Instead, the Canadians fought their way into the town for eight bloody days. The battle of Ortona began on December That December was the wettest on record.
The Moro River had risen more than eight feet and the surrounding fields became seas of mud that clung to soldiers as they tried to advance against sniper fire, mortar, artillery and tanks. The Germans counterattacked repeatedly and often the fighting was hand-to-hand as the Canadians edged forward to Ortona.
The streets of Ortona were narrow and lined with stone houses. The Germans had blocked off the side streets thus forcing the Canadians onto the only street wide enough for tanks, a highway running through the center of Ortona. Buildings had been blown up, creating piles of rubble which acted as road blocks for the tanks. It was a trap. As Canadian Sherman tanks proceeded down the streets, they were blown up. Saint-Nazaire was targeted because the loss of its dry dock would force any large German warship to return to home waters via a different route, rather than having a port available on the Atlantic coast.
With the attack, they also protected Allied naval convoys that were vital for the United Kingdom. The fallen soldiers are buried at the Escoublac-La-Baule cemetery.
The cemetery that begun with the burial of 17 British soldiers during , is now the place of rest for Commonwealth soldiers, that were killed in the line of duty during the II.
World War. The Atlantic Wall was an extensive system of coastal defense and fortifications built by Nazi Germany along the coast of continental Europe as a defense against an anticipated Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied during II. The manning and operation of the Atlantic Wall was administratively overseen by the German Army, with some support from Luftwaffe ground forces. The German Navy maintained a separate coastal defense network, organized into a number of sea defense zones.
During the II. World War the port of Saint Nazaire was strategically important. Because the Germans build here one of the largest fortified U-boat pen. The U-boat base was built between and The construction of the base required more than , cubic meters of concrete. The part of the U-boat base were also army workshops, which were later destroyed. During the Battle of France, in World War II, Saumur was the site of the Battle of Saumur where the town and south bank of the Loire were defended by the teenage cadets of the cavalry school for the Honor of France.
In the town was a target bombing raids by Allied planes. In Tank Museum, the aim was to gather everything tank related, whether French or foreign and being of historical, technological and educational interest.
The collection includes mementos from the "Father of the French Tank" and from Major Bossut, one of the first officers to be killed in action whilst commanding a Tank Unit. The battle, known to those who fought it as the "Italian Stalingrad" for the deadliness of its close-quarters combat. Museum has a collection of army gear and uniforms of a Swiss and foreign army forces, from the time of the II.
World War and the Cold War. In addition of many tanks and cannons in the museum, there is also the entire collection of the former arms manufacturer Oerlikon. Fort Reuenthal is a 20th century Swiss fortification located near the Swiss border with Germany.
Built between and , the fort overlooks the Rhine where it bends around the town of Full-Reuenthal. It is armed with two artillery blocks for 75mm guns and two machine gun blocks. It was a component of the Swiss Border Line of defenses intended to prevent a crossing of the Rhine at the hydroelectric plant at Dogern. The fort was part of the Swiss Border Line defenses. The contemporary witness of Swiss military history. Construction of the fortifications in Crestawald was started in September , and by the huge artillery guns were ready for action.
For a long time, the bunkers were kept under the strictest of secrecy. With the restructuring of the army, the artillery fortresses near the state borders were decommissioned. In the secrecy was lifted and the fortress was turned into a public museum by the Verein Festungsmuseum Crestawald.
The Toblerone line is a 10 km 6 miles long defensive line made of dragon's teeth that were built during the II. These lines of defensive blocks can be found all over Switzerland, but more predominantly in border areas. Their purpose was to stop tank invasions. The 2. Since the line has been left to nature since its construction, it was decided to keep these concrete blocks and to make a hiking trail along their route.
The line was built along twelve fortresses, the most well known being the "Villa Rose" in Gland, which was transformed into a museum and opened to the public in The first section is dedicated to the period of the I World War, the involvement of Czech and Slovak people in the war, and the political and military events that resulted in the constitution of the independent Czechoslovak Republic.
The second section is dedicated to the Czechoslovak republic and its armed forces between the world wars, and the third section maps the period of the II. World War, and the involvement of the Czech and Slovak people in the military operations, home resistance and other events aimed at restoring the independence of Czechoslovakia. In addition to weapons, the exhibitions show many unique uniforms, banners, marks of distinction, and also personal memorabilia of the Czechoslovak presidents and leading army representatives.
The Operation Anthropoid Memorial is a memorial in Prague that commemorates Operation Anthropoid, the code name refers to the assassination of senior Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich by Czechoslovakian partisans on 27 May It lasted for almost six months.
