Hollywood’s Dream Factory During World War II
By Herb KugelWorld War II came to the Hollywood motion picture studios, the “Dream Factories” as they were sometimes called, the day after Pearl Harbor. Read more
The Muddled History of Philippe Pétain
By Michael E. HaskewHe was, in the truest sense, a national hero. Philippe Pétain, Marshal of France, the hero of Verdun, is, however, best remembered in the modern world as a traitor, a collaborationist who sacrificed the honor of France to make a deal with Hitler and the Nazis. Read more
WWII Warplanes: The Superb Supermarine Spitfire
By Sam McGowanIn the annals of World War II, one of the most famous airplanes is the British-developed Supermarine Spitfire, an agile, elliptical-wing fighter that has become synonymous with the Royal Air Force victory in the Battle of Britain. Read more
‘Raising a flag over the Reichstag’ Photographer Yevgeni Khaldei
By Michael E. HaskewThe image of Red Army soldiers hoisting their hammer and sickle emblazoned banner atop the Reichstag, the seat of the German parliament, is a classic photo of World War II, an image that told the world Nazi Germany was at last finished. Read more
Reginald Earnshaw: The Youngest British Casualty
By Michael E. HaskewDuty in the British Merchant Navy was hazardous during World War II. Braving the stormy Atlantic, the expanse of the Pacific, and the daily rigors of life aboard ship were challenging enough during peacetime; however, during the dark days of the war a determined enemy, bent on bringing the island nation and its far-flung empire to their knees, unleashed a vicious campaign against Britain’s merchant lifeline. Read more
Rescue at Ladd Reef
By Paul FaraceAs the submarine USS Cod left Apra harbor, Guam, on the afternoon of June 26, 1945, for her seventh war patrol, her crew of 97 officers and enlisted men were all but certain that their new assignment was to be junk hunting—a thankless and dangerous job that in the words of one Cod crewman saw “Uncle Sam risk a seven million dollar submarine and crew to sink a leaky sailboat not worth more than $20,000!” Read more
USS Astoria Sunk: The Disaster Off Savo Island
By John DomagalskiAdmiral Ernest King could not believe what he was reading. The graying 63-year-old chief of U.S. naval operations had been awoken from his sleep. Read more
Arnhem’s Other Urquhart
By Jon DiamondThe Hollywood military film devotee will remember the beginning of the epic, A Bridge Too Far, when a young British airborne officer named Fuller informs Lt. Read more
Bringing Down the Bridges
By John ManciniIn April 1941, German troops swarmed into Greece from Bulgaria. Despite a valiant defense by the Greek Army and support from the British, the Nazis smashed their battle lines and controlled Greece within weeks. Read more
George S. Patton’s End Run: The Story of His Final Days
By Major General Michael ReynoldsBy early 1945, less than a year before General George S. Patton’s mysterious death, Adolf Hitler’s armies were almost exhausted. Read more
The Norden Bombsight: Was it Truly Accurate Beyond Belief?
By Roaul DrapeauIn a 1921 bombing test, U.S. Army Air Corps General Billy Mitchell’s airmen sank the former German battleship Ostfriesland. Read more
Panzers at the Gates of Moscow
By Jonathan JordanThe war map gave Adolf Hitler every reason to be confident. Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union begun on June 22, 1941, had succeeded spectacularly on nearly every front. Read more
Rain of Terror: The Bombing of the British Isles
By Michael D. HullFirst, there was a faint drone, with black specks visible in the sunny sky. Then the drone grew into a thunder, and hundreds of bombers appeared over London. Read more
World War Toons Update
By Joseph LusterWe previously covered an upcoming virtual reality first-person shooter called World War Toons, which, as you might have guessed from the title, is a more cartoonish take on the WWII shooter genre. Read more
Game Review: UBOOT
by Joseph LusterWe’ve had plenty of strategy games in the past that have given players looming, distant control of military units, from land-based vehicles to those in the air and sea. Read more
Game Review: Battlefield 1 and Tales from the Void
By Joseph LusterEA is trying something different with the Battlefield series, and oddly enough that involves dialing events back further than ever before. Read more
Secret Agent Man: The Story of Eddie Chapman
By Peter KrossNations have often pressed unsavory characters and criminals into service during wartime, rationalizing that such action is in the best interest of the country during extraordinary times. Read more
The Shinano Carrier: How Allied Forces Sunk Such a Secret
By Kelly BellThe first torpedo struck the Shinano carrier farthest aft. Over the next 30 seconds three more warheads detonated against the massive aircraft carrier’s hull, working their way forward. Read more
Scandinavian Airborne Assault
By Henrik O. LundeThe Polish Campaign in 1939 demonstrated the awesome effectiveness of aircraft as weapons platforms for close ground support. Read more
War Takes Wing
By Gregory PedutoThe army brass argued at length; the scheme proposed by behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner was mad, foolhardy, but also ingenious. Read more
