STORY GIST 247

 U.S. Marine Corps  Captain Carlton Robert Rouh of Lindenwold, New Jersey, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary actions on September 15, 1944, on Peleliu Island. Rouh enlisted in the Marine Corps as a private one month after the attack on Pearl Harbor and fought in three Pacific Campaigns.  He was later given a field commission as a second lieutenant while at a rest camp in Australia. He commanded a machine gun platoon during the New Britain campaign and was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant by September 15, 1944. On September 15, on Peleliu Island, Rouh used his body to smother the blast from a Japanese-thrown grenade to save the lives of two of his comrades.  His abdomen and chest caught the blast, but he still survived. A passing doctor gave him first aid, carrying him to a casualty evacuation point. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on September 15, 1944. Following his actions on Peleliu, Rouh was hospitalized and later hono...

  12th October 1945. Private First Class Desmond T. Doss of Lynchburg, Virginia, is presented the Medal of Honor for outstanding bravery as a combat medic, the first conscientious objector in American history to receive the nation’s highest military award. When called on by his country to fight in World War II, Doss, a dedicated pacifist, registered as a conscientious objector. Eventually sent to the Pacific theater of war as a medical corpsman, Doss voluntarily put his life in the utmost peril during the bloody Battle for Okinawa, saving dozens of lives well beyond the call of duty. During World War II, over 70,000 men were designated conscientious objectors, mostly men whose religious beliefs made them opposed to war. Some refused to serve, but 25,000 joined the US armed forces in noncombat roles such as medics and chaplains. Desmond T. Doss of Lynchburg, Virginia, was one of those men, though he personally shunned the title of conscientious objector. Doss, born in 1919, was rais...

 Tomoyuki Yamashita, Yamashita Tomoyuki, 8 November 1885 – 23 February 1946; also called Tomobumi Yamashita was a Japanese convicted war criminal and general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Yamashita led Japanese forces during the invasion of Malaya and Battle of Singapore, his conquest of Malaya and Singapore in 70 days earned him the sobriquet "The Tiger of Malaya" and led to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill calling the ignominious fall of Singapore to Japan the "worst disaster" and "largest capitulation" in British military history.  Yamashita was assigned to defend the Philippines from the advancing Allies later in the war. Although he was unable to prevent the superior Allied forces from advancing, despite dwindling supplies and Allied guerrilla action, he was able to hold on to part of Luzon until after the formal Surrender of Japan in August 1945. After the war, Yamashita was tried for war crimes committed by troops un...

 How a fiery Bolshevik became a fanatical Nazi  Roland Freisler, the chairman of the People's Court of the Third Reich, was called one of the most bloodthirsty Nazis in Germany. Interestingly, during his youth, he was an ardent Bolshevik and a fighter for the "happiness of the working people".  Freisler was imbued with communist ideals when he was in a prisoner-of-war camp in Russia. The revolutionary events of 1917 completely fascinated the former soldier of the German army and he joined the Bolshevik Party.  Returning to his homeland in 1920, Freisler devoted himself to law. He completely changed his political views and, in 1925, joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party of Adolf Hitler.  In the Third Reich, Roland Freisler was able to reach the heights of power. From 1942 until almost the collapse of the regime, he served as chairman of the People's Trial Chamber, which tried cases of treason, espionage and other political crimes.   Freisl...

 A truly great Australian war hero, who carried 12 wounded American soldiers to safety down the slopes of Mount Tambu, New Guinea, during the Wau - Salamaua campaign, in WW2. Corporal Leslie ‘Bull’ Allen MM, a stretcher bearer in the 2/5th Australian Infantry Battalion, was awarded the US Silver Star for his bravery. The highest honour possible for a non-American.  First lady Eleanor Roosevelt was one of many to write him a letter of gratitude. During the American assault against the Japanese on Mount Tambu, more than 50 American soldiers were wounded. Two medics were killed trying to retrieve them. What is truly extraordinary, Australians were not supposed to be involved in the fighting, but Corporal Allen, who became aware of the many American casualties, was determined to do what he could.  He decided to go up and start carrying men out one at a time over his shoulder through the rough terrain, facing enemy machine guns, snipers and mortar fire. I have read that witnes...

