IF YOU LIKE THIS SITE PLEASE DONATE TO A VETERAN SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS https://www.defense.gov/Resources/Veteran-Support-Organizations/ Hof (German pronunciation: [hoːf]) is a town on the banks of the Saale in the northeastern corner of the German state of Bavaria, in the Franconian region, at the Czech border and the forested Fichtelgebirge and Frankenwald upland regions. The town has 47,296 inhabitants,[2] the surrounding district an additional 95,000.[3] The town of Hof is enclosed by, but does not belong to the Bavarian district of Hof; it is nonetheless the district's administrative seat. The town's most important work of art, the Hofer altar, dates from about 1465 and is exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich today. The Heidenreich organ in the parish church of St. Michaelis, completed in 1834, is considered one of Bavaria's finest. Hof is known for two local "delicacies", namely Schnitz, a kind of hotpot, and sausages boiled in a portable, coal-fired brass cauldron, which are sold in the streets by the sausage man (Wärschtlamo in the local dialect). There is also a particularly strong beer (Schlappenbier), which is available only on the first Monday after Trinity Sunday (Schlappentag). This tradition dates back to the establishment of the town militia which forced all shooters to take part in a special shooting training each year. To avoid penalties, a lot of shooters rushed out to the training area in the morning of the last possible day, without even enough time to get dressed and thus still wearing their clogs (German: Schlappen). The Hof Theatre (Theater Hof) is a multi-purpose theatre whose construction was completed in 1994. It serves as an opera house and drama theatre, and hosts the city's ballet company and a youth theatre. The Hofer Symphoniker, Hof's symphony orchestra, plays as opera orchestra at the theatre and gives concerts at the Freiheitshalle Hof. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hof,_Bavaria

IF YOU LIKE THIS SITE PLEASE DONATE TO A VETERAN SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS https://www.defense.gov/Resources/Veteran-Support-Organizations/ The Soviet Armed Forces, also called the Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Armed Forces of the Soviet Union (Russian: Вооружённые Силы Союза Советских Социалистических Республик, romanized: Vooruzhonnyye Sily Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, Вооружённые Силы Советского Союза) were the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922), the Soviet Union (1922–1991) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from their beginnings in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War to its dissolution on 26 December 1991. The Soviet Armed Forces ceased to exist on 25 December 1993. According to the all-union military service law of September 1925, the Soviet Armed Forces consisted of three components: the Ground Forces, the Air Forces, the Navy, the State Political Directorate (OGPU), and the convoy guards.[5] The OGPU was later made independent and amalgamated with the NKVD in 1934, and thus its Internal Troops were under the joint management of the Defense and Interior Commisariats. After World War II, the Strategic Missile Forces (1959), Air Defence Forces (1948) and troops of the All-Union National Civil Defence Forces (1970) were added, standing first, third and sixth in the official Soviet reckoning of comparative importance (with the Ground Forces being second, the Air Forces fourth, and the Navy fifth). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Armed_Forces

IF YOU LIKE THIS SITE PLEASE DONATE TO A VETERAN SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS https://www.defense.gov/Resources/Veteran-Support-Organizations/ War Comes to America is the seventh and final film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight World War II propaganda film series. The early part of the film is an idealized version of American history, which mentions of the first settlements, the American Revolutionary War (omitting the American Civil War), and the ethnic diversity of America. It lists 22 immigrant nationalities, 19 of them European and uses the then-current terms "Negro," "Jap," and "Chinaman." This section of the film concludes with a lengthy paean to American inventiveness, economic abundance, and social ideals. The run-up to World War II is then described beginning in 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The film examines how American public opinion gradually changed from one of isolationism to one of support for the Allied cause and demonstrates this using a series of Gallup polls. War Comes To America demonstrates North and South America's hopeless position in the event of an Axis victory in Afro-Eurasia. In 1936, public opinion is firmly isolationist, with 95% of Americans answering NO to the question "If another world war develops in Europe, should America take part again?" Congress responded with an arms embargo and a "Cash and carry rule" when trading with belligerents in raw materials. In September 1937, the question "In the current fight between Japan and China, are your sympathies with either side?" is answered CHINA 43%, JAPAN 2%, UNDECIDED 55%, but in June 1939, the same question gives a 74% vote for China. Anti-Japanese sentiment thus forced the US government to block trade in oil and scrap iron with Japan. In October 1939, 82% of Americans blame Germany for starting the war in Europe, but in January 1941, after the Fall of France and the founding of the Tripartite Pact, which is clearly aimed against the United States, the question "Should we keep out of war, or aid Britain, even at the risk of war?" has AID BRITAIN get 68% of the vote. That increase in pro-Allied sentiment triggers Lend Lease aid to the United Kingdom (and to the Soviet Union after it had been attacked by Germany). Towards the end, the film argues in detail (to a backdrop of animated maps and diagrams) that American involvement in the war is essential in terms of self-defense. The dire consequences for the United States of an Axis victory in Afro-Eurasia are spelled out: German conquest of Europe and Africa would bring all their raw materials, plus their entire industrial development, under one control. Of the 2 billion people in the world, the Nazis would rule roughly one quarter, the 500 million people of Europe and Africa, forced into slavery to labor for Germany. German conquest of Russia would add the vast raw materials and the production facilities of another of the world's industrial areas, and of the world's people, another 200 million would be added to the Nazi labor pile. Japanese conquest of the Orient would pour into their factory the almost unlimited resources of that area, and of the peoples of the earth, a thousand million would come under their rule, slaves for their industrial machine. Altogether, the German, Italian and Japanese aggressors would undertake a catalystic crisis, one that would enslave most of the world's population and liquidate about 90% of cultural life on Earth. We in North and South America would be left with the raw materials of three-tenths of the earth's surface, against the Axis with the resources of seven-tenths. We would have one industrial region against their three industrial regions. We would have one-eighth of the world's population against their seven-eighths. If we together, along with the other nations of North and South America, could mobilize 30 million fully equipped men, the Axis could mobilize 200 million. Thus, an Axis victory in Europe and Asia would leave us alone and virtually surrounded facing enemies ten times stronger than ourselves. The film ends with the attack on Pearl Harbor by showing the Japanese negotiators in Washington, led by Saburo Kurusu, still negotiating with the Americans while the attack takes place in Hawaii. That is "the straw that broke the camel's back" that causes the United States to enter the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Comes_to_America

IF YOU LIKE THIS SITE PLEASE DONATE TO A VETERAN SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS https://www.defense.gov/Resources/Veteran-Support-Organizations/ The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place on 3 September 1943 during the early stages of the Italian campaign of World War II. The operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group (comprising General Mark W. Clark's American Fifth Army and General Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Army) and followed the successful Allied Invasion of Sicily. The main invasion force landed around Salerno on 9 September on the western coast in Operation Avalanche, while two supporting operations took place in Calabria (Operation Baytown) and Taranto (Operation Slapstick). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_invasion_of_Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_invasion_of_Italy