Delaying Action at Enchenberg

By Allyn Vannoy

The 44th Infantry Division, part of the U.S. Seventh Army’s XV Corps, was pushing elements of the battered German 25th Panzergrenadier Division back toward the German frontier in the Vosges Mountains during early December 1944. Read more

The Heroic Voyages of the USS Gwin

By Michael Fellows

Lieutenant Commander John Benjamin Fellows, the skipper of the American Gleaves-class destroyer USS Gwin (DD-433), stood on the bridge trying to see into the predawn blackness. Read more

A Time of Unreasoning Hatred

By Eric Niderost

On February 28, 1942, Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr of Colorado received a telegram from the White House. At that moment he was in his office, surrounded by staff, but routine business had to be put on hold while Carr quickly scanned the missive that came directly from the president of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt. Read more

Colonel J.E.B. Stuart’s 1st Virginia Cavalry troopers galloping at full speed crash into the flank of the New York Fire Zouaves as the battle turns in the Confederate favor in a painting by Don Troiani.

Bloody Repulse at Bull Run

By Joshua Shepherd

After just one month of training, the men of the 27th New York Infantry nervously sensed they would be in the middle of a real fight within minutes. Read more

British soldiers advance through the rubble of a captured town on the road to Mandalay in 1945. Maj. Gen. T.W. Rees's 19th Division captured the old royal capital on March 21 after protracted street fighting and stubborn Japanese resistance from inside the city's ancient citadel known as Fort Dufferin.

Outfoxed in Burma

By Mike Phifer

While the soldiers and officers of the Japanese 15th Army fought fiercely to defend Mandalay in central Burma, they were alarmed to discover that British and Indian troops were dangerously close to capturing their supply depot at Meiktila, 90 miles to their rear. Read more

Indian lancers overrun an Ottoman position in the Valley of Armageddon on the second day of the Battle of Megiddo.

Fatal Blow at the Battle of Megiddo

By Richard Willis

The six-day Battle of Megiddo fought in September 1918 was a decisive climax to the struggle in Palestine between the Ottoman Empire, backed by the Germans, and Great Britain and her allies. Read more

Sabers, Scimitars, and Swords

By Victor Kamenir

On the coat of arms of Finland, a crowned lion tramples upon a curved sword with his hind paws while brandishing a straight sword in his right forepaw. Read more

From Doughboy to GI Helmet

By Earl Rickard

When the United States Army mobilized for defense in the fall of 1940, the peacetime draftees, National Guardsmen, reservists, and regulars carried Model 1903 Springfield rifles; the Guardsmen wore puttees; and all the soldiers covered their heads with the doughboy helmet—head-to-foot relics of World War I. Read more

Roads to Bastogne

By Edward P. Beck

The Ardennes Forest in eastern Belgium seemed almost surreal in the last days of autumn 1944, a quiet backwater in a raging storm. Read more

A Bloody Sport Indeed

By Carole Butcher

One of the most enduring images of the Middle Ages is the tournament, with its knights in shining armor, heraldic devices on shields, fair damsels watching from the stands, and brightly colored banners flying in the breeze. Read more

The sky lit with explosions, the 3rd Australian Division moves out of the trenches at Messines. During the attack, Captain Jacka’s company captured three machine gun nests and an artillery position.

Australia’s Venerable Albert Jacka

By Thomas G. Bradbeer

He had the distinction of being the first Commonwealth soldier to receive the Victoria Cross for valor in World War I, and many observers felt that Australian-born Albert Jacka should have earned at least three of Great Britain’s highest award. Read more

Japanese troops advance through the rubble of a destroyed building in Shanghai on October 29, 1937. Young Marine Captain Evans Carlson witnessed the onslaught.

Creating the OSS: FDR’s Network of Personal Spies

By Peter Kross

One of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s longtime interests was the hidden world of espionage. In the months before the United States entered World War II, the commander-in-chief was dabbling in the covert world of intelligence-gathering, using a number of trusted personal friends as his own private eyes and ears around the globe. Read more

From Around the Network

  • Several American pilots pose at Clark Field in August 1941. Standing left to right are: Carl Gies, Max Louk, Erwin Crellin, and Varian Kieler.

    WWII

    U.S. Heavy Bombers in WWII: Caught on the Ground
    Read More
  • The site of the Stone’s River battlefield tells the story of the middle war in the West, and the South's repeated disappointments in that theater.

    Battlefields

    Winter War: Visiting the Stones River Battlefield
    Read More

  • Book Reviews

    Admiral James Stavridis’ ‘To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision’
    Read More