Uniform: Prussian Grenadier of the 12th Regiment, 1755-1756
By William WelshMiter Helmet: The tall miter design dated from the 17th century, when grenadiers threw grenades and needed a hat that would not impede their throwing arm. Read more
7 World War II Book Reviews for Fall 2026
Full ReviewsThe Navigator’s Letter: The True Story of Two WWII Airmen, a Doomed Mission, and the Woman Who Bound Them Together (Jan Cress Dondi, Union Square & Co., Read more
First Manassas: The Battle of Bull Run
By Earl EchelberryOn March 4, 1861, with war clouds threatening the land, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated the 16th president of the United States. Read more
Fighting The War in the Middle East
By William StroockFor more than a century the Middle East was the British Empire’s vital link between the Mediterranean and India. Read more
Charlemagne: Warlord of the Franks
By Ludwig DyckOn Christmas morning, 800 ad, a tall, powerfully built man walked up the steps of Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome. Read more
The Borkum Island Massacre and Trial
By William R. HoganOn August 4, 1944, a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress heavy bomber, tail number 43-37909, so new that it did not have a nickname or nose art yet, took off from England on a bombing run over Germany that would end in a crash landing on Borkum Island in the North Sea. Read more
The Rise and Fall of Dazzle Camouflage
By Joseph Frantiska Jr.What do Pablo Picasso, the U.S. Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) have in common? Read more
Private SNAFU
By Peter ZablockiBumbling Army Private Snafu was the title character of a series of 26 short cartoons sanctioned by the U.S. Read more
America’s trusty M1 Garand rifle was “Woven into the fabric of the nation.”
By David J. LittleAfter the Great War, in which American troops were sent into combat with either the bolt-action M1903 Springfield rifle or the bolt-action British Enfield, planners in the War Department realized that, if the United States were ever drawn in combat again, they would need a far superior weapon. Read more
Chasing Jefferson Davis
By Don HollwayWhen the end came, on April 2, 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was sitting in his customary pew at St. Read more
Cape Matapan Triumph
By David H. LippmanIt was called “rodding,” and it was a complex manual procedure used by British cryptographers at Hut Eight in the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park to decipher Italian Naval Enigma coded messages. Read more
The Florida Annexation
By Peter KrossAlmost a decade after winning the Revolutionary War against Great Britain, the youthful United States was determined to expand its territorial boundaries and become a truly continental nation. Read more
Cold War Spies: General Reinhard Gehlen
By Peter KrossBy 1944, many top generals in Adolf Hitler’s army understood the war was lost and that they had better make arrangements to ensure their safety. Read more
Allan Pinkerton
By Clark Larsen“Early in the year 1861, I was at my headquarters in the city of Chicago, attending to the manifold duties of my profession. Read more
Jan Cress Dondi’s ‘The Navigator’s Letter’
By Kevin SeabrookeThe arid expanse of Libyan desert echoed with the roar of nearly 180 B-24 Liberator heavy bombers taking off for Ploesti, Romania, on the morning of August 1, 1943. Read more
Kevin M. Hymel’s ‘Patton’s War’
By Kevin SeabrookeThis third, and final, volume detailing World War II from the point of view of the man whose name became synonymous with victory, portrays Lt. Read more
Peter Zablocki’s ‘Eight Days in August’
By Kevin SeabrookeAfter six years of the world-wide military, political, social—and at times, literal—conflagration known as World War II, the announcement of its end on Sept. Read more
Nicholas Reynolds and Katie Sanders’ ‘Ortiz’s War’
By Kevin SeabrookeThe life and exploits of the U.S. Marine Colonel Peter J. Ortiz read like a role that might be played by the Hollywood actor he eventually became. Read more
Greg Lewis’ ‘The Nazi Ghost Train’
By Kevin SeabrookeAs the Allies approached Brussels, Belgium, in early September 1944, the occupying Nazi SS decided, as a parting act of vengeance, to load up more than 1,400 members of the Resistance, Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents, and Allied airmen onto a train bound for the Neuengamme concentration camp. Read more
Charles Lachman’s ‘They Shall Not See the Dawn’
By Kevin SeabrookeAfter the Führer’s death by suicide on April 30, 1945, the clock was ticking for the U.S. Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) to round up the Nazi henchmen before they vanished, or worse, attempted to continue following Hitler’s twisted vision and retaliate with hidden weapons—something the fanatical Hitler Youth leader Arthur Axmann was actively planning when he was arrested in December 1945. Read more
