Frank Messervy: Britain’s Frontline General

By Jon Diamond

The style of leadership practiced in Britain’s Eighth Army during the early years of the Desert War left much to be desired. Read more

Operation Compass: Masterstroke in the Desert

By John Diamond

Established in the summer of 1939, Field Marshal Sir Archibald Wavell’s Middle East Command encompassed nine countries and parts of two continents, an area of 1,700 miles by 2,000 miles. Read more

Dogs in WW2: from Paratroopers to Medical Dogs in Combat

By Bob Cashner

Animals of several kinds were used during WW2 by the military forces of belligerents both large and small. Read more

Miyamoto Mushashi: Samurai Legend

By O’Brien Brown

The samurai warrior sat in the middle of the dueling grounds in the village of Hirafuku, Japan, glaring at the spectators who had gathered around him. Read more

The Atlantis: The Kriegsmarine’s Last Corsair

By David Lippman

In her previous life, she had been the Hansa-line freighter Goldenfels. She was launched in 1937 and displaced 7,862 tons. Read more

Martyr Village: Massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane

By Robert Mueller

Upon visiting Oradour-sur-Glane, one finds a quiet, rural French village where the populace carries on about its business much like in any commune in France. Read more

The Hossbach Memorandum

By Blaine Taylor

On June 24, 1937, German Minister of War Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg issued a directive marked Top Secret with only four copies to be made, the first for himself and the other three for the heads of the armed forces of the Third Reich. Read more

USS Murphy: Long Service in Wartime

By William B. Allmon

Eighty miles off the coast of New Jersey and 280 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean lies the forward section of a World War II destroyer, where it came to rest more than 60 years ago. Read more

ANZACs at Maleme

By David H. Lippman

“Maleme. 20th May, 1941. Usual Mediterranean summer day. Cloudless sky, no wind, extreme visibility; e.g., details on mountains 20 miles to the southeast easily discernible.” Read more

The National World War II Museum

By Peter Suciu

Opened on June 6, 2000, on the 56th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the National D-Day Museum, as it was then known, initially focused on the amphibious invasion of Normandy. Read more

The PTRS 41 and Other and Russian Anti-Tank Rifles

By Robert Cashner

Ever since the tank appeared on the battlefield during World War I, armies the world over have sought to field man-portable infantry antitank weapons to give the infantryman a viable defense against the metal monsters. Read more

The Cuban Missile Crisis: On the Brink of Nuclear War

By Peter Kross

For 13 tension-filled days in October 1962, the world came closer to nuclear war than it has ever come before or since. Read more

The Proximity Fuse: The Gunner’s Dream Finally Became Realized

By Kevin Allen

Early on the morning of December 16, 1944, the commander of the U.S. 406th Artillery Group, Colonel George Axelson, had a difficult decision to make. Read more

Reel War: The Evolution of the American War Film

 By Philip Burton Morris

The first truly realistic American films of World War II began with a flourish familiar to any moviegoing audience at the time: a hand-drawn company logo introduced by musical fanfare. Read more

What Makes Great Commanders Great?

By Richard A. Gabriel

Of the thousands of commanders who have served in history’s armies, why is it that only a few are remembered as great leaders of men in battle? Read more

The Russo-Finnish War: Why Stalin Tried to Invade Finland

By Arnold Blumberg

Prior to the Russo-Finnish War, problems were already setting in for Russia and Germany. The hugely cynical German-Soviet nonaggression pact, concluded in August 1939, assigned the Baltic region of eastern Europe to the exclusive sphere of influence of Communist Russia. Read more

Opening Moves on the Rio Grande: The Relief of Fort Texas

By David A. Norris

The hot days at Fort Texas were about to get a lot hotter. For days, the men of the 7th U.S. Read more

Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Italian Red Shirts

By Louis Ciotola

In the spring of 1860, when Giuseppe Garibaldi became Dictator of Sicily, Italy was a confusing conglomerate of states, divided between Piedmont-Sardinia and Austrian Venetia in the north, the Papal States in the middle, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, centered in Naples, in the south. Read more

Bomber Gunner Ben Kuroki: “Most Honorable Son”

By Sam McGowan

In 1942, many Americans considered anyone of Japanese ancestry to be an enemy, regardless of where they had been born or how long their families had lived in the United States. Read more

Baghdad’s 1941 Regime

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

A dangerous outlaw regime sits in power in Baghdad; the leader of one of the world’s superpowers decides it has to be removed at all costs; an army marches across the desert to topple it.  Read more