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This is probably as famous among our listeners as our Christmas playlist is, and Rat Patrol Radio was one of the first webcast stations ever to present these historic broadcasts in this format. This year marks our ninth year saluting the men who stormed Fortress Europe to put an end to Nazism. Join me as we relive the electrifying events of one of the most momentous events of the 20th Century.  (I still choke up and get goosebumps at 10pm when FDR leads the nation in prayer.)

photo San Diego Union-Tribune

After 14 years of fundraising, a memorial to the 52 US submarines lost in action in WWII has been dedicated in San Diego. Located at Liberty Station, a mixed-use development on the grounds of the former naval training center in San Diego, the “52 Boats Memorial” consists of 52 black granite memorials, each devoted to one of the lost subs and listing their crew. Behind each memorial is a Libery Elm tree.

90% of the funds raised to remember the sacrifices of the lost submariners were from private donations. Over 3,500 US submariners lost their lives in WWII, one out of every five who served.

10 news San Diego story

San Diego Union-Tribune photo gallery

As some folk know, I work as a freelance historical researcher. I wanted to share this particular item with all my listeners. This is a very rare Honolulu Star-Telegram newspaper from December 7, 1941.

I’ll be posting more things on my business site, FreelanceHistorian.com, as I get photos taken. All these items are scheduled to be listed on eBay this week, and I’ll have links to each auction at Freelance Historian.

(Awesome photos of a restored Jeep, too. I love the old “meatball” emblem.)

According to recently declassified Soviet documents, the Soviet Army discovered the bodies of Hitler and Braun in a shell crater outside the Reichstag Bunker, where the Germans had burned them.  After forensic examination, the bodies were secretly buried in a forest near Rathenau, Germany in June 1945.  The next year, the remains were exhumed and buried in a secret location on a Soviet Army base in Magdeburg, East Germany.

As long as the remains were on property of the Soviet Army, their existence could be hidden. But when the decision was made in 1970 to turn the Army base over to the East German government, Soviet leadership feared the possibility of the remains being discovered and becoming a shrine to Hitler. Therefore, the bodies of Hitler, Braun and the Goebbels family were exhumed by a special KGB contingent, burned in a large bonfire, ground to dust and dumped in the Biederitz River.

Gen. Khristoforov told Interfax that the only physical remains of the Nazi Fuhrer are a piece of jawbone and a skull fragment that are in FSB archives.  He dismissed the claims of two US scientists questioning the authenticity of the remains, noting that they did not receive any DNA samples from the remains, and in any event “even if you take the fragments kept in our custody, it is unclear what these data can be compared with.”

CNN report on this story, with photos.

Churchill's Cigar and Conference Placards

Excerpt of the article:

At over six inches long the cigar has never been touched by its owner, who keeps it safe in a sturdy wooden box.

It was taken from a historic meeting between Churchill and the other Allied leaders at the famous Casablanca Conference.

Placecards bearing the names of the world leaders taken with the cigar from the conference combined with Mr William senior’s testimony helped the authentication of the cigar.

Mr Williams, a student at Lincoln College who lives in nearby Horncastle, said he felt like he owned a piece of history.

He said: “I’ve kept the cigar a secret and completely to myself since my grandad gave it to me all those years ago….

Mr Williams senior, who served in the 8th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, had been asked to act as butler to the Prime Minister for the conference in 1943.

On the bright side, those of you that have been tuning in over the years get a new perspective on D-Day!

When the broadcast engineer at the New York studios realized shortly after 2AM on June 6, 1944, that the rumors that were being picked up from German radio were not another false alarm, he began recording everything that was broadcast, and continued for 24 hours.  That remarkable record has been preserved, and Rat Patrol Radio is proud for the last eight years to bring our listeners the chance to relive one of the most momentous days in history.

As is tradition, we will also have an encore performance on June 7th, starting at 9AM Eastern time, so that more people can hear the early reports.

Andrew also has two WWII-related blogs:

Victory Theater, and

WWII Tips , which shows how you can save money and make do, using the same tips and techniques used on the homefront in WWII.

I follow @WWIIToday on Twitter, using the Twitterfox plugin for Firefox.  For those wondering why RPR doesn’t have a Twitter account, it’s because I have a business-related Twitter account and can’t run two at once.