Rudolf Hess’s Secret Scotland Visit in May 1941

To the people of the Scottish Highlands the Battles of the previous year had seemed a distant concern. Read more

The History of Slavery in America Prior to the Civil War

For nearly two centuries, the “peculiar institution” of slavery dominated Southern social and economic life in America, infecting the nation’s politics with an unresolvable moral conflict that led finally to civil war. Read more

Low Level, No Guns

Major Sam P. Bakshas woke up that morning with the secrets in his head.

Bakshas was one of the men flying B-29 Superfortress bombers from three Pacific islands—Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. Read more

Howard W. Gilmore and the USS Growler: Making the Ultimate Sacrifice

On February 7, 1943, while on patrol in the Southwest Pacific Ocean, U.S. Navy Commander Howard W. Gilmore, commander of the USS Growler (SS-215), and his crew carved out a place for themselves in Navy legend and set a standard of duty that is remembered in the submarine service today. Read more

Who is Julius Caesar? Facts vs Myth

Few men’s names resonate after two thousand years, for it is a very long stretch of time. Read more

General Anthony McAuliffe

When word of the German breakthrough in the Ardennes Forest began to move back to the rear echelons of the American command in Western Europe, General Maxwell Taylor, commanding officer of the 101st Airborne Division, was attending a conference in Washington, D.C. Read more

Vikings had the Tools and Traits to Succeed

“The woeful inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the Church of God in Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter,” reads the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, referring to the savage sacking of the island monastery off the coast of Northumbria in ad 793. Read more

Normandy’s Little Victims

War spared no one. As modern armies clashed in France’s Normandy countryside, French civilians found themselves in the crossfire or on the receiving end of bombs and heavy weapons. Read more

Nicholas Oresko Left a Brave Legacy.

On October 4, 2013, Nicholas Oresko passed away in an Englewood, New Jersey hospital at the age of 96. Read more

To this day, the cause of the sinking of the HMS Hood during the hunt for the Bismarck is still disputed.

The British Admiralty Board of Enquiry into the loss of the battlecruiser HMS Hood, presided over by Vice Admiral Sir Geoffrey Blake, concluded, “The sinking of Hood was due to a hit from Bismarck’s 15-inch shell in or adjacent to Hood’s 4-inch or 15-inch magazines, causing them to explode and wreck the after part of the ship.” Read more

“The Light Of Battle Was In Their Eyes.”

This year marks the 80th anniversary of Operation Overlord, commonly known as “D-Day.” Of course, every military operation had a “D-day,” which simply means the date that the operation is scheduled to begin. Read more

Getting Goosebumps

This year I feel deeply honored to have been chosen by the Smithsonian Institution to lead three 70th anniversary D-Day trips to England and France (one took place in May; the other two are scheduled to take place in September and October). Read more

SoldatenKaffee: Indonesia’s Nazi-Themed Cafe

Soldatenkaffee, named after a café frequented by German soldiers in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II, is, thankfully, one of a number of choices for luncheon fare in Bandung, Indonesia. Read more

World of Tanks Blitz

It can be a hefty challenge to shrink a majorly popular console/PC experience down to the world of mobile gaming without sacrificing too much of what made it work in the first place. Read more

Britain’s hollow-cast toy soldiers continue to attract collectors decades after their manufacture.

Many militaria collectors can trace the roots of their hobby to their childhood encounters with toy soldiers. For American kids in the 1930s and 1940s, this may have been with three-inch-tall American-made Manoils or Barclays from the local dime store. Read more

The French sought revenge after the fall of Louisbourg.

In the wake of the impressive victory by American colonists over the French at Louisbourg in June 1745 during King George’s War (1744-1748), the Province of Massachusetts Bay braced for the inevitable raids by the French and their Native American allies on two fronts. Read more

E3 2014 Showcase

This year’s E3 was full of the typical spectacle one expects from a slew of games and promises that are still waiting in the relatively distant future. Read more

MRAP Ambush

On Thanksgiving Day 2009, a convoy of three mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles left the south gate of Camp Ramadi, Iraq, and began the roughly three-mile journey to the Provincial Government Building. Read more

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Despite the franchise’s age, Wolfenstein remains in the category of “new nostalgia” for some. While it has deeper origins—starting with 2D adventure game Castle Wolfenstein, which made its Apple II debut in 1981—the series is well known for its seminal contribution to the first-person shooter genre with 1992’s Wolfenstein 3D. Read more

Fox Company’s Airborne Saga

Corporal Manning Haney sat atop a dike near Randwijk, Holland, on October 7, 1944, manning a .50-caliber machine gun. Read more