The Battle of Rich Mountain

By William F. Floyd, Jr.

The blue-coated soldiers trudged uphill through the forest trying their best not to get snagged on the laurel branches or stumble over the tree roots. Read more

William Wells

By Joshua Shepherd

Long before he attained fame as the co-commander of the Lewis and Clark expedition, William Clark was a discontented young lieutenant assigned to the U.S. Read more

Sir Francis Walsingham

By Arnold Blumberg

Among the many portraits of famous Elizabethans hanging in London’s National Portrait Gallery is that of Sir Francis Walsingham, painted around 1587 by the artist John De Critz the Elder. Read more

Last Act in the Dutch East Indies

By Arnold Blumberg

Immediately after the Japanese attack on the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese realized that the oil reserves needed to carry on their new war against the Western powers were not as adequate as first thought. Read more

Belgrade Blitz

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

It was the most exciting scene Associated Press correspondent Robert St. John had yet witnessed in the career he had abandoned for five years to farm in New Hampshire then returned to when he sensed that war was coming. Read more

Konev Strikes

By Pat Mctaggart

During the last half of 1944, the Wehrmacht in the east had been forced to cede just about everything it had conquered since the beginning of the war against the Soviet Union in June 1941. Read more

The Devil Must Have Brought Them: The Battle of Oudenarde

By David A. Norris

Lieutenant General Armand-Charles de Gontaut, Marquis de Biron, led a party of foragers ahead of the French Army. Read more

The Battle for Aachen

By Arnold Blumberg

In their directive to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in northwestern Europe, the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff ordered Allied forces to land in France in June 1944, break out of Normandy, and mount an offensive “aimed at the heart of Germany and the destruction of her armed forces.” Read more

Ace of Aces

By Kelly Bell

By May 8, 1945, Adolf Hitler had been dead for more than a week. Germany was in the act of formally surrendering to the Soviets and the Western Allies, so occupying Red Army troops in the eastern German town of Brunn were not expecting to witness what may have been World War II’s last dogfight over Europe. Read more

Survival off Samar

By David Alan Johnson

At exactly 6:45 on the morning of October 25, 1944, Rear Admiral Clifton A.F. Sprague received a message from one of his pilots on antisubmarine patrol. Read more

Mishap at Maleme

By Jon Diamond

Brigadier Leslie Andrew, VC, DSO, was born in New Zealand on March 24, 1897. He served his country and the British Empire during both world wars. Read more

Battle for Tolvarjarvi

By David H. Lippman

From Leningrad to Murmansk, columns of Soviet Red Army troops stormed down roads and trails into Finland’s dense forests, lakes, and swamps, seeking to cut Finland in half. Read more

Combat Soldier and Later, POW

By Ray Allen Miller

I was raised on a farm between Hickory and Conover, North Carolina, the oldest of nine children, and this is a brief accounting of my military, combat, and prisoner of war experience in World War II. Read more

The Mighty Beau

By Phil Zimmer

The day’s flight was to be a fairly typical “rhubarb,” or a fast freelance strike, for the two pilots in their Bristol Beaufighters. Read more

Seek…Attack…Destroy

By Patrick. J. Chaisson

Admiral Soemu Toyoda needed answers. The newly appointed commander in chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet, Toyoda found himself facing several unpleasant facts. Read more

Witness to the Opening Salvos at Pearl Harbor

By Brian H. Wright

On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Gunner’s Mate Russell Winsett, 19, awoke at 5 am as he did most mornings. Read more

First Over Germany

By Lance Thompson

Among many sticky issues British Prime Minister Churchill would discuss with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Casablanca conference in January 1943 was the fact that the U.S. Read more

Cracking the Geilenkirchen Salient

By Nathan Prefer

Geilenkirchen had been a thorn in the side of the Allies ever since the first penetration of the Siegfried Line had been made just to the south. Read more

The Mystery of the Amber Room

By Chuck Lyons

In September 1941, during the siege of Leningrad, as the Soviets then called St. Petersburg, Nazi troops overran the Tsarskoye Selo Palace, the former summer residence of the czars in the suburban town of Pushkin. Read more

Fighting to Survive

By Ric A. Dias

America’s involvement in World War II was so deep and broad that it demanded that virtually every citizen, farm, and company become involved. Read more