Articles Archive

Soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 27th Infantry Division move forward on Saipan in the summer of 1944. The U.S. forces tasked with capturing the Japanese island and its airfields would be the first to face a gyokusai (”smash the jewel”) suicide attack—not just the frenzied charge that accompanied the Japanese battle cry “Tennōheika banzai!” (long live His Majesty the Emperor). In a July 7 attack seeking to fight until their own forces were annihilated, as many as 4,000 Japanese soldiers died, while American forces suffered 1,000 casualties, including some 400 killed.

‘Annihilation Attack’ on Saipan

By Richard M. Ingleby

Captain Lawrence Rulison, the commander of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, listened as his battalion commander, Lt. Read more

Destroyed and abandoned, these German armored vehicles offer silent testimony to the desperation of the fighting near St. Vith. Before retiring, the American defenders of the town severely hampered German efforts to exploit their Ardennes breakthrough.

The Execution of Eddie Slovik

By Michael E. Haskew

A single prisoner was bound and blindfolded in the courtyard of a French country house near the village of Ste-Marie-aux-Mines at 10:04 a.m. Read more

Major General John Shirley Wood

By Kelly Bell

When little John Shirley Wood was delivered on January 11, 1888, in Monticello, Arkansas, one of the Free World’s greatest defenders greeted his first dawn as eagerly as everything else he confronted and overcame in a lifetime of soldiering. Read more

German infantrymen march past a PzKpfw. III tank that has momentarily halted during the rapid advance of the Wehrmacht through France and the Low Countries in the spring of 1940. The German onslaught on May 10 shattered the uneasy months of peace that had been labeled the ‘Phony War.’

Dunkirk: Debacle in the West

by Matt Broggie

Tanks—seven divisions of them concentrated at one point, the weakest position in the Western defenses—that was what did it.” Read more

Bedraggled soldiers and shell-shocked residents watch as Union troops march into Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. Though they were triumphant, the Yankees were not in the mood for celebration once they saw the condition of Vicksburg’s soldiers and citizens.

Bold Gamble at Vicksburg

By Eric Niderost

The citizens of Vicksburg would scarcely remember a more beautiful evening. The sky on April 16, 1863, was cloudless, and as the ruddy glow of twilight faded, the vast expanse was speckled with stars. Read more

The Longest Struggle

By Michael D. Hull

For the duration of World War II, from the evening of Sunday, September 3, 1939, to the evening of Monday, May 7, 1945, the Battle of the Atlantic never ceased. Read more

Western artist Frederick Remington’s romantic painting, Charge of the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill, did much to make Theodore Roosevelt famous. Courtesy Frederick Remington Art Museum, Ogdensburg, NY

Roosevelt’s Crowded Hour

By John Wukovits

By mid-June 1898, a potent American military conglomeration had assembled off the extreme southeastern coast of Cuba. Thirty-two troop transports brought 819 officers and 15,058 enlisted men to Cuba from Florida, along with 89 newspaper correspondents, 11 foreign military observers, and 10 million pounds of rations. Read more

A Spitfire patrols the southern coast of England in April 1941.

The Supermarine Spitfire

By William F. Floyd Jr.

On April 21, 1942, in action over Malta, Flight Lieutenant Denis Barnham of No. 601 Squadron was given credit for downing a German Junkers Ju-88 bomber and a Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter. Read more

British Aviation Militaria

By Kevin Mahoney

Aviation militaria has always been popular with collectors, representing a fascinating aspect of 20th-century warfare. Among the more interesting items in this realm are the medals and flight log books from the airmen of the British Royal Air Force and Commonwealth Air Forces of World War II. Read more

D-Day Battle for Easy Red & Fox Green Beaches

By Flint Whitlock

Forming the very tip of the Allied spearhead that thrust onto the heavily fortified Omaha beachhead at Normandy was the U.S. Read more

Disaster at Fort Donelson

By Mike Phifer

A signal rocket set off by Confederate pickets streaked skyward in the damp early morning of February 4, 1862. Read more

For landings to be successful, the attackers had to know a great deal. Only men on the spot could stealthily observe conditions, and they had to be highly trained.

SEALs: the Birth of the Navy’s ‘Special Warfare’ Force

By Bud Hyland

Today’s Navy SEALs (for Sea, Air, and Land special warfare experts) have a history shrouded in secrecy. Commissioned in 1962, they are the most elite shore-area Special Forces in the world, concentrating on very select and often-clandestine intelligence gathering and precision strike missions. Read more

Sir Colin Campbell’s 93rd Highland Regiment successfully repulsed a determined Russian cavalry charge early in the battle, thereby preventing the Russians from reaching the port of Balaclava. The expression “Thin Red Line” was a condensed version of the lyrical description of them by war correspondent James Russell.

Immortal Charge of the Light Brigade

By Christopher Miskimon

Six battalions of Russian infantry, 30 cannons, and a cavalry force deployed in the North Valley east of Sevastopol near the town of Balaclava. Read more

A Good Samaritan

By Jon Diamond

The iconic photograph the Blinded Soldier, New Guinea taken on Christmas Day 1942, reveals a wounded and barefoot Australian soldier, Private George “Dick” Whittington of the 2/10th Battalion, being led down a path through a surrounding field of tall kunai grass to an Allied field hospital at Dobodura in Papua, the eastern third of the world’s second largest island, New Guinea. Read more

A samurai and his horse bound up the bank of a river to come to grips with the enemy. Precious sword in hand, the tsuba, or hand guard, is clearly visible. For hundreds of years great artistry was worked into the tsuba.

Katana Handguards

By Peter Suciu

The swords of the samurai have long been desirable to collectors. Now, even their parts have become prized. Read more

A forlorn group of German soldiers carries the body of a dead comrade on a makeshift canvas stretcher. After a series of rapid successes on the Eastern Front, the Germans were subjected to the harsh Russian winter, followed by the sledgehammer blows of a rejuvenated Red Army.

From the Luftwaffe: Joachim Benz on the Eastern Front

By Joachim Benz, as told to Peter D. Fyfe and Ward Carr

Following service as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery during the early 1970s, Ward Carr decided to remain in Germany, residing in Frankfurt. Read more

Union troops charge through D.R. Miller’s cornfield against the Confederate left flank at Antietam in a modern painting by Keith Rocco. The Union II Corps attack through William Roulette’s farm against the Confederate center held by Maj. Gen. Daniel Harvey Hill’s troops had the same intensity.

Lee’s Hard Fighter

By William E. Welsh

Two men rode forward from Sharpsburg, Maryland, on the morning of September 17, 1862. The one in front was of slight build with a scraggly beard, scrawny neck, sunken cheeks, and a high forehead. Read more

“Over the Top of the World” by Roy Grinell. Pilots flying this treacherous route over the Himalayas kept Allied supply lines open.

A Son’s Memoir: Surviving The CBI’s ‘Aluminum Trail’

By Fred T. Martin

Winston Churchill called it, “An immense laborious task, unlikely to be completed until the need for it has passed.” Read more

Highly disciplined Roman infantry, fighting under the imperial banner, battle German tribesmen in 81 ad.

Teutoburgerwald Avenged

By Michael D. Greaney

Arminius, war leader of the Cherusci, a powerful German tribe on the east bank of the Rhine, was livid. Read more

The P38 Can Opener: WWII’s “Other” P-38

By Richard A. Beranty

Far down on the list of important inventions essential to victory in World War II is a modest gadget built of stamped metal called the GI Pocket Can Opener—commonly known as the P-38 can opener—which was used by American troops in the field to sever the lids off combat rations. Read more

From Around the Network

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Joy Ride on a C-47!

Streets Sewn with Bodies: Wellington at Fuentes de Onoro