Endless meals. Family. Escape. These were the dreams of 79 British soldiers who were captured in an early World War II battle and imprisoned in Germany, according to the dream journals kept by one of the prisoners. Recently analyzed for the first time by a Harvard psychologist, the journals show a population more influenced by prison life than the traumas of battle.

Maj. Kenneth Hopkins, who even as a prisoner of war was concerned about completing a doctoral dissertation at the University of Birmingham in the U.K., took notes every day about the dreams he and his fellow prisoners experienced. He recorded 640 dreams in six journals, five of which eventually made it to the Wellcome Collection, a London research archive. It was there that Harvard Medical School's Deirdre Barret, an assistant clinical professor of psychology, (and editor-in-chief of the journal Dreaming) began to delve into the journals.

'They’re bored to tears and longing to get out, nostalgic for the people back home.'

Barrett found that the soldiers' dreams more resembled those typically experienced by prisoners, not soldiers in the wake of battle. “I was surprised that they didn’t look more like other wartime trauma populations,” she told the Harvard Gazette. “It was striking that they did have these features you see in prison dreams. … They’re bored to tears and longing to get out, nostalgic for the people back home.”

The soldiers, captured during the Battle of France in 1940, may have only had their first taste of combat before being locked in a converted castle in Laufen, Germany. According to Barrett's analysis, the dreams tended to feature more men, family, and dead people, and fewer women, friends, and animals than the dreams of the general population. They were also less aggressive and less sexual than is typical, though when the prisoners did dream of violence, it was realistic, extreme violence like the kind they would have experienced on the battlefield.

Here's an excerpt from one of the journals, quoted by the Gazette:

I went home and went to the larder and ate everything I could see. Went out and met my sister and a friend at a restaurant and had a large dinner. Then went to another pub and had some food there. Then went to another pub and had more food. Went back to the first pub and found a good mixture of drinks — barley wine and mild ale. Then I had a dish of prunes and custard into which a bottle of ale had also been poured. I rejoined my sister and had another meal. Then back to the pub and had a large mixture of various snacks. While I was there, some German guards arrived with more prisoners.

Hopkins was never able to complete his dissertation. He died of emphysema before the prisoners were released. But his careful notes were forwarded on to his advisor at the University of Birmingham after the war, eventually allowing Barrett to pick up where his scholarship left off.

The study is due to be published in Imagination, Cognition, and Personality. Read more at the Harvard Gazette.

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Slate's Dave Weigel spots this video of Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) telling a heckler outside the World War II Memorial last week that Republicans wouldn't bring a so-called "clean" continuing resolution to the House floor to reopen the government. 

His reasoning?

"Look. We're not French. We don't surrender," Sessions said. 

Sessions' comment came last week, as controversy built up over the closure of the World War II Memorial in Washington, when it became shrouded in a political back-and-forth among Republicans, Democrats, and the Obama administration. 

The YouTube user who uploaded the video wrote this description along with it:

While touring the monuments in Washington with my family; which were all closed because of the government shutdown, I came upon a Texas delegation blaming the President for the shut down during an interview. I called out, "why don't you put a clean resolution to a vote and see if it passes." At that time the interviewing stopped and Congressman Sessions walked up from behind me. This video shows what followed.

Here's the full video:

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Veterans and other demonstrators on Sunday protested at the World War II memorial and other national landmarks and monuments that have been closed by the ongoing federal government shutdown. 

The rally, the "Million Vet March on the Memorials," drew conservative politicians like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sarah Palin, who both spoke at the event. 

It also drew scrutiny because of some of the protesters who showed up — including one man brandishing a Confederate flag and another, Larry Klayman of the conservative advocacy group Freedom Watch, who accused President Barack Obama of being a Muslim.

"I call upon all of you to wage a second American nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this president leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up," Klayman told the crowd, according to CNN, which has the video.

The protest was part of a furor that has sparked up on the right over the closure of the landmarks. It began on the first day of the shutdown, when a group of World War II veterans were not allowed to enter the memorial. Republican members of Congress subsequently appeared at the memorial — many of them have accused Obama of using troops as political pawns.

The White House has fired back that Republicans are responsible for the closures, and the shutdown, because of their original fight to "defund Obamacare" through the continuing resolution. 

Here's the video:

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PHOTOS: Tour The Top-Secret Town Where Atomic Bomb Parts Were Made During World War II

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LONDON (Reuters) - EBay has removed from its listings around 30 items of memorabilia from the Nazi Holocaust, including clothes worn by concentration camp victims, after a newspaper investigation discovered they were on sale on the e-commerce website, Britain's Mail on Sunday said.

The newspaper said its reporters found a range of items on the site over the past week, including what was presented by the vendor as a complete Auschwitz uniform worn by a Polish baker who perished in the Nazi death camp.

The Mail on Sunday said it had alerted eBay and that the online auctioneer had removed 30 items from sale and offered to make a donation of 25,000 pounds ($40,000) to a suitable charity.

In a statement, eBay said: "We are very sorry these items have been listed on eBay and we are removing them. We don't allow listings of this nature, and dedicate thousands of staff to policing our site and use the latest technology to detect items that shouldn't be for sale.

"We very much regret that we didn't live up to our own standards. We have made a donation to charity to reflect our concern," said the company, which receives a commission on items sold and charges vendors a listing fee.

The Mail on Sunday said eBay had been unable to say how long such items may have been for sale on its website.

The paper said the purported Auschwitz uniform had been priced at 11,300 sterling by the vendor, a Ukrainian man based in Canada, who had sold another batch of clothing purporting to be linked to Auschwitz for $18,000 last year.

