Before World War II, the U.S. Navy developed a culture that purposely created leadership opportunities. An emphasis on decentralized authority gave direction to junior leaders while encouraging them to use their own initiative to achieve results. Read more
Hans Roth, Frankfurt native and army reservist in his 30s, looked across the fields in front of his position the night before Operation Barbarossa was to begin. Read more
When the North American P-51B Mustang arrived in Europe in 1943, it was the U.S. Army Air Force’s fastest and most maneuverable fighter. Read more
Phil Larimore grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. A Boy Scout, he learned a lot of outdoor skills, including horsemanship. Read more
When Brigadier H. L. Glyn Hughes entered the Bergen Belsen concentration camp on April 15, 1945, 60,000 starving, abused prisoners greeted him; 10,000 more lay dead and decaying, unburied. Read more
In the six weeks since Britain’s formal declaration of war against Germany on September 3, 1939, the Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots of No. Read more
War has been described as long periods of extreme boredom punctuated by brief moments of extreme terror. Read more
The 3rd century BC in Greece was an age of military innovation. The lessons learned in the Peloponnesian War (431-404) led to the increased use of lightly armed troops and cavalry. Read more
As the first rays of sunlight chased away the shadows from the base of the high walls surrounding the village of Ravenna in northern Italy on Easter Sunday, April 11, 1512, the French army besieging the town began to form into columns. Read more
Donald Malarkey’s comrades thought highly of him as a warrior and as a man. Staff Sergeant William “Wild Bill” Guarnere considered him his hero. Read more
On January 18, ad 532, a 54-year-old eunuch by the name of Narses, described by Agathias, a contemporary chronicler, as “small in stature and of abnormal thinness,” entered alone into the Hippodrome of Constantinople carrying a bag of gold. Read more
Nobody knew it in the 6th Armored Division’s 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, but the tide of the Battle of the Bulge had turned by the time the outfit moved into snow-covered fields and forests near Bastogne. Read more
On a sweltering evening in early July 1553, the late King Henry VIII’s only legitimate son, the sickly 15-year-old Edward VI, died an agonizing death from tuberculosis, possibly complicated by measles. Read more
Aside from a number of prototypes and experimental vehicles, the Kettenkrad was one of the most unconventional vehicles built during World War II. Read more
On a sultry summer night in 9 BC, 29-year-old commander of Augustus Caesar ’s army in Germania bolted upright in his cot, dripping with sweat. Read more
Maharaja Ranjit Singh, ruler of the Sikh empire in northern India, was dead. Under his intrepid leadership, starting in 1799, Afghan control over Punjab, or Five Rivers Land, was thrown off and the Sikh empire flourished over the next 40 years. Read more
Safe behind its ocean barriers, the United States paid scant attention to the wars that raged abroad during the early 19th century, taking little notice of the lessons that might have been learned from the European experience with mass killing. Read more
Just a few days after Britain and Germany declared war in August 1914, their territories in East Africa declared peace. Read more
Losses were high and morale low when the U.S. Eighth Air Force intensified its heavy bomber missions over Nazi-occupied Europe in late 1942. Read more
By the spring of 1943 the situation for Nazi Germany was becoming grave as military reverses in Russia and Africa sent the formerly unstoppable Wehrmacht reeling. Read more
