The Battle of Bastogne

This is an interview that my grandfather did about his experiences in Bastogne during WW2.

Interview with Ben Molinaro About the Battle of Bastogne

Then we happened to go to the Red Cross building about November 27th -- no, December something.  Wait.  This was in December we went.  This was about December 20th.

While we were in the show, two MPs walk in and says, "Any 101st Airborne here?"  Well, I thought they wanted to just ask us questions or had something to do for us in town there.  We all raised our hands, about 15 of us.

They says, "Come on.  You gotta jump in the truck."  We said, "Where we're going?"  He says, "I got orders to take you to this place."  They took us to an area where we met our division.

 Q    Where was your stuff though, I mean?

 I didn't have nothing.  They took us there, and I had my Class A clothes on.  I didn't have no clothes or nothing.  And they took us, and we met our outfit.  They took us in trucks.                 And while we're going in trucks, I said, "Sir, how come everybody is going this way, and we're going forward?  Everybody's going out."  He said, "That's 75^th  Division.  I think the Germans have had an assailant there, and they're really beat up."  So I took some of their equipment.  I said, "You got any equipment to give me?"  And they gave me a coat that they had and some

equipment. 

And we proceeded going up, and we met our outfit.  Our outfit was just a little bit south of

Bastogne area where we were going forward.    And they said, "Oh, glad to see you."  He says,

  "Here's your radio.  It's ready for you."  And they gave me the radio.

And all of a sudden they said, "Dig in.  We're going to have a defensive area here."  So we all dug in all around a circle with the 327th, the 502, 506, and the 327 artillery battalion, whatever we had.  And we thought it was going to be a quiet position.

Then all of a sudden a big heavy fog comes in and snow and rain.  First it was snow, and it just stayed  there and a big heavy fog.  Then the Germans hit us with about three or four divisions.  I don't know what it was.  They circled us, and they were trying to get us out of   there.

          Q    Now when you say they hit us, it would be artillery and lateral fire?

Artillery, small arm fire, tanks, yeah.

          Q    And you're in a foxhole?

 We were all in foxholes.  They were coming.  Well, we successfully defended that.  Then they backed off.  And then artillery for the next two or three days just blowing the hell out of us.

And at night then the company commander said, "I  got orders.  You gotta go for a patrol.  I'd go for a patrol.  Well, when that snow -- cold, my hands were frozen.  I got frozen feet.  And after about two days, I got frozen feet.  They sent me back where the sick station is in Bastogne.

 I went in there and while treating me for feet, there were hundreds of guys with their bellies almost shot off.  I just felt so bad about it.  I said, "Get me out of here.  I want to go back."

 I went back.  They told me put some kind of salve and change my socks.  And they told me try and keep them dry, which was hard to do.  So I went back.  And then   while we were there, we did patrolling at night.  And they would give me a white sheet, you know, to blend in with -- and the white sheets were so long, and I'm short.  But I'd go on patrol with them, and I'm supposed to have guards with me to protect me too when I go.

And it was reconnaissance with only seven guys.  All of a sudden, the Germans must have spied us, and the guys I had with me ran off.  And I was left with that radio.  And for some reason or other, I got scared or something happened.  I threw the radio off, and I ran to get away because I had to pick up my sheet because I was stumbling all over the place.  I ran.  And when I got back, they asked me where's my radio.  I says, "I left it." 

He said, "Holy mackerel."  He said, "Did you pull the pin on it?"  I said, "I forgot."  Well, they had to change all the code system. 

          Q    {Laughs}.  Did you get in trouble for that?

 That was a boo-boo.  I pulled it.  And the colonel says, "You know, I could have you shot for that."     {Laughs}.  Yeah.

I says, "Sir, they were shooting at us, and they  left me.  I only had a pistol."      {Laughs}.

 So I thought sure that at that time I'm not going to be operator no more.  I'd rather stay with the platoon.  They gave me another radio with a new system.  "But next time," he says, "whenever you drop your radio or if you're a situation like that, pull your pin."

          Q    And what happens?  It sort of --

It blows up and destroys the radio.

          Q    Oh, okay.  So they can't use it.

That was the only mistake I made in the Army.

          Q    Bastogne then, there was a lot of snow?  It was cold?

Lot of snow, frozen people, and we lost a lot ofA    Lot of snow, frozen people, and we lost a lot of men there.

          Q    Any friends you lot there at that time?

 Oh, yeah.  I lost Lombardino there.  He got wounded, and he was on the field.  We couldn't go pick him up, and he was yelling, calling all kinds of names.  I said, "Sir, we should send some --"  He says, "We send somebody, three of them will get killed trying to get him."  We were in a hot area.  When we finally got to him, he was gone.  He had his legs shot off.

          Q    You said, I don't know if it was here or somewhere else, there was a captain or a sergeant that you knew.  Somebody in a foxhole, and I don't know where that was, if that was Bastogne or somewhere else.

Yeah, that was in Bastogne. 

          Q    Who was this now?

 Just about two or three days before Christmas, a new lieutenant came up.  And Captain Towns said, "Ben, I want your hole," he says, "because I got to instruct the new officer about how we are here."  He said, "You got a double hole."  Because I had -- and I had an assistant.  His name was Plantago.  He was my assistant.  He says, "Could I use your hole?"  He took my hole.  All of a sudden, a mortar shell hit, and my company commander got hit.  I didn't think it was bad because he says it was his back.  So he looked at me, and he says, "I had to use your hole to get hurt in."  But then last time we heard, he died out there.

His name was Captain Towns.  Wonderful captain.

          Q    When you're talking about a hole or a double, how big are we talking about these foxholes?

A double hole -- you know, a hole is 3 feet wide and about 6 foot long and about 8 inches deep.

Just to keep your body under it.  It was no good against a mortar shell.  But it was good against small arms.

          Q    Okay.  With Bastogne, do you remember -- did you guys have any idea that you were truly surrounded?  I mean, did you know that?

Oh, yes, we knew that.  Because then they told all our cooks and everybody to get a gun and shoot because it was just like shooting fish in a barrel.   The Germans for some reason were very young kids.  And they were in front of the tanks coming in.  Everybody was shooting like crazy.  They didn't know what they were doing.  It wasn't what they called the real German Army.  It was young kids.  It was near the end of the war, you know.  That was the Germans' last deal to make an assailant all the way to the ocean there and split us in half.  That's when they hit Bastogne.  After that, the war was over.

          Q    Any issues about -- I mean, were you worried about enough food?  Because they were talking about no one could get to you.

 Oh, we had very little food.  Finally -- about three or four days after Christmas, I can't remember because it's so long ago, the skies cleared up, and they dropped supplies and everything.     And then about a day or two later, Patton broke through.

          Q    Right.  Going back though, do you remember that, as everyone knows, the Germans did go to one of the U.S. commanders, the top commander, and asked him to surrender?

  Oh, yeah.

          Q    Tell me.  Did you know about that as a soldier there?

   All of a sudden, the 327th and the paratroopers right through our area, three guys with a flag -- one guy with a flag.  And the guys all looked and says, "Oh, maybe they're going to give up.  See?"

          Q    {Laughs}.

 So then our company commander and somebody else called the colonel.  They came and they escorted him.  They blindfolded him, escorted him to Bastogne where our general was, General McAuliffe.    And they went to the general and said, "This is an ultimatum.  Either you surrender or we're going to blast the heck out of you."  Well, the general turned and looked and says,       "Tell 'em 'Nuts.'"  The Germans went back with the message -  we let them go back, and that's when they said they didn't know what the word "nuts" mean. 

And then the Germans opened up on us, artillery, oh, solid.  And we were all shaking in our boots in there.  Because you don't know where the artillery are going to hit.  It was like freight trains coming over your head.  They say the one that gets you -- gets hit, you don't hear.

 But I heard every one of those.

          Q    {Laughs}.  Now, you guys ended up getting through Christmas.  Do you remember Christmas Eve or Christmas Day there?

