The Nazi ‘Gold Train Incident’

By the spring of 1945, Hitler’s thousand year Reich had come crashing down in flames. The Allied armies that had landed at Normandy almost one year earlier had penetrated deep inside Germany. Read more

Survival at Sugarloaf: Battle Fatigue at Okinawa

Because of the severe conditions at Sugar Loaf and elsewhere on Okinawa, the fighting produced an alarmingly high number of battle fatigue cases. Read more

George Patton & Bernard Montgomery in Operation Husky

Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, was the only operation in World War II in which generals Bernard Montgomery and George S. Read more

Dr. Corydon Wassell: Caring for the Wounded in Java

Allied fortunes were at a low ebb as strategic British and American bases fell like ninepins to the Japanese across the Far East in the early months of 1942. Read more

The Fairey Swordfish Torpedo Plane a.k.a. Stringbag

The spring of 1941, particularly the month of May, was a troubled time for Great Britain. The German battleship Bismarck had sunk the huge British battlecruiser Hood in just six minutes and was making a getaway to the coast of German-occupied France. Read more

Germany in World War II: The Long Surrender

It was said on May 8, 1945, that some of the victors wandered around in a daze. They were puzzled by a strange silence. Read more

WWII Battles: Airborne Drop into Sicily

When American and British airborne troops lifted off from bases in North Africa and headed toward drop zones in Sicily during the early morning hours of July 9, 1943, the plan began to unravel almost immediately. Read more

Survival at Sugarloaf: An Encounter of a Father and Son

One of the most heart-wrenching moments to occur on Okinawa involved a family with a proud Marine heritage. Read more

Movie Stars at War

In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Americans volunteered for the U.S. armed services in unprecedented numbers. After their service, some would go on to become Hollywood and television stars, like Johnny Carson, ensign on the battleship USS Pennsylvania, patrol craft officer Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis of the submarine Dragonette. Read more

Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey

Just before dawn, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise turned into the wind to launch her planes. Nervous and excited pilots roared into the darkness of the vast Pacific toward the unsuspecting Japanese. Read more

Were the Angels of Mons in World War I Real, or Mass Hysteria?

Some Tommies swore it had been St. George, the warrior saint of England. Others said the “Angels of Mons” might have been St. Read more

The Politics of Military Heroes

Defeat has a funny way of producing heroes.

The British lost an embarrassing battle to Zulu tribesmen at Isandhlwana, but the improbable defense of an insignificant river crossing 10 miles away by a handful of rear-echelon soldiers, overage officers, and civilians created a new crop of heroes for the public to idolize. Read more

Charlie Bond’s Air Duels

On May 4, 1942, American Volunteer Group (AVG) pilots Charlie Bond and Bob Little were in the alert area at Paoshan, China, a small grass aerodrome just north of Burma. Read more

The Siege of Przemysl

A horrible siege on the Eastern Front occurred at the outset of 1915. The city of Przemysl in southeastern Poland belonged to Austria Hungary. Read more

Colonial Conquest

Fans of classic turn-based strategy games might recall 1985’s Colonial Conquest. Argonauts Interactive ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for a reboot earlier in 2015, reimagining and rereleasing the conquest simulator for today’s strategy-loving PC players. Read more

Battle of the Standard — August 22, 1138 AD

The English commander, William de Aumale, heard the roar of the Scots army even before it appeared out of the early morning mists. Read more

Siege of Osaka Castle

In 1611 Tokugawa Ieyasu had every reason to be pleased with himself. His son Hidetada was Shogun, supreme warlord of Japan, but in truth it was Ieyasu who ruled the country behind the scenes. Read more

The Four Days’ Battle: A Dutch Triumph

Admiral General George Monck, first Duke of Albemarle, walked into the great cabin of his flagship Royal Charles with a calm and determined air, tersely greeting his assembled captains before they all sat down at a large table. Read more

The Kokoda Track Campaign: World War II’s Trail of Death

The Kokoda track campaign involved a trail that leada south along the western side of the Eora Creek Gorge and through the villages of Deniki and Isurava to a trail junction at Alola. Read more

‘Trail of Death’: The Kokoda Track

In 1994 James Anderson and a few other adventurers retraced the Australian Army’s withdrawal from Kokoda in 1942, and followed the track across the Owen Stanley Mountains. Read more