A platoon of green troops from the U.S. 106th Infantry Division, somewhere near St. Vith, Belgium. Expecting to occupy a quiet sector of the Allied line in December 1944, the “Golden Lions” found themselves in the path of Hitler’s last major offensive—Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine).

The Most Serious Reverse

By Flint Whitlock

The HMS Queen Elizabeth, the largest passenger liner afloat, took only five days to transport the entire 106th Division from New Jersey to Glasgow, Scotland, making port on November 17, 1944. Read more

This scene depicting the Battle of Nineveh is part of the “Legend of the True Cross” fresco cycle by Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca. Chosroes II, near defeat, appears to be on his knees at the far right. The frescoes were painted in the 15th century in the Basilica of San Francesco (dedicated to St Francis of Assisi) in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy.

The Last Epic Battle of Antiquity

By Michael D. Greaney

Though the Western Roman Empire had fallen with the deposition of Romulus Augustulus at Rome in 476, elements of the Empire remained, in fact and influence, for centuries to come. Read more

German Heer Infantryman, Battle of the Bulge

By Johnny Shumate

The German unified armed forces were renamed Wehrmacht “defense force” from 1935 to 1945, comprising the Heer (army), Kriegsmarine (navy) and Luftwaffe (air force)—all distinctly separate from the paramilitary Waffen Schutzstaffel “armed-protection squad” of the Nazi Party. Read more

American paratroopers come to earth as Douglas C-47 transport aircraft drone in the skies above. Cows are grazing peacefully in this photo, undisturbed by the early events of Operation Market-Garden.

Tough Fight at Mook

By Patrick J. Chaisson

In the midst of the ambitious Operation Market-Garden, Brigadier General James M. Gavin, 82nd Airborne Division Commander, first heard about the crisis at Mook, along the Maas River, from his chief of staff, Lt. Read more

Britain’s Decisive Aerial Victory

By David Alan Johnson

“I say, better wake up.”

Red Tobin opened one eye, rolled over, and found his squadron mate, Pilot Officer John Dundas, shaking him by the shoulder and staring into his face. Read more

Marines maintain a M48A3 Patton tank parked in the rocky, red clay soil at Con Thien in a painting by Navy combat artist Verciell Tossey. The outpost was an anchor point in the defense of the northern border of South Vietnam.

Courageous Stand at Con Thien

By William E. Welsh

As the sun rose on May 8, 1967, it illuminated the 525-foot-high hill known as Con Thien where the Marine Corps had established a firebase two miles south of the Demilitarized Zone in South Vietnam. Read more

Soldiers roll a 37mm antitank gun from a landing craft during a training exercise. By many standards, the 37mm gun was obsolete at the beginning of World War II; however, the weapon remained in widespread use throughout the conflict.

WWII Weapons: M3 37mm Antitank Gun

By Christopher Miskimon

The men of Lieutenant Edwin K. Smith’s antitank platoon, 2nd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division peered over the gun shields of their 37mm cannon at the column of Vichy French armored cars approaching their roadblock. Read more

Delaying Action at Enchenberg

By Allyn Vannoy

The 44th Infantry Division, part of the U.S. Seventh Army’s XV Corps, was pushing elements of the battered German 25th Panzergrenadier Division back toward the German frontier in the Vosges Mountains during early December 1944. Read more

The Heroic Voyages of the USS Gwin

By Michael Fellows

Lieutenant Commander John Benjamin Fellows, the skipper of the American Gleaves-class destroyer USS Gwin (DD-433), stood on the bridge trying to see into the predawn blackness. Read more

A Time of Unreasoning Hatred

By Eric Niderost

On February 28, 1942, Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr of Colorado received a telegram from the White House. At that moment he was in his office, surrounded by staff, but routine business had to be put on hold while Carr quickly scanned the missive that came directly from the president of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt. Read more

Colonel J.E.B. Stuart’s 1st Virginia Cavalry troopers galloping at full speed crash into the flank of the New York Fire Zouaves as the battle turns in the Confederate favor in a painting by Don Troiani.

Bloody Repulse at Bull Run

By Joshua Shepherd

After just one month of training, the men of the 27th New York Infantry nervously sensed they would be in the middle of a real fight within minutes. Read more

British soldiers advance through the rubble of a captured town on the road to Mandalay in 1945. Maj. Gen. T.W. Rees's 19th Division captured the old royal capital on March 21 after protracted street fighting and stubborn Japanese resistance from inside the city's ancient citadel known as Fort Dufferin.

Outfoxed in Burma

By Mike Phifer

While the soldiers and officers of the Japanese 15th Army fought fiercely to defend Mandalay in central Burma, they were alarmed to discover that British and Indian troops were dangerously close to capturing their supply depot at Meiktila, 90 miles to their rear. Read more

Indian lancers overrun an Ottoman position in the Valley of Armageddon on the second day of the Battle of Megiddo.

Fatal Blow at the Battle of Megiddo

By Richard Willis

The six-day Battle of Megiddo fought in September 1918 was a decisive climax to the struggle in Palestine between the Ottoman Empire, backed by the Germans, and Great Britain and her allies. Read more

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