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A twin-boomed P-38 Lightning flies over snow-capped mountain peaks. With its tremendous range and firepower, the P-38 saw service in every major theater of World War II.

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What Made the Lockheed P-38 Lightning So Special?

By Sam McGowan

Due largely to their use in the postwar U.S. Army Air Forces and present proliferation among the air show community, the North American P-51 Mustang is thought of by many as the most important American fighter of World War II. Read more

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Death in the Wheat Field

By Kevin O’Beirne

The warm spring breeze blew the still-new green of the trees about Falmouth, Virginia, as the last of three rousing cheers echoed into the sky. Read more

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Imperial Landsknecht Halberdier 1486-1600

By Giuseppe Rava

The Landsknecht were German mercenaries originally recruited by Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emperor from 1486-1519. Influenced by the success of Swiss pikemen, Landsknecht mercenaries were formed into a Landsknecht army, defeating the Hungarians during the Austro-Hungarian War of 1490. Read more

Soldiers of the U.S. 75th Infantry Division tramp through the snow in the Colmar Pocket sector in the Alsace region. The pocket, which consisted of 850 square miles on the west side of the Rhine River, was the last piece of German-held territory on French soil.

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Destruction Of The Colmar Pocket

By Christopher Miskimon

On January 25, 1945, every officer in Company B of the 15th Infantry Regiment of the American 3rd Infantry Division became a casualty in the fight for the “Colmar Pocket” except Lieutenant Audie Murphy. Read more

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End Game at Appomattox

By Mike Phifer

Lieutenant Colonel Horace Porter, personal aide to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, maneuvered his mount past ammunition wagons, ambulances, stragglers, and prisoners jamming the muddy roads leading back to headquarters from Five Forks, Virginia, on the evening of April 1, 1865. Read more

F6F Hellcats, F4U Corsairs, SB2C Helldivers, and TBF Avenger torpedo bombers from carriers of Task Force 58 swarm the Yamato as it steams on its forlorn mission to assist Japanese ground forces on Okinawa. With no air cover, the Yamato and its escort ships were at the mercy of nearly 400 attack aircraft.

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The Superbattleship Yamato in Operation Ten-ichi-go

By John E. Spindler

Allied victory in both the European and Pacific theaters seemed inevitable by spring 1945. The German Army was fighting on its own soil, and Japanese forces were defending Okinawa, the principal island of the Ryukyu archipelago. Read more

U.S. helicopters not only transported South Vietnamese troops to firebases inside Laos, but also carried them to Tchepone when the armored column stalled on Route 9. The March 6 air assault by elements of the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division was the largest helicopter assault of the war.

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Mauled in Laos

By John Walker

The South Vietnamese rangers huddled in their trenches and bunkers at landing zone Ranger North throughout the day of February 19, 1971, as mortar shells crashed inside the perimeter. Read more

Germans became interested in rocketry because rockets were not denied them by the Versailles Treaty. Through the 1930s they got a huge head start over the democracies in the use of rockets as weapons of war.

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Germany’s Deadly V-2 Rockets

By David Alan Johnson

Sixty-four-year-old Robert Stubbs slowly walked across the playing field of the Staveley Road School in the West London suburb of Chiswick. Read more

A Japanese POW commander (Sessue Hayakawa) and a British colonel (Alec Guinness) conduct a battle of wills in The Bridge On the River Kwai.

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Military Films

By Blaine Taylor

From earliest recorded history to yesterday, it is now possible to trace virtually all major human conflicts on videotapes and DVDs through both rental and purchase. 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.

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Zero Ace Over Guadalcanal

By Allyn Vannoy

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

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Noble Celtic Warrior, 1st Century, B.C.

The Gauls were Celtic people who lived in much of Europe from the 5th century BC. They were described by Greek and Roman historians as tall, muscular, fair-skinned, with long blonde, or reddish hair. Read more

From Around the Network

  • In Robert Taylor’s painting, Return from Schweinfurt, P-47 Thunderbolt fighters of the 56th Fighter Group head for home, low on fuel and ammunition, while B-17 bombers fend off late attacks by German Me-109 fighters.

    WWII

    Daylight Bombing Gamble: The Schweinfurt–Regensburg Mission
    Read More

  • European Theater

    Eisenhower to the Front
    Read More
  • Prussian King Frederick the Great’s senior officers, including his brother Prince Henry, advised him to halt his attack at Kunersdorf after the Prussian forces had hemmed in the enemy, but he chose to press his attack.

    Military History

    Slugfest at Kunersdorf
    Read More