 Andhra Pradesh: Man films wife hanging herself to death, sends clip to her parents; held Instead of preventing his wife from taking the extreme step, the arrestee kept instigating her to hang herself to death. An extremely shocking case has come to light from Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district where a man allegedly filmed his wife ending her life by hanging herself and sent the video clip to her husband. The man in question has been identified as Penchalaiah (38), a security guard by profession. He accused his wife, Kondamma (31), of infidelity, following which she decided to end her life. Shockingly, he did not stop her from taking the extreme step. Instead, he filmed her when she was hanging herself to death from a ceiling fan and later sent the video clip to her parents, who then informed the police. Subsequently, the police arrested Penchalaiah. In the video, the arrestee could be heard asking his now-deceased wife to go ahead with her decision to kill herself. “I won’t stop yo...

 On the dreary morning of Friday, December 13, 1861, the enlisted men of the 96th Pennsylvania were rousted to the center of their encampment. Once collected, they marched out of camp and to a field where the other regiments in their brigade awaited. Each regiment was lined up to observe the proceedings. Before them, Private William Johnson of the 1st New York Cavalry sat atop a box in a wagon with bound hands. Today was to be his last day on Earth. The wagon, with accompanying band in tow, passed before each regiment. Members of the band played the “Dead March.” Private Clement Potts observed the man as he traveled to his imminent demise in front of a firing squad. “I see him, but [he] did not look as if he was to be shot.” The wagon wheeled into the center of the formation, a hollow square with one side open. At center lay a simple pine coffin. His crimes were read out.. He was guilty of the crime of desertion and attempting to join the enemy.  Death was the sentence. The f...

 German soldiers posing for a photograph with bones and skulls from an ossuary, ca. 1916. This is an eery yet fascinating photograph which I thought I'd share today. My guess is that it was taken during the burial of said ossuary somewhere on the Western Front before the remains were stored away, hence why the bones lie out in the open. Related Article  Fallen Russian soldier whose face was eaten by rats in the Carpathians, ca. 1915. Colourised by @colorsofhistory. Today 109 years ago, on January 23, 1915, the Carpathian Winter Battle began, as the Austro-Hungarians launched their first offensive in the Carpathians against the Russians. Following the Battle of Galicia in August - September 1914, the Austro-Hungarians had fallen back 100 miles to the Carpathian Mountains, the last obstacle stopping the Russians from advancing into Hungary. This withdrawal had also left the fortress of Przemyśl surrounded by Russian forces, trapping a military garrison of 127,000 Austro-Hungaria...

 Anton Dostler (10 May 1891 – 1 December 1945) was a German army officer who fought in both World Wars. During World War II, he commanded several units as a General of the Infantry, primarily in Italy. After the Axis defeat, Dostler was executed for war crimes—specifically, ordering the execution of fifteen American prisoners of war in March 1944 during the Italian Campaign. Dostler was tried during the first Allied war crimes trials to be held after the end of the war in Europe; at Nuremberg, he mounted a defense on the grounds that he had ordered the executions only because he himself was obeying superior orders, and that as such only his superiors could be held responsible.  The Nuremberg judges rejected Dostler's defense, ruling, in an important precedent (later codified in Principle IV of the Nuremberg Principles and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights), that citing superior orders did not relieve soldiers or officers of responsibility for carrying out war crim...

 Woman Turns To Cassava For Pleasure, Ends Up In Hospital Instead Who needs expensive vibrators when nature has given us an abundance of crops that might provide the same pleasure? That thought might be cringe-worthy for most but some people actually turn to vegetables like cucumber or eggplant when they don’t have a sex toy and, for them, it works. But sometimes, even a cucumber is not just enough, they just had to go for something more intense – like a cassava. That’s what exactly happened to one woman, who became the subject of a viral post on social media. Allegedly, the woman tried to pleasure herself using, not a cucumber, but the edible tuberous root cassava. The unidentified woman was just one of the people who prefer organic things, including sex toys. Cassava is one of the plants that have been reportedly used as a sex toy, along with cucumbers. You have to give her a thumbs up, though, for thinking about using protection even when it’s a root crop – not that it helped. W...

 Frances Kidder - for the murder of her step daughter. Frances Kidder made history by becoming the last woman to be publicly hanged in Britain, when she was executed at Maidstone at midday on Thursday, the 2nd of April 1868.  25 year old Frances had been born in 1843 to John and Frances Turner of New Romney in Kent.  She married William Kidder in 1865 as she was pregnant by him and she gave birth to a baby daughter they named Emma before the marriage.   What Frances did not know at the time was that William had two children by a previous relationship with a woman called Staples. The younger child was sent to live with relatives after its mother died but his daughter, Louisa, who was about ten years old came to live with Frances and William at Hythe in Kent.   From the outset things did not go well between Louisa and Frances.  Although corporal punishment in the home was considered normal in the 1860’s, Frances inflicted wanton cruelty on the littl...

 Is it true that when Allied forces reached concentration camps in Germany, they were so disgusted by what they saw that they shot several Nazi officers right there, even when they surrendered? Yep, It happened in Dachau, when a dozen SS were executed by US army personnel who were appalled by the sight. Remember that the Allies despised the S.S. for a variety of reasons: the Canadians despised them for the Normandy massacre, the Americans despised them for the Malmedy massacre, the British despised them for Wormhoudt, and the French despised them for the anti-bandit operations carried out by the 2nd Das Reich SS division in occupied France (for example, Oradour sur Glane). Another minor episode occurred in Bavaria, when Twelve members of the 33rd SS division were executed near a forest by Spaniards of the Nueve; their bodies were never brought to France and were left to decompose. Leclerc witnessed the fall of France and the devastation of French towns firsthand, and like many othe...

 Shabnam Ali-1st women to be hanged till death, Why she killed her family members? For the first time in the history of independent India, Shabnam Ali ,38, a woman, convicted for killing seven members of her family to death, will be hanged at Mathura jail. The first female hanging house was built in Mathura jail almost 150 years ago, but no woman has been executed there since Independence of the country. However, a woman from Lucknow called Ramshri was sentenced to death earlier on April 6, 1998. But her death sentence was commuted into life imprisonment at the last moment after she gave birth to a child inside the jail. Shabnam was convicted for murdering seven members of her family in connivance with her paramour Salim. Later, she was tried and awarded death by all the courts as Supreme Court also upheld her punishment . The President of India has rejected her mercy petition. Now she will be hanged at the only female hanging house built in Mathura jail. However, the date of execu...

 Italian soldier standing before a comrade, executed for desertion, September 1917. Although the original caption states the executed soldier as Italian, it is uncertain whether he was actually an Austro-Hungarian. It could also be an Italian soldier enduring some form of field punishment lighter than execution. The soldier in front also looks more like an Austro-Hungarian than an Italian soldier, though all sources for this photograph I was able to find stated he was Italian. Perhaps he was one of the many Italian-natives in the Austro-Hungarian Army. On September 28, 1915 Italian Chief-of-Staff Luigi Cadorna issued the following statement: "Discipline is the spiritual flame of victory; the most disciplined troops, not the best trained, win. The commanding officer has the sacred duty to immediately execute the recalcitrant and the cowards". During the First World War over 170,000 Italian soldiers were convicted for military offences such as desertion, cowardice, disobedience...

 The touching story behind this Great War veteran’s crooked smile Private Bertram Byrnes always remembered 2 September 1917 as the day his face was ‘shot away’.   While advancing toward Péronne, a bullet struck Bertram’s face, with it coming out under his left eye, and shattering his jaw. Bertram was admitted to Queen’s Hospital in England, which specialised in treating Great War soldiers with facial wounds.  Yet despite the staff’s expertise, they could do little for him. After all, his palate had been shot away, and most of his teeth were missing.  Bertram returned to Australia in 1919. The prospect of reuniting with his wife, Elizabeth, undoubtedly filled him with dread.  After all, in 1916 he had left Elizabeth as a strong and handsome man with sparkling blue eyes, a mop of brown hair and an impish smile, but was returning to her as a disfigured wreck.  As a testimony to Elizabeth, she welcomed Bertram back with open arms.  A stoic Bertram nev...

 James Lindell Harris of Hillsboro, Texas, a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on October 7, 1944, near Vagney, France. Harris was drafted into the Army in March 1941, eventually receiving a battlefield commission in March 1944. By October 7, 1944, he was serving as a second lieutenant in the 756th Tank Battalion.  On that day, near Vagney, France, he commanded an M4 Sherman tank in a hunt for an enemy raiding party that had infiltrated Allied lines.  He was seriously wounded by enemy fire but managed to crawl back to his tank and lead his crew, but was again severely wounded in the ensuing firefight. He refused medical attention until another wounded man had been evacuated and subsequently died of his injuries. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on October 7, 1944. Harris is buried at Ridge Park Cemetery in Hillsboro, Texas. Related post On October 6, 1943, American and Japan...

 Isadore Seigfreid Jachman of Baltimore, Maryland, was a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army and a posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary actions defending the town of Flamierge in Belgium from a German attack on January 4, 1945. Jachman was born in Berlin, Germany before moving to the Unites States with his family when he was two years old. Being Jewish, he had relatives who died in the Holocaust, including six aunts and uncles. He joined the Army in 1942. On January 4th, 1945, Sergeant Jachman (Company B, 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment) and his company were pinned down by enemy artillery, mortar, small arms fire and two hostile tanks that attacked the unit, inflicting heavy casualties. Jachman left his place of cover, dashed across open ground and grabbed a bazooka from a fallen comrade. He damaged one of the tanks and forced both of them to retire, but he suffered fatal wounds. He was just 22 years old.  For his actions on this day, he was posthumou...

 The Billingtons - a family of hangmen. James Billington was born at Preston in Lancashire in 1847 and had a life long fascination with hanging. As an eleven year old boy he had built a model gallows and practiced hanging dummies on it. He had unsuccessfully applied to succeed William Marwood but only managed to secure the Yorkshire hangman's position, where he was used rather than James Berry.   James ran a barber shop in Farnworth near Bolton in Lancashire when not engaged in executions.  In the period he was on the Home Office List, 1884-1901, he carried out 151 hangings in total, executing 141 men and five women in England and Wales, plus two men in Ireland and three men in Scotland. James' first execution was at Armley Gaol in Leeds on the 26th of August 1884, when he hanged Joseph Laycock, a Sheffield hawker, for the murder of his wife and four children.  Laycock was to have said just before being hanged, "You will not hurt me?" to which James Billington r...

 Jose F. Valdez of Gobernador, New Mexico, a Private First Class in the U.S. Army, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on January 25, 1945, near Rosenkranz, France. Valdez joined the Army in June 1944 and, upon completing basic training, was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division. On January 25, 1945, near Rosenkranz, France, Valdez was on patrol with 5 fellow soldiers when they unexpectedly were confronted with an enemy counterattack.  An enemy tank was headed towards the patrol and Valdez opened fire against the tank with his automatic rifle. The tank withdrew and Valdez killed three enemy soldiers but the Germans ordered a full attack and sent in two companies of infantrymen. Valdez covered the withdrawal and was wounded but able to drag himself back to American lines. He died three weeks later from his wounds. For his actions January 25, 1945, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. He is buried in the Santa Fe National Cemetery in San...

 Stanislaw Myskza - the last execution to take place at Perth. 47 year old Catherine McIntyre lived at Tower Cottage on the Tombuie Estate at Kenmore near Aberfeldy in Scotland, overlooking Loch Tay.  On Friday the 26th of September 1947 her husband had gone to work as usual, leaving her alone in the cottage.  When her son, Archibald, came home at 5.15 pm. he discovered an horrific scene.  Catherine was lying on his bed, her hands and ankles taped together, a gag in her mouth and covered in blood.  She had been savagely battered to death.  The McIntyre’s had been robbed of nearly £90 and Catherine’s wedding ring ripped from her finger.  The police searched the cottage and the surrounding area and found a blood stained and broken shotgun which was later identified as having been stolen from Tulloch Farm in Old Meldrum, at the same time as a Polish man who had been working there had left.  He was identified at Stanislaw Myskza who was a former PoW w...

 Canadian soldier standing over the remains of a fallen German soldier buried in rubble at Hill 70, October 1917. Today 106 years ago, on August 15, 1917, the Battle of Hill 70 began, a limited-scale operation by the Canadian Corps on the Hill 70 north of the French city of Lens. In July 1917, the British were preparing for the upcoming offensive in Flanders - The Third Battle of Ypres. The British directed the Canadians to take Lens by the end of July 1917, in order to draw German troops away from Flanders. Canadian Commander Arthur Currie thought the taking of the Hill 70 north of Lens was more important. Hill 70 was soon the new objective, a good defensive position from which to inflict high casualties on German counter-attacks, if conquered. Extensive planning was done with feint attacks elsewhere using dummy tanks, but poor weather delayed the assault to mid-August. The attack would be carried out by all 4 Canadian Divisions against 5 German Divisions. On August 15, 1917, the ...