Articles Archive

Another Way to Bomb Germany

By Glenn Barnett

An old English adage states that “It’s an ill wind that blows no one any good.”

Such was the case when a gale pounded England on the night of September 17, 1940. Read more

In artist Jack Fellows’ painting, “Sakai-7 August 1942,” Japanese fighter ace Saburo Sakai flies toward the scene of aerial combat in the skies above Guadalcanal in the Solomons Islands.

Flight Petty Officer Saburo Sakai was anxious to engage the American carrier pilots for the first time, testing his skills against what he had been told were the best opponents he would come up against. Read more

General George S. Patton Jr., left, assigned command of the fictitious First U.S. Army Group, jokes with Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery. Montgomery would command the D-Day ground forces.

Operation Fortitude: The Great Deception

by Brent Douglas Dyck

The Allied invasion of Normandy in France on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, was the largest amphibious operation in modern history. Read more

In the autumn of 1944, Japanese soldiers and troops of the anti-British Indian Liberation Army launch an attack in Burma. Allied forces suffered stinging defeats in the China-Burma-India Theater (CBI) but eventually turned the tide despite disagreements between senior commanders General Joseph Stilwell and Field Marshal Archibald Wavell.

Stilwell Versus Wavell in the CBI Theater

By Jon Diamond

The initial command structure in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater of World War II produced a sharp contrast and clash of wills between two of the principal Allied leaders: British Field Marshal Archibald Wavell, and his American counterpart, Lieutenant General Joseph W. Read more

Italian tanks advance through Karrin Pass in British Somaliland during their offensive of 1940. Although the Italians were initially victorious, their occupation collapsed following a British counteroffensive launched later in the year.

Italy’s Short-lived Success in Somaliland

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

ONE of World War II’s least known campaigns was fought over one of the most desolate places on earth. Read more

British soldiers hoist a lightweight, inflatable dummy Sherman tank. Soldiers in the U.S. Army’s top-secret “23rd Headquarters Special Troops” unit, also known as the “Ghost Army,” were detailed to deceive the Germans about Allied troop build-ups and positioning and draw the enemy away from the actual Allied intentions.

Deception in WWII

by Mason B. Webb

For Operation Neptune/Overlord, the Allies had 6,939 naval vessels, 11,590 aircraft, and 156,000 infantrymen and airborne soldiers (both parachute and glider) ready to participate in the D-Day invasion of northern France on June 6, 1944. Read more

English King Richard I wields a broadsword against his Muslim foes in the Holy Land. His leadership in the Third Crusade ensured his place in the pantheon of great medieval commanders.

Crusader Triumph at Arsuf

By William E. Welsh

The advance of long ranks of scimitar-wielding Nubian and robed Bedouin archers on foot signaled a dramatic change in Ayyubid Muslim tactics against the Frankish army marching south along the Palestinian coast from Acre towards Jaffa. Read more

Commemorating the End of the World’s Worst War

By Flint Whitlock

It is an intriguing truism of history that those who start wars inevitably end up losing them. A few examples spring to mind: Napoleon vs. Read more

Much like World War II, many unsung heroes today are saving countless lives.

Fighting A New World War

By Flint Whitlock

Yes, the world is at war. A surprise attack we didn’t see coming: germ warfare on a worldwide scale by an enemy we can’t see. Read more

Gudrun Himmler with her father Heinrich at a Nazi sports festival, 1938.

Death of a Nazi Princess

It seems that every month there is a news item that relates to World War II. Here’s one you may have missed:

Gudrun Margarete Elfriede Emma Anna Himmler Burwitz, the true-believing daughter of Heinrich Himmler, head of the dreaded SS and one of Adolf Hitler’s closest henchmen, died in or near Munich last year. Read more

Ten Interesting World War II Facts

1. The first American serviceman killed in World War II was Captain Robert M. Losey from Andrew, Iowa. He was serving as a military attaché and was killed in Norway on April 21, 1940, when German aircraft bombed the Dombås railway station where he and others were awaiting transportation. Read more

The Arab-Israeli Six Day War Timeline

By William Welsh

JUNE 5

Israel launches a preemptive airstrike known as Operation Focus against Egyptian air bases in the morning with its French-supplied fighter bombers. Read more

The Blunder of Barbarossa

By Michael D. Hull

By April 1941, just over a year and a half into World War II, Nazi Germany was master of Europe. Read more

A group of Japanese Americans who have renounced their U.S. citizenship and expressed a desire to return to Japan are in custody of law enforcement officers at the Tule Lake relocation camp. These men were en route to the Santa Fe internment camp, where nationals of Axis countries were held during the war.

Detention In Wartime

By Gene Eric Salecker

After the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, many Americans in authority began to fear the large number of people of Japanese ancestry living along the West Coast of the United States, thinking that some of them might have sympathies for Japan and might assist in a possible invasion or sabotage American efforts to resist such an invasion. Read more

A German tanker stands on the Russian steppe near Voronezh after emerging from the turret of his PzKpfw. III tank. In the summer of 1942, Hitler mounted an armored thrust to the south along the Eastern Front, and it led to ruin.

Derailing Case Blue

By Pat McTaggart

After the brutal defensive fighting during the winter of 1941-1942, Adolf Hitler was ready for another round with the Russians. Read more

The Bold Bull of Scapa Flow

By Phil Zimmer

Late on the night of Friday, October 13, 1939, Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien surfaced his 218-foot-long submarine, U-47, and guided it through the protected, shallow, narrow channel at Kirk Sound. Read more

Mussolini’s Fall from Power

By Blaine Taylor

At 10:30 on the night of May 9, 1936, as 400,000 people stood crowded together on Rome’s Palazzo Venezia underneath the most famous balcony in the world, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, 52, the leader of the country’s ruling Fascist Party, strode forward and began to speak to the silent masses below him. Read more