Articles Archive

Sniper Elite 5

By Joseph Luster

For fans of brutal sniping action, there aren’t many substitutes that can match what the Sniper Elite series brings to the table. Read more

Sprechen sie Deutsch?

By Christopher Miskimon

Gottfried Kurt “Joe” Guennel’s family escaped Germany just after Hitler and his Nazi Party came into power in 1934. Read more

This War of Mine: Final Cut

By Joseph Luster

Polish developer 11 Bit Studios first released This War of Mine back in 2014, and the mark it left remains. Read more

The troopers of the 1st Squadron 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, in an armored column in Long Khanh Province, South Vietnam, on December 2, 1966, waited at their base camp for an order to move out on an escort mission. Read more

Monty’s Folly: The British paratroopers at Arnhem paid a heavy price in the failed operation.

American Generals privately gloated over the failure of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s Operation Market Garden in September 1944. The British had conceived the idea, although Allied units from many nations participated in the operation. Read more

Albert Kesselring visits with Luftwaffe pilots at their airfield in France in 1940. Kesselring was wary of Hitler’s decision to halt ground forces before the British lines at Dunkirk, expecting the Luftwaffe to deal the final blow to the British Expeditionary Force.

Albert Kesselring: Hitler’s Go-To Guy

By R. Jeff Chrisman

He was seemingly everywhere—Poland, France, Holland, Italy, and the western front during the last days of the Third Reich. Read more

Japanese soldiers on the main island of Luzon celebrate their victory over the Americans and Filipinos, April 1942.

Two Roads to China

By Christopher Miskimon

May 1942 was a dark time for Colonel Nicoll F. “Nick” Galbraith and his fellow American soldiers in the Philippine Islands. Read more

The bombardier of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber mans the .50-caliber machine gun in the plane’s nose and scans the skies for German fighters as the formation enters hostile airspace. The Münster raid of October 10, 1943, proved costly for the Eighth Air Force in both men and aircraft.

Disaster In A Bright Blue Sky

By Allyn Vannoy

Lieutenant Robert Sabel struggled to get his Fortress, the Rusty Lode, home. Eight B-17s of his bomb group, the 390th, had already been shot from the sky. Read more

Chase’s Flying Columns

By Ed Miller

Santo Tòmas University, Manila, Philippines, about 9:00 p.m., February 3, 1945: Louis G. Hubele, a 45-year-old civilian internee of the Japanese, heard more than the usual amount of vehicle traffic on España Street. Read more

A British airborne soldier, identifiable by his sleeve patch showing Bellerophon riding the flying horse Pegasus, poses for a publicity photo with his Sten gun. To assault the Merville Battery, airborne troops landed both by glider and parachute, but the attack began unraveling from the beginning.

D-Day Disaster at the Merville Battery

By Flint Whitlock

The small French village of Merville (1940 population: 470), located just south of the coastal town of Franceville-Plage, had as its neighbor on its southern fringe an unwelcome German battery consisting of four concrete bunkers housing artillery pieces that pointed northwest toward Ouistreham and the mouth of the Orne River. Read more

On March 20, 1944, soldiers of the 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division proceed cautiously through the rubble of Zweibrucken, Germany. Some fires still burn in the devastated city.

For Love and Country

By Walt Larimore and Mike Yorkey

During World War II, the U.S. Army determined that the typical frontline infantryman couldn’t take much more than 200 to 240 days of combat before mentally falling apart. Read more

In July 1943, Lieutenant Katye Swope, a nurse with the 802nd Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron, prepares patients for a flight from Agrigento, Sicily, to Britain for further medical treatment. Allied air evacuation operations began during the campaign in North Africa in February 1943 and continued for the duration of World War II in every theater.

2nd Lt. Reba Z. Whittle, flight nurse—and the only female P.O.W. in the ETO

By Stephen D. Lutz

On September 27, 1944, a C-47 Skytrain named “Mary,” tail number 43-48395, prepared to depart Royal Air Force Base Wharton in Lancashire, England, filled with assorted medical supplies destined for a U.S. Read more

Ukraine 2022: Echoes of 1939

Unlike the weekly current-events magazines, WWII Quarterly is edited, assembled, and sent off to the printer well in advance of the day you receive it in the mail or pick it up at the newsstand. Read more

Moments after hitting the beaches of southern France during Operation Anvil-Dragoon in August 1944, these American soldiers sprint toward the cover of a grove of pine trees. These men are loaded with full packs of equipment and provisions for the long fight ahead.

From the Alamo to the Riviera

By Bruce L. Brager

Operation Anvil, the invasion of southern France, was originally planned for June 1944, the same time as the Normandy invasion. Read more

A derelict, rusting Quonset hut is all that remains of the sprawling Camp Tarawa on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Stumbling Over History

Has this ever happened to you? You’re on vacation or taking a trip and unexpectedly you stumble across a piece of history you didn’t even know existed. Read more

The 45th Infantry Division Museum is dedicated to the “Citizen Soldier.”

By Mike Gonzales

When the brutal, month-long Sicilian campaign ended in the summer of 1943, Seventh U.S. Army commander General George S. Read more

One of the B-24 assembly lines at Ford’s Willow Run (Michigan) plant, where one bomber was produced every hour.

Willow Run Bomber Plant

They said it couldn’t be done. Doubters chided Henry Ford for declaring that his Willow Run Bomber Plant could turn out a B-24 Liberator heavy bomber every hour. Read more

Malayan Melange

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

One of World War II’s longest, least known guerrilla resistance campaigns was fought in the depths of the jungle covering 80 percent of Malaya’s 50,850 square miles; in it the most unlikely of friendships would develop, leading to a remarkable meeting, then parting, a decade later. Read more

Tigers in the Sky

By Christopher Miskimon

America had been at war for less than two weeks when Claire Chennault watched his American Volunteer Group (AVG) take off for its first combat mission. Read more

Explosions raise billowing clouds of smoke and flame as Malta endures one of many air raids conducted by German and Italian bombers.

Fighting with Sword and Prayer

By Jon Diamond

The British Army has had its share of religious zealots Serving in the upper echelons of command. These typically independent-minded soldiers, motivated largely by their spiritual belief, were in sharp contrast to those, as characterized by J.F.C. Read more

From Around the Network

Cesare Borgia was an extraordinary concoction of good and bad.

Heroic Airacobras of the Cactus Air Force

How do you solve a problem like Hitler’s birthplace?

Captain Hollands’ Rampage