Articles Archive

Eisenhower to the Front

By Kevin M. Hymel

General Dwight D. Eisenhower enjoyed visiting troops in the field. After the Battle of Normandy and the race across France, the Supreme Allied Commander toured the front in mid-November, 1944. Read more

Showing a pronounced list to starboard, the Coolidge progressively settles underwater in the harbor of Espiritu Santo in October 1942. Troops in the foreground wade to shore in shallow water close to the beach.

The Sinking of SS President Coolidge

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Ensign Doran S. Weinstein, a U.S. Navy communications officer, stationed himself outside the bridge of a troop transport named SS President Coolidge as it approached the South Pacific island of Espiritu Santo on Monday morning, October 26, 1942. Read more

Merian Cooper: A Man of Adventure

By Sam McGowan

On March 2, 1933, only a few weeks after the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as President of the United States, the most spectacular event in the entertainment world premiered in New York. Read more

Two Marines of the 2nd Division operate a radio on the embattled islet of Betio during the assault on Tarawa Atoll in November 1942.

Tarawa Radio Failure

By Peter McQuarrie

At dawn on November 20, 1943, U.S. Marines unleashed their first amphibious attack in the Central Pacific Theater. Read more

Rise of the U.S. Army

By Allyn Vannoy

Winston Churchill described the U.S. Army during the war years as a “prodigy of organization … an achievement which soldiers of every other country will always study with admiration and envy.” Read more

Italian tanks move forward in the vicinity of the Qattara Depression during the advance to El Alamein in the autumn of 1942.

Allied defeat at Gazala was followed by victory at El Alamein.

Many historians consider the victory at Gazala the greatest in the fabled career of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. However, it was Gazala that also led to the undoing of Panzer Armee Afrika and the ultimate defeat of the Axis forces in the Desert War. Read more

Marine ace Jim Swett is shown downing his seventh Japanese plane on April 7, 1943 in a painting by Roy Grinnell.

America’s Few

By Christopher Miskimon

As Jim Swett guided his Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter to a landing at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, he looked forward to getting some rest. Read more

During the epic Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, Ensign Yamamoto served aboard the Japanese cruiser Nisshin. He lost two fingers from his left hand during the great victory and was wounded in the leg.

Admiral Yamamoto and the Path to War

By Nathan N. Prefer

For many Americans in late 1941 and early 1942, he was the most hated—and feared—man in the world. Read more

Soldiers of the 290th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division march through a Belgian woods during the Battle of the Bulge. It was in a forest like this that Staff Sergeant Darrell Bush tried to carry a fellow scout off the battlefield until he took a bullet from Germans firing down from the trees.

Infantryman in Bastogne

By Kevin M. Hymel

Staff Sergeant Darrell Bush had just carried a wounded soldier on his back to the rear when five enemy bullets seemed to hit him simultaneously. Read more

Joe Rochefort: Unsung Hero of World War II

Eighty years ago this month, the U.S. Navy inflicted the decisive defeat of World War II in the Pacific against the marauding Japanese. Read more

British troops, just rescued from the beach at Dunkirk on May 31, 1940, reflect desperation and relief after their ordeal on the European continent. Operation Dynamo did succeed beyond the expectations of its organizers.

Desperation at Dunkirk

By Michael E. Haskew

Within days of Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, and the British declaration of war two days later, the vanguard of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) arrived on the continent of Europe. Read more

Resurgent U.S. Navy

By Christopher Miskimon

The United States Navy entered World War II well before Pearl Harbor and long before the rest of the nation. Read more

Japanese soldiers ride atop Type 89 I-Go medium tanks during their push toward the Philippine capital of Manila in this photo taken on December 22, 1941. A car lies toppled on its side after being removed from the roadway. Obstacles to the advance were brushed aside as the Japanese moved swiftly across the island of Luzon to confront the American and Filipino defenders in their last-ditch defensive positions at Bataan and Corregidor.

Bataan and Corregidor: Valor Without Hope

By Michael D. Hull

They had no armor, no air support, and little hope, but the American and Filipino troops on Luzon and the Bataan peninsula waged a fighting retreat that was the longest and most gallant in U.S. Read more

SAS veterans of the Desert War photographed just after completing a three-month patrol. Their Jeeps are armed with machine guns and include Jerry cans containing fuel and water.

SAS: Owning The Desert

By Frank Johnson

Second Lieutenant David A. Sterling of the Scots Guards was serving with Lt. Col. Robert E. “Lucky” Laycock’s No. Read more

Soldiers of the U.S. 5th Infantry Division, part of General George S. Patton’s Third Army, march through the snowy streets of the town of Ettelbruck, Luxembourg, in January 1945. These soldiers were involved in the Allied counteroffensive that reduced the bulge formed by the German Ardennes Offensive. Some of these soldiers are wearing white sheets as camouflage.

Flattening the Bulge

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Corporal Thomas B. Tucker stood shivering in the bitterly cold night air as he looked down on a ribbon of water that separated his unit from the enemy’s front-line positions. Read more

Gray Wolves and the Ides of March

By Kelly Bell

Adolf Hitler and his military commanders were feeling a new and unsettling emotion early in 1943—desperation. A year earlier, they had seemed on top of the world as their forces ruled a region that surpassed Rome at its greatest. Read more

A tank crew of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment waits patiently for a French woman and her cow to cross a rain soaked road near the town of Luneville in the fall of 1944. The regiment was a component of the 4th Armored Division and played a key role in disrupting a German attempt to cut the 4th Armored off and destroy it. A derelict German helmet lies in the roadway.

Cavalrymen Stand at Luneville

By Allyn Vannoy

Lieutenant Wessling did not believe that his two 75mm assault guns could effectively deal with the German panzers. Read more

After completing a reconnaissance mission in the jungles of Guadalcanal, a group of U.S. Marines poses for a photographer while delivering a Japanese prisoner for interrogation. The Marine at right has taken a Japanese sword as a souvenir. Prisoners were rarely taken in the Pacific, as Japanese soldiers preferred suicide to captivity.

Bare-knuckle Brawl at Guadalcanal

By Michael E. Haskew

Even after their stunning defeat at Midway in early June 1942, senior commanders of the Imperial Japanese armed forces were resolute in their grand plan to extend their defensive perimeter in the Pacific. Read more

During the Second Happy Time, the destroyer USS Roper struck a blow against marauding U-boats.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once admitted that the only issue to trouble him to the extent that he thought World War II might be lost was the uncertainty of the Battle of the Atlantic and the U-boat peril that threatened to starve the British Isles into submission. Read more

American soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Division move into the town of Moninoso, Italy, in April 1945. The 92nd was one of several Black outfits of the U.S. Army that served in the Italian campaign during World War II.

Belated Medals of Honor Righted Injustices

By Christopher Miskimon

The squat, gray brick Castle Aghinolfi sat on high ground over-looking a coastal road on Italy’s west coast. Read more

From Around the Network

Clash in the Sibuyan Sea

March Gaming Spotlight

Surviving the German Death March: Hazards of the 600 Mile March

Peter R. Mansoor’s ‘Redemption: MacArthur and the Campaign for the Philippines’