The report quoted the vendor, named as Viktor Kempf, as saying he had been criticized in the past for selling such items, but did so to "document" them and to fund history book projects.

"I don't want people to think I'm just doing it for the money. These periods in history are horrific, nobody should ever forget them," Kempf was quoted as saying.

Other items found on eBay by the British paper included shoes and a toothbrush said to have belonged to concentration camp victims as well as yellow Star of David armbands used by the Nazis to identify Jews for persecution.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Additional reporting by Jennifer Ablan in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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With Veterans Day coming up on Monday, America's oldest living military veteran is enjoying the spotlight on his service once more, but even at the age of 107 he doesn't seem to be slowing down.

Richard Overton, an Army veteran of World War II now living in Austin, Texas, still enjoys cigars and whiskey every day.

From The Houston Chronicle:

He drives and walks without a cane. During a television interview in March, he told a reporter that he doesn't take medicine, smokes cigars every day and takes whiskey in his morning coffee. The key to living to his age, he said, is simply "staying out of trouble."

“I may drink a little in the evening too with some soda water, but that’s it,” Overton told Fox News. “Whiskey’s a good medicine. It keeps your muscles tender.”

In addition to his somewhat unorthodox habits, Overton stays busy throughout the day — trimming trees, helping with horses, and never watches television, according to Fox.

Born May 11, 1906, he's believed to be the oldest living veteran, although it's impossible to verify since not all veterans are registered with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He served in the South Pacific during the war before selling furniture in Austin after discharge and later working in the state Treasurer's Office, according to The Chronicle.

"I've gotten so many letters and so many thank yous and I enjoy every bit of it, but I'm still going to enjoy some more," Overton, who is planning a visit with President Obama next week, told The Chronicle.

NOW: How New York's Veterans Day Parade Became 'America's Parade'

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On Dec. 3, 1938, a British stockbroker made the impromptu decision to cancel his skiing vacation and join a friend in Prague, who had desperately asked for his help. The decision changed his life and saved the lives of 669 people in the process.

Nicholas Winton, now 104 years-old, joined his friend Martin Blake in Czechoslovakia to help refugees created by the German annexation of the Sudentenland.

Winton was of German Jewish ancestry and had heard of the violence against Jewish communities in Germany and Austria, especially the infamous Kristellnacht. After hearing about the Kinderstransport, an effort of British Jewish agencies to bring 10,000 Jewish children to Great Britain, Winton knew he had to arrange a similar operation in Czechoslovakia.

Winton explained how the operation got started in The Power Of Good: Nicholas Winton, a documentary on his efforts:

"I found out that the children of refugees and other groups of people who were enemies of Hitler weren't being looked after. I decided to try to get permits to Britain for them. I found out that the conditions which were laid down for bringing in a child were chiefly that you had a family that was willing and able to look after the child, and £50, which was quite a large sum of money in those days, that was to be deposited at the Home Office. The situation was heartbreaking. Many of the refugees hadn't the price of a meal. Some of the mothers tried desperately to get money to buy food for themselves and their children. The parents desperately wanted at least to get their children to safety when they couldn't manage to get visas for the whole family. I began to realize what suffering there is when armies start to march."

Winton set up his rescue operation at his hotel in Prague, taking applications from parents and registering the children. The response was huge, with thousands of parents lining up.

Surprisingly, Winton recieved little resistance from the Nazis on his effort to move the children out of the country. 

"We were getting rid of those people Hitler wanted to get rid of," Winton told ABC News in 2008. "I mean, you even had the Gestapo at Wilson Station helping the children onto the trains."

After a few weeks, Winton left Trevor Chadwick in charge of the Prague operation and returned to London to negotiate where the children would go. Only Great Britain and Sweden agreed to take the children. 

To get foster families willing to pay the £50 fee for each child, Winton advertised in newspapers, churches, and synagogues with pictures of the children. The effort worked. 

The last train of children left Prague on August 22, 1939. By the time it was all said and done, he had saved 669 children.

His greatest regret is that he could not save more. There was to be another train of children on September 1^st, but Hitler’s Germany invaded Poland that day. All borders were closed. The children were never heard from again.

Winton never told anyone of his mission, not even his wife, Grete. 50 years later, in 1988, his wife found a scrapbook with photos, documents, and the list of children. She brought it to a Holocaust historian, who arranged for Winton’s story to appear on BBC’s That’s Life. Unbeknownst to him, the audience at the taping was filled with his “children.”

You can see his emotional reaction here:

During an interview in 2008, Winton told a Slovakian teenager his philosophy on life: “You need to be prepared always to help other people if there is an opportunity to do so.”

“Winton’s children,” as they are called, have gone onto extraordinary lives. Here are just a few: 

• Karel Reisz, film director of The French Lieutenant's Woman, Isadora and Sweet Dreams
• Joe Schlesinger, journalist and news correspondent for Canadian Broadcasting Company
• Lord Alfred Dubs, a former minister in the cabinet of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
• Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines, a patron of the arts whose father, Rudolf Fleischmann, saved Thomas Mann from the Nazis
• Dagmar Símová, a cousin of the former U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright
• Tom Schrecker, a Reader's Digest manager
• Hugo Marom, a famous aviation consultant and a founder of the Israeli Air Force
• Vera Gissing, the author of Pearls of Childhood and coauthor of Nicholas Winton And The Rescued Generation

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December 7, 1941 began as a perfect Sunday morning for the troops serving the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Under a early morning South Pacific sun, softball teams were lining up on the beach. Pitchers warmed up their arms, while batting rosters were finalized and the wives and kids came over from seaside church services.

