Articles Archive

This post-World War II cinematic recreation of the Italian manned torpedoes in action was said to be referencing the attack on British shipping in the port of Gibraltar in 1943.

Italy’s Daredevil Torpedo Riders

By Chuck Lyons

On a dark night in September 1941, moving at periscope depth, an Italian submarine edged into Gibraltar Bay near the British harbor. Read more

Fight in the Fog: The Battle of Vercellae on the Raudine Plain

By Lindsay Powell

In 102 bc, a disturbing report circulated through Rome that the people they called Cimbri and Teutones had crossed the Alps. Read more

Two Type XXI U-boats lie under construction at the shipyards in Bremen, Germany in this photo taken after the submarines were captured by Allied troops in 1945.

The Wonder of the Walter Boat

By Phil Zimmer

German engineer Hellmuth Walter stretched his shoulders, rubbed his face, and eased his hat back on his head as he walked down the wooden dock toward a covered deck. Read more

A second torpedo from German submarine U-20 strikes Lusitania on May 7, 1915, off the Head of Kinsale, Ireland. She sank 18 minutes later.

Passenger Liners in the Great War

By John Protasio

World War I was a total war; Nearly every person and resource was caught up in the conflict. Read more

Seize the Day by Jim Dietz shows men from the 505th Regiment, 82nd Airborne in Sainte-Mère-Église, the parachute of trooper John Steele still hanging from the church tower in the background.

The night of June 5, 1944, was pretty much like every other night since the Germans had occupied Normandy and the Cotentin Peninsula in the summer of 1940: dark, quiet, chilly, and mostly boring. Read more

Costly Confederate Victory at Gaines’ Mill

By John Walker

With just an hour of daylight remaining on the smoke-shrouded battlefield near Gaines’ Mill six miles northeast of Richmond, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Read more

Furious Charge Against Malakoff

By Charles Hilbert

The Ottoman Empire of Sultan Abd al-Majid I was in decline. Less than 200 years before, it had reached its high water mark in 1683 when Ottoman armies surrounded the walls of Vienna, only to be beaten back by the forces of Jan Sobieski, King of Poland, and Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, who were bankrolled by Pope Innocent XI and the Holy League. Read more

Tracings Of Barbarossa

By Kevin M. Hymel

Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, showed the world the extent of Nazi brutality. Read more

Hauptmann Gordon Gollob poses with his Messerschmitt Bf110 fighter. He made recommendations for technical improvements to the heavy fighter and traveled to a Luftwaffe test facility to consult with aircraft engineers on his ideas.

German Fighter Ace Gordon Gollob

By William E. Welsh

German Luftwaffe pilot First Lieutenant Gordon Gollob moved in for the kill at midafternoon on December 18, 1939, with his Messerschmitt Bf 110 against a formation of seven British Vickers Wellington medium bombers heading home from their bomb run against German battle cruisers in Wilhelmshaven harbor. Read more

Weapons of War: the War Hammer

By William McPeak

Not to be confused with Mjollnir, the mythical Norse god Thor’s fabled hammer, the real-life war hammer was a brutal and effective weapon. Read more

Manstein’s Victorious Panzers

By William E. Welsh

Deep snow blanketed the steppes surrounding the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov on February 6, 1943. The soldiers of Major Kurt Meyer’s reconnaissance battalion of SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler shivered from the cold. Read more

Gaius Suetonius Paulinus

By Eric Niderost

The name Gaius Suetonius Paulinus doesn’t ring across the centuries from the annals of Roman military history like the names of Julius Caesar, Tiberius Nero, or Scipio Africanus. Read more

A PzKpfw. V Panther medium tank smolders after being hit by the American infantryman at lower left firing his bazooka. Other GIs rush toward the tank to take out any crewmen who may have survived the blast. At Mairy, France, the soldiers of the 90th Infantry Division utterly defeated a spoiling attack by the German Panzer Brigade 106.

The “Tough ‘Ombres” of 90th ID Stand Tall at Mairy

By Christopher Miskimon

As summer neared its end in early September 1944, the U.S. Army raced across northern France toward the German border. Read more

One Gallant Rush: Black Soldiers at Fort Wagner

By Eric Niderost

The sun had already set, but the western sky was still bright from its fiery departure not long before. Read more

Wreaking Havoc

By Sam McGowan

Few airplanes can claim the honor of being credited with changing the course of World War II, but the Douglas A-20 Havoc twin-engine light bomber is one that can. Read more

The inept leadership of John De Warenne led to the English disaster at Stirling Bridge. From their position on Abbey Crag, the Scots carried everything before them wiping out the English bridgehead on the north bank of the River Forth. Painting by Angus McBride

Revenge at Falkirk

By Charles Hilber

Standing 6 feet 2 inches tall with a fiery temper, English King Edward I was an imposing and intimidating figure. Read more

“Let Us Die Like Men”

By Mike Phifer

Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne rose to his feet in the early afternoon of November 30, 1864, when he saw the courier galloping toward him. Read more

This painting by Jack Fellows depicts Flying Tiger pilot R.T. Smith’s Curtiss P-40 #77. The P-40 B and C variants made tough, reliable fighter planes. The engine was underpowered at high altitudes, lacking a supercharger, but at lower altitudes the P-40 was a fine pursuit plane.

The Flying Tiger and the Demon

by Bob Bergin

Erik Shilling, a pilot of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) Flying Tigers, faced the angry mob. There were about 30 of them, all in loincloths and leather vests with no buttons. Read more

Spartacus: Freedom by the Sword

By Eric Niderost

In the spring of 73 bc, Thracian gladiator Spartacus decided that the time was right to attempt an escape. Read more

The Siege of Paris

By Louis Ciotola

The final outcome of the Franco-Prussian War was decided on September 2, 1870. On that day, more than 100,000 French troops, including Emperor Napoleon III, surrendered to the Prussian Army at Sedan. Read more

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Kenneth M. Swope’s ‘ Struggle for Empire’

Hitler’s Medium Bombers

French Strategy in the American Revolution

German Soldier’s Sketchbook