Showing posts with label World War II. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World War II. Show all posts

Monday, April 28, 2008

On this day, 63 years ago, Adolph Hitler committed suicide



It is nearly sixty-three years since Adolph Hitler resigned as Der Fuhrer by putting a gun in his mouth. Unfortunately, he resigned just about six years too late.

Before he began his assault on Europe, Hitler promised his followers the Third Reich would last 1,000 years. Twelve years later, in January 1945, as Montgomery and Patton's forces closed in on Berlin, Hitler retreated into a bunker beneath the Chancellery to live out his final days. Located 55 feet down, the shelter contained 18 rooms and was self-sufficient, with its own water and electrical supply. As he grew increasingly deranged, Hitler continued to meet with close subordinates like Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler and Josef Goebbels (who would join him, along with his entire family, in suicide).

One day after marrying his mistress, Eva Braun, Hitler and his new bride killed themselves by swallowing cyanide (Hitler also shot himself). The invading Russian soldiers found their charred remains in a bomb crater a couple of days later.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Armed Forces: Jack's parents in World War II

Click all the photographs to enlarge.



Jack, Sr. in the army, shortly before World
War II, clowning with a serious looking buddy


Jack, Sr. in "dungarees" displaying his
rifle and bayonet at boot camp, in
about 1940.


Jack, Sr. a/k/a John Newton Brummet II
clowning with Navy buddies in about 1943.
World War II began just after he was
discharged from the army. He immediately
enlisted in the navy. I'm not sure the army
wanted him back. He served in the Navy
for the duration of the war.


Betty Echo Jones Brummet, with her twin brother
Bill a/k/a William Raymond Jones. Bill enlisted in
the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor. He was a
senior in high school. This picture was taken in
the spring, when the Navy allowed him to return
to Ballard High School to graduate with his class, and
sister.


Betty Brummet on leave from her post in
the Marine Corps. Betty worked for a while
during the war as the iconic Rosie The Riveter
at The Boeing Company in Seattle. During
the war she enlisted in the Marine Corps and
served in Santa Ana, California, and Cherry
Point, North Carolina. She followed my
Grandfather, William Jennings Bryan Jones
into the Marine Corps. Grandpa Bill served
in the Marines in both World War I and World
War II. In this photo, she is walking in
downtown Seattle with my step-grandma
Sally Jones.
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