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The Cuban Missile Crisis: On the Brink of Nuclear War
By Peter KrossFor 13 tension-filled days in October 1962, the world came closer to nuclear war than it has ever come before or since. Read more
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The Proximity Fuse: The Gunner’s Dream Finally Became Realized
By Kevin AllenEarly on the morning of December 16, 1944, the commander of the U.S. 406th Artillery Group, Colonel George Axelson, had a difficult decision to make. Read more
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Why Are There So Few Civil War Films?
By Roy Morris Jr.World War II, America’s last “good war,” has always been a fruitful source for homegrown moviemakers. Beginning with the wartime movies that shamelessly if sincerely promoted American efforts to rally against the fascist evils of Germany, Italy, and Japan, the silver screen gave audiences stirring depictions of brave GIs risking and sacrificing their lives for the greater good. Read more
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The Red Army’s T-34 Tank: The Eastern Front and Beyond
By Blaine TaylorIn 1942, careworn Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler lamented to his military intimates at his Wolf’s Lair headquarters near Rastenburg in East Prussia, “If I had known that there were so many of them, I would have had second thoughts about invading!” Read more
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Last of the Gray Phantoms: The Confederate Blockade Runners
By R. Thomas CampbellDespite the increasing effectiveness of the Union naval blockade, more and more steamers plied the waters between the few remaining Confederate ports and Nassau, St. Read more
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Reel War: The Evolution of the American War Film
By Philip Burton MorrisThe first truly realistic American films of World War II began with a flourish familiar to any moviegoing audience at the time: a hand-drawn company logo introduced by musical fanfare. Read more
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The FDR Presidential Library
By Blaine TaylorIt seems to me that the dedication of a library is in itself an act of faith.” The date was June 30, 1941, and the speaker was President Franklin D. Read more
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South African Paratroopers’ Raid on Cassinga
By Thomas B. BlevinsSouth Africa in the spring of 1978 was a country besieged. The apartheid state was increasingly unpopular with its neighbors and unable to control its own restive black population. Read more
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What Makes Great Commanders Great?
By Richard A. GabrielOf the thousands of commanders who have served in history’s armies, why is it that only a few are remembered as great leaders of men in battle? Read more
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The Russo-Finnish War: Why Stalin Tried to Invade Finland
By Arnold BlumbergPrior to the Russo-Finnish War, problems were already setting in for Russia and Germany. The hugely cynical German-Soviet nonaggression pact, concluded in August 1939, assigned the Baltic region of eastern Europe to the exclusive sphere of influence of Communist Russia. Read more
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Opening Moves on the Rio Grande: The Relief of Fort Texas
By David A. NorrisThe hot days at Fort Texas were about to get a lot hotter. For days, the men of the 7th U.S. Read more
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WWII Weapons: M3 37mm Antitank Gun
By Christopher MiskimonThe men of Lieutenant Edwin K. Smith’s antitank platoon, 2nd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division peered over the gun shields of their 37mm cannon at the column of Vichy French armored cars approaching their roadblock. Read more
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Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Italian Red Shirts
By Louis CiotolaIn the spring of 1860, when Giuseppe Garibaldi became Dictator of Sicily, Italy was a confusing conglomerate of states, divided between Piedmont-Sardinia and Austrian Venetia in the north, the Papal States in the middle, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, centered in Naples, in the south. Read more
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Bomber Gunner Ben Kuroki: “Most Honorable Son”
By Sam McGowanIn 1942, many Americans considered anyone of Japanese ancestry to be an enemy, regardless of where they had been born or how long their families had lived in the United States. Read more
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Baghdad’s 1941 Regime
By John W. Osborn, Jr.A dangerous outlaw regime sits in power in Baghdad; the leader of one of the world’s superpowers decides it has to be removed at all costs; an army marches across the desert to topple it. Read more
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Pacific Merchant Marine
By Dr. Carl H MarcouxThe American war in the Pacific proved to be largely a maritime endeavor. Fighting consisted of widespread naval battles between the two major opponents followed by American invasions of Japanese-held island bases. Read more
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The Concrete Fleet of WWII
By Brandt HeatheringtonIt is a fact that war has sparked some amazing innovations. It has at the same time spawned incredible desperation. Read more
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Three Times’ a Charm: A POW’s Journey From the Philippines to Nagasaki
By J.C. HannaThe Great Depression greatly affected millions of Americans during the 1930s, and my father, Chad Hanna, was no exception. Read more
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Battle of Alma: First Blood in the Crimea
By Eric NiderostOn the morning of September 14, 1854, an Anglo-French fleet arrived off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea. Read more
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Battle of Omdurman: The Last British Cavalry Charge
By Eric NiderostIt was the morning of September 1, 1898, the day before the Battle of Omdurman. Lieutenant Winston Churchill of the Queen’s 4th Hussars rode out with four squadrons of the 21st Lancers to scout the approaches to Omdurman, a Sudanese village on the west bank of the Nile opposite Khartoum, epicenter of a revolt that had rocked the very foundations of the British Empire. Read more