They did not know that for hours the Japanese naval fleet and air forces had been speeding across the ocean toward America's Pacific base. There, like a string of pearls draped across the docks and waterfront, was the majority of America's naval might.

The devastating Japanese onslaught began at 7:48 a.m., eventually killing 2,402 Americans and wounding many others, sinking four battleships and damaging many more.

The Pearl Harbor attack spurred America into World War II, leading ultimately to Allied victory over the Japanese in the East and Nazis and other Axis powers in the West. And the country promised never to forget this day of infamy.

Here are photographs from the attack and its immediate aftermath:

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, an attack planned by Admiral Isoroku Yamamotoa was carried out to demobilize the US Navy. This picture shows one of more than 180 planes used in the attack.

At 7:00 a.m., an Army radar alert operator spotted the first wave of the Japanese attack force. The officers to whom those reports were relayed did not consider them significant enough to take action. This photo shows an aerial view of Battleship Row in the opening moments of the raid. 

The Japanese aircrews were able to hit most of the American ships on Oahu shortly before 8:00 a.m. Here a Japanese plane flies over Pearl Harbor while black smoke rises from the area. 

The Japanese also took the opportunity to attack military airfields while bombing the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. The purpose of these simultaneous attacks was to destroy American planes before they could defensively respond.

There were more than 90 ships anchored in the area that morning. The primary targets were the 8 battleships sitting at Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor. Here is a picture of Battleship Row during the attack.

USS West Virginia (left) pictured here next to USS Tennessee, was one of the first battleships to sink during the attack. The Japanese successfully damaged all 8 battleships. 

At about 8:10 a.m., USS Arizona explodes as the ship's forward ammunition magazine is ignited by a bomb. About half of the total number of Americans killed that day were on this ship. Here is a picture of battleship USS Arizona.

Here is another picture of USS Arizona ... 

Destroyer USS Shaw explodes during the 3-hour Japanese attack. 

There was a short lull in the attack at about 8:30 a.m. The damaged USS Nevada tried to escape down the channel toward the open sea but became a target during a second wave of 170 Japanese planes, hoping to sink her in the channel and block the narrow entrance to Pearl Harbor. The ship was grounded with 60 killed on board.

A Japanese plane dives into flames after it was hit by American naval antiaircraft fire. Fewer than 30 Japanese planes were lost in the attack. 

About 188 American planes were destroyed and another 159 were damaged. Here is a picture of some planes left on Hickam Field near Pearl Harbor. 

Sailors at the Naval Air Station in Kaneohe, Hawaii, attempt to salvage a burning PBY Catalina in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 

People in Times Square, New York buy newspapers with headlines saying, "Japs Attack US." American entered the Second World War after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Salvage work begins on destroyers USS Cassin and the USS Downes. The Japanese failed to damage any American aircraft carriers, which were surprisingly absent from the harbor. 

A Japanese torpedo plane is hoisted from the bottom of the sea. About 10 percent of Japanese planes were lost on December 7th.

USS Oklahoma, seen in this photo with one of its propellers peeking out of the water, was considered too old to be worth repairing.

A Marine holds a piece of shrapnel removed from his arm following the attack. 

This photo shows sailors participating in a memorial service for the more than 2,400 killed in the attack. 

SEE ALSO: 'We were lucky': Pearl Harbor vet describes how he survived the infamous attack

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The Wall Street Journal published an investigation Wednesday into lobotomies performed on World War II veterans, some of whom are now thought to have suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Before the release of antipsychotic drug Thorazine in the mid-1950s, doctors didn't have many viable options when it came to treating mental illness, and PTSD was not yet a recognized disorder. The Journal report reveals that U.S. Veterans Affairs doctors performed at least 1,930 lobotomies between April 1, 1947, and Sept. 30, 1950.

When other treatments, such as electroshock therapy and temporary induced comas, failed, doctors turned to lobotomies to control veterans struggling with PTSD and other forms of mental illness.

Veteran Roman Tritz told the story of how doctors forced the procedure on him in 1953. It didn't do much to help him:

"Mr. Tritz recovered slowly from his operation. Six weeks after surgery, he gave a loud cry in his sleep and his entire body convulsed. It was the first of a series of seizures that doctors concluded had likely been caused by the lobotomy.

By September 1953, though, he had brightened, working jigsaw puzzles and playing checkers with other patients. But he soon withdrew again and alarmed doctors by referring to himself as 'the Prince of the Universe.' In January 1954, doctors allowed him a trial stay at the family farm. It went badly. His father whispered to a visiting VA social worker that he was scared to drive his son alone back to Tomah, records show. In the end, the sheriff returned Mr. Tritz to the hospital.

In January 1954, doctors allowed him a trial stay at the family farm. It went badly. His father whispered to a visiting VA social worker that he was scared to drive his son alone back to Tomah, records show. In the end, the sheriff returned Mr. Tritz to the hospital."

Read the full report at the Wall Street Journal >

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Since June, fugitive NSA analyst Edward Snowden has been leaking Top Secret documents about the tactics, techniques, and procedures of America's top surveillance wing — some of which include details of help, coerced or otherwise, from the leading U.S. tech companies.

It's hard to put a finger on the total monetary damage American technology companies have suffered overseas as a result of the NSA revelations, but some say as much as $35 billion over three years.

Equally difficult to judge is when those tech companies will back win the trust of the globe.

