Canada’s Darkest Day During World War II

By Brent Dyck

On the morning of August 19, 1942, the Canadian 2nd Division sailed across the English Channel and attacked the Nazi-held port of Dieppe, France. Read more

The M50A1 Ontos Anti-tank Vehicle

By William F. Floyd, Jr.

On January 30, 1968, eight battalions of North Vietnamese Army infantry infiltrated the city of Hue in South Vietnam. Read more

French Collapse at Maida

By Simon Rees

The soldiers of the French 1st Light Infantry surged forward toward the double line of the British Light Battalion. Read more

High-Spirited Stupidity

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Paratrooper Lt. Col. Bill Yarborough was flying into hell. As he prepared to jump from a Douglas C-47 transport plane then approaching the coast of Sicily, hundreds of American antiaircraft gunners below started shooting at him. Read more

The U.S. Navy’s Defective Mark 14 Torpedo

By Mark Carlson

Lieutenant Dan Daspit, captain of the U.S. submarine Tinosa could not believe his luck. Framed neatly in the periscope eyepiece was a sitting duck. Read more

Combat in Normandy’s Hedgerows

By Scott A. Bryan

Late in the evening on D-Day two German soldiers patrolled the outskirts of Colleville-sur-Mer, about one mile from Omaha Beach, and spotted Company C, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division resting in a hedgerow field. Read more

General Harry Schmidt: World War II’s Quiet Marine

By Nathan N. Prefer

He organized, trained, and commanded the 4th Marine Division in the Marshall Islands and Saipan campaigns before taking command of the Fifth Amphibious Corps and leading it against Tinian and Iwo Jima. Read more

Immortal Charge of the Light Brigade

By Christopher Miskimon

Six battalions of Russian infantry, 30 cannons, and a cavalry force deployed in the North Valley east of Sevastopol near the town of Balaclava. Read more

Panzer Lehr Division’s Assault on Bastogne

By Arnold Blumberg

On December 10, 1944, Generalleutnant (equivalent to major general in the U.S. Army during World War II) Fritz Bayerlein was called to a meeting at Kyllburg (Eifel) to participate in a map exercise involving an advance to the Meuse River. Read more

The Few, the Proud, the Black Marines in World War II

By Stephen D. Lutz

Prior to the summer of 1941, the United States Marine Corps did not want them. The Navy barely tolerated them in restricted capacities as cooks, waiters, servants for officers, and dockside stevedores. Read more

101st Airborne Medic recalls Op. Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge

By Kevin M. Hymel

“You’re crazy to go out there!” a paratrooper shouted to medic Al Mampre as he bolted from a trench outside of the Dutch town of Eindhoven. Read more

Book Reviews: Douglas MacArthur’s air force, a WW I machine gunner, and more

By Christopher Miskimon

Balikpapan was the most important oil refinery complex in the Pacific during World War II. Located on the island of Borneo in what was then the Dutch East Indies, one expert considered it “the most complete oil refinery outside the continental limits of the United States.” Read more

The German Channel Dash

By Mark Simmons

“To cap it all, down came the fog, the sort you sometimes get at sea—one minute clear, the next in a fog bank—so we relied on our radar a lot. Read more

D-Day Battle for Easy Red & Fox Green Beaches

By Flint Whitlock

Forming the very tip of the Allied spearhead that thrust onto the heavily fortified Omaha beachhead at Normandy was the U.S. Read more

Savage Struggle for Leningrad

By Blaine Taylor

Leningrad was the sacred city of Soviet Communism.  The port city on the Neva River, 400 miles northwest of Moscow, began life in 1703 as Petrograd, or St. Read more

World War II Odyssey Across Europe

By Roy Altenbach

Roy Altenbach, a soldier from a German-speaking family in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, was assigned to the 47th Medium Maintenance Company, 22nd Ordnance Battalion. Read more

Hitler’s Wonder Weapons

By Mason B. Webb

Imagine that you are an Allied soldier in the ETO. You are in your foxhole on the front line, looking and listening for any sign that the Germans are about to attack your position. Read more

Bloody Stand at the Battle of Albuera

By Simon Rees

Amid gun smoke and squalls of rain, the men of 1st Battalion, 3rd Foot, known as the Buffs, were firing their weapons and listening for further orders. Read more

Desperate Los Baños Raid

By Christopher Miskimon

Henry Muller had an important job. He was the intelligence officer of the 11th Airborne Division, known in military parlance as the G-2. Read more

The Taylor-Smith feud derailed the Red River Campaign

The feud between Confederate generals Richard Taylor and Kirby Smith remains one of the most contentious examples of in-fighting in the Confederate high command during the American Civil War. Read more