 We were -- I remember we asked, "I want to take Holy Communion," and the Catholic chaplain came to the front.  I said, "Sir, isn't there a place to bring us where it's safe a little bit?"     {Laughs}.   He says, "Right here."  He came to our hole and gave us Communion.  Everybody was religious then, Jewish people, all.  We had one Jewish guy, Spector I guess his name is.  He said, "Ben, does that  help you out?"  I said, "Yeah, so far it's keeping me alive."  He said, "Give me one too."  {Laughs}. 

Q    So I bet then Christmas was not – I mean, you knew it was Christmas, but I'm sure it was no different than other days there.

 Then when Patton broke through, six or seven kettles of turkey came, that big {indicating}.  But we were all starving.  So the doctor that was there to come with them, like a field doc, he said, "Don't eat too much."  He says, "You guys haven't been eating much, you know, you'll get

sick."  But boy, we spied that chicken.  There was enough for 150 guys.  We only had about 70 left, I think.    {Laughs}.

That's also when 10 of our men got captured, Bowen, Damato, and his whole squad.  And DeMarco got killed there, too.  We lost a quite a few guys.

          Q    Captured, probably they were on patrol or something like that?

Yeah, they were captured.  Well, the Germans broke through that little area. 

          Q    Oh, okay.  So then finally Patton came through.

You know, at one time Patton didn't like us.  He called us overpaid shoe shine boys.  But Hitler called "killers with baggy pants."

          Q    Where did the baggy pants come from?

Yeah, that's what Hitler called us.

          Q    Yeah.  Why baggy pants, what do you mean?

Because we had baggy pants with pockets.

         Q    Carrying all your stuff?

Oh, all the Airborne had different than the Army.  We had pockets all over, because you gotta have that to carry all your stuff.

          Q    {Laughs}.  Then after Bastogne you went back?  Did you go back to England then, after that, do you remember?

 After Bastogne, we went back to the rest area because they wanted to give us a rest.  Because at that time they gave us -- I received -- at that time we got notice that we all received the      Bronze Star for the battle of Bastogne.  I think it was, because that's when we got it, after our time in Bastogne.

Radio Operator

In WW2 my grandfather was a radio operator. This radio was super heavy. It hard enough that you had the weight of yourself when you fall out of the planes as a paratrooper. But he also had to carry that radio. In Saving Private Ryan when  Tom Hanks was on the beach talking to the guy about how they needed more troops, and the guys face was gone. Well that was my grandfathers job. He had to listen and repeat everything. It was a hard job. 

My family's WW2 Experience

My grandfather also had three brothers who served in WW2. His brother Sam Molinaro served in the army in England as a Military Police Man. I heard he broke up a lot of fights between army enlisted men. His brother Larry Molinaro served in the Navy near the end of the war. He was on a military destroyer in the Pacific. And his oldest brother Frank Molinaro served in the Army in the Philippines. He worked in the motor pool fixing trucks and jeeps. He also fought in some battles in the Pacific. The sad news is that Frank came back suffering from shell shock. It bothered him his whole life.

My grandfather, Ben who is 91 years old doesn't talk much of the war. But he did visit my history class last year to talk with us.

                                                                                                                            Frank Molinaro

My family's WW2 Experience

My grandfather, Ben Molinaro served in the US Army from Jan. 1942 through Dec. 1945 as a paratrooper and radio operator in the 101st Airborne.  Initially, he was part of the 401st Glider Infantry Regiment (GIR), 1st Battalion, Company C, until it was transferred during the war to be the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment (GIR), 3rd Battalion, Company C.  He trained at Camp Claiborne in Louisiana, at the Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base in Maxton, North Carolina, and at Brock Barracks in Reading, England.

His unit fought battles in Normandy (France), in Holland, at Bastogne (Belgium), and in Germany.  They landed by sea (with the 4th Infantry Division, 8th Infantry Regiment) at Utah Beach (Uncle Red sector and Victor sector) during the Normandy invasion; they glider-landed into Holland for Operation Market Garden; and they moved by truck to defend Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.  He also fought through Germany in the Rhineland and Berchtesgarden campaigns and his unit occupied Hitler's Eagle's Nest headquarters near the end of the war.

In France, he fought at Sainte-Come-du-Mont, at the Douve River, at Carentan, and at Montmartin-en-Graignes.  In Holland, he fought at the cities of Zon and at Erp.  In Belgium, he fought at Bastogne, at Flomizoulle, in the Battle of Champs, at Lutremage, at Bourcy, at Hardigny, at Foy, and at the Bastogne-Houffalize Highway.  In the German Ruhr area, he fought at Nuess and at Berchtesgarden.

As a member of the Glider Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne, he earned several medals, including the Bronze Star, the American Campaign medal, the Distinguished Unit Badge, the European Campaign medal with four Bronze Battle Stars, the French Croix de Guerre medal, the Belgian Croix de Guerre medal, and the Orange Lanyard of the Royal Netherlands Army.

He met his future wife in England and they married in June 1945.  Eileen Vaughan Molinaro was born in Pentre, South Wales.  He father was a coal miner in the Rhondda Valley.  Prior to World War II, her family had moved to Reading, England.  During the war, they dealt with rationing, severe food and supply shortages, and constant German Air Force bombing of London and Reading.  She immigrated to the United States in April 1946 to join her husband in Chicago, IL.

I want your opinion please

If Hitler did not attack Russia during WWII do you think the Axis would have won the war? I just want to know what you guys think.

Enemy at the Gates

 So today we watch a clip from Enemy at the Gates and its sad to say that this is what happened. The USSR was a big jerk to there own army. If they didn't stay and fight or if they retreated they would be killed by there own troops. It was bad enough that Germany was killing them but there own troop.... thats just sick and wrong. 

Random WW2 facts thats are interesting

World War 2 Facts

• The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937)
• The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).
• 80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn't survive World War 2
• The highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps.
• Between 1939 and 1945 the Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs, An average of about 27,700 tons of bombs each month.
• 12,000 heavy bombers were shot down in World War 2
• 2/3 of Allied bomber crews were lost for each plane destroyed
• 3 or 4 ground men were wounded for each killed
• 6 bomber crewmen were killed for each one wounded
• Over 100,000 Allied bomber crewmen were killed over Europe
• There were 433 Medals of Honor awarded during World War 2, 219 of them were given after the receipiant's death
• From 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945 in Europe the Allies had 200,000 dead and 550,000 wounded
• The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded in combat and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress).
• At the time of Pearl Harbor, the top US Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the US Army's 45^th Infantry division was the swastika, and Hitler's private train was named "Amerika". All three were soon changed for PR purposes.
• Germany lost 110 Division Commanders in combat
• 40,000 men served on U-Boats during World War 2; 30,000 never returned
• More US servicemen died in the Air Corps that the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being killed was 71%. Not that bombers were helpless. A B-17 carried 4 tons of bombs and 1.5 tons of machine gun ammo. The US 8^th Air Force shot down 6,098 fighter planes, 1 for every 12,700 shots fired.
• Germany's power grid was much more vulnerable than realized. One estimate is that if just 1% of the bombs dropped on German industry had instead been dropped on power plants, German industry would have collapsed.
• Generally speaking, there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance, Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.
• It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5^th found with a tracer round to aid in aiming. That was a mistake. The tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target, 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet, the tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. That was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.
• When allied armies reached the Rhine, the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).
• German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort.
• A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)
• Germany lost 40-45% of their aircraft during World War 2 to accidents
• The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in midair (they also sometimes cleared minefields by marching over them). "It takes a brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army". - Joseph Stalin
• The average German officer slot had to be refilled 9.2 times
• The US Army had more ships that the US Navy.
• The German Air Force had 22 infantry divisions, 2 armor divisions, and 11 paratroop divisions. None of them were capable of airborne operations. The German Army had paratroops who WERE capable of airborne operations.
• When the US Army landed in North Africa, among the equipment brought ashore were 3 complete Coca Cola bottling plants.
• 84 German Generals were executed by Hitler
• Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and forced to fight for the German Army until they were capture by the US Army.
• The Graf Spee never sank, The scuttling attempt failed and the ship was bought by the British. On board was Germany's newest radar system.
• One of Japan's methods of destroying tanks was to bury a very large artillery shell with on ly the nose exposed. When a tank came near the enough a soldier would whack the shell with a hammer. "Lack of weapons is no excuse for defeat." - Lt. Gen. Mataguchi
• Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the fire-fight. It would have been worse if there had been Japanese on the island.
• The MISS ME was an unarmed Piper Cub. While spotting for US artillery her pilot saw a similar German plane doing the same thing. He dove on the German plane and he and his co-pilot fired their pistols damaging the German plane enough that it had to make a forced landing. Whereupon they landed and took the Germans prisoner. It is unknown where they put them since the MISS ME only had two seats.
• Most members of the Waffen SS were not German.
• Air attacks caused 1/3 of German Generals' deaths
• By D-Day, the Germans had 1.5 million railway workers operating 988,000 freight cars and used 29,000 per day
• The only nation that Germany declared war on was the USA.
• During the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, British officers objected to Canadian infantrymen taking up positions in the officer's mess. No enlisted men allowed!
• By D-Day, 35% of all German soldiers had been wounded at least once, 11% twice, 6% three times, 2% four times and 2% more than 4 times
• Nuclear physicist Niels Bohr was rescued in the nick of time from German occupied Denmark. While Danish resistance fighters provided covering fire he ran out the back door of his home stopping momentarily to grab a beer bottle full of precious "heavy water". He finally reached England still clutching the bottle, which contained beer. Perhaps some German drank the heavy water...
• Germany lost 136 Generals, which averages out to be 1 dead General every 2 weeks

http://www.world-war-2.info/facts/

Evacuation for Children

The first evacuation in England was at 11.07am on Thursday 31st August 1939 the order was given to evacuate forthwith. 1.5 Million children, pregnant women and other vulnerable people such as the disabled, evacuated to safer countryside locations in just two days. They could only bring 

Boys: 2 vests, 2 pairs of pants, Pair of trousers, 2 pairs of socks, 6 handkerchiefs, Pullover or jersey
Girls:Vest, Pair of knickers, Petticoat, 2 pairs of stockings, 6 handkerchiefs(like a very long vest with shoulder straps), Blouse, Cardigan

They traveled by train and road.

  They were sent to smaller towns and villages in the countryside. Some children were sent to stay with relatives outside in the countryside, but others were sent to live with complete strangers.
Billeting officers were responsible for helping to find homes for the evacuees. Householders in the country who billeted (housed) city children were given money by the government.

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/war/evacuation1.html#1 

The Pacific or Band of Brother?

So I can't pick between which series I love more. I first saw Band of Brother only because my dad said "This is what your grandfather did" Well at the time I could careless. But now all this was stuff about what my grandfather did is so cool to learn about. And now the Pacific. We all started watching this in class and i have to say im loving it. It goes more in detail and it doesn't stay on that on division. So you get what everyone is doing. So I can't pick its a tie. They are both so good.

Why a camp?

I think that America put the Japanese people in this camp because they wanted to protect them. I know that a lot of people didn't like them, but America wanted to stop the racism against them. And the only way to do that was to put them away for a while so America could understand that Japanese Americans are not doing anything wrong. And that we need to think about what was really important right now. Being mean to the Japanese or getting ready to fight another big war?

Adolf Hitler avitar

                                                                  Adolf Hitler sees all.......

Kill or be Killed

If I was being bombed like this I don't think I would want to live there anymore. This is one of the scariest moments that the British civilians had to face. And most of the time they didn't know when it will happen or where. I think that the Germans did this because its kill or be killed.

17 Strange Facts About Hitler

PERSONAL APPEARANCE
• Hitler never allows anyone to see him while he is naked or bathing. He refuses to use cologne or scents of any sort on his body
• No matter how warm he feels, Hitler will never take off his coat in public
• In 1923, Nazi press secretary Dr. Sedgwick tried to convince Hitler to get rid of his trademark mustache or grow it normally. Hitler answered: "Do not worry about my mustache. If it is not the fashion now, it will be later because I wear it!"
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
• While dining with the others, Hitler will allow the conversation to linger on general topics, but after a couple of hours he will inevitably begin one of his many monologues. These speeches are flawless from start to finish because he rehearses them any time he gets a moment.
• His favorite topics include: "When I was a soldier," "When I was in Vienna," "When I was in prison," and "When I was the leader in the early days of the party."
• If Hitler begins speaking about Wagner and the opera, no one dares interrupt him. He will often sermonize on this topic until his audience falls asleep.
PERSONAL HABITS
• Hitler has no interest in sports or games of any kind and never exercised, except for an occasional walk.
• He paces frequently inside rooms, always to the same tune that he whistles to himself and always diagonally across the room, from corner to corner
• Hitler’s handwriting is impeccable. When famous psychologist Carl Jung saw Hitler’s handwriting in 1937, he remarked: "Behind this handwriting I recognize the typical characteristics of a man with essentially feminine instinct."
ENTERTAINMENT
• Hitler loves the circus. He takes real pleasure in the idea that underpaid performers are risking their lives to please him.
• He went to the circus on several occasions in 1933 and sent extremely expensive chocolates and flowers to the female performers. Hitler even remembered their names and would worry about them and their families in the event of an accident.
• He isn’t interested in wild animal acts, unless there is a woman in danger
• Nearly every night Hitler will see a movie in his private theatre, mainly foreign films that are banned to the German public. He loves comedies and will often laugh merrily at Jewish comedians. Hitler even liked a few Jewish singers, but after hearing them he would remark that it was too bad he or she wasn’t Aryan.
• Hitler staff secretly made films for him of torture and execution of political prisoners, which he very much enjoyed viewing. His executive assistants also secured pornographic pictures and movies for him.
• He loves newsreels – especially when he is in them.
• He adores gypsy music, Wagner’s operas, and especially American college football marches and alma maters.
• To excite the masses, he also uses American College football-style music during his speeches. His rallying cry – "Sieg Heil!" – was even modeled after the cheering techniques used by American football cheerleaders.

http://www.neatorama.com/2007/09/17/17-strange-facts-about-hitler/

Hitler copied Mussolini

I think that Hitler copied Mussolini only because he was a fan of his. The people didn't really notice because there country's were getting better and nobody cared about who copied who but that their county's unemployment rate was low.

Germany wants British Empire

The Germans went to great lengths to destroy the British because that wanted more land for themselves. How they did this was to just attack and try to destroy them.

WW1 global war

WW1 is a global war because every country had allies. If two countries went to war with each other there allies would join and and so on until almost all the countries are dragged into fighting each other just because there allies to one another.

Suzanne Molinaro WW1 Propaganda

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Lazy Germans

So were the Germans lazy about the Schlieffen plan. And that they didn't want to go around Paris but to dip down kinda by it. Or maybe there supplies were just running low so they had to change there route.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

When Archduke Franz Ferdinand  was killed by The Black hand, it was fate. The killer was in the right place and at the right time. If this didn't happen maybe World War One would never be. You could say World War One was bound to happen sooner or later because everyone hated each other. The tensions were very high everwhere. But what if this one little event didnt happen. Then there would be noWW1 or anything. What would the world be like if WW1 didn't happen?

Iron and blood

Otto von Bismarck's iron and blood speech is very powerful but messed up... 
The position of Prussia in Germany will not be determined by its liberalism but by its power ... Prussia must concentrate its strength and hold it for the favourable moment, which has already come and gone several times. Since the treaties of Vienna, our frontiers have been ill-designed for a healthy body politic. Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided - that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849 - but by iron and blood. http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/quotations/bismarck_blood_iron.html
                                                                                                                                                                              I think this is trying to say at this time is that if you mess with us its not a good idea. We are powerful and we are ready to fight at anytime and anywhere. So bring it.

What is needed to create a World War? What would create one today? Is it even possible?

Something that is needed to create a World War is a cause. Something that a lot of countries are will to fight for. Lots of countries aren't all way willing but mostly the main ones join in to help out. Something that could create a World War today would be over oil. Oil is something that everyone needs. So if a War breaks out over oil it would be a big war with lots of countries. It might be possible to start a World War today but you never know what will happen.

Happy b-day

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday Mike!!!!!!