American soldiers drive by a destroyed German vehicle and the bodies of its former occupants during the Battle of the Bulge. U.S. Army PFC Frank Cohn and his team were suspected of being German spies when they were stopped and interrogated at an American checkpoint in Belgium.

‘Vat Goes on Here?’

By Kevin M. Hymel

On a Belgian hillside at the height of the Battle of the Bulge, an American lieutenant watched as a jeep carrying four men dressed in American uniforms stopped on the road in front of him. Read more

The Boy Who Got Rommel

By R. Douglas Nunes

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the infamous “Desert Fox,” was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Army Group B on the Western Front and put in charge of strengthening the Normandy coastal defenses. Read more

The USS Zane

By Glenn Barnett

Much credit goes to the American ability to quickly manufacture the many ships and planes needed to fight the Pacific War and overwhelm the Japanese enemy. Read more

U.S. Army medical personnel use stretchers across the hood of a Jeep to evacuate wounded soldiers from the front line in Bastogne, Belgium, during heavy action—evidenced by the bullet hole in the Jeep’s windshield.

Germans Seize Field Hospital at Bastogne

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Captain (Dr.) Willis P. McKee did not like what he was seeing. For several hours now, crowds of panicky civilians had been streaming past his unit’s tent hospital located at a crossroads eight miles northwest of Bastogne, Belgium. Read more

Julius Boreali in Operation Overlord

By Brian Buckwalter

Julius Boreali’s diary entry from May 29, 1944, is different from the more typical “calm sea, sun shining” entries that precede it: 12:30 am attacked by a group of German planes. Read more

French Commandos Land on D-Day

By John E. Spindler

Aboard one of two LCIs carrying French commandos approaching the Normandy coast, Lieutenant-Commander (Capitaine de Corvette) Philippe Kieffer looked at his watch. Read more

War Hospital

By Joseph Luster

It may not be set during World War II, but War Hospital fits the bill for the kind of unique experience we’re often looking for in comparable war games. Read more

After having failed to conquer his long-time rival Greece, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini asked Axis partner Adolf Hitler for help. Here, German soldiers raise the German war banner atop the Acropolis in Athens after forcing the Greeks to surrender on April 27, 1941. Terrible atrocities by the Germans against the Greek populace followed.

The Greek Holocaust

By Nathan N. Prefer

In late 1940 and early 1941, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was concentrating on his next great conquest, the Soviet Union. Read more

Luftwaffe Attacks Civilian DC-3

On the morning of June 1, 1943, the Douglas DC-3 lifted off from the airport at Lisbon in neutral Portugal. BOAC Flight 777 or Dutch KLM Flight 2L272, as it had been designated, carried 13 passengers and its crew on a flight bound for London. Read more

Philip vs Edward at the Battle of Crécy

By Robert Suhr

Philip of Valois, for long have we made suit before you by embassies and all other ways which we knew to be reasonable, to the end that you should be willing to have restored unto us our right, our heritage of France, which you have long kept back and most wrongfully occupied.” Read more

Nineteenth-century artist Felix Philippoteaux created this painting of one of the French cavalry charges against a British square. The first row of Scots set their rifle butts in the ground, presenting bayonets to the horses, which shied at the sight. Philippoteaux made the hills steeper than they actually are.

Charge After Charge

By Jonathan North

In June 1815, Napoleon’s insatiable appetite for war took him to the rye fields around Mont St. Jean and the little village of Waterloo. Read more

Byzantine Spies in the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars

By Arnold Blumberg

Byzantium, the successor state to ancient Rome, lasted over a thousand years. But it all could have been different because its first major enemy—Persia—was a fierce and determined competitor bent on the Empire’s demise. Read more

Early 15th-century Italy was a caldron of warfare from which mercenaries like Bartolomeo Colleoni could make a name and a fortune. Below is a 1432 battle between Florentines and Sienese.

Bartolomeo Colleoni’s Art of War

By Jonathan North

Bartolomeo Colleoni was a Renaissance success story. A simple mercenary, he rose from obscurity to the most important position on the Italian peninsula: commander-in-chief of the armies of Venice. Read more

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