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Snared in a Prussian Trap
By Victor KamenirDriven and energetic in his youth, by the late 1860s French Emperor Napoleon III was a shadow of his former self. Read more
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Axis Collapse in Normandy
By Robert L. DurhamGerman panzergrenadiers surrounded Hill 314 just east of Mortain in Normandy on August 7, 1944, trapping several companies of the 2nd Battalion of the U.S. Read more
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French Vice Admiral Charles D’Estaing
By William E. WelshIn one of those ironic twists of history, French Vice Admiral Count Charles Henri Hector d’Estaing, who led the first French fleet to North America in 1778 to assist the Americans during their revolt against the British crown, never met George Washington. Read more
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Medal of Honor Recipient Daniel Butterfield
By William F. Floyd Jr.The series of battles that constituted the Confederate offensive against the Union army on the eastern outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, in summer 1862 would thrust a number of Union officers into the limelight. Read more
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The Soviet ZSU-23-4 Anti-Aircraft Platform
By Christopher MiskimonSoviet forces occupying Afghanistan in March 1986 during the Soviet-Afghan War sought to annihilate a large force of Afghan Mujahedeen fighters that had sheltered in Xadigar Canyon in Kandahar Province. Read more
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Bloody Revenge at Sluys
By Eric NiderostIt was late afternoon on June 24, 1340, when the English fleet arrived off the Flanders coast, just short of the Zwin estuary, reputed to be the finest harbor in Europe. Read more
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Back to Bataan
By Nathan N. PreferShortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese caught the United States Army Air Forces units in the Philippines on the ground late on December 8. Read more
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High Stakes at Salamis
By Erich B. AndersonAs the sun rose shortly after dawn on a morning in late September 480 BC, 170 rowers densely packed on three tiers within an Athenian warship strenuously pushed their oars to propel their vessel forward as fast as possible. Read more
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Ninth Air Force Captured In Brushstrokes
By Kevin M. HymelThe Ninth Air Force officially arrived in England when General Lewis H. Brereton set up his headquarters in Sunninghill Park, Berkshire, on October 16, 1943. Read more
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The Battle of Iwo Jima: Red Sun, Black Sand
By John WalkerNo foreign army in the 5,000-year history of Japan had ever successfully conquered Japanese territory. In late 1944, American war planners were about to challenge that statistic on the tiny Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Read more
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Storm Of Arrows
By William E. WelshFor nearly half a millennium the crossbow and longbow served as the predominant missile weapons for field armies in Western Europe. Read more
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Savage Model 1907: Rival of the Colt M1911
By Steve LilleyIn the 1939 movie The Real Glory, elite U.S. Army officers arrive in the southern Philippines to mold the Filipinos into a military force to defend their villages against marauding Moro tribesmen. Read more
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Model’s Failure in Command
By Pat McTaggartColonel General Walter Model was a rising star in the German ArFmy in early 1943. The son of a music teacher, Model was born on January 24, 1891, in Genthin, Saxony-Anhalt. Read more
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Battle for Jerusalem
By William E. WelshThe barefoot crusaders tramped slowly underneath a blazing sun behind bishops and priests chanting and holding aloft relics on July 8, 1099. Read more
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City Under Siege: The New York Draft Riots
By Rick BeardFor four breathlessly hot days in mid-July 1863, New York City became the northernmost battleground of the Civil War. Read more
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The CIA Assassination of Rafael Trujillo
By Peter KrossThe United States from 1959 to 1961 turned its focus to two of the most charismatic, ruthless, and despotic rulers in the Caribbean region, Fidel Castro of Cuba and Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. Read more
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Eternal City Liberated
By Michael E. HaskewItaly was unforgiving. German resistance to Allied operations had been brutal since the Salerno landings in the autumn of 1943, and by the following spring frustration had mounted upon frustration. Read more
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For Gold And Blood
By William E. WelshThe rain poured in sheets as the long column of French troops snaked its way through the Apennine Mountains of southern Italy along roads washed out by heavy rains. Read more
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Baiting the Russian Bear: The Siege of Port Arthur
By Eric NiderostOn the chilly night of February 8, 1904, the Imperial Russian Navy’s Pacific Squadron lay peacefully at anchor just outside Port Arthur’s main harbor. Read more
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To attack targets from a steep angle, Curtiss developed the SB2C Helldiver—“The Beast.”
By Joseph Frantiska, Jr.
At the beginning of WWII, the U.S. Navy needed a combat aircraft that could meet several requirements: it had to serve as an attack fighter that could conduct precision dive-bombing and ground-support (strafing) operations yet still be small enough to be delivered to battle zones by aircraft carrier. Read more