This week, the folks out of Red Team Journal brought up an interesting WWII story about surveillance and counterintelligence.

At the time, the Allies had cracked the German communication code, and the Germans knew they had cracked it.

From Red Team Journal:

The Germans doubted their system because they knew the British could radio false orders to the German bombers with no trouble.

As [WWII veteran and author R. V.] Jones recalls, “In fact we did not do this, but it seemed such an easy countermeasure that the German crews thought that we might, and they therefore began to be suspicious about the instructions that they received.”²

The implications of this are perhaps obvious but worth stating nonetheless: a lack of trust can exist even if an adversary fails to exploit a weakness in the system.

Even genuine instructions were thought suspect, just as genuine apologies or genuine assertions in future that the NSA has been ousted from particular companies' networks may be suspect.

Bruce Schneier, an information technology expert, wrote today"I think about this all the time with respect to our IT systems and the NSA. Even though we don't know which companies the NSA has compromised -- or by what means -- knowing that they could have compromised any of them is enough to make us mistrustful of all of them. This is going to make it hard for large companies like Google and Microsoft to get back the trust they lost."

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On December 22, 1944, at about 11:30 in the morning, a group of four German soldiers, waving two white flags, approached the American lines using the Arlon Road from the direction of Remoifosse, south of Bastogne. The group consisted of two officers and two enlisted men. The senior officer was a Major Wagner of the 47th Panzer Corps. The junior officer, Lt. Hellmuth Henke of the Panzer Lehr Operations Section, was carrying a briefcase under his arm. The two enlisted men had been selected from the 901st Panzer Grenadier Regiment.

The Americans defending in that location were members of F Company of the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. The Germans walked past a bazooka team in a foxhole in front of the Kessler farm and stopped in front of the foxhole of PFC Leo Palma, a B.A.R. gunner. Palma described the officers as wearing long overcoats and shiny black boots. Lieutenant Henke, who spoke English said, "I want to see the commanding officer of this section." Palma was at a loss for words, but Staff Sergeant Carl E. Dickinson who had been manning a position nearby walked out to the road and called the group over to him. The Germans explained that they had a written message to be presented to the American Commander in Bastogne.

Henke said they would consent to being blindfolded and taken to the American Commanding Officer. In fact, they had brought blindfolds with them. Henke blindfolded Wagner and Dickinson blindfolded Henke. As the blindfolds were being applied, Dickinson was joined by PFC Ernest Premetz, a German-speaking medic of his platoon who offered to serve as an interpreter. However no interpreter was needed.

Dickinson and Premetz left the two German enlisted men there and took the two German officers to the Kessler farmhouse. Tech. Sgt. Oswald Y. Butler, Acting Platoon Leader of the 1st Platoon, and Lt. Leslie E. Smith, Platoon Leader of the Weapons Platoon, told them to take the blindfolded officers to the F Company Command Post. They took the two German officers on a roundabout route to the Command Post of F Company, 327th GIR, which was a large foxhole located in a wooded area about a quarter mile away. Shortly after arriving at the command post, they were joined by Capt. James F. Adams, the F Company Commander, who had been at a forward observation post when he was notified of the arrival of the Germans.

When Adams arrived, 1st Sgt. Constantine A. Pappas informed him that the German major had already presented a written message. The F Company Executive Officer, Lt. William J. Herzke, was on the phone, reading the message to their Battalion Command Post in Marvie. The 2nd Battalion Command Post then notified the 327th Regimental Headquarters in Bastogne. Col. Bud Harper, the 327th Regimental Commander, was not there; he was out inspecting his unit's positions. The senior officer present was the Regimental Operations Officer, Major Alvin Jones. Maj. Jones notified the Division Headquarters in Bastogne and asked for instructions. He was told to retrieve the message and bring it to the Division Headquarters. He drove to the F Company Command Post and was given the message. The two blindfolded officers were kept in the woods adjacent to the foxhole Command Post.

Upon receiving Maj. Jones' phone call at Division Headquarters, the Acting Chief of Staff, Lt. Col. Ned Moore entered Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe's sleeping quarters adjacent to the communications center. Moore wakened McAulliffe and told him, "The Germans have sent some people forward to take our surrender." Moore recalled that Brig. Gen. McAuliffe, still half asleep, said "Nuts!" and started to climb out of his sleeping bag.

Moore then went back out into the Communications Center where he briefed the rest of the Division staff of the on-going situation, including telling them of McAulliffe's remark of "Nuts!"

When Maj. Jones arrived with the message, the staff looked at it before taking it in to McAulliffe.

The German surrender demand was typewritten on two sheets. One was in English, the other in German. They had been typed on an English typewriter as indicated by the fact that the diacritical marks required on the German copy had been entered by hand. 

This is the English version of the message:

"December 22nd 1944

To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.

The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A.
forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong
German armored units. More German armored units have crossed
the river Our the near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and
reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet.
Libramont is in German hands.
There is only one possibility to save the encircled
U.S.A troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable
surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over
a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the 
presentation of this note.
If this proposal should be rejected one German
Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready
to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The
order for firing will be given immediately after this two
hours' term.
All the serious civilian losses caused by this
artillery fire would not correspond with the wellknown
American humanity.

The German Commander."

The Division Operations Officer, Lt. Col. Harry Kinnard recalled that McAulliffe initially asked, "They want to surrender?" Moore told him, "No sir, they want us to surrender." McAulliffe arose and erupted in anger, which shocked those looking on. He took the paper, looked at it, said "Us surrender, aw nuts!" and dropped it on the floor. Maj. Jones was dismissed. McAulliffe then left the Headquarters to go congratulate a unit on the Western perimeter that had successfully taken out a German road block earlier that morning.

