Colonel James Van Fleet, commander of the 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, which splashed ashore at Utah Beach 75 years ago on D-Day, June 6, 1944, was an uncommon soldier. Read more
Hardly a month goes by that there isn’t something related to World War II in the news. Here’s a sampling of some recent news items—all from February 2019:
Identification SoughtOn January 3, 1944, the destroyer USS Turner (DD-648) exploded under still mysterious circumstances near the entrance to New York Harbor. Read more
A black Opel automobile raced through the streets of Cologne, Germany, on March 6, 1945. The driver, 40-year-old Michael Delling, was making a run for it. Read more
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, who was attired in civilian clothing in keeping with his role as an observer for U.S. Read more
Of the many groups that fought in World War II and have been largely forgotten in the history of that great conflict, none are more neglected than the women who served and died doing their duty alongside the men of the United States Army. Read more
When it comes to arcade-style aerial action, there’s always been something special about Bandai Namco’s Ace Combat series. Read more
The Varangians founded a number of fortified towns in Slavic Russia in the 9th century that would become seats of Eastern Christian principalities. Read more
Lines of drab-uniformed soldiers emerged from their night march and moved down a forested road into open country on September 26, 1918. Read more
Lieutenant William Paul Chapman’s fellow soldiers were tank hunting on the afternoon of August 11, 1944. The Battle of Mortain was raging around them, a counterattack by a German armored spearhead against the growing and inexorable advance of the Allied armies out of the Normandy beachhead. Read more
The great British Royal Navy victory at Cape Matapan sealed the fate of the Italian Regia Marina, rendering Mussolini’s fleet virtually impotent after the spring of 1941. Read more
The German push west came to a violent end.
On December 19, 1944, the Panther and King Tiger tanks of SS Lt. Read more
For the most part, World War II left the U.S. and Canadian homelands physically untouched. There were a few incidents of sabotage and a few small-scale attacks, such as a Japanese submarine’s shelling of an oil refinery in southern California and balloon bombs launched from Japan that floated over the Pacific and set fires in the western United States and Canada. Read more
Wind lifted away the fog sheltering the French lines. Atop a low ridge where the French army was deployed, a lone windmill provided a vivid range marker for 58 Prussian cannons on the neighboring hills. Read more
With war comes untold stories of unbroken spirits. These are universal stories without bounds and sides, some of which remain buried deep in psyches. Read more
It was Christmas Day, 1944. A U.S. Navy C-47 Skytrain with five men aboard was en route from Naval Air Station, Olathe, Kansas, to Columbus, Ohio. Read more
It took only moments for a golden opportunity to turn into a trap. Several days of pursuit in October 1863 through northern Virginia at last brought Lt. Read more
Battlefield communications are often a matter of life and death to individual soldiers and serve to determine not only the outcome of battles but entire wars. Read more
Lt. Gen. Mark Clark’s Fifth Army, comprising the U.S. VI and British X Corps, headed north from the Salerno battlefield in September 1943, German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, commander of Army Group C in southern Italy, implemented new defensive tactics and fortifications. Read more
When Marine Private Donald Versaw arrived on the fortress island of Corregidor in the Philippines on December 28, 1941, three weeks after Pearl Harbor, he was impressed by how normal everything looked. Read more
In the winter of 1944-1945, within Belgium’s Ardennes Forest, better known as the launching pad of the Battle of the Bulge, two war crimes were committed. Read more
