The Battle of Peleliu: Shocked Beyond Imagination

As he watched the preliminary bombardment from the railing of his ship, Colonel Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller had deep reservations. Read more

James Andrews vs. William Fuller in the Great Locomotive Chase

By early April 1862, the Civil War was already closing in on the South, but the trains still ran on time. Read more

The White and Black Ship

During World War II, the U.S. Navy built more than 1,000 destroyer escorts, ships whose primary duty was to escort supply convoys across the world’s oceans to insure that their precious cargo of food, fuel, war material, and personnel got to their destinations safely. Read more

The Battle of Lechfeld 955 AD

When summer arrived in Bavaria in late June ad 955, thousands of unwelcome barbarians from the Carpathian basin were gathering on its eastern fringe, poised to invade the southern part of the East Frankish kingdom once again. Read more

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor: A Dark Royal Secret?

One of the most interesting yet little known aspects of World War II was the role played by the Duke of Windsor, previously King Edward VIII of England, and his covert relationship with Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Read more

The Duke of Marlborough at Malplaquet

England’s survival hung in the balance. She had only recently clashed with an imposing Continental alliance, in a futile war characterized by unprecedented slaughter on obscure fields in Flanders. Read more

A Murderous Fire of Musketry

Major General John Brown Gordon guided his horse past fields where stalks of waist-high corn glistened in the sun. Read more

The 93rd Infantry Division: The African-American Soldiers in the Pacific

On August 2, 1945, two weeks prior to Japan’s surrender, the highest ranking Japanese officer captured during the war in the Pacific was taken on the island of Morotai, Dutch New Guinea. Read more

“Give Them One Fire and I’ll Charge Them”

Lieutenant Colonel William Washington of the Continental 3rd Light Dragoons stood in his stirrups and looked out over the open drover’s field stretching before him. Read more

The Battle Of Midway: Turning the Tide in the South Pacific

Rarely in the history of warfare had one nation absorbed such numbing losses in so rapid a time as did the United States in the Pacific War’s first five months. Read more

The United States Naval Academy Museum

The United States Naval Academy Museum at Annapolis, Maryland, is “an educational and inspirational resource for the Naval Academy Brigade of Midshipmen, other students of American naval history and thousands of visitors each year,” according to Shayne Sewell, assistant media relations director at the USNA Public Affairs Office. Read more

The Scholarly Spies

Early in June 1940, refugees from northern France and the low Countries who had flooded Paris in May fled with the residents of the city as the German advance neared. Read more

The “Nazi Account” Controversy

On Capitol Hill Tuesday, February 3, executives from the Swiss financial giant UBS were grilled by Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and the U.S. Read more

Fourteen Black Soldiers Earned the Medal of Honor Chaffin’s Farm

Union soldiers streamed across the pontoon bridge at Deep Bottom on the tidal portion of the James River in the early morning hours of September 29, 1864. Read more

Devils in the Forest

The German paratroopers marched the captured Canadian officer through the dark forest to the damp underground bunker that served as their platoon headquarters. Read more

Death of the Shangani Patrol

On the banks of the rain-swollen Shangani River, a small force of white militiamen closed ranks as hundreds of Matabele warriors swarmed around them. Read more

How The RAF’s Eagle Squadrons Joined the Eighth Air Force

“We went to London in ones and twos during our precious 24-hour passes to transfer and pick up our U.S. Read more

Pikes: A Versatile and Deadly Weapon

Although formal training in the use of the pike—an ash-handled spear 18 to 20 feet long—did not begin until the 15th century, ancient Greeks and Romans used so-called “long spears” as standard infantry issue against cavalry. Read more

Daredevil Tankers Turn the Tide at the Bulge

“Peiper must be stopped!”

Lieutenant General Courtney M. Hodges, commanding the U.S. First Army, looked up from his maps and saw chaos everywhere. Read more

Winter Storm on Stones River

One of the most hard-fighting divisions in the Army of the Cumberland, the one led by Maj. Read more