Russian Disaster at the Kalkha River
By Victor KamenirA tumultuous discussion raged in the hall of Mstislav III “The Old” Romanovich, the Grand Prince of Kiev, in March 1223. Read more
WWII Pioneers of Skip Bombing
By Gene Eric SaleckerBy September 1942, after numerous aerial strikes against the advancing Imperial Japanese Navy, the Battle of the Coral Sea in May, and numerous attacks against enemy convoys along the New Guinea coast in the summer of that year, Maj. Read more
Book Reviews: WWII’s Mission Impossible, generals in the making, and more
By Christopher MiskimonThe Winter Line was the German Army’s defensive position in Southern Italy in late 1943. Set into high mountains which dominated the surrounding terrain, numerous Allied attacks against it failed, always with heavy casualties. Read more
P-40 Fighter Pilot: Fighting for His Life
By Patrick J. ChaissonThe four Curtiss P-40 Warhawks plummeted 10,000 feet over NewGuinea’s coastline to ambush their quarry. Flight leader 1st Lt. Read more
Captured at the Bulge
By Kevin M. HymelPrivate Leon Goldberg pulled the trigger on his heavy, water-cooled M-1917 Browning machine gun and fired bursts of .30-caliber rounds into the attacking German infantry. Read more
Operation Torch: Invasion of North Africa
By Michael D. HullComing after a series of bitter defeats from France to Norway to Crete, news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II was one of the early high points of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s leadership years. Read more
Night Battleship Action Off Guadalcanal
By David Alan JohnsonRear Admiral Willis Augustus Lee has been called, among other things, “one of the best brains in the Navy.” Read more
Rans Wright’s “Mad Georgians” at Gettysburg
On the extreme left of the Confederate attack on July 2 against the Union Forces defending Cemetery Ridge, there came a moment when Union commander George Meade’s personal safety was in danger. Read more
A D-Day Theme Park?
In the midst of numerous observations around the globe to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, the most cataclysmic collective event in human history, comes a puzzling—if not downright troubling—business venture that calls into question just how future generations may perceive the events of the great conflict. Read more
D-Day Capture of Les Moulins Draw
By Kevin M. HymelTwelve Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVPs) carrying Captain William Callahan’s F Company and Captain Eccles Scott’s G Company—some 400 men—slapped the English Channel’s rough waves as they approached Omaha Beach’s Les Moulins Draw. Read more
A Time to Celebrate—And Remember
Seventy-five years ago, the European phase of the global cataclysm known as World War II came to an end. The First World War—the “Great War,” the “War to End All Wars”—had ended not with a bang but with a whimper. Read more
Slaughter at the Battle of Cannae
By Christopher MiskimonLong ranks of Carthaginian infantry stood on a dusty plain a few miles east of the ruined town of Cannae on August 2, 216 bc. Read more
The M29 Weasel: The WWII Track Vehicle Never Used as Intended
By Bob GordonThe M29 Weasel was a machine conceived by a bizarre British chemist obsessed with ice for a unit that did not exist and a mission that never occurred. Read more
Easy Company Mortarman
By Kevin M. HymelThe green light lit up the inside of the Douglas C-47 Skytrain’s fuselage, and 20 paratroopers from Easy Company’s Stick 70, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division charged out the door. Read more
Ordnance: The Piper L-4 “Eyes in the Sky”
By Arnold BlumbergDespite being caught up in the tide of isolationism prevalent duringthe interval between the world wars, the United States Army was lucky enough to have Congressional funding for the further development and expansion of its fledgling air arm, known initially in 1926 as the Army Air Corps and in 1941 renamed the Army Air Forces. Read more
Adolf Hitler’s Last Birthday.
On April 20, 1945, Adolf Hitler observed his 56th, and last, birthday. There was little to celebrate. The so-called “Thousand Year Reich” was in its death throes after only 12. Read more
Italian War Criminal Rodolfo Graziani
By Blaine TaylorThe town of Affile in Italy’s Lazio region erected a mausoleum to Italian Army Marshal Rodolfo Graziani in August 2012. Read more
A Classic Strategy Series Steps Into the Next Gen, and Wars Both Historic and Fantastic Take Center Stage
By Joseph Luster CommandosFollowing up on the PC version of Commandos 2 – HD Remaster—which has Kalypso Media digging into the past to spruce up a classic of the strategy gaming genre—the publisher recently formed a new studio to look ahead to the future. Read more
Matthias Corvinus
By William E. WelshEncased in mail and armor, the soldiers of the Kingdom of Hungary’s Black Army stood rigidly at attention on a warm summer day in late August 1487 at Wiener Neustadt in Lower Austria. Read more
Doughboys’ Bloody Baptism at the Battle of Cantigny
By William StroockAs the fateful day drew to a close, the exhausted soldiers of the German 25th and 82nd Reserve Divisions huddled in their trenches. Read more
