese thus sealing the Nationalist's fate for all intents and purposes. White was of course obeying the orders of his Soviet case officer. Note that I am not stating that with the loan the Nationalists would have won, only that they simply could not win without it. Finally, for those who do not know - The Charter for the United Nations was drafted by Whom? Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov, Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White. <i><b>Terroriferi delende est</b></i>, PS. Oh yeah - Louis and Ethel Rosenburg? They really were Soviet spies; we didn't execute two innocent people. Venona proves their guilt completely. The Soviet code name for Louis? Believe or not, it was "Liberal".</font id="Book Antiqua"></font id="size3"> Jeffrey S. Wall
Re: Notable Passings
Not to mention that FDR's most intimate 'shadow', Harry L. Hopkins aka. "19", was likely the most valuable Soviet spy ever. Reflecting on your Wolfowitz example, I suppose the nearest modern equivalent position would be a Karl Rove. Todd
Re: Notable Passings
Jeff, wasn't it Vice-President Nixon under President Eisenhower who exposed Alger Hiss as a communist spy? Did Nixon have access to Venona or did Carter tip him off?
Kerry <i>"ride your horse forward and set him straight"</i> Gustav Steinbrecht
Re: Notable Passings
<font size="3"><font face="Book Antiqua">Kerry,
It was Whittaker Chambers who exposed Hiss in 1948. It wasn't easy though. The Department of Justice acting on presidential orders did all they could do to discredit Chambers. The justice department in fact tried very hard not to try Hiss. Between the Communist Party in the US and the justice department Hiss almost got away scot free. Hiss was almost unmasked as a spy in 1941 by a General Krivitsky who before he could talk was found to have committed suicide in a room in Hotel Bellevue in Washington DC. A .380 automatic was found under his hand. The rooms on both sides of his were occupied at the time of his death yet no one heard the shot. The only handgun Krivitsky was known to own was a revolver and was not found. The conclusion the Washington DC police failed to draw was that he had been murdered by a silenced pistol. His death was ruled a suicide. He had defected and was the former chief of Soviet military intelligence for Western Europe. Knowing Soviet methods, he had previously told his wife he would never commit suicide and if he did it was the Soviets. The wording of his suicide note is consistent with the idea that he was trying to leave a message that he didn't want to die. Harry Dexter White was the next to die. Three days after testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities on 13 August 1948 he died suddenly at his home in New Hampshire. The doctor who stated the cause of death to have been a coronary heart attack made that determination without seeing the body. His remains were hastily rushed across the state line to Boston where they were cremated. Interesting considering that New Hampshire law forbids cremation unless it s specifically authorized in the decreased's will. There was no such authorization in White's will. The ashes were disposed of by White's brother-in-law, Dr. Abraham Wolfson, a Russian born dentist. Wolfson subsequently died of a heart attack and both Whittaker Chambers and the FBI maintained that Wolfson was a fanatical communist. White was under investigation for espionage and was to due to <u>reappear</u> before the House Committee. Justice department lawyer W. Marvin Smith testified before the House Committee as to his having notarized the transfer-of-title on Hiss' old car to one William Rosen, a communist organizer. This was the first indication to the House Committee of Hiss' perjury for which he was ultimately convicted. On 20 October 1948, Smith was found dead in the bottom of a Department of Justice stairwell. Smith left no suicide note and no one saw Smith fall; he worked on the 5th floor and apparently fell from there. Smith was the only witness to the car transfer which proved Hiss had perjured himself. Hiss actually tried twice to interrupt the congressional hearing to talk to Smith outside of the room but failed. Then was Laurence Duggan, former chief of the Latin Division of the State Department and a good friend of Hiss. He was killed as a result of a fall from the 16th floor window of his Manhattan office at the foundation he headed, the leftist Institute of International Education which had ties to Moscow University. The New York Police let it go as either an accident or a suicide but Duggan's three life insurance companies investigated and determined it was not at least suicide and paid the death benefit to Duggan's widow. Whittaker Chambers - who had been a communist spy but defected because while he believed the Communists were going to win, couldn't stand the evil any more - had asked the millionaire communist Frederick Vanderbilt Field to recruit Duggan. Field reported back that Duggan was already "connected with another apparatus." Hede Massing was the spy ring courier who had recruited and initially run [or handled] Duggan. A few days before his death, the FBI had questioned him about communist espionage in the State Department. The field report by the FBI agents indicated that Duggan became extremely agitated during the interview and they cut short the questioning saying they would return in a few days to continue. Duggan was well aware that Hiss was a spy and could have turned to save himself. He was dead before that could happen though. When Hiss was convicted of perjury and went off to prison the mortality rate among Hiss' communist friends and other potential witnesses declined dramatically. White, Smith and Duggan had all died within three months of each other, while the House Committe was investigating Hiss. While in prison however, Hiss ran into William Remington, an old friend and fellow Soviet spy. While Hiss was in prison the two of them were seen together frequently. Hiss came up for parole in 1954 but a few days before he was released, Remington was murdered when another prisoner bashed in his head. Five deaths all in form or another close to Hiss. All five knew Hiss was a spy and could testify against him. One was shot to death, three died from falls and the last had his skull broken. Hiss it is now know, was responsible for the death of one Mrs. A. A. Robinson-Rubins, American citizen. Her husband had been a GRU agent and had been summoned to Moscow. They both went. He vanished and we now know that he was arrested and shot during Stalin's 1937 purge. Mrs. Rubens appealed to the US embassy after her husband was taken . She then disappeared. Some weeks later the embassy located her in a Moscow prison. The US embassy reported her situation to the State Department where it fell into the hands of Hiss. This was effectively her death warrant. Hiss knowing his value to the Soviets and the threat to himself if Mrs. Rubens were freed and reported that her husband had been a GRU agent and who else was in the employ of the Soviets, secretly dispatched the danger she represented back to Moscow via a GRU courier. Mrs. Rubens subsequently vanished permanently. All of these people except Smith had a plea bargain to gain or in Remington's case an early release from prison, had they testified against Hiss. Smith was just doing his job. So yes, Congressman Nixon was a major player in the House Committee on Un-American Activities and it was he who publicly stated that the hearing before which Whittaker Chambers appeared needed to become public because "The Department of Justice is all set to move on you to save Hiss. They are planning to indict you at once. The only way to head them off is to let the public judge for itself which of you is telling the truth. That is your only chance." (Richard Nixon, Congressional Record) Hiss by the way was only tried for perjury because the Justice Department delayed prosecuting him on espionage until after the ten year time limit on prosecutions for treason had expired. So it seems some real James Bond stuff was going on in Washington and New York in the late 40's and early 50's. Joseph McCarthy was more right than he knew. As we now know from Venona, most of the members of the American Communist Party were active agents. It is a bit of a wonder we won. Thank God for Ronald Reagan. <i><b>Terroriferi delende est</b></i>,</font id="Book Antiqua"></font id="size3"> Jeffrey S. Wall
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