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An early-model bat bombshell with mechanical opening device. Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.

More on the top-secret “bat bomb” experiment

May 15, 1943 - Errant bats from the experimental Bat Bomb set the Army Air Base in Carlsbad, New Mexico on fire, 1942. United States Army Air Forces image.

We could not make this one up if we tried.

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As Memorial Day approaches, The National WWII Museum will be paying special attention to the men and women who did not return from the war.

Navy Seaman First Class Johnnie David Hutchins of Weimer, Texas, was 21 years old when he was killed in action in the Pacific.

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demons:

US Marines of the 6th Marine Division riding a Sherman on Okinawa, April 1945/PFC Robert L. Keller

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On 8 May Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally. We were told this momentous news, but considering our own peril and misery, no one cared much. “So what” was typical of the remarks I heard around me. We were resigned only to the fact the Japanese would fight to total extinction on Okinawa, as they had elsewhere, and that Japan would have to be invaded with the same gruesome prospects. Nazi Germany might as well have been on the moon.

The main thing that impressed us about V-E Day was a terrific, thundering artillery and naval gunfire barrage that went swishing, roaring, and rumbling towards the Japanese. I thought it was in preparation for the next day’s attack. Years later I read that the barrage had been fired on enemy targets at noon for its destructive effect on them but also as a salute to V-E Day.

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— Eugene Sledge on V-E Day on the Pacific