U.S. Army Archives

Artillerists load a 4.5-inch howitzer in Richard Jack’s painting, The Battle of Vimy Ridge. Ranging innovations improved their aim.

U.S. Army

Locating Enemies on the Western Front

By John E. Goodwin

All wars give rise to change and innovation. In the early years of the 20th century, a short but nasty territorial war erupted between Russia and Japan. Read more

U.S. Army

The M60 Machine Gun in the Vietnam War

By Blaine Taylor

The time was early 1967, the place a crowded square over a body of water on a narrow bridge in downtown Saigon. Read more

Two 100-pound Siberian Huskies await takeoff from a Canadian airfield. A flight surgeon, with protective gear and mask, is responsible for getting them out of the plane.

U.S. Army

Raining Dogs! U.S. Army Parachute Animals in World War II

By Michael Dolan and Kevin Hymel

The U.S. Army trained dogs for a number of tasks during World War II. From checking for mines to guarding prisoners of war, the dogs performed admirably, but a few special dogs actually earned jump wings. Read more

Americans try out a German antitank weapon in Ceppagna, Italy, in January 1944.

U.S. Army

Captured Weapons of the Reich: A Photo Essay

By Kevin M. Hymel Read more

An American Army officer fires his Colt 1892 revolver at charging Filipino insurgents in this painting by Frederick Remington.

U.S. Army

Savage Model 1907: Rival of the Colt M1911

By Steve Lilley

In the 1939 movie The Real Glory, elite U.S. Army officers arrive in the southern Philippines to mold the Filipinos into a military force to defend their villages against marauding Moro tribesmen. Read more

The 809th Tank Destroyer Battalion prepares to move out from the French port of Le Havre on January 22, 1945. The equipment consists of M20 command and reconnaissance cars belonging to the 809th’s A Company. The M20 was a variant of the M8 Greyhound, with the turret and 37mm cannon removed.

U.S. Army

Tank Destroyers in Action! Photos of the 809th on the Front

By Neal Fausset

The 809th Tank Destroyer Battalion was an independently attached unit of the U.S. Army. The battalion was activated on March 18, 1942, at Camp Forrest, Tennessee, and remained in the United States through most of the war. Read more

U.S. Army

The 1903 Springfield Rifle’s Storied Military History

By Christopher Miskimon

On November 17, 1915, Major Smedley Butler and a small force of U.S. Marines approached the old French bastion of Fort Riviere in Haiti. Read more

Soldiers man a quad .50 anti-aircraft gun on the Place de la Concorde. Behind them stands the Hôtel de Crillon on the left, the Obelisk of Luxor in the center, and the Church of Madeline, to the immediate right of the Obelisk, and the French Naval Ministry on the far right. Belgian gates—German anti-tank obstacles—surround the gun nest.

U.S. Army

Americans in Paris

By Kevin M. Hymel

Almost every soldier on western European battlefront wanted to get to Paris. Once it was liberated on August 25, 1944, it became a mecca for Allied soldiers on leave who filled the streets, bars, and historic buildings, enjoying a brief respite from the war. Read more

U.S. Army

Alvan Gillem’s Invasion of Germany

By Chris J. Hartley

The United States had not yet entered World War II when Time magazine noted that the Army had created two new armored divisions. Read more

U.S. Army

Robert E. Lee: Confederate Icon

by Mike Haskew

When the Civil War broke out, Robert E. Lee of Virginia was offered command of the Union army. Read more

Ulysses S. Grant led Union forces to victory over the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the Civil War and became President of the United States.

U.S. Army

Ulysses S. Grant: Union War Hero

by Mike Haskew

Born in Ohio in 1822, Ulysses S. Grant graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1843. Read more

U.S. Army

Guadalcanal: Victory in the Pacific Theater

by Mike Haskew

On August 7, 1942, American Marines landed unopposed on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomons chain. The island was the key to future offensive operations in the South Pacific for either side, and the Marines were determined to defeat the Japanese in their first significant ground assault of the Pacific War. Read more

General George S. Patton, Jr., was an avid amateur photographer who snapped pictures of World War II from North Africa to Europe.

U.S. Army

George S. Patton: World War II As He Saw It

By Kevin Hymel

Everywhere General George S. Patton, Jr., went, from North Africa to Sicily to continental Europe, his camera swayed from his neck, ready to capture images that interested him. Read more

Marching through the southern English port city of Weymouth, U.S. Rangers head to the boats that will take them across the English Channel to either death or glory.

U.S. Army

Outlandish D-Day Invasion Tales: A Hard Start for Rudder’s Rangers

By Patrick O’Donnell

In the early morning of June 6, 1944, LCA 668 (Landing Craft, Assault), carrying First Sergeant Len Lomell, Staff Sergeant Jack Kuhn, and most of the 2nd Platoon, 2nd Ranger Battalion, cut through the choppy, green waters of the English Channel. Read more

U.S. Army

The 65th Infantry Honored by Congress

The 65th Infantry is a U.S. Army unit that played a major role in World War I, World War II and the Korean War. Read more

U.S. Army

U.S. Army Heritage Museum

By Mason B. Webb

In the heart of Pennsylvania, not far from the Civil War battlefields of Gettysburg, stands the U.S. Read more

Just how great was the number of D-Day casualties? History on the Net gives the jaw-dropping raw numbers from Operation Overlord.

U.S. Army

D-Day Casualties: Operation Overlord by the Numbers

The largest amphibious invasion in history began on the night of June 5-6, with the roar of C-47 engines preparing to take off , and climaxed on the beaches of Normandy. Read more

U.S. Army

The Scholarly Spies

By Tim Miller

Early in June 1940, refugees from northern France and the low Countries who had flooded Paris in May fled with the residents of the city as the German advance neared. Read more

U.S. Army

Innovative Soviet Fighter Ace

By Christopher J. Chlon

According to contemporary Soviet news sources, fighter Ace Alexander Pokryshkin was the most famous pilot in the Red Air Force during World War II. Read more

U.S. Army

B-29 Production

Written by: Joe Kirby

By Joe Kirby

When Maj. Gen. Curtis Lemay, the hard-driving commander of the Twentieth U.S. Air Force based in Guam, decided to change tactics in early 1945 to boost the effectiveness of the B-29 Superfortress, it was the Bell Aircraft plant in Marietta, Georgia, that ultimately provided him with the stripped-down bombers that played such a key role in ending the war in the Pacific. Read more

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Death of a Nazi Princess

Racism and the Myth of Henry O. Flipper

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