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Interesting Facts and Stories

Hubert Rochereau was a second lieutenant for the French army during World War I, who died on April 26, 1918, a day after being wounded during fighting for the village of Loker in Flanders.- His parents had no idea where he was buried until 1922 when his body was discovered in a British cemetery and repatriated to the graveyard at Bélâbre.

The grief-stricken Rochereau, a distinguished military family whose forefathers were believed to go back to the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte, left his room untouched since the day the soldier left for war, then bricked up the entrance to the room.

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In 1935, Hubert Rochereau’s parents bequeathed their substantial mansion house in Bélâbre to a military friend, General Eugène Bridoux, on the express condition that their late son’s room would remain untouched and unchanged for 500 years.

Seven years later, Bridoux became secretary of state in the Vichy regime and was responsible for organising the deportation of Jewish families to the Nazi concentration camps. During the Allied liberation of France, he escaped to Germany before being captured and returned to France where he again escaped and fled to Franco’s Spain where he remained until his death in 1955.

Bridoux was condemned to death by the French authorities in absentia and his house in Bélâbre confiscated as the property of a collaborator. Laroche said it was rented to a family of solicitors until it was reclaimed in the 1950s by Bridoux’s granddaughter, whose husband, Daniel Fabre, still lives in the house.

from:
theguardian
huffingtonpost
borneobulletin
 
So, what happened to the room?

No idea mate, this is the last thing on the web about it, one year ago:

Mr Fabre has preserved the bedroom in its original state and said he hopes any new owner will do the same.
The bedroom has since remained untouched but there are fears that a future owner could clear it out as the 500 year clause in the original 1936 sale document has no basis under French law.
Mr Fabre told the Nouvelle Republique newspaper: 'This clause had no legal basis, but we believe the room should be left unchanged.
'If we sell, we will be looking for a new owner that respects Hubert Rochereau's memory and keeps this extraordinary museum piece intact.'
Now the Mayor of Belabre Laurent Laroche is appealing for benefactors to help preserve the unique historical site by transforming it into a museum.
He said: 'They knew about the room at the end of the corridor but had never seen it because it was bricked up. So they broke down the wall and made this strange discovery.
'It would be a great shame for it to disappear. As someone who loves history, I feel it's also important not to forget the sacrifice made by men like Rochereau.'


from: daily, dec 2014
 
In 1898, 14 years before the Titanic sank, Morgan Robertson (American author of short stories and novels, 1861 – 1915) was a well-known American wrote a book about a ship called the \"Titan\" that crashed into an iceberg and sank. The book is Futility or The Wreck of the Titan. In addition to having the same outcome (crashing into an iceberg and sinking, the fictional \"Titan\" and the real-life \"Titanic\" had other bizarre similarities. They were both over 800 feet long. They both were known as \"unsinkable\". They both sunk in the North Atlantic. They both didn\'t have enough lifeboats. They both had 3000 passengers. There\'s some big differences too. Most importantly, more people survived from the real Titanic than from the Titan.
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Twenty-three sets of brothers died aboard USS Arizona.
There were 37 confirmed pairs or trios of brothers assigned to USS Arizona on December 7, 1941. Of these 77 men, 62 were killed, and 23 sets of brothers died. Only one full set of brothers, Kenneth and Russell Warriner, survived the attack; Kenneth was away at flight school in San Diego on that day and Russell was badly wounded but recovered. Both members of the ship’s only father-and-son pair, Thomas Augusta Free and his son William Thomas Free, were killed in action.
 
Pearl Harbour from above

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The above photograph taken from a Japanese aircraft of Pearl Harbor at the beginning of the attack had long history. A young American sailor found a creased and crumpled version of it (which I could only scanned below) on the wall of a photo-engraving shop at the Imperial Navy Base in Yokohama, Japan in 1945. He took the photo of the badly-damaged photograph, and brought it back to the U.S.

He published it in many newspapers and magazines as a war souvenir. After Life magazine popularized the image in its bicentennial issue in 1975, Time magazine delved into its archives and pulled out an unwrinkled, perfect print (above), which presumably arrived to its headquarters through a neutral embassy sometime in 1942. Although both Time and Life published it in April and July 1942 respectively, by then the U.S. was already in a full-scale war in Europe, and the photo was buried in the deluge of war news. Only with the coming of the crumpled version–taken from the wing of a Japanese aircraft arriving over Honolulu–was the interest rekindled.