When Jones left the Headquarters, he went back to the F Company Command Post and spoke with the two German officers. When he returned to his Regimental Headquarters, he phoned the division headquarters.

Upon returning to the division headquarters, McAulliffe was informed that Jones had phoned to say that the two German officers were still waiting at the F Company Command Post. Since they brought a formal demand they felt they were entitled to a formal reply and they were to return to the German lines two hours after delivering their message.

McAulliffe asked that Col. Harper be summoned to the Division Headquarters. Harper, who was still inspecting his units' positions, was contacted by radio.

When Harper arrived at the Headquarters, he was asked to wait outside of the closed door to McAulliffe's quarters. Inside, in the presence of his staff, McAulliffe wondered aloud, "Well, I don't know what to tell them." At that point, Kinnard said, "What you said initially would be hard to beat." McAulliffe asked "What do you mean?" Kinnard, said, "Sir, you said nuts." All members of the staff enthusiastically agreed, so McAulliffe wrote it down on a message pad and said, "Have it typed up."

The reply was typed up, centered on a full sheet of paper. It read:

"December 22, 1944

To the German Commander,

N U T S ! 

The American Commander"

McAulliffe dismissed the staff and asked that Harper come in. McAulliffe initially toyed with him by having him stand in front of Higgins and himself. McAulliffe showed him the surrender demand and asked if he had already seen it. Harper said no. McAulliffe asked him to read it and suggest how it should be answered. Harper was surprised by the request and quickly tried to draft a reply in his head. At that moment, a clerk-typist entered the room and handed McAulliffe a sheet of paper. He looked at it and then showed Harper the typed "NUTS" reply, asking him if he thought that was a proper reply. Harper read it and started laughing. McAulliffe asked Harper to personally deliver the reply to the Germans, cautioning him not to go into the German lines.

Harper took the reply and drove to the F Company Command Post. Harper told Henke that he had the American Commander's reply. Henke asked if it was written or verbal. Harper answered it was written and he put it in the hand of the blindfolded German Major. Henke asked about the contents of the reply because if it was affirmative, they were authorized to negotiate further. Harper said, "The reply consists of a single word, NUTS!" Henke, not understanding, asked, "Is that reply negative or affirmative?" Harper said, "The reply is decidedly not affirmative", adding, "If you continue this foolish attack, your losses will be tremendous." Henke translated for the Major. The Major nodded.

The two blindfolded German officers were then driven, again by a roundabout route, back to their entry point at the Kessler farm. At the farm, the group was rejoined by PFC Premetz. The blindfolds were removed and the Germans opened and looked at the reply. They asked, "What does this mean?" They obviously didn't understand the American slang. Harper and Premetz discussed how to explain it. Harper suggested, "Tell them to take a flying s**t!" Premetz thought about it, then straightened up, faced the Germans and said, "Du kannst zum Teufel gehen." He told Harper it meant "You can go to Hell." Then Harper said, "If you continue to attack, we will kill every goddamn German that tries to break into this city." Henke replied, "We will kill many Americans. This is war." Harper then said, "On your way Bud, and good luck to you." After Henke translated, the major acknowledged. They saluted and the Germans started to walk away. Harper angrily called out to them, "If you don't know what I am talking about, simply go back to your commanding officer and tell him to just plain, 'Go to Hell'." After Henke translated, the major got angry and stormed off. As he passed Palma's position, he threw his blindfold and Palma caught it. Palma wrote that he didn't realize the historical importance of that blindfold. He later used it to clean his B.A.R. and threw it away!

The German party returned to their lines. Capt. Adams recorded the time as 1400 hours.

While watching the Germans leaving, Harper began to regret losing his temper, fearing that his attitude may increase the intensity of the attack on his positions. Fortunately, the threatened artillery barrage never happened. Instead, the German Luftwaffe was added to the attack, bombing the town at night.

According to a narrative written by Hellmuth Henke, when the German officers returned to their vehicle, while they were putting their pistol belts back on, Maj. Wagner removed his pistol from his trouser pocket and placed it in its holster, stating that he wasn't going to get caught without protection.

The two German officers then drove to the 901st Panzer Grenadier Regimental headquarters in Lutrebois. After reporting in, they left to go to the Panzer Lehr Division headquarters located about a mile further south. Just before reaching the Panzer Lehr Headquarters, they saw the car of General von Manteuffel parked by a thicket of trees. Maj. Wagner stopped and reported to the General. They then proceeded to the Panzer Lehr headquarters. General von Luettwitz, the Corps Commander, happened to be there. They presented the "NUTS" reply. Upon hearing the negative reply, General Bayerlein, said it was time to start striking out with the heavy artillery located behind the hill. He was interrupted by General von Luettwitz who stated that the heavy artillery was no longer located there, it had been moved to forward positions past Bastogne. Bayerlein then started to explain how he would attack Bastogne without the heavy artillery, but was again interrupted by von Luettwitz. Von Luettwitz reminded Bayerlein that Bastogne was not his objective and ordered the Panzer Lehr Division to proceed around Bastogne to Rochefort and leave Bastogne to the 26th Volksgrenadier Division.

Editors Note: 

This story retraces the events of December 22nd, 1944 at Bastogne, Belgium; the day we received German surrender ultimatum and issued the subsequent "Nuts!" reply. 