As the bulk of the Red Army involved in the Belgrade operation continued their offensive in Hungary, the Yugoslav Army, accustomed to guerrilla warfare in the mountainous terrain of the Dinaric Alps, remained to fight the entrenched front line heavily contested by the Axis on the flat ground of the Pannonian plain. Young men from Vojvodina and Central Serbia, many from freshly liberated regions, were drafted en masse and sent to the front, and the amount of training they received and their casualty levels remain in dispute.
Although mostly stationary, the front moved several times, generally westward, as the Axis forces were pushed back. In late March and early April , Yugoslav Army units mounted a general offensive on all fronts. The Belgrade Military Museum is intended on the military history of Serbia, since Antiquity until the civil war in A large number of tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery, they are all a part of outside exhibition.
The Museum of Aviation was founded in in Belgrade. It is located adjacent to Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, with 6. It owns over aircraft previously operated by the Yugoslav Air Force, Serbian Air Force, and others, as well as aircraft previously flown by several civil airliners and private flying clubs. The Military Museum collects, documents, preserves, studies, examines and presents museum material related to the life and work of the Slovenian army.
The Museum portrays different historical periods that shaped the present image of Slovenia, its inhabitants, and army. It also monitors and documents the Slovenian army development. Collections include museum objects, archive and library material, visual artworks, videothequeunit, and photographs. With this document the II. World War ended for the Slovenians. A memorial room that represents partial German capitulation of the army troop E and German forces in southeast Europe.
You can see a short film about the events occurring in these parts in May Behind the glass wall is a reconstruction of the signing of capitulation that was one of the most important events on our territory during the II. Teharje camp was a prison camp near Teharje, Slovenia, during the II. World War, organized by Nazi Germany and used after the war by the Partisans.
In , Nazi forces built a military camp for approximately people in Teharje, including six residential barracks and ten other buildings. Towards the end of the war, Nazis used the camp to hold prisoners that had participated in the defense of the city Celje, and the camp was abandoned for a short time after the war.
The camp was reactivated by the Yugoslav communists at the end of May to accommodate former members of the Slovene Home Guard and others that had collaborated with the Germans, as well as civilians that had fled before the advancing Yugoslav People's Army to Allied camps in Austrian Carinthia.
On 31 May , the entire 2nd Assault Battalion headed by Vuk Rupnik was brought to Teharje, the battalion was known by the name Rupnik's battalion. In the first days of June , approximately 3. It is estimated that the postwar authorities executed approximately 5. World War ended in Europe. Memorial with a tomb in which are buried the mortal remains of those who fell.
The memorial was built in memory Partisans, who fell in a battle for Suha Krajina. Around the monument are the public announcements of the executions of some people who were condemned to death by the German forces. The memorial as well pays tribute for foreigners, who fought in Slovene National Liberation Struggle.
The memorial was built and is a work of Marjana Tepine. Large spherical bronze memorial where are photos of a group of people. Rupnik Line named after the Slovene general in the Yugoslav army, Leon Rupnik, was a line of fortifications and weapons installations that Yugoslavia constructed along its terrestrial western and northern border. The construction of the line was a safety measure taken in order to counter the construction of Alpine Wall, a line built by the bordering country Italy, as well as against imposing danger of a German invasion.
Yugoslavia's Rupnik line was inspired by various other fortification systems built along borders. It was established to provide good positions to enforce the existing border, as well as to repel a potential invasion. Although there were troops manning the fortifications at its peak, the line was never used to full potential, as it was largely unprepared and abandoned by the time Yugoslavia was invaded in April by Italy, Germany, and Hungary. The Trail of Remembrance and Comradeship also referred to as the Trail Along the Wire, is a gravel-paved recreational and memorial walkway almost 33 km 21 mi long and 4 m 13 ft wide around the city of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.
The walkway leads past Koseze Pond and across the Golovec Hill. During II. World War, the Province of Ljubljana, annexed by Fascist Italy, was subjected to brutal repression after the emergence of resistance and the Italian forces erected a barbed wire fence around Ljubljana in order to prevent communication between the city's underground Liberation Front activists in Ljubljana and the Slovene Partisans in the surrounding countryside. The trail was built since and it was completed in It is marked by signposts, information boards with the map of the trail, plaques, and metal markers, as well as signposts at the turn-offs.
One hundred and two octagonal memorial stones have been installed at the former positions of the bunkers. Along the green area adjacent to it, 7.
Since , it has been protected as a designed nature monument. The battlefield of Pohorje Battalion is located at "Three Nails", 30 minutes on a footpath from Osankarica home. At "Three Nails" there is a main local and municipal monument from the National Liberation Struggle when on this spot fell whole Pohorje Battalion.