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In the photo, the explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the USS West Virginia.

From: iconicphotos.wordpress.com
 
The Swiss Mini Gun, produced in Switzerland by SwissMiniGun, is considered the world's smallest working revolver. The revolver measures merely 5.5 cm long, 3.5 cm tall and 1 cm wide, weighing only 19.8g. Ammunition is 2.34mm rimfire, also produced by SwissMiniGun. There is a key ring holster that comes with the gun when it is bought and can be clipped to a belt loop.
Swiss Mini Gun is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's smallest working revolver. This is a double-action revolver and has all the same features as are found on a real size gun. The manufacture of this exceptionally miniature revolver has only been made possible by exploiting the expertise and technologies of the Swiss Watch and Jewellery Industry.

The MfS/HVA (east german secret police) had such weapons as well - maybe even much more tiny. I know of a pistol what only had one shot what was about 2 cm (two fingernails wide) long if I estimate right and its "bullet" only 2 mm in diameter. The east german pendant/counterpart to the swiss revolver looks similar. It was made to get hidden under the beret/cap or in similar hiding-places. One could hold in one fist without a part looking out. The bullet of the key-ring-gun (the 2cm version) fired a bullet what was made of metal, poison and duff.

Greetings :)
 
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On Oct, 28, 1939, the RAF had the distinction of having the first pilot to down an enemy aircraft over the British Isles during the war. The bomber crash-landed near the village of Humbie, which sits 15-miles south of Edinburgh, later dubbed the "Humbie Heinkel".

The historic black-and-white photograph shows crowds gathered to see the crumpled Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111 wreckage.
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The last major eruption of Vesuvius happened on 1944, in the midst of WWII. At the time of the eruption, the USAAF 340th Bombardment Group was based at Pompeii Airfield near Terzigno - Italy, just a few kilometers from the eastern base of the mountain.
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On Sept 29, 1940, two Avro Anson australians were conducting a training flight when both were out of sight among the clouds. The N4876 fell and landed on the L9162 being joined by the mass of iron in the plane crash. The situation looked very critical as everything indicated that both aircraft would crash into the ground while trying to land. However, both crew managed to land one on another, with only minor injuries. The trainee pilot L. Fuller got to plan a distance of 8 km up to land at the aerodrome of Wagga. The device above only received minor damage and was returned to service shortly thereafter. The bottom suffered more damage and was used as the cell of instruction to be very high repair cost.

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Fuller was sent to fight in Europe, with the RAAF, and won the Distinguished Flying Medal for his service. In a twist of fate unworthy of such distinguished acts of aviation, was killed in 1944 when he was hit by a bus while riding his bicycle in Sale, Victoria.

guerra-abierta.blogspot.com.ar
 
On 20 April, 1941, the morning after 150 incendiary bombs had gutted St. Bartholomew’s, East Ham, UK, a bride and groom arrived at the wrecked church. They found charred timbers and ravaged walls were all that was left of the church where they were to be married that day. But Helen Fowler, aged 20 of Caledon Road, East Ham and her Canadian soldier sweetheart, Cpl. Christopher Morrison, aged 21 of the 48th Highlanders stood proudly amid the ruins of the bombed-out church and married anyway.

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The wedding of the corporal from the 48th Highlanders and the Dagenham Girl Piper made front page news in Britain and Canada. Local papers of the time were not allowed to reveal it was St. Bart's that had been wrecked by fire until months afterwards. News blackouts were in force to keep information from the enemy, and in some cases the public.
 
Radoje Ljutovac – Raka (1887/1968), was a serbian army artillery soldier who shot down an enemy aircraft with a cannon in 1915.

During the WW1 he was assigned to the newly formed Anti-Aircraft Battery. On September 30, 1915, during the attack of three enemy aircraft on Kragujevac, Radoje Ljutovac – Raka managed to shoot down the enemy aircraft from the first try, and was later awarded with the Order of the Karađorđe’s Star with Swords and was promoted to the rank of corporal.

This moment is considered the beginning of the Serbian air defense, and according to the available data, it was the world’s first aircraft shootdown with a cannon.

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The picture shows the memorial to Radoje Ljutovac on the hill Metino brdo in Kragujevac, Serbia.
 
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Calvin Graham (April 3, 1930 – November 6, 1992) was only 12 years old when he lied to get into the US Navy. He wasn't found out until he was wounded at Guadacanal. He was dishonorably discharged, but his benefits were restored eventually.
 
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