Its author, Kenneth J. McAuliffe, Jr., is the nephew of Brig. Gen. Anthony 'Tony' McAuliffe who commanded the Division during the defense of Bastogne. This has been verified to be 100% accurate. 

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Hiroo Onoda, soldier of the Japanese imperial army, died on January 16th, aged 91

Before he approached the tent where his commanding officer waited on March 9th 1974, Hiroo Onoda did two things. First, he inspected his rifle. (The Arisaka 99 still worked perfectly; over almost 30 years he had treated it as tenderly as a baby.) Then he retied his boots. Nothing must be slipshod. A soldier of the god-emperor had to be pure, prepared and spiritually invincible.

He had taken elaborate care to get this far. All his guerrilla training had been employed in case, as he suspected, he was walking into a trap. He had planned the meeting for the evening, when there would be just enough light to recognize a face but not enough to hinder his escape, if necessary. Palm and bosa trees hid him as he crept down from the mountains. To cross clearings, he camouflaged his threadbare army uniform—more neatly sewn patches than uniform—with sticks and leaves. Wherever it was safe, he rested.

In the beginning he commanded a unit of three men, but they had died at various points, two shot by the Philippine police. The war had gone very quiet, so quiet that in 1964, to his surprise, America and Japan competed in apparent amity at the Olympic games. But the island still crawled with American agents and spies, who kept dropping leaflets urging him to surrender. All of it was trickery, he thought. He told the young Japanese hiker who eventually found him that he would not stop fighting until his commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, ordered him to cease in person. So on that day in 1974 the elderly major, now a bookseller, especially summoned from Japan, gave him his new orders. Mr Onoda at once laid down his rifle, 500 rounds, his ceremonial sword and sword-belt and his dagger in its white case, and saluted the flag of the rising sun. 

If it was not a surrender, it still felt crushingly like one. For Major Taniguchi informed him not only that the war was over, but that Japan had lost. Mr Onoda’s first thought was: how could they be so sloppy? Rather than lose, rather than lay down arms like this, a Japanese soldier was supposed to die. And he felt like dying. “Do not live in shame,” General Tojo had written; “leave no ignominious crime behind you.” His mother had given him his dagger, as he left for active service, to kill himself with if he was captured.

She meant it, for when he behaved uncontrollably at the age of six she had taken him to the family shrine to commit harakiri then and there. Of course he hadn’t been able to cut his small, quaking belly. Who could, at six? Later, it would have been almost easy. But in fact his orders in 1945 had been to stay alive, not to die. Intelligence officers were more useful that way. It meant he risked being an outcast when he returned to Japan, simply because he had not made the supreme sacrifice and added his name to the divinities honour ed at the Yasukuni shrine. His duty, however, was to spend every moment serving his country in exactly the way he had been told.

That civic imperative was what mattered, he said later; nothing personal or individual. But pride entered the equation, too. He was fiercely competitive, honed with kendo and swimming—though also with a 50-a-day cigarette habit before he went into hiding—and loved to show off how well he could fend for himself. The man who kept neat and trim for years in the jungle had also cut quite a figure at 18 in central China, as a traveling salesman for a lacquer ware company, driving a 1936 Studebaker and wearing English tailored suits. He had style and stubbornness as well as self-discipline. Outside reports said he wept uncontrollably as he laid his rifle down. He merely wrote that, in the course of delivering a night-long field report that covered 29 years, he faltered once or twice.

Returning to Japan as a hero, he did not know what had become of the place. He found it cowed, drowsy, and denuded of self-confidence. Japan was blamed for the East Asian war when, in his view, it had had no choice but to fight in order to survive. The Americans, who had stripped the country of its military power and made the emperor a cypher, also seemed to have drained away the national will. After barely a year at home, loudly on the right of politics, Mr. Onoda left for Brazil to be a cattle-rancher and take a wife. He eventually came back to establish a school where modern Japanese children could learn to survive in the wild, like him.

In 2007 he offered his “words to live by” to the Japan Times. Almost all were to do with civic duty and self-reliance. One thought stood out: “There are some dreams from which it is better not to wake.” By which he meant, he explained, his long dream of war.

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Snipers are the most cost effective weapon in any military arsenal. Despite the massive amounts of training, snipers save the U.S. military about 249,999 rounds of ammunition for each enemy killed with nearly one kill per bullet.

Snipers spend their mission trying to remain invisible while positioning themselves as closely to the enemy as possible. Then they wait, often for hours, even days, if that is what's required to hit a target.

There are just nine qualified female snipers in the U.S. military today. They can all look up to a Russian girl who began working at a munitions factory when she was 15, to bring a pound-and-a-half of bread home to help feed her family.

Klaudia Kalugina remains one of the deadliest snipers ever.

Klaudia volunteered for Russia's sniper school when she was 17. Accustomed to manual labor, she impressed her trainers enough that she was given special instruction on her shooting. Her keen eyesight, a requisite for all 2,000 Russian female snipers of the time, pushed her abilities to the top.

The women snipers were all members of the Communist Youth, terribly idealistic and very close to the women with whom they served. Klaudia was partnered with her best friend Marusia Chikhvintseva who was killed by a German sniper not long after they joined the war. 

Klaudia's sorrow after Marusia's death may have spurred her to kill a reported 257 Axis troops. The best U.S. sniper in history, Chris Kyle, claimed an unconfirmed 225 kills.

Klaudia gave an interview prior to her death, reprinted here in English where she casually comments on hits she made at over one mile away.

It's an impressive story, particularly as the U.S. Armed Forces continue its path to some type of gender equality.

SEE ALSO: Eighteen things no Navy SEAL would leave home without

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Passed over due to negligence and possible discrimination, 24 veterans will receive the Medal of Honor from President Obama on March 18. 

Of the 24, only three are alive to accept the award. The other 21 will be honored posthumously.

The Army Times reports:

Each of the soldiers was previously recognized by award of the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest military award. That award will be upgraded to the Medal of Honor in recognition of their gallantry, intrepidity and heroism above and beyond the call of duty.

In 2002 Congress passed the Defense Authorization Act, calling for a review of Hispanic and Jewish soldiers who possibly were denied the medal due to discrimination at the time.

The act was amended during the military's review as several other soldiers of neither Jewish nor Hispanic descent were deemed worthy of the Medal of Honor.

All together, veterans from three wars — World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War — will be honored by the president.

The three living recipients of the award all performed their heroic acts in the Vietnam war. They are: Master Sgt. Jose Rodela, who inspired his unit to defend against a vicious enemy attack; Specialist Santiago Erevia, who protected wounded soldiers and singlehandedly destroyed multiple bunkers; and Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris, who charged into enemy fire despite being wounded multiple times to rescue a fallen comrade.

Read the full report at Army Times to see all the soldiers being honored >>

SEE ALSO: Latest Medal Of Honor Recipient Wants Back In The Army

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The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima, 69 years ago, is perhaps the most iconic image of World War Two.

No other picture so succinctly and evocatively captures the triumph of the Allied forces, while also highlighting the critical role that U.S. troops played in the Pacific. The picture has become an enduring symbol of the steadfastness and strength of the Marine Corps.

Joe Rosenthal, at the time an unknown Associated Press photographer, is the man behind the photo. Although it was technically the second flag raising on Iwo Jima, which shows five Marines and a Navy Corpsman, it is no less important. The first flag planted was replaced as it was too small to be seen from the coast.

Rosenthal, in an attempt to position himself properly for the shot, almost actually missed the flag raising. In a desperate attempt to capture the scene, Rosenthal shot the image without the use of his viewfinder. His gut instinct certainly hit the mark; he went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for his image.

Almost immediately, though, the overall quality of the framing led to accusations that Rosenthal had framed the picture.

This controversy still remains. Fortunately, an official video of the flag raising by a Marine photographer shows that the events transpired naturally, and exactly as Rosenthal had claimed.

Rosenthal's photo has gone on to become a deeply ingrained cultural image for America. The U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, in Arlington, Virginia, is modeled after this photo. President Roosevelt also used the image to promote war bonds at the end of the war, and it was featured on stamps.

It's important to note that, while the image evoked a feeling of American victory, it was shot only five days into the Iwo Jima campaign. The battle went on for many more weeks, and three of the Marines who raised the flag were later killed in action.

Although Rosenthal's image has become synonymous with the courage of the Marines, many still debate the value of invading Iwo Jima.

The battle was particularly bloody, being the only battle in which the U.S. Marine Corps suffered more casualties than the Japanese Army. The Japanese were well entrenched on the island when the U.S. decided to invade. Iwo Jima's topography, being a mountainous island, also proved extremely difficult for U.S. troops.

However, Iwo Jima proved of extreme tactical importance to the U.S. policy of island hopping to the Japanese mainland. For this, the military command decided that the 26,000 American casualties was worth the island.

This cost, and the grand accomplishment, of the campaign is forever immortalized in Rosenthal's photograph.

SEE ALSO: This Collection Of War Photography Holds Some Of The Most Haunting Images You'll Ever See

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This is what aerial combat over Europe looked like during World War II.

A video producer by the name of Loudon Maverick has compiled a color video including fighter gun camera footage, dogfights, flak fire, kamikaze attacks, aerial combat between fighters and bombers, carpet bombing and huge explosions from above taken during WWII.

Regardless of the side, it took plenty of courage to fly and fight against the enemy in the skies over Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa or the Pacific.

SEE ALSO: Amazing Color Photos Of America Preparing For World War II

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Scenes of Russian troops in southern Ukraine are stirring up grim memories half a world away among Japanese islanders who were forced off their home by Soviet forces in the last days of World War II.

The two sides remain at odds over the sliver of an archipelago in Russia's far east and on Japan's northern border, with the nearly 70-year-old dispute long stalling a post-war peace treaty between Tokyo and Moscow, despite warming diplomatic and economic ties.

The Ukraine crisis has also created a big diplomatic headache for conservative Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as he tries to reach a deal with President Vladimir Putin on the island dispute, while joining Western allies in condemning the deployment of Russian forces into the southeastern Crimea region.

The move evoked strong memories for Japanese people such as Kajiko Odajima.

"When I watch the Ukraine situation on TV, I don't feel this is someone else's trouble," said the 82-year-old, who once lived on one of the four disputed islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan which Moscow calls the Kurils.

"Victims are always the local people. I don't want anyone to repeat what we experienced."

Odajima recalls her shock when Soviet soldiers burst into her classroom and rounded up local Japanese people who had lived on the islands for generations.

More than 17,000 were booted from their homes just days after Japan's 1945 surrender, as Russian forces seized the territory.

Some were immediately sent to mainland Japan while others were forced to work in Russian labour camps. Most never returned to the islands.

Among the deported who are still alive, numbering some 7,000, many still hold out hope for one day returning to their ancestral homeland.

The feelings of estrangement remain raw in Japan, which marks February 7 as Northern Territories Day.

"I can't help but link our situation with what is happening to Crimea," said retired schoolteacher Isamu Nakata, 85, who now lives in Japan's northernmost Hokkaido, just south of the disputed territory.

"We have had hard time since then and I still hope to die on my home island. I have good feelings toward Russian people, but I can't get rid of my resentment toward the country."

Seeds of conflict 'similar' to Crimea

Links to the Crimea crisis are not total -- there has been no bloodshed so far or forced movement of the local populace and and politics surrounding Moscow's move are starkly different.

But experts in regional politics see parallels with the long-running territorial dispute that still colours Japan-Russia relations.

"The seeds of conflict in the Crimea issue are similar to that of the Northern Territories," said Shigeki Hakamada, emeritus professor at Tokyo's Aoyama Gakuin University.

Hakamada, a leading expert on modern Russian politics, said both conflicts underscore Moscow's bid to expand its sphere of influence along its vast borders.

"Putin will never compromise over the Ukraine issue as Ukraine is critically important for his goal" of expanding Moscow's influence, Hakamada said.

Japan has joined the United States and other allies in ramping up the pressure on Moscow, but the crisis has created a tricky balancing act for Abe, who has held multiple summits with Putin since coming to office in late 2012.

Abe was one of the few pro-Western leaders who attended the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi as many others stayed away amid disquiet over Moscow's anti-gay laws.

The Japanese leader has been pushing to expand the two countries economic ties -- as Tokyo finds itself embroiled in separate territorial disputes with China and South Korea -- but isolating Putin over Crimea threatens to derail sensitive talks for a deal in the islands' dispute.

"Prime Minister Abe is facing a dilemma," Hakamada said.

"On the one hand, he has to keep step with the West as a G7 member. On the other hand, he wants to maintain the Japan-Russia dialogue as Japan-China and Japan-South Korea relations are deadlocked."

That worries former islanders like schoolteacher Nakata who still holds out hope he could someday return to this birthplace.

"The current talks between Japan and Russia appear to be going well but I'm afraid that the Ukraine problem may derail that," he said.

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Passed over due to negligence and possible discrimination, 24 veterans received the Medal of Honor from President Obama on Tuesday. The ceremony took place at about 3:40 pm EST this afternoon.

Of the 24, only three are alive to accept the award. The other 21 will be honored posthumously.

The Army Times reports:

Each of the soldiers was previously recognized by award of the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest military award. That award will be upgraded to the Medal of Honor in recognition of their gallantry, intrepidity and heroism above and beyond the call of duty.

In 2002 Congress passed the Defense Authorization Act, calling for a review of Hispanic and Jewish soldiers who possibly were denied the medal due to discrimination at the time.

The act was amended during the military's review as several other soldiers of neither Jewish nor Hispanic descent were deemed worthy of the Medal of Honor.

All together, veterans from three wars — World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War — will be honored by the president.

The three living recipients of the award all performed their heroic acts in the Vietnam war. They are: Master Sgt. Jose Rodela, who inspired his unit to defend against a vicious enemy attack; Specialist Santiago Erevia, who protected wounded soldiers and single handedly destroyed multiple bunkers; and Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris, who charged into enemy fire despite being wounded multiple times to rescue a fallen comrade.

We have included a LiveStream of the Medal of Honor ceremony below.

Read the full report at Army Times to see all the soldiers being honored >>

SEE ALSO: Latest Medal Of Honor Recipient Wants Back In The Army

Join the conversation about this story »

When Lieutenant Colonel Richard (Dick) Cole participated in the first American bombing raid on Japan in World War II, his plane was destined not to return to the U.S.

That plane, along with 15 others that were part of the raid, was destroyed behind enemy lines.

More than 70 years later, Reddit users asked Cole about the legendary Doolittle Raid, named after its leader Lt. Col. James (Jimmy) Doolittle.

Cole, Doolittle's co-pilot, described the terror of bailing out of his airplane. He also explains the sense of patriotism that compelled him to join the incredibly dangerous mission, which came in response to Pearl Harbor.

In order to reach distant Tokyo and other cities, the B-25 bombers that took part in the mission had to take off from the USS Hornet aircraft carrier in the ocean, 650 miles from Japan. However, it was impossible to get back to the carrier after the mission. Instead, they planned to land on airfields in friendly areas of Japanese-occupied China.

Some users asked Cole how he viewed his role in such scary mission.

Others asked him about the thoughts that went through his mind before the one-way mission.

The crew members replaced guns on board the aircraft with painted broomsticks in order to lighten the planes’ loads, Cole confirmed. “It certainly had a few quirks after we essentially gutted it prior to the raid,” Cole wrote of his plane. “We had to make sure they would be the right weight to take off from the Hornet.”

The toughest and most memorable part of the April 18, 1942 raid was “looking at that black hole [the escape hatch] when we had to jump out of a perfectly good airplane,” according to Cole.

The bomber that Doolittle flew ran out of gas over China behind enemy lines, forcing the gunner, bombardier, navigator, co-pilot, and pilot to bail out, according to Cole’s own account. The plane was flying at 9,000 feet, 166 miles per hour, putting a wide distance between each crewman as they parachuted into the rainy nighttime countryside.

Cole’s parachute caught in a tree where he spent the night, before roaming in a westerly direction over steep terrain. He eventually stumbled upon an outpost of pro-American Chinese guerrilla fighters, who reunited him with the rest of his crew and smuggled them past Japanese forces to a location where American aircraft retrieved them.

At 98 years old, Cole shared some simple life advice for much younger Reddit users.

Click here to read his full AMA.

SEE ALSO:  Amazing Color Photos Of America Preparing For World War II

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