Sergeants, Service Pilots and Civilians

Most historical accounts of World War II aviation relate the experiences of commissioned officers, men who obtained their wings through completion of a military pilot training program. Read more

Greene’s Gamble at Hobkirk’s Hill

In late March 1781, American Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene sought to make the best of a bad situation. Read more

A Sting In Venlo

Sir Alexander Cadogan did not believe it.

He had been given a report from Admiral Sir Archibald “Quex” Sinclair, head of MI6, on October 6, 1939, that German generals were reaching out to the British Embassy in The Hague in neutral Holland, to orchestrate a coup against Adolf Hitler that would replace the Nazi regime with a military junta, which would then make peace. Read more

South African Paratroopers’ Raid on Cassinga

South Africa in the spring of 1978 was a country besieged. The apartheid state was increasingly unpopular with its neighbors and unable to control its own restive black population. Read more

Josh Dean’s ‘The Impossible Factory’

Few aviation organizations have shaped the modern world as profoundly as Lockheed’s Skunk Works, formally known as Advanced Development Programs. Read more

Jonathan W. Jordan’s ‘Ike and Winston’

Jordan, a New York Times bestselling author, explores the bond between Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill—Kansas farm boy vs. Read more

H. W. Brands’ ‘American Patriarch’

Perfectly timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of American independence, this biography offers a comprehensive, meticulously researched portrait of the man who embodies the very concept of what it is to be American—Founding Father and first president George Washington. Read more

Jan Cress Dondi’s ‘The Navigator’s Letter’

On “Black Sunday,” (August 1, 1943) 178 B-24 Liberators flew from Benghazi, Libya, on a daring daylight raid on Germany’s oil refineries in Ploiești, Romania—losing 53 planes, with 660 airmen killed or captured. Read more

Tom Clavin’s ‘Vengeance’

This book from journalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author Tom Clavin has been released to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn (June 25–26, 1876). Read more

Clement Richards’ ‘Sea Wolves in Warm Waters’

Unlike many contemporary historians, Admiral Karl Dönitz, supreme commander of the Kriegsmarine’s U-boat arm, did not see the Caribbean as an afterthought, a warm backwater far removed from the “real” war. Read more

Sarah Valentine’s ‘Decoding the Devil’

Time, declassification and diligent researchers continue to give us the untold stories of those who made significant contributions to the history of this nation. Read more

Luke Berryman’s ‘Resisting Nazism’

The founder of The Ninth Candle, a Chicago-based organization focused on Holocaust education and fighting antisemitism, Berryman was inspired to collect these stories of resistance after researching the life of his grandfather Sam Mindel. Read more

Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll’s ‘Ghosts of Sicily’

Naval Intelligence’s “Operation Underword” extended to the five boroughs and New Jersey, for the help of surprisingly patriotic career criminals. Read more

Speaking the Enemy’s Language

American soldiers of Japanese ancestry made remarkable contributions to the Allied victory during World War II. Read more

Miracle in the Mud: The Hundred Years’ War’s Battle of Agincourt

Young and ambitious, recently crowned English king Henry V had a dynastic point to make, one that would relieve him of the taint of royal illegitimacy born of the fact that his father had usurped the English throne a mere decade before. Read more

HMS Cornwall: a Symbol of British Naval Power

Following the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 (and roughly four years prior to the construction of the HMS Cornwall), cruisers became a focus of the interwar naval arms race, no less keenly felt by the British, whose survival depended on the sea-lane. Read more

Soldier in the French Royal Regiment

French King Louis XIV first standardized uniforms in 1657 when the king gave the companies of Masion du Roy blue uniforms. Read more

Jud Suss: The Film That Fueled the Holocaust

On September 8, 1940, a new German movie, Jud Suss, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It opened to rave reviews and received the Golden Lion award. Read more

To Conquer a Fortress

The storming of Fortress Königsberg in April 1945 was the finale of a two-month Soviet siege. The city, one of the few triumphs of Hitler’s fortress strategy, had been encircled by late January and lay hundreds of kilometers behind the main front line by the time the Soviets launched their final assault toward the Nazi capital of Berlin. Read more

Soldiers: Edward O.C. Ord

By Frank Jastrzembki

Five busts of his greatest lieutenants during the Civil War watch over the sarcophagus of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Read more