Furious Fight in a Frozen Hell

It was the third winter in Russia for the men of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein’s Army Group South, and things were going from bad to worse. Read more

The German 11th Panzer Division: Giving Up the Ghost

It was an impressive sight. Upon the reviewing stand as honored guest was General Dwight D. Read more

Frederic John Walker & the German U-Boat

On this writer’s desk sits a small, pewter mug, dented and somewhat bat-tered. It is neatly engraved, and the lettering reads: “Wardroom H.M.S. Read more

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, the Woman who Received the Medal of Honor

Born to progressive parents in Oswego, New York, Mary Edwards Walker and her six siblings were raised as “Free Thinkers” and taught to question everything. Read more

Operation Cartwheel: Seizing the Solomons and Beyond

On the island of New Britain, at the north end of the Solomon chain, lay a major base that provided Japanese forces with the naval power, supplies, and reinforcements to control the sea lanes of the Southwest Pacific. Read more

WWII Planes: The Bell P-39 Airacobra “Peashooter”

If there is an American combat airplane that has achieved an ill-deserved reputation, no doubt it would be the much-maligned Bell P-39 Airacobra, a tricycle landing gear single-engine fighter whose reputation was greatly overshadowed by the more famous, and of more recent design, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, and North American P-51 Mustang. Read more

Paul Tibbets: The Man Who Piloted the Enola Gay

Today, in his nineties, Paul Tibbets is still a handsome man. He has a full head of silver hair. Read more

The Spanish Blue Division Along WWII’s Eastern Front

To their Russian enemies they were the “Spanish mercenaries of Hitler’s Fascist lackey, Franco.” To Hitler himself, “One can’t imagine more fearless fellows. Read more

Discharged: George Faulkner’s Odyssey from Soldier to Civilian

Every man in uniform dreamed of taking that big boat home, but stepping foot on American soil was just part of the journey. Read more

Scout Squadron 6 During the Pearl Harbor Attack

Many people have heard of the six American Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk fighters that actually got off the ground and contested the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Read more

OSS Operation Ginny

The three rubber dinghies struggled through the rough surf in the pitch black night toward an inhospitable stretch of rocky beach. Read more

Warsaw 1943: A War of Desperation

In April 1940, Adolf Hitler’s SS began building a walled compound in occupied Warsaw in which to imprison Jews who had survived the previous autumn’s bitter fighting as the German juggernaut romped through western Poland. Read more

Marauding Kriegsmarine Raider

Say the words “pocket battleship” and up pops the name Admiral Graf Spee. Her two sister ships, the Deutschland/Lutzow and the Admiral Scheer are virtually unknown to Americans. Read more

WWII Heroes: Aristides de Sousa Mendes

Panic and confusion reigned across France as the bright, warm spring of 1940 turned into summer.

Blitzkrieg, a brutal new mode of warfare, was on the loose in Western Europe. Read more

U.S. Heavy Bombers in WWII: Caught on the Ground

In the popular history of World War II, the assertion that the United States was caught unprepared in Hawaii and the Philippines has become widely accepted as fact. Read more

Arlington National Cemetery: A Nation’s Hallowed Ground

Millions of people travel to Washington, DC, to view famous icons of the United States. Mainly these are working institutions like the Congress and the White House or edifices such as the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Read more

The Battle of Grandson

On Friday, September 28, 1473, Charles, Duke of Burgundy arrived at Trier to meet with the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. Read more

Navy Cross in Vietnam

As darkness fell along the upper Saigon River in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region, one of two River Patrol boats of the U.S. Read more

‘A Bad Place for a Fight’

In the early hours of October 19, 1864, fog blanketed the hills and fields along the meandering Cedar Creek in the northern Shenandoah Valley. Read more

Dominique Jean, Baron Larrey

It was late November, 1812, and the fate of Napoleon’s Grande Armee hung in the balance. Several Russian armies were closing in, but if the French crossed the 300-foot-wide Berezina River, the bedraggled survivors of a once great army might still manage to escape the trap. Read more