WWII Archives

WWII

Barbarossa: Hitler’s Great Blunder

By Frank Johnson

By April 1941, just over a year and a half into World War II, Nazi Germany was the master of Europe. Read more

WWII

The German Submarine U-47

By William F. Floyd Jr.

On the evening of October 13, 1939, The German submarine U-47 surfaced off the Orkney Islands in the North Sea. Read more

WWII

Near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and beside the grave of world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis in Arlington National Cemetery is the resting place of a film star who chose to be remembered first and foremost as a U.S. Read more

Smoke from his cigar curls upward as an SS officer and his detachment pause at a road sign directing traffic toward the village of Malmedy, Belgium, during the opening hours of the German Ardennes offensive that came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge. In a field near Malmedy, troops under the command of SS Colonel Jochen Peiper committed one of the most infamous battlefield atrocities of World War II.

WWII

Adolf Hitler Sends Joachim Peiper to the Bulge

By Josh Quackenbush

During the Battle of the Bulge, the largest battle America has ever fought, Hitler chose the Sixth Panzer Army for the German juggernaut’s most important role. Read more

WWII

Heroic Airacobras of the Cactus Air Force

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Shortly after 11 am on August 22, 1942, the roar of aircraft engines shattered the stillness over Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. Read more

WWII

The Mauser 98: The Best Bolt-Action Rifle Ever Made?

By Blaine Taylor

According to The History Channel’s Tales of the Gun, the Mauser 98 was “the best bolt action rifle ever made.” Read more

WWII

Rivals of the River Plate

By David H. Lippman

The four ships that raced into battle on December 13, 1939, off the mouth of the River Plate were, as historian and novelist Len Deighton tartly observed, “three different answers to the question that had plagued the world’s navies for half a century: what should a cruiser be?” Read more

Soldiers of the 154th Infantry Brigade (part of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division) man a Vickers machine gun in support of the advance of Operation Veritable from Holland into Germany on February 8, 1945.

WWII

Reichswald: The Battle for a Sinister Forest

By Mike Phifer

The bloody fight for the Reichswald, according to Lieutenant General Horrocks, was a soldiers’ battle “fought by the regimental officers and men under the most ghastly conditions imaginable.” Read more

WWII

Consolidated B-24 Liberator: The Loyal “Lumbering Lib”

By Michael D. Hull

A host of famous fighters and bombers in the Allied arsenal spearheaded the aerial offensives that helped secure victory against the Axis powers in World War II. Read more

WWII

Adolf Hitler’s Last Birthday

On April 20, 1945, Adolf Hitler observed his 56th, and last, birthday. There was little to celebrate. The so-called “Thousand Year Reich” was in its death throes after only 12. Read more

German Fallschirmjägers (Paratroopers) in an entrenched machine-gun position await the advancing Allied forces in Normandy’s le Bocage in the summer of 1944.

WWII

Hell In The Hedgerows

By Bill Warnock

Rudolf Jackl dove headfirst from the aircraft door, stretching his arms toward the ship’s port wing to keep from getting tangled in his parachute’s shroud lines as he was slammed by turbulent air. Read more

Plane-handling crews aboard USS Enterprise (CV-6) work to prepare an F4F Wildcat for flight during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, October 26, 1942. The “Big E” would survive the war. Although the battle was a short-term victory for the Japanese in terms of ships sunk and damaged, Japan’s loss of many irreplaceable aircrews—particularly flight leaders—proved to be a long-term strategic advantage for the Allies in the Pacific.

WWII

Violent Carrier Versus Carrier Clash

By Nathan N. Prefer

It had been a difficult year for the United States Navy.

Beginning with the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, defeat after defeat had plagued the efforts of the American Navy to recover its balance and strike back against the rampaging Japanese. Read more

Australian troops on a narrow mountain road west of Jezzine, Lebanon, come under fire from Vichy French artillery and mortars. The Aussies fought the German-aligned Vichy forces for possession of the town over the course of several weeks, finally capturing it on June 28, 1941.

WWII

Fighting The War in the Middle East

By William Stroock

For more than a century the Middle East was the British Empire’s vital link between the Mediterranean and India. Read more

U.S. Army Air Forces Boeing B-17 bombers fly in formation en route to a target in Germany. Enemy fighters and antiaircraft fire took a heavy toll on the airmen aboard.

WWII

The Borkum Island Massacre and Trial

By William R. Hogan

On August 4, 1944, a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress heavy bomber, tail number 43-37909, so new that it did not have a nickname or nose art yet, took off from England on a bombing run over Germany that would end in a crash landing on Borkum Island in the North Sea. Read more

French cruiser Gloire was photographed in 1943 with dazzle camouflage.

WWII

The Rise and Fall of Dazzle Camouflage

By Joseph Frantiska Jr.

What do Pablo Picasso, the U.S. Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) have in common? Read more

WWII

Private SