Articles Archive

A wounded American soldier tumbles down a snow-covered mountainside during fighting on Attu as his fellow soldiers look on from protected positions. The Americans sought to pry the Japanese from Attu and Kiska before they could construct airfields.

Bil Paul’s ‘Awaiting the Sun’

By Christopher Miskimon

The Aleutian Islands were the only North American territory to be invaded and occupied by an Axis power during World War II. Read more

Soviet infantrymen crouch as they rush past the mangled wreckage of German tanks. The soldier at right carries a heavy antitank rifle, which was woefully ineffective against German medium and heavy tanks.

Chris McNab’s ‘Waffen SS Soldier versus Soviet Rifleman’

By Christopher Miskimon

Waffen SS units made up only a small part of the German Wehrmacht, but they found frequent use as “fire brigades” across the Eastern Front. Read more

Ian Baxter’s ‘The Soviet Destruction of Army Group South’

By Christopher Miskimon

After the destruction of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad in February 1943, the German Army Group South began a slow westward withdrawal, inexorably pressed by advancing Soviet forces of what would eventually be named the First through Fourth Ukrainian Fronts. Read more

Members of an all-black Seabee battalion practice disembarking from an LCP(L) (Landing Craft Personnel, Large), December 1942.

Peter Harmsen ‘Darkest Christmas’

By Christopher Miskimon

The darkest, deadliest Christmas in human history occurred in December 1942. Around the globe, as Christians celebrated their holiday of peace and goodwill, peoples of many different faiths and beliefs continued to slaughter one another. Read more

In a rare photo that includes Japanese armored vehicles, victorious infantrymen cross a makeshift bridge during the advance through Burma. The Japanese capture of Rangoon marked a low point for the Allies in the China-Burma-India Theater. (National Archives)

Tim Moreman’s ‘Conquest of Burma 1942’

By Christopher Miskimon

The Japanese invasion of Burma in January 1942 pitted its well-trained, mobile, and hard-hitting Fifteenth Army against a conglomerate Allied force composed of British, Commonwealth, Indian and Burmese troops in various states of training, equipment and experience. Read more

A German Tiger I tank rumbles along a road near Villers-Bocage, a key objective west of Caen. Two companies of Heavy Tank Battalion 101, a Waffen SS unit, on June 13 ambushed tank columns of the British 7th Armored Division.

Otto Henning’s ‘Panzer Leader’

By Christopher Miskimon

Otto Henning, born in 1924, joined the German Army in the summer of 1941. Volunteering allowed him to avoid the compulsory labor service and choose his branch of service. Read more

Searchlights and flares cut through the darkness during the night action at Sunda Strait in February 1942, in this painting by John Hamilton. The Japanese bested the Allies there, taking control of the Java Sea.

Working on the Railway of Death: A POW’s Story

By Eric Niderost

When Howard Brooks joined the United States Navy in 1939, the 20-year-old farm boy from Tennessee had no idea that he was going to experience one of the most harrowing adventures of World War II. Read more

Displaying the disciplined valor that would become a national characteristic, Prussian troops advance into withering fire at the climax of the Battle of Mollwitz on April 10, 1741.

The Battle of Mollwitz: Opening Move For Prussian Expansion

By Arnold Blumberg

On October 20, 1740, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of Austria, died, leaving his vast holdings and titles to his 23-year-old daughter, Maria Theresa. Read more

A Japanese balloon bomb in flight during World War II. The Japanese launched some 9,000 such weapons, one-tenth of which reached the continental United States.

Project Fugo: The Japanese Balloon Bombs

By Allan T. Duffin

On Saturday, May 5, 1945, three days before the end of World War II in Europe and just three months before the Japanese surrendered, spinning shards of metal ripped into the tall pine trees, burrowing holes into bark and tearing needles from branches outside the tiny logging community of Bly, Oregon. Read more

During this action, Ware’s small assault group was fully engaged in attacking enemy positions.

Bloody Fight for Hill 351: Skirmish in the Colmar Pocket

By Dan Champagne

On a cold, dark December morning in 1944, B Company, 1st Battalion, 15th Regiment began the slow ascent up Hill 351. Read more

Misplaced Aggression: The Athenian Defeat at Syracuse

By Barry Porter

By the spring of 415 bc, a peace treaty between the warring city-states of Athens and Sparta had held firm for six years. Read more

Under attack five days after Pearl Harbor, shore installations and U.S. Navy barges at Cavite in the Philippines burn furiously following a Japanese air raid.

A Suicide Mission From the President?

By Ron Gilliam

As he read the decrypt of the radiogram from Admiral Harold Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, several things bothered Admiral Thomas C. Read more

An American infantryman training at Fort Belvoir prepares to hurl a pineapple grenade during World War II.

The Modern Grenade: A Brief History

By William McPeak

When did humanity begin throwing explosive devices? What are the origins of the modern grenade, and how did explosives evolve? Read more

German camp authorities and delegates of the International Red Cross discuss the disposition of packages at Luft Stalag III B.

Steve Stupak: Surviving the German Death March

By Al Hemingway

By 1945, the war in Europe was nearing its conclusion. Having suffered a severe defeat at the hands of the Allies in the Battle of the Bulge, Adolf Hitler’s seemingly indestructible Third Reich was quickly crumbling under the Allied juggernaut. Read more