The Thompson Submachine Gun

In 1939 Time magazine called the Thompson submachine gun “the deadliest weapon, pound for pound, ever devised by man….” Read more

A Daring Desert Campaign

“It is not a question of aiming for Alexandria or even Sollum,” the message read. “I am only asking you to attack the British forces facing you.” Read more

Taps for Mauldin

Bill Mauldin understood war from the grunt’s-eye view. An enlisted man with the 45th Infantry Division, he turned his hobby into an art, penning Army life in World War II from Sicily and Italy to France and Germany. Read more

The Comanche Code Talkers of World War II

Among the stalwart 4th Infantry Division soldiers who assaulted Utah Beach at Normandy on D-day were 13 specially recruited and trained Comanche Indians of the 4th Signal Company. Read more

A Wholesale Rout Began

In our June 2002 story about Napoleon’s campaign in Italy, we misidentified the credit for the illustration on page 33. Read more

The fallen … and the living.

At a time long ago, and in a place far away, a man stood up before his countrymen to console them if he could for the loss of their sons in battle for a righteous cause. Read more

Horatio Nelson: Deserving Hero

Days before the impending battle of Trafalgar, a sailor on Horatio Nelson’s flagship Victory was so busy ensuring that each man’s letters home were secured for dispatch on a vessel bound for England that he forgot until after the ship had sailed that he hadn’t included his own. Read more

The Army and Air Power

When the United States Army first developed an interest in aviation and purchased its first airplane from the Wright Company in 1909, it and the pilots and mechanics who flew and serviced it were assigned to the Signal Corps, a specialty corps that had been established prior to the Civil War to develop visual signals, then later to develop and service telegraph lines. Read more

Actor Leslie Howard Died in Plane Shot Down by Nazis 80 Years Ago.

On the morning of June 1, 1943, the Douglas DC-3 lifted off from the airport at Lisbon in neutral Portugal. BOAC Flight 777 or Dutch KLM Flight 2L272, as it had been designated, carried 13 passengers and its crew on a flight bound for London. Read more

Henry Holt & Co’s ‘Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life’

An obscure U.S. Army staff officer who had never been in action, Dwight David Eisenhower was a lieutenant colonel at the age of 50 with no visible prospects for advancement in the stagnant between-the-wars promotion system. Read more

Spectacular Magazine

Dear Editor,

To put it simply, WWII History is a spectacular magazine.

Nowhere else can one find such well-researched, clear, or concise articles as the ones found on your pages. Read more

Confidence in leadership and military will lead to victory in a just cause.

General Douglas MacArthur once said that the soldier above all prays for peace because he knows the terrible price of war. Read more

Marshal Georgi Zhukov: Hero of the Soviet Union

By Blaine Taylor

The German Wehrmacht had just invaded the Soviet Union in the predawn hours of June 22, 1941, and the chief of the Soviet General Staff, General Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov, was calling the Kremlin in Moscow to alert dictator Josef Stalin, nicknamed “The Chief. Read more

Lili Marlene

The true story of “Lili Marlene,” possibly the most famous war song ever written because of its universal themes of separation, loneliness, heartbreak, hope, fear of death, and dreaming for one’s love, is varying, contradictory, and controversial. Read more

Marine Rifleman

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life and beyond the call of duty,” began the citation for the Medal of Honor awarded to then-U.S. Read more

H. Paul Jeffers’ ‘In the Roughrider’s Shadow’

When the men of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 4th Infantry Division stepped out of a Higgins boat into waist-deep water at Utah Beach, Normandy, early on Tuesday, June 6, 1944, they were accompanied by a short, slender man with a dented nose. Read more

Admiral Spruance

Dear Sir,

I have just obtained a copy of your November issue which has just found its way into my local bookshop. Read more

The National World War II Memorial is scheduled for dedication May 29, 2004.

Fifty-nine years after the end of the most horrific conflict ever known, American veterans of World War II will have a memorial dedicated on May 29, 2004. Read more

Community of Cossacks

Cossacks: Back to War, from CDV for the PC, is the third in the Cossacks series of games. Read more

Marching with the Big Red One

Kill them, Lieutenant. Don’t take any prisoners,” exhorted the bedraggled engineer officer to the new replacements, “Don’t take any prisoners!” Read more