The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was a game changer. First rolling off the assembly line as a production aircraft in July 1943, the Superfortress was the answer to America’s need for a high-level long-range strategic bomber. Read more
Adolf Hitler served in a Bavarian regiment on the Western Front during nearly all of World War I. Read more
Lieutenant Commander Ernest E. Evans arrived at his new command, USS Johnston (DD-557) at the Seattle-Tacoma shipyard. The ship had yet to be completed; workers were still welding and riveting. Read more
The Polaroid Optical Ring Sight greatly increased the accuracy of gunners. It is little known that the creation of this sighting system was the result of a combined effort of a disparate group of Americans, including optics experts, miners, moonshiners, Soldiers, Marines, and even an artist. Read more
The Marine Corps fielded 484,000 troops in the Pacific during the war; the US Army contributed 1.77 million. Read more
On the morning of December 19, 1944, artillery began to fall on the men of the 482nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion. Read more
On September 19, 1944, Walter Stitt, serving as a loader in an M4 Sherman, lost his first tank. Read more
From the time the invasion fleet arrived off the Normandy coast and the first pathfinders parachuted out of their aircraft inland, the press was formulating a narrative of the event which would inform the American view of the event up to the current day. Read more
As the nine C-47s flew closer to the drop zone, the lead plane descended to an altitude of four hundred feet. Read more
In the 1950s a small group of French artists in Paris took toy soldiers and began converting them into what we now know as military miniatures. Read more
The Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter plane dove out of the sky with machine guns firing. The pilot’s target—a pontoon bridge being stretched across Germany’s Werra River by American engineers. Read more
Paratrooper Lt. Col. Bill Yarborough was flying into hell. As he prepared to jump from a Douglas C-47 transport plane then approaching the coast of Sicily, hundreds of American antiaircraft gunners below started shooting at him. Read more
Alaric the Goth spent years fighting the Roman Army under their Gen. Flavius Stilicho, then served as a Roman officer, leading a Visigoth army which helped defeat Roman foes. Read more
At the start of the Battle of Amiens, Sergeant Paul Maze was in a forward observation post not a thousand yards from the front, peering into the darkness for any signs of enemy activity. Read more
“Early in the year 1861, I was at my headquarters in the city of Chicago, attending to the manifold duties of my profession. Read more
During the 1980s, Libyan dictator Muamar Qaddafi began an undeclared war against the United States, supporting terrorist attacks and sponsoring various terror groups in the Middle East. Read more
The Mongols were always a dangerous force on land, with massive armies of horsemen employing great mobility to defeat their foes. Read more
By Christopher Miskimon
Waller King, Joe Albritton and Homer Ainsworth grew up in the same neighborhood in Clinton, Mississippi. They knew each other at school, in church and everyday life. Read more
Soon after the Civil War, the United States Congress authorized the formation of six regiments of African-American troops, soon reduced to four. Read more
From 1965 to 1975, the Sultanate of Oman fought a counterinsurgency campaign against a communist backed revolt in Dhofar Province, a remote and barren area. Read more
