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Under a smoke-blackened sky, U.S. Marines, in their distinctive P42 camouflage uniforms, wade across the shallow lagoon toward the blazing Tarawa beachhead in the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati), November 20, 1943. The draft of the Higgins boats proved too great for the shallow water that covered the barrier reef encircling the lagoon, forcing many Marines to struggle ashore through heavy enemy fire. Painting by artist and U.S.M.C. Sergeant Tom Lovell.

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Terrible Toll at Tarawa

By Michael E. Haskew

Seventeen months after the juggernaut of Japanese conquest in the Pacific had come to an abrupt end with the Battle of Midway, American strategists were ready to launch their long-awaited offensive in the Central Pacific. Read more

An Israeli tank passes scorched enemy vehicles during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Egypt deployed large numbers of missile-armed infantry in the Sinai that inflicted substantial losses on Israeli armor in the opening stage of the conflict.

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Tank Clash in the Sinai

By Arnold Blumberg

During the afternoon of October 9, 1973, Colonel Amnon Reshef, the commander of the Israeli Defense Force’s (IDF) 14th Armored Brigade, conducted probes along the water’s edge of the Great Bitter Lake, a wide part of the Suez Canal. Read more

The Crusader vanguard composed of French and Burgundian knights penetrates the forward position of Bayezid’s army defended by skirmishers armed with bows.

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Crusader Disaster At Nicopolis

By Louis Ciotola

In the late 14th century, a new and seemingly irresistible force was emerging in the East, the likes of which Europe had not seen for centuries. Read more

Union intelligence chief Colonel George Henry Sharpe is pictured with his staff at Brandy Station in June 1863. Left to right are Sharpe, John C. Babcock, an unidentified man, and John McEntee.

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Civil War Intelligence

By Arnold Blumberg

The Union officer saw it quite clearly across the Rappahannock River: a hand-painted sign held up by a Rebel soldier that read, “Burnside and his pontoons stuck in the mud. Read more

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The Battle of Ortona: Italy’s Stalingrad

By Mike Phifer

“Where the hell have you been?”

Major Bert Kennedy, acting commander of Canada’s Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment of the 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade, asked Lieutenant Farley Mowat of the intelligence section. Read more

The climactic moment of the Battle of Courtrai occurred when Count Robert of Artois, commander of the French army, led a suicidal charge into the Flemish ranks after the battle already had been lost. He is portrayed in a 19th-century painting pinned under his horse and mortally wounded.

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Revenge Of The Flemish Lion

By William E. Welsh

The Flemish infantry fidgeted under the sweltering sun as they stood shoulder to shoulder in a field east of the town of Courtrai on July 11, 1302. Read more

The Soviet Union’s two primary antitank rifles saw wide use in World War II despite the limitations of their small calibers.

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Russian Antitank Rifles

By Christopher Miskimon

The German panzers approached the Russian artillery  column as it moved to a new position. As the troops trudged toward their new firing point, six panzers appeared, rampaging into the Russian rear area, no doubt searching for vulnerable targets to destroy. Read more

Bedraggled soldiers and shell-shocked residents watch as Union troops march into Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. Though they were triumphant, the Yankees were not in the mood for celebration once they saw the condition of Vicksburg’s soldiers and citizens.

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Bold Gamble at Vicksburg

By Eric Niderost

The citizens of Vicksburg would scarcely remember a more beautiful evening. The sky on April 16, 1863, was cloudless, and as the ruddy glow of twilight faded, the vast expanse was speckled with stars. Read more

The statue of famed samurai warrior Kusunoki Masashige at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo pays homage to his legacy as the embodiment of samurai loyalty.

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Samurai Kusunoki Masashige

By Charles Hilbert

Fourteenth-century Japan was ruled by an emperor who traced his descent back to the sun goddess Amateratsu. However, the emperor took his orders from the retired or cloistered emperor (usually the father of the emperor), who in turn took his orders from the Sei-I Tai Shogun, who took his orders from the kampaku, or regent. Read more

The men of Company C of the 62nd Armored Infantry Battalion stationed in the village of Bannstein fought desperately to buy time for Maj. Gen. Edward Brooks’s VI Corps when attacked by lead elements of the 361st Volksgrenadier Division in the opening hours of Operation Nordwind

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Overrun in Alsace

By Allyn Vannoy

Like something out of a dream, a soldier walked into the command post. He unspooled a line of wire, hooked a field phone to it, checked the line, and handed the receiver to the officer in charge, Captain Howard Trammell, saying, “Someone wants to talk to you.” Read more

August Willich was one of the premier brigadier generals in the Union Army of the Cumberland. His performance leading the 32nd Indiana at Shiloh merited a promotion to brigade command.

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Union General August Willich

By Frank Jastrzembski

“A soldier in every phrase of the term, able and skillful, on many a bloody field he demonstrated his ability and courage,” Brig. Read more

U.S. Marines unload a wounded fellow Marine from an Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter at Al Qaim, Iraq, in 2005.

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American Medics and Military Doctors

By Richard A. Gabriel

The American military has been engaged almost continually in combat operations for the last 22 years. During this period, the United States has conducted combat operations in Iraq (1990-1991), Somalia (1992-1993), Iraq (2003-2012), and Afghanistan (2001-2021). Read more

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Hammer of the Normans

By William E. Welsh

Bright sunshine flooded the sedge-covered, damp ground in Sussex on the morning of October 14, 1066. Having attended mass at sunrise, Duke William of Normandy shouted commands to his senior officers outlining their positions for the coming battle with English King Harold II Godwinson’s army. Read more