Articles Archive

In this photo take on August 31, 1943, B-17s of the 91st Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force, approach their target—the Dornier aircraft assembly plant at Meulan, France. After experiencing heavy losses in raids on targets inside Germany earlier in the year, General Ira Eaker ordered later attacks to be made in France, within the limited range of escorting fighters.

Lt. Col. Wayne K. Blickenstaff’s ‘Ace in a Day’

By Christopher Miskimon

Lieutenant Wayne Blickenstaff saw a group of German Messerschmitt Me-109 fighters disperse after making a run at some American bombers. Read more

Mark Stille’s ‘Leyte Gulf 1944 (2): Surigao Strait and Cape Engano’

By Christopher Miskimon

The Battle of Leyte Gulf, while the largest naval battle in history, was composed of four major actions occurring over two days. Read more

Ian Baxter’s ‘The Soviet Baltic Offensive, 1944-45’

By Christopher Miskimon

The overwhelming Soviet offensives in the summer of 1944 threw the German army back. Much of the German Army Group North drew back into the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Read more

Ian Buruma’s ‘The Collaborators’

By Christopher Miskimon

Felix Kersten acted as Heinrich Himmler’s personal masseur and did the job so well Himmler nicknamed the outgoing, heavy set Kersten the “Magic Buddha.” Read more

A single German soldier stands guard over several American prisoners, captured in the confusion on D-Day. At least some of these prisoners were airborne, and Charlie Lefchik shared a similar journey to a prisoner of war camp.

Jonathan Trigg’s ‘D-Day Through German Eyes’

By Christopher Miskimon

The German Army had extensive combat experience, some of the best weapons and equipment, and in June 1944 was holding its own in Italy and on the Eastern Front. Read more

Robert F. Ashby’s ‘D-Day, Arnhem and the Rhine’

By Christopher Miskimon

Glider Pilots occupied a perilous position in British airborne divisions. It took skill and determination to pilot a glider. Read more

Thick black smoke seen in the distance beyond a burned-out Iraqi tank streams skyward after Iraqi forces withdrawing from Kuwait set fire to the Arab emirate’s oil fields.

Lightning Victory In The Persian Gulf

By Victor Kamenir

IN November 1990 the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq if it failed to withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, 1991. Read more

Nisei soldiers of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team take on German tanks during their successful effort to rescue the Lost Battalion in France in October 1944.

Hero of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team

By Michael D. Hull

Early on the morning of Sunday, October 15, 1944, a platoon of the U.S. 442nd Regimental Combat Team’s 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) waited on a hill for its first action in the rugged Vosges Mountains of eastern France. Read more

Justin of Nassau hands the keys to the city of Breda to Ambrogio Spinola in 1625 following his successful siege of a city that was considered impregnable at the time.

Ambrogio di Spinola

By William E. Welsh

The crown of Spain and the wealthy banking families of Genoa had a symbiotic relationship during the Renaissance. Read more

Sailors of the boarding party from the destroyer escort USS Pillsbury work to rig a towline to the bow of the captured German submarine U-505 in the Atlantic. Rough seas required the sailors to hold tightly to the guide wire running from the conning tower to the bow of the submarine.

Captured on the High Seas

By Michael D. Hull

Itching for sea duty but forced to cool his heels with shore assignments, 40-year-old U.S. Navy Captain Daniel V. Read more

Night Fighting Corsairs

By Robert F. Dorr and Fred L. Borch

Just before it was drawn into World War II, the United States began developing a night fighter version of one of its most famous warplanes. Read more

The Duke of Villeroi committed the bulk of his cavalry in a fearsome counterattack on the open plain south of Ramillies late in the battle in a quest to shatter the Allied center.

Grand Alliance Triumph At Ramillies

By Joshua Shepherd

Late in the day on May 23, 1706, the troops of the Colonel William Borthwick’s regiment of Argyll’s Scots Brigade formed up for an unenviable assignment. Read more

The Browning Automatic Rifle

By William F. Floyd Jr.

By dawn on June 9, 1944, the men of the Company C, 1st Battalion, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, of the 82nd Airborne Division found themselves engaged in a fierce firefight with German troops at the village of Cauquigny just west of the Merderet River in Normandy’s Cotentin Peninsula. Read more

Learning from David and Goliath: The True Origin of the Sling Weapon

By Erich B. Anderson

More than 3,000 years ago, an army of Israelites led by King Saul confronted a force of Philistine invaders in the valley of Elah. Read more

Soldiers of the U.S. 75th Infantry Division tramp through the snow in the Colmar Pocket sector in the Alsace region. The pocket, which consisted of 850 square miles on the west side of the Rhine River, was the last piece of German-held territory on French soil.

Destruction Of The Colmar Pocket

By Christopher Miskimon

On January 25, 1945, every officer in Company B of the 15th Infantry Regiment of the American 3rd Infantry Division became a casualty in the fight for the “Colmar Pocket” except Lieutenant Audie Murphy. Read more

The French Imperial Guard advances on Magenta. Stiff Austrian resistance and the confined nature of the terrain combined to slow the French advance toward Austrian-held Milan.

Triumph of Spirit

By Eric Niderost

On April 20, 1859, Emperor Franz Josef paid a respectful visit to Prince Klemens Wensel von Metternich’s place at Rennweg in Vienna. Read more

The Fairey Swordfish Torpedo Bomber

By Phil Zimmer

Radar, atomic bombs, jet engines and early cruise missiles were among the numerous technological advances of World War II. Read more

Army Combat Engineer Paul Ray Smith

By William E. Welsh

T he lead elements of the First Brigade of the U.S. Third Infantry Division became heavily engaged against Iraqi forces at the Saddam International Airport on the southwest outskirts of Baghdad on April 3, 2003, but by the end of the day they had secured it. Read more

Union troops assail the Confederate center at Champion’s Hill midway between the state capitol of Jackson, Mississippi, and the stronghold of Vicksburg. The action at Champion’s Hill proved to be the decisive action of the Vicksburg campaign.

Savage Encounter at Champion’s Hill

By Robert L. Durham

The barren summit of Champion’s Hill presented an ideal site for Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton’s Confederate army to deploy artillery batteries on the morning of May 16, 1863. Read more

German officers and enlisted personnel stand in front of Oflag 64, a former reform school for boys that was converted into a somewhat unique prison camp for American officers during World War II.

Life In a Unique Nazi POW Camp

By Duane Schultz

On July 28, 2018, at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel near Dulles Airport, outside Washington, D.C., Mariusz Winiecki, a 42-year-old Polish professor, told an audience of Americans about his experiences growing up in the small town of Szubin, 150 miles southeast of Warsaw. Read more

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