61 articles
Aimo Koivunen
Aimo Allan Koivunen (born 14 November 1917, Alastaro), Finnish alikersantti and long-range patrolman of the Continuation War, survived an accidental overdose of about thirty Pervitin methamphetamine tablets in March 1944 near Kantalahti and a 400-kilometer solo trek in minus 20 to 30 Celsius cold.
Albert Blithe
Albert Blithe (1923–1967), Philadelphia-born US Army master sergeant of Easy Company, 506th PIR, wounded at Carentan in June 1944; wrongly declared dead in 1948 by Band of Brothers, he actually served in Korea and died on active duty in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Albina Mali
Albina Mali-Hočevar (Albina Mali), Slovenian Yugoslav Partisan courier, fighter, and combat medic born 1925 in Vinica; wounded three times, lost an eye at Turjak 1943, named national hero of Yugoslavia.
Augustin Jordan
Augustin Jordan (1910-2004), French soldier and diplomat, Compagnon de la Libération, Free French SAS (French Squadron) commander captured in Tunisia 1943 and held at Colditz; later ambassador to Warsaw and Vienna.
Bernard Jordan
Bernard Arthur Jordan (1924–2015), British D-Day veteran, Royal Navy officer, and former mayor of Hove, who escaped his care home in 2014 to attend the Normandy 70th anniversary commemorations, later depicted in The Great Escaper.
Bruce Shand
Bruce Middleton Hope Shand (1917-2006), British Army major with the 12th Royal Lancers, twice Military Cross winner, Dunkirk veteran, German POW 1942-45, wine merchant, and father of Queen Camilla.
Charles Thau
Charles Thau, born Chaim Thau, was a Jewish partisan from Poland who fought at the Battle of Berlin and is the Soviet soldier at the center of the 1945 Elbe handshake photograph.
Cyril Holland
Cyril Holland (born Cyril Wilde, 1885-1915), elder son of Oscar Wilde and Constance Lloyd; name changed after the 1895 trial; Royal Field Artillery officer killed by a sniper at Aubers/Festubert, 9 May 1915.
Darrell Powers
Darrell Cecil "Shifty" Powers (1923–2009), Easy Company sharpshooter, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne; Foy sniper, tree-spotting at Bastogne, Band of Brothers veteran from Clinchco, Virginia.
David Kenyon Webster
David Kenyon Webster (1922-1961), Harvard-educated Easy Company rifleman of the 101st Airborne in Normandy and Market Garden, author of the posthumous memoir Parachute Infantry, portrayed in Band of Brothers by Eion Bailey; lost shark fishing in 1961.
Davorjanka Paunović
Davorjanka Paunović, cover name Zdenka (Zdenka Horvat), Tito's wartime secretary and lover; born 1921, died 1 May 1946 of tuberculosis at Golnik, buried at the White Palace, Dedinje, secret until Dedijer's 1981 publication.
Donald Malarkey
Donald Malarkey (1921-2017), Astoria, Oregon paratrooper of Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne; Bronze Star at Brecourt on D-Day; portrayed by Scott Grimes in Band of Brothers.
Edward Heffron
Edward James "Babe" Heffron (1923-2013) was a World War II paratrooper of Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne, who fought at Market Garden and Bastogne, co-wrote Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends, and was portrayed in HBO's Band of Brothers by Robin Laing.
Ella van Heemstra
Ella van Heemstra, Baroness van Heemstra (1900, Velp – 1984, Tolochenaz), Dutch aristocrat; mother of Audrey Hepburn; married Quarles van Ufford then Joseph Ruston in 1926; did Resistance work in occupied Netherlands.
Eoin McGonigal
Eoin Christopher McGonigal (1920–1941), Irish Royal Ulster Rifles lieutenant, No. 11 Commando and original SAS officer; died of wounds aged 20 on Operation Squatter in Libya, commemorated on the Alamein Memorial.
Graham Hayes
Captain Graham Hayes (1914–1943), Border Regiment officer and Small Scale Raiding Force commando, MC winner for Operation Postmaster, executed at Fresnes prison 13 July 1943; distinct from AIF namesake Graham Frederick Hayes.
Hannie Schaft
Hannie Schaft (Jannetje Johanna Schaft, 1920-1945), Dutch resistance fighter and law student, one of few armed female resisters with Truus and Freddie Oversteegen; known as the girl with the red hair; executed near Overveen 17 April 1945, three weeks before liberation.
Harold Bray (sailor)
Harold John Bray, Jr. (born June 15, 1927) is an American retired sailor and police officer who is the last living survivor of the USS Indianapolis sinking.
Heinrich Severloh
Heinrich 'Hein' Severloh (1923–2006), German Gefreiter of the 352nd Infantry Division who fired an MG 42 at WN 62 on Omaha Beach on D-Day and was called the 'Beast of Omaha'; his casualty claims are disputed by historians.
Heinz Hitler
Heinz Hitler (Heinrich Hitler, 1920-1942), nephew of Adolf Hitler via half-brother Alois Jr. and Hedwig Heidemann, was a Wehrmacht officer captured on the Eastern Front who died in Moscow's Butyrka prison in 1942.
Herbert Sobel
Herbert Maxwell Sobel (1912-1987), Easy Company's first commander at Camp Toccoa, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne; removed from command in 1944, D-Day jumper, later lieutenant colonel; known from Band of Brothers.
Hiroo Onoda (小野田寛郎)
Hiroo Onoda (小野田寛郎, 1922–2014), Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer and holdout, fought guerrilla warfare on Lubang Island, Philippines, until March 1974, relieved of duty by former commander Taniguchi; later a Brazilian rancher and youth-camp founder.
Horace Woodring
Horace Lynn "Woody" Woodring (1926-2003) was the U.S. Army private first class who drove General Patton's 1938 Cadillac limousine in the December 9, 1945 Mannheim truck collision that led to Patton's death; he was cleared of responsibility.
Howard Triest
Howard H. Triest (Hans Heinz Triest, 1923-2016), German-born Jewish American soldier, Nuremberg trials interpreter for psychiatrists Kelley and Goldensohn; parents murdered at Auschwitz; subject of Journey to Justice and Helen Fry's book.
Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler (Irena Stanisława Sendlerowa, 1910–2008), Polish social worker and head of Żegota's children's section, pseudonym Jolanta, who smuggled Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto, survived a Gestapo death sentence, and was named Righteous Among the Nations in 1965.
James Robert Conroy
James Robert Conroy (1892–1987), also known as Robert Conroy, was a US Army corporal of the 102nd Infantry Regiment, 26th Division, in WWI, Purple Heart recipient, Georgetown law graduate, and owner-handler of the war dog Sergeant Stubby.
Jan Kubiš
Jan Kubiš was a Czechoslovak army non-commissioned officer in the paratroop group Anthropoid whose 1942 attack fatally wounded Reinhard Heydrich in Prague; he died a month later defending a church hideout.
Jim Almonds
Jim Almonds ("Gentleman Jim", John Edward Almonds, 1914–2005), a British SAS original and Coldstream Guardsman, member of the Tobruk Four, MM and Bar and Croix de Guerre winner, POW escapee, and later commander of B Squadron 1st SAS in Malaya, distinct from the almond crop and other namesakes.
John Simpson Kirkpatrick
John Simpson Kirkpatrick (1892-1915), "the man with the donkey", English-born AIF stretcher-bearer of the 3rd Field Ambulance who ferried wounded men by donkey at Gallipoli from 25 April until killed by machine-gun fire on 19 May 1915.
John Steele (paratrooper)
John Marvin Steele (1912–1969), 82nd Airborne paratrooper of F Company, 505th PIR, whose parachute caught the Sainte-Mère-Église church steeple on D-Day; captured, escaped, and played by Red Buttons in The Longest Day (1962).