The Osankarica home has a museum collection in its extension, an exhibition named "Partisan Pohorje". Special attention is paid to the last standby fighters of the Pohorje Battalion at Osankarica on 8 January After fighting overwhelmingly superior German forces for two and a half hours, 69 fighters, including women, lost their lives.
Only one partisan was captured alive by the Germans and he was later shot as a hostage. The Pohorje Battalion became a legend in the resistance of the Slovenes against the occupation. The Park of Military History in Pivka, Slovenia, is a museum and adventure center, which is located in a former Italian barracks.
An exhibition is composed of tanks and artillery collection. It also includes the Italian fortress on Rapallo border.
The mighty Katzenstein Castle in the middle of the settlement served as a Gestapo prison during the time of Nazi occupation. A part of the former prison cells in the extension of the castle has been converted into a memorial museum, nearby in a park, near village Draga, there is a mass grave of hostages.
The Museum of National Liberation of Maribor has been functioning as an autonomous museum since It is a historical museum dealing primarily with museological and historiographical analyses of the recent history of the North-Eastern parts of Slovenia.
The new collection will present the major turning points of the 20th century — I. World War, Independence War, lives of local inhabitants, the misery of simple people whose lives, though residing in the same city, were totally different from those of the wealthier classes.
The Lokev Military Museum represents the biggest private collection this sort in Europe. All the artifacts are unique. One of the few instances has a special place a sword with a gold handle, such as Adolf Hitler giving its officers for special merits. It is preserved only 11 such swords. Also one of the rarest artifacts is a child's gas mask and a soap from the Dachau concentration camp. The Museum of Contemporary History in Slovenia is a national museum, dedicated to heritage of contemporary history from the start of the 20th century until today.
The museum's collections from the I. World War, collections from an era between the wars, an era of communism and about the liberated country of Slovenia. World War here was the first Assembly of the emissaries of the Slovene nation in the building, from 1 till 4 October They were the first directly elected representation of an occupied nation in Europe during II.
The assembly was the largest political gathering during the national liberation war and with its declarative rather that constitutional meaning it is an important cornerstone in the development of the national liberation fight on Slovene territory. The collection is exhibited in a hall and it means a unique show of historical events. He was one of the most important actors of National Liberation Struggle. After his death he became a national hero, there is a song to honor him, a lot of elementary schools are named after him, also the barracks was named in his honor: The Barracks of Franc Rozman - Stane.
This battle was the first direct confrontation between the two. Fighting both numerically and equipment-wise vastly superior Germans the Partisan Cankar Battalion numbering combatants suffered eight casualties throughout the entire battle. German forces suffered 26 casualties according to German documents.
After three days of fighting, the Partisans were forced to leave the village. After the battle, the Partisans were pursued and killed by the Germans.
It was also highly praised after Slovenia declared independence and introduced democracy. A museum collection is on display in the cellar of the Dravograd municipal building, depicting the horrors of the Gestapo based in Dravograd during II.
The imprisoned partisans, their associates, and supporters, as well as mere suspects, were brutally tortured there, and some even died as a result. The survivors were shot as hostages in nearby forests or transported to concentration camps.
Several houses and farm buildings were burnt down in the Dravograd area, with the locals killed or burnt alive. Partisan techniques were secret printeries, that reproduced partisan journal. In the year , they start working in Gorenjska region. They print, radio reports, leaflets with slogans, flyers and other propaganda material. The Partisan press played an important role in the fight against occupation.
It encouraged the population to join forces of the National Liberation Struggle. The exhibition covers the time from the first organized proletarian activity before II.
World War to the liberation of Novo mesto on 8 May , with the main focus on the activities during the war, the National Liberation Struggle in this part of Slovenia. An extra feature of the exhibition is photo albums and the memorial hall with the names of almost 3. The venue of the exhibition is one of the few museum buildings that were built specifically for that purpose in Slovenia after II.
The exhibition shows moments of despair when people are leaving their homes, their stay in the German concentration camps and happy returns to the home village. A number of documents, letters, postcards, maps and some items that are used by people in exile, are on display. Also, the museum has a memorial book of testimonies of those who survived the horrors of the German concentration camps.
Also, it displays collected works that describe the happenings during II. The covert partisan hospital complex comprised six units and was being built on the western Pohorje Hills from April until the end of the war by Dr. Around wounded people were treated in the hospital units. Despite German strongholds in the valley and numerous field searches, the occupation forces never found the hospital units.
