Everyone at the American Heritage Museum wishes all of you a very happy and healthy holidays! Please come visit! We will be hosting the Battle of the Bulge Experience Weekend on December 28th & 29th and will be open Monday and Tuesday, December 30th & 31st.
As you come to experience what it was like to be an American surrounded in the cold of the Battle of Bulge (12/28 & 12/29), join the American Heritage museum on Saturday December 28th to learn about a similar battle 6 years later in the Korean War. Here the U.S. 1st Marine Division found themselves surrounded in a desperate fight in the extreme cold, outnumbered 5:1 against Chinese forces in the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. Like the Battle of the Bulge, the Chosin Reservoir is regarded as one of the most intense battles in American History, yet most Americans know little of this great battle of Korea, “The Forgotten War.” On December 28th at 1:00pm the museum will host a speaker series event about the Chosin Reservoir: “All Roads Lead to Hagaru” a special interactive discussion analyzing the crucial leadership decisions in the Chosin Reservoir that would decide whether or not the 1st Marine Division would escape the Chinese trap. More information see: www.americanheritagemuseum.org/event/speaker-series-korea-all-roads-lead-to-hagaru/
Check out the latest video from SpruesNBrews Scale Modeling in partnership with the American Heritage Museum featuring our M18 Hellcat!
Up Close & Personal with the M18 Hellcat | 360° WWII Tank Destroyer Tour
www.youtube.com
Welcome to *Up Close & Personal* - a new series where we'll be exploring some of the most iconic military vehicles of WWII and beyond as you've never seen th...
Don't miss our great talk on How To Research WWII Veterans - Friday, December 13th, 1pm to 2:30pm. No reservations needed. For more information see:
Speaker Series: How To Research WWII Veterans - The American Heritage Museum
www.americanheritagemuseum.org
Autumn Hendrickson, who has spent the last four and a half years working on a project to tell the stories of the men and women from Reading & North Reading, Massachusetts that served in World War II, ...Defense of the Reich
8.8 cm Flak 36 – GER | ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN
Sd.Kfz. 8 12 TON – GER | PERSONNEL CARRIER/PRIME MOVER
Kommandogerrat 38 – GER | FIRE CONTROL COMPUTER
Flak Battery Generator – GER | ANTI-AIRCRAFT BATTERY SUPPORT
Flak Battery Searchlight – GER | ANTI-AIRCRAFT BATTERY SUPPORT
V-1 (“JB-2 Loon” – Suspended) – GER | GUIDED MISSILE
The Defense of the Reich (also known in German as Reichsverteidigung) was the name given to the strategic defensive aerial campaign fought by the Luftwaffe air arm of the combined Wehrmacht armed forces of Nazi Germany over German-occupied Europe and Nazi Germany during World War II. Its aim was to prevent the destruction of German civilians, military, and civil industries by the Western Allied bombing campaigns. The day and night air battles over Germany during the war involved thousands of aircraft and aerial engagements to counter the Allied strategic bombing campaign. The Luftwaffe fighter force defended the airspace over German-occupied territory against attack, first by RAF Bomber Command and then against the United States Army Air Forces.
The constant night bombing by the RAF and daylight attacks by the USAAF added to the destruction of a major part of the German’s industries and cities, which caused the economy to collapse in the winter of 1944–45. It also pulled nearly two million Germans into defense of the homeland and diverted critical, dual-purpose 88 mm guns from an anti-tank role in the east against the advancing Red Army to an antiaircraft role inside Germany itself. By this time, the Allied armies had reached the German border and the strategic campaign became fused with the tactical battles over the front, while also completing a deliberate and methodical Allied campaign of punishment of all of Germany by destruction of German cities and civilian morale. The air campaign continued until April 1945, when the last strategic bombing missions were flown, ending just before the surrender of Germany on May 8th.
