Brittany: Too High a Price?
By Nathan PreferAt age 86, with a full and successful career behind him, General of the Army Omar Nelson Bradley sat down to write his uncensored memoirs. Read more
Incomplete Victory at Falaise
By Jon DiamondSupreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower recalled, “The battlefield at Falaise was unquestionably one of the greatest killing fields of any of the war areas. Read more
Bombs, Booze, and Broads
By Glenn BarnettThe date of November 10, 1942, is still vivid in the mind of Albert Wayne Boam. That was the day that he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, hoping to become a fighter pilot. Read more
From Omaha Beach to Victory
By Ralph and Mark PuhalovichRalph Puhalovich was born on April 17, 1925, in Oakland, California, to Flora and Ivan Puhalovich. Read more
Death by Torpedo
By Chuck LyonsIn October 1939, illuminated by the northern lights, the German submarine U-47 threaded its way through sunken barriers and slipped into the British anchorage at Scapa Flow, a 125.3-square-mile natural port off the northern coast of Scotland, in the Orkney Islands. Read more
Combat and Fear: A Replacement’s Story
By Allyn VannoyAfter going on active service in May 1943, Robert W. Creamer was sent to take basic training at Fort Eustis, Virginia. Read more
Brutal Battle for a Dutch Island
By Jon DiamondLook at a map of Holland. At the extreme southwest corner, connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway, is a peninsula known as Walcheren Island jutting into the North Sea. Read more
The Real Fury: A Sherman Tanker’s View of War
By Kevin M. HymelPrivate First Class Irving Bromberg saw a huge puff of smoke erupt from the German tank’s cannon muzzle as it headed straight for his M4 Sherman tank. Read more
Victory in the Mediterranean
By Colonel (USAF, RET.) Jeff PattonPantelleria is a small volcanic island rising out of the Mediterranean Sea 37 miles east of the Tunisian coast and some 63 miles southwest of Sicily. Read more
From Battlefield to Football
By Richard Statetzny with Ward Carr and Detlef ZerBACKSTORY: Richard Statetzny was born on January 16, 1920, the youngest of five children, in Bieberswalde in the District of Osterode, East Prussia, Germany. Read more
Bombing Buchenwald
By Flint WhitlockIn early 1945, the 50,000 starved and brutalized prisoners incarcerated at KL Buchenwald—the infamous concentration camp located atop a hill known as the Ettersberg, just to the northwest of Germany’s cultural capital of Weimar—were growing desperate. Read more
Hellish Battle in a Tropical Paradise
By Nathan N. Prefer“But here are men who fought in gallant actions, as gallant AS ever hero’s fought,” wrote the poet Lord Byron (1788-1824). Read more
A Screaming Eagle in Bastogne
By Kevin M. Hymel“DON’T WORRY, GUYS––the Airborne is here!” shouted Private Howard Buford to the worn-out GIs he and his fellow paratroopers passed on the snowy road through Bastogne in the early hours of December 19, 1944. Read more
The Heroes of Hill 192
By William G. DennisToday, on Hill 192, located between the Normandy cities of St. Lô and Bayeux, sleek horses graze the fields, and people in hacking gear travel the roads and bridle paths. Read more
Deliverance on the Delaware
By Robert HeegeThe grim-faced men waiting to take their places in the boats were already chilled to the bone, the winter winds whipping mercilessly through their makeshift, threadbare uniforms as they silently formed up along the icy Pennsylvania riverbank. Read more
Turan’s Tank
By John E. SpindlerBy mid-January 1945 Germany was being pressured on all sides by Allied forces. Hitler’s much-vaunted Ardennes Offense had been thrown back with appalling losses, the Soviet Red Army had invaded German soil, and the Hungarian capital of Budapest had been besieged for weeks. Read more
North Atlantic Odyssey
By Earl RickardJoseph A. Gainard, captain of the American freighter City of Flint, hated to threaten his crew with piracy; the men were only reacting as any sailors would to the seizure of their ship by a foreign power. Read more
Colt Commando Revolver .38 Special and the $25 War Department Deal
By Jon DiamondMany handgun enthusiasts’ blog entries recount how they stumbled onto a local gun show table only to find a dull-finished revolver that clearly bore the impression “Colt Commando .38 Special” on the left side of the barrel. Read more
Alexander’s Triumph at Granicus
In the spring of 334 bc, Alexander of Macedon paused with his army on the western side of the Granicus River. Read more
Long-Range Fighter Escort
By Gene J. PfefferOn August 17, 1942, the 97th Bomb Group began the opening attack of the U.S. Army Air Forces’ (USAAF) strategic bombing campaign against Germany. Read more