The Jesen Partisan Hospital is the only renovated partisan hospital on the eastern Pohorje. In the second half of October , they started to build the hospital, that is how the hospital got the name Jesen, which means Autumn. The first wounded were taken care on the 6.
January The transfer of the wounded to the hospital was very tough because they have to take the victims over long distances and cover the tracks so that the enemy would not find them. The hospital has preserved documents showing that 25 wounded were treated there.
According to the statements of the medical team, there were many more patients. At the end of May , they left the hospital and the wounded were transferred to a military hospital in the Maribor Gosposvetska road. World War hospital at the Dolenji Novaki near Cerkno.
It was run by the Slovene Partisans from December until the end of the war as part of a broadly organized resistance movement against the Fascist and Nazi occupying forces. Built in difficult and rugged terrain in the remote Pasica Gorge. The hospital was located deep inside German-occupied Europe, only a few hours from Austria and the central parts of the Third Reich. German military activity was frequent in the general region throughout the operation of the hospital.
The hospital's entrance was hidden in the forest, and the hospital could only be reached by bridges. The bridges could be retracted if the enemy was in the vicinity. In order to preserve the secrecy necessary for a clandestine hospital to operate, the patients were blindfolded during transportation to the facility. The hospital was named after its manager and physician, Franja Bojc Bidovec, who began working there in February Extremely well equipped for a clandestine partisan operation, the hospital remained intact until the end of the war.
It was designed to provide treatment to as many as patients at a time. Most of its patients were wounded anti-Nazi resistance fighters, who could not go to regular hospitals because they would be arrested. Among its patients were many nationalities, including one wounded German enemy soldier who, after being treated, remained in the hospital as a member of the hospital staff.
The hospital operated until 5 May It became a part of the Cerkno Museum in The collection recalls important events in the first half of the 20th century. At the turn of the century, though economic conditions forced thousands of Bela Krajina people to emigrate in different countries, most of them in the United States of America.
In former Yugoslavia, Bela Krajina was only slowly picking from backwardness. On the outbreak of II. World War Bela Krajina fell into the Italian occupation zone. After the capitulation of Italy in , the area between the Kolpa river and Gorjanci mountains became a free partisan territory, this was a unique phenomenon, not only in the II. World War, but also in the entire history of warfare.
Near a village Dolenjske Toplice between karst doline and densely planted pine trees, the National Liberation Movement hid the partisan hospitals, printer shops, and workshops. The town Hunkovce is located near the main road across the Dukla Pass.
It has a German II. World War cemetery, the place of the last rest for more than 3, German soldiers who died between It is dedicated in honor the deaths of Russian soldiers during the Battle of Dukla in autumn The Observation Tower was built on the altitude in the original place as the commander's observation post of General Ludvik Svoboda celebrating the 30th anniversary of Carpathian-Dukla Operation.
It is 49 m high and was built on the site of an original wooden observation tower. Today a peaceful rural area on the Slovak-Polish border, the Dukla Mountain Pass witnessed one of the biggest and most bloody battles of II. Three months after the Allies landed in Normandy, on the other side of Europe burst a frantic battle between the Soviet Red Army supported by the Czechoslovak Corps and the defending German and Hungarian forces fortified in the Carpathian Mountains on the Slovak-Polish border.
In a small town of Svidnik, there is an open-air museum. Here you will touch and see war machines, cannons, and vehicles, with most interesting exhibits being the Soviet Katyusha rocket launcher, the tank T 34, the German armored carrier D-7, the soviet infantry mortar M and the soviet transport airplane.
The Valley of Death is located in the Dukla Pass just outside the village of Svidnik in the northeastern corner of Slovakia. In this valley several tanks and other remains from one of the great tank battles of II. World War, the Battle of the Dukla Pass, can still be seen. Some of the tanks are left almost where they stopped during the battle, while other have been turned into monuments. Most of the tanks are Russian model T This small but extremely moving museum commemorates perhaps the most harrowing period of the city's history, the day Blockade of Leningrad which lasted from 8 September to 17 January For two-and-a-half years, the citizens of Leningrad suffered chronic privations and constant bombardment.
Although the precarious Road of Life brought supplies across the ice of Lake Ladoga in the winter months, the food was woefully short, fuel was scarce in winter, and in summer the dire state of sanitation spread disease at epidemic levels. In all, over Their sacrifice and the extraordinary endurance of the survivors is etched on the conscience of the city, a source of immense pride and profound sorrow. The museum consists of open-air and indoor permanent exhibitions of many famous tanks and armored vehicles.
To commemorate the heroic efforts of the residents of Leningrad and the soldiers on the Leningrad Front to the repel the Nazis in the day Siege of Leningrad during II.
Leningrad was never occupied by Germans. The Road of Life was the ice road winter transport route across the frozen Lake Ladoga, which provided the only access to the besieged city of Leningrad now St. The siege lasted from 8 September to 27 January Over one million citizens of Leningrad died from starvation, stress, exposure and bombardments.
In addition to transporting thousands of tons of munitions and food supplies each year, the Road of Life also served as the primary evacuation route for the millions of Soviets trapped within the starving city.
The road today forms part of the World Heritage Site. Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square itself is around meters 1, feet long and 70 meters feet wide, It separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod. During the Soviet era, Red Square maintained its significance, becoming a focal point for the new state.
Besides being the official address of the Soviet government, it was renowned as a showcase for military parades from onward. Lenin's Mausoleum would from onward be a part of the square complex, and also as the grandstand for important dignitaries in all national celebrations.
In the s, Kazan Cathedral and Iverskaya Chapel with the Resurrection Gates were demolished to make room for heavy military vehicles driving through the square. The buildings surrounding the Square are all significant in some respect.
Nearby is a memorial for all fallen soldiers during the II. World War with an eternal flame, along the wall of the Kremlin, are ceramic cubes filled with the soil of Soviet cities Heroes. Central Naval Museum is a naval museum in St. During the three centuries of its existence, the museum has collected more than There are over The museum has one of the world's richest collections of model ships, about 2, models, covering the history of Russian and foreign military shipbuilding.
The memorial complex was opened on 9 May About Petersburg were buried in mass graves. Near the entrance, an eternal flame is located. A marble plate affirms that from 4 September to 22 January The museum features exhibits and memorials concerning II. In the center of the museum is the Hall of Glory, a white marble room which features the names of over A large bronze sculpture, the "Soldier of Victory," stands in the center of this hall.
The upper floors feature numerous exhibits about the war, including dioramas depicting major battles, photographs of wartime activities, weapons and munitions, uniforms, awards, newsreels, letters from the battlefront, and model aircraft.
In addition, the museum maintains an electronic "memory book" which attempts to record the name and fate of every Russian soldier who died in II.
The museum is set in Victory Park, a 2,hectare park on Poklonnaya Hill. The park features a large, paved plaza, fountains, and open space where military vehicles, cannons, and other apparatus from II. World War are displayed. Vokes wanted a new strategy, but Montgomery refused, since he considered the Canadians expendable. He ordered four rifle companies with men to take the crossroads north of the gully.
They secured it on December 18, but at a cost of dead. Montgomery believed that the Germans would finally retreat. Then they began destroying buildings to block tanks and funnel the Canadians into streets they had secured.
Masters of mines, explosives, tripwires, and booby traps, they made the Canadians pay for every door they opened, every threshold they crossed, and even furniture and bricks they picked up. German media also focused on the event, so Ortona became a matter of prestige. On December 27, 24 men of the Edmonton Regiment were lured into a building which was detonated. Only 4 survived. In retaliation, they shelled a building housing 40 or 50 Germans.
Some suggested pulling out, but Vokes felt that far too many Canadians had died, so he ordered the fighting to continue. Although Hitler gave the order to hold Ortona at all costs, the Germans had had enough. By the end of the month, the main Gustav Line defences had been penetrated and the Allied troops were fighting their way forward to the next river, the Moro , 4 mi 6.
For the Moro crossing in early December the exhausted British 78th Infantry Division on the Allied right flank on the Adriatic coast had been relieved by Canadian 1st Infantry Division.
Ortona was of high strategic importance, as it was one of Italy's few usable deep water ports on the east coast, and was needed for docking allied ships and so shorten Eighth Army's lines of supply which at the time stretched back to Bari and Taranto. Allied forces were ordered to maintain the offensive, and going through the built up areas in and around Ortona was the only feasible option.
Ortona was part of the Winter Line defence system and the Germans had constructed a series of skilfully designed interlocking defensive positions in the town. This—together with the fact that the Germans had been ordered to "fight for every last house and tree"— [7] [8] made the town a formidable obstacle to any attacking force.
The Canadians faced elements of the renowned German 1st Parachute Division. These soldiers were battle-hardened after many years of war, and were ordered by Adolf Hitler to defend Ortona at any cost. The Germans also concealed various machine guns and anti-tank emplacements throughout the town, making movement by armour and infantry increasingly difficult. This tactic involved using weapons such as the PIAT or even cumbersome anti-tank guns to breach the walls of a building, as houses within Ortona shared adjoining walls.
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