On this day (April 30th), in 1945, the Third Reich began its final disintegration with two significant events. First, at around 3:30pm, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide (if you want to hate them even more they killed his dog to test the cyanide first). Only a few hours later, under the cover of darkness, Lieutenant Rakhimzhan Qoshqarbaev of the 674th Infantry Regiment was the first Soldier to hoist a Soviet flag over the Reichstag.

While the fate of Germany had been sealed for quite some time (at least since the Battle of the Bulge), these events served as significant symbolic stakes through the heart of the Nazi regime. The Hitler suicide (which the Germans tried to spin as ole’ Adolf dying as a hero defending Berlin) touched off a leadership shakeup and a rash of imitation suicides by high-ranking Nazis fearful of falling into Allied hands. The raising of a flag over the capitol of a defeated enemy is a timeless symbol of conquest, and surely buoyed the spirits of those still engaged in brutal city fighting. While the flag didn’t last long (it was destroyed by Germans in the continuing back-and-forth fight) it would be re-staged and re-shot like many significant events throughout the war.

So I was organizing my WW2 advertisements (of course that is something I collect sporadically...) and I found this gem on the back of an automotive advertisement.
It's an explanation, from Elsie the Borden cow to her (husband?) Elmer the bull about the importance of the American farmer. It made me think of my Ag folks Becky, Sarah and Zach.
Features such great lines as:
-"Woman, the blood of the sacred bulls of India flows in my veins and every drop of it is boiling!"
and
- "Faugh!" snarled Elmer. "If it's milk this farmer wants, thats your job!".

“Video games are so violent nowadays!!!” screech people in moral panic.
Apparently that is nothing new, because this game isn’t exactly cutting edge and allows you to simulate wiping out entire cities.
Of course Allie and I played it for the princely sum of $0.25 and of course it was hilariously awesome!

Oddly enough, the U.S. Army’s Carlisle Barracks boasts an impressive statue of Frederick the Great, a famous German king and general whose entire life predated the signing of our Constitution. The statue was donated in 1904 by German royalty as a sign of friendship between America and Germany, although poor “Freddy” immediately got off to a rocky start

Within a few months of it being erected in Washington D.C. (then the site of the Army War College) there was an attempt to blow him up with a bag of explosives. The statue was only saved when an alert employee noticed the explosives, picked them up, and tossed them away before they could cause any damage. What a badass.
Following US entry into WW1, and a second bombing attempt, Freddy was put into storage (i.e. hiding) until 1927. He rode out WW2 un-bombed, but was taken down in 1946. He would spend another 8 years in storage until he was moved to the parade ground at Carlisle Barracks.

While he had previously been prominently placed at the front of the Army War College in Washington D.C., the memorandum authorizing his erection in Carlisle stated that he should be placed “in a relatively inconspicuous site”. And so he still stands today, overlooking graduating classes of senior leaders from the USAWC!

On 13 April 1943 the Katyn Massacre was revealed to the world via German radio. While Nazi forces are guilty of some truly horrendous events before and during WWII, in this case they were actually the ones bringing an enormous atrocity against a protected group to light.
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That group was Polish prisoners of war, primarily officers and NCOs, who were systematically murdered and disposed of by Soviet Security Forces in April of 1940. Declassified Soviet records put the total number of dead at 21,857, although the number could be higher.

On this day in history in 1865 President Abraham Lincoln toured the still smoldering Confederate capitol of Richmond, VA with his son Tad. While more lives were doomed to be lost, the American Civil War was almost at its end.
Following an increasing number of defeats the Confederate government fled Richmond on April 2nd 1865 in the face of advancing Union forces. As they left, rebel troops burned bridges, arsenals and warehouses in a bid to hamper Union movement and prevent war material from falling into Northern hands. This ultimately pointless gesture (Lee would surrender the Army of Northern Virginia only one week later) quickly got out of control and devastated portions of the city.