The Wehrmacht in France: Decisions in a Time of Debacle
By Brooke C. StoddardMay 10, 1940, marked the beginning of the war in western Europe. Nazi-controlled Germany invaded Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Read more
Battle of the Bismarck Sea: A 15-Minute War in the South Pacific
By Sam McGowanMost military historians consider the Battle of Midway to be the turning point of World War II in the Pacific. Read more
First Strike Against Japanese Industry
By Phil ScearceConsolidated B-24 Liberator bomber crews of the U.S. 11th Bombardment Group spent the first three months of 1943 organizing on Hawaiian airfields and flying practice and patrol missions around the islands. Read more
“Convoy is to Scatter”: Arctic Convoy Disaster
By David H. LippmanBritish Prime Minister Winston Churchill had made the promise to Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, and Admiral Sir John Tovey of the Royal Navy had to keep it: to sail three convoys loaded with critical supplies from Britain to Russia every two months, with 25 to 35 ships in each convoy. Read more
Battle of Guningtou: The Republic of China Fights For Survival
By Edward F. ChenIn October 1949, the government of the Republic of China faced the greatest crisis in its history. Read more
Battle of Berlin: Why it Became the Death Knell for Hitler’s Third Reich
By David H. LippmanThe Battle of Berlin began with what a German colonel called “a dull, continuous roar of thunder from the east.” Read more
A Tale of Two Famiglie: Resistance and Atrocities During the Italian Resistance
By Ed EmeringIn March 1940, Benito Mussolini met with Adolf Hitler near the Brenner Pass on the border between Austria and Italy. Read more
No Deserts for Il Duce: The Italian Rout in East Africa
By John W. Osborn Jr.“I am not a collector of deserts,” Mussolini declared regarding his imperial ambitions. Instead, he would be a loser of them, most publicly in North Africa and, in one of World War II’s least-known campaigns, in East Africa. Read more
The Italian Army in Russia: from Barbarossa to Stalingrad
By James I. MarinoThe most successful Italian Army of World War II was a political creation of dictator Benito Mussolini. Read more
Ordeal at Outpost Snipe: Defiant Stand at El Alamein
By Christopher MiskimonThe war in North Africa flung vast armies across the arid deserts of Libya and Egypt for two long years, beginning with the Italian invasion of Egypt in September 1940. Read more
Debacle at Dakar
By David H. LippmanThe director flicked his finger, and General Charles de Gaulle began reading his address into the British Broadcasting Corporation’s microphone, speaking from London to his defeated countrymen across the English Channel, calling upon them to continue resistance in the face of overwhelming German supremacy. Read more
The Battle of Tannenburg: Massacre in the Marshes
By Eric NiderostOn August 2, 1914, Russian Czar Nicholas II appeared on the balcony of the Winter Palace in St. Read more
“This is the Army”: Irving Berlin’s War
By Sheldon WinklerThe most successful and popular patriotic show of World War II and one of the most unique productions in the history of entertainment was Irving Berlin’s This Is the Army, which originally began as a Broadway musical. Read more
Escape From Bataan
By Glenn BarnettMost Americans were surprised by the Japanese attack on pearl Harbor, but the military had known that war with Japan was inevitable. Read more
The Battle of Narvik: Crippling the Kriegsmarine
By David H. LippmanThe Germans could not believe it. Without suffering the loss of a single soldier or sailor, the German Army and Navy had sailed 1,500 miles through waters dominated by the British Royal Navy and captured Narvik without firing a shot, bagged nearly 500 Norwegian soldiers, seized one of Norway’s major military depots, and even taken five armed British merchant ships and their crews. Read more
Montgomery’s Manpower Crisis at Caen
By William WeidnerIn an August 14, 1944, General Bernard L. Montgomery was facing a manpower crisis, unable to drive the Germans out of Caen. Read more
MacArthur’s Occupation of Japan: Lessons on Counterinsurgency
By Lieutenant Colonel Michael F. TrivetAs the months of 1945 passed at an agonizingly slow pace, Allied forces in the Pacific struggled unwaveringly toward Japan. Read more
Operation Drumbeat: U-Boat Marauders on the American Coast
By Kelly BellOn December 9, 1941, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, the commander of the Kriegsmarine, lifted all restrictions on German naval attacks against American vessels by his surface and submarine fleets. Read more
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto: Japan’s Naval War Leader
By Michael D. HullBrave, urbane, and complex, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was Japan’s greatest naval strategist and the architect of one of the most stunning achievements in the history of modern warfare. Read more
The Indian Ocean Raid: Disaster for the Royal Navy
By David H. Lippman“So this is the Eastern Fleet,” ran Vice Admiral Sir James Fownes Somerville’s signal. “Never mind. Many a good tune is played on an old fiddle.” Read more
