Articles Archive

WWII Spies: Double Agent Dusko Popov, a.k.a. ‘Tricycle’

By Peter Kross

On March 18, 1941, an accident took place in the crowded streets of New York’s Times Square. Normally an accident like this would not make news. Read more

Famous Marines: Smedley Butler

By Edward L. Bimberg

The annals of the United States Marine Corps are filled with the names of mavericks known not only for their fighting skills, but for their offbeat personalities as well. Read more

On March 4, 1945, soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division advance cautiously toward German positions at Sassomglare, Italy. The ranks of the 10th Mountain included some of the finest skiers in the world, but the troops also fought as regular infantry.

A Mountain Trooper’s Sketchbook

By Flint Whitlock

Since the days of ancient Babylon, artists have taken the time to record their visions of war. Long before the invention of photography, scenes of battle were being sketched, painted, and sculpted by talented individuals able to imbue their creations with sentiments of glory, dignity, and heroism. Read more

Australian Corporal G.E. Burns welcomes a trio of American sailors to Brisbane in a photo that has obviously been staged.

Culture Clash: Americans in World War II’s South Pacific

by Ken Wright

In 1942, Brisbane was the third largest city in Australia and the state capital of Queensland. To many, however, it was more like a big country town than a city, its 340,000 inhabitants living in a quiet, conservative, and isolated atmosphere. Read more

First Rhode Island Detached Militia, 1861

By Paul Loane Artwork by Don Troiani

In the days following the outbreak of war, Northern states scrambled to assemble small militia groups into regiment-size units, recruit additional volunteers and uniform them all in a cohesive manner. Read more

Charlie Mott: Flying Tiger Caged

By Bob Bergin

Charles D. Mott was a U.S. Navy dive-bomber pilot when he joined the American Volunteer Group (AVG), the small band of Americans who flew under the leadership of General Claire Lee Chennault and became known to history as the Flying Tigers. Read more

Advancing across the Italian countryside in the summer of 1944, a Churchill tank of B Squadron, 51st Royal Tank Regiment crashes through brush and undergrowth. The Churchill became the basis for a number of innovative armor designs with specialized functions.

Ordnance: The British Churchill Tank

By Christopher Miskimon

The German town of Goch lay east of the Reichswald forest, a scene of heavy fighting for the British Army as it ground its way steadily into the heart of Germany. Read more

Military History Book Reviews for Summer 2023

By Christopher Miskimon Full Reviews

America’s War in Syria: Fighting with Kurdish Anti-Isis Forces (Till “Baz” Paasche, John Foxx and Shaun Murray, Casematte Books, Havertown PA, 2022, 304 pp., Read more

Israeli-upgraded Centurion main battle tanks (Sho’t Kal) advancing into Syria on October 11, 1973. Having withstood the initial four-day assault of the Yom Kippur War and retaken the Golan Heights, Israeli leaders immediately decided to invade Syria and knock them out of the war.

‘Israel’s Survival at Stake’

By John E. Spindler

Lieutenant Zvi “Zvicka” Greengold raced back to Nafakh, commanding his fifth or sixth Sho’t Kal, an Israeli-upgraded Centurion main battle tank, having had the previous ones knocked out beneath him. Read more

Strutting through the streets of Prague, German paratroopers participate in a military parade after the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939.

Prague Uprising in the Spring of 1945

By Pat McTaggart

The first days of May 1945 found the German war machine in absolute chaos. Berlin had fallen, and entire German armies were surrendering en masse. Read more

U.S. soldiers walk past the bombed-out barracks that once housed members of Adolf Hitler’s SS guard. The building was hit during an Allied bombing raid.

The RAF Attempt to Assassinate Adolf Hitler

By Charles Whiting

Adolf Hitler believed in Vorsehung (providence). The German leader felt that if anything was going to happen to him, such as assassination, there was nothing he could do about it. Read more

Two Grumman F9F-2 Panther fighters dump fuel as they fly past the carrier USS Princeton, during Korean War operations in May 1951. Some 18 months later, U.S. Navy pilot Lieutenant E. Royce Williams would take on seven Soviet MiG-15s, downing four of them, diminishing the aircraft’s reputation as invincible.

U.S. Navy Pilot Lieutenant E. Royce Williams

By Mark Carlson

One of the most remarkable events in modern naval aviation was kept a secret for almost half a century. Read more

This photograph of the historic February 23, 1945, flag raising atop Mount Suribachi was taken as Marines took up positions and sought to anchor the pole in the debris and rock atop the extinct 550-foot volcano.

Franklin Sousley & The Battle of Iwo Jima

By Randall B. Ingram

Everyone has seen the now famous photograph of the three firefighters hoisting Old Glory over the ruins of the World Trade Center. Read more

The British battleships Warspite, Valiant, and Barham fire upon the Italian cruisers Fiume and Zara during the Battle of Cape Matapan on March 28, 1941. The Italian fleet suffered a humiliating defeat in the pivotal Mediterranean engagement.

Mussolini’s Navy Foiled: The Battle of Cape Matapan

By Glenn Barnett

In June 1940, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini wrestled with a dilemma. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was the very essence of a victorious warlord. Read more

Warpath

By Joseph Luster

Following up on its previous debut on iOS and Android devices, free-to-play real-time strategy game Warpath recently made its way to PC courtesy of Lilith Games. Read more

The Great War: Western Front

By Joseph Luster

For a detailed strategy game focusing on World War I, the folks behind Command & Conquer Remastered and Star Wars: Empire at War have delivered The Great War: Western Front. Read more

Marines of Company D, 3rd Platoon, rush to take defensive positions around Con Thien as they encounter heavy North Vietnamese gunfire.

Con Thien: Hell on the Hill of Angels

By Al Hemingway

Lieutenant General Lewis Walt was not a happy man. The burly III Marine Amphibious Force commander had just been ordered by Commanding General William C. Read more

In full gear, paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division wait calmly in the skies above Sicily for the order to stand up and hook up aboard their Douglas C-47 Dakota transport aircraft.

WWII Letters: Corporal James. G. Delaney

By Maura B. Delaney

Letters were a valuable commodity to the World War II soldier. They were the link to home and to all things familiar in a most unfamiliar place and time. Read more

Still a Splendid Sight: Merrill’s Mauraders

By Al Hemingway

Private First Class Frank Rinaldi cautiously made his way through the dense foliage. He and other soldiers were on patrol when they heard the unmistakable sound of Japanese voices, and they inched their way forward to investigate. Read more

During a conversation with Attorney General Francis Biddle (left), J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, gestures toward a display at a conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House on April 7, 1942.

Walter Koehler & J. Edgar Hoover

By David Alan Johnson

Throughout his lifetime, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover always boasted that no enemy agent, either spy or saboteur, ever operated at large in the United States during World War II. Read more

From Around the Network

An American Sergeant at Brest: Caught in the Crosshairs

The Battle of New Orleans

The Quinquereme in the Carthaginian & Roman Navy

U.S. Divisions of World War II