Battle of Mortain: The Big Red One’s Square-Off with German Panzers

At the start of the Battle of Mortain, Field Marshal Gunther Von Kluge was in an optimistic mood. Read more

Operation Silver Fox: An Opportunity Lost at Murmansk

As Adolf Hitler began to formulate his grandiose plans for the conquest of the Soviet Union, he considered the far northern operation area little more than a sideshow. Read more

Game Reviews: Company of Heroes 2: The British Forces

Sega and Relic Entertainment are getting ready to expand the Company of Heroes series once more with Company of Heroes 2: The British Forces. Read more

A Dangerous Mission for General Maxwell Taylor of 82nd Airborne

At 8:30 on the evening of September 7, 1943, an Italian military ambulance entered Rome carrying two American prisoners of war. Read more

Guerrilla War on Luzon During World War II

If there is a group of men whose mention evokes thoughts of heroism, it is those who were surrendered to the Japanese on Bataan and subsequently became part of the “Death March” up that peninsula in the Philippines to POW camps in central Luzon. Read more

390th Bomb Group’s Risky Run Over Merseburg

When the call came that morning, it was not unlike the 25 times previously when they had flown, or all those other times when weather intervened and postponement was ordered. Read more

“Bomber” Harris and His Royal Air Force Bomber Command

Racing his Bentley at breakneck speed between his High Wycombe headquarters and the Air Ministry during World War II, Air Marshal Arthur Travers Harris was the bane of motorcycle policemen on the London road. Read more

Trade of 50 American Destroyers for British Bases in World War II

In early September 1940, the world was in turmoil. The battle of Britain was nearing its climax, and elsewhere global tensions ran high. Read more

The USS Olympia: Largest Steel Warship Afloat

The oldest steel warship afloat has survived wars, economic downturns, and even the harsh passage of time, but there was one battle that the USS Olympia (C-6), flagship of the American Asiatic Fleet during the Spanish-American War of 1898, almost was unable to win. Read more

The Mysterious Death of Major William Holohan

In the latter part of 1944, the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, mounted a plan called Operation Chrysler in Italy to “act as a liaison with partisan commanders, attempt to guide and control developments in northern Italy, and create a unified partisan command under the direction of the supreme allied commander.” Read more

The Battle of Saipan

Peering through his binoculars, Vice Adm. Chuichi Nagumo was in awe of the nearly 800 ships from Vice Adm. Read more

World War II’s Deadly Rapido River Crossing

The attempted crossing of the Rapido River in Italy by two infantry regiments of the U.S. 36th Division in January 1944 was one of the costliest failed attacks made by American forces during World War II. Read more

Operation Tidal Wave Takes Aim at Ploesti

If there was a name of a prospective target that caused Allied airmen in the European Theater of Operations to blanch in the fall of 1943 and the spring of 1944, it was Ploesti. Read more

U.S. Marine legend Lewis ‘Chesty’ Puller

Crouched in their foxholes along Edson’s Ridge on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, the Marines formed a critical but thin defense line between strategic Henderson Field and seasoned Japanese infantry lurking in the jungle. Read more

Ferdinand Porsche’s ‘Elefant’ Tank Destroyer Could Have Excelled

World War II tanks usually had aggressive- or ferocious-sounding names, such as Hellcat, Panther, or Tiger. Yet the tendency was not universal, as with British Cruisers or the American M-3 Honey. Read more

Attack on The Merville gun battery during D-Day

Just boys facing danger, please God make them men; If they live through the danger, make them boys once again.      —Sergeant Ginger Woodcock, June 5, 1944

On the morning of June 6, 1944, the greatest amphibious fleet in history bore in toward the coast of Normandy. Read more

Game Features: World War II: TCG

It might seem strange to imagine collectible cards based on the events of World War II. The funny thing is, I’m sure they exist, encased in plastic in a few collectors’ binders across the world, each touting unique facts and feats performed by the historical figure on the front. Read more

Military Intelligence: Japan’s BW Group

Confronted with war, some men seem capable of assuming almost any evil. Such were the actions of General Shiro Ishii and the men of his Manchuko Unit 731, which developed means of biological warfare in the 1930s and ’40s. Read more

The Confederate Spy Ring: Spreading Terror to the Union

The Civil War was fought out in the open on battlefields across the United States. But beginning in early 1864, the highest levels of the Confederate government decided that another, more clandestine war would be fought behind the lines in the North. Read more

The Assassination Of Reinhard Heydrich, The Butcher Of Prague

The morning sun caressed the hills of the Czech capital of Prague, coaxing a slight haze from the ancient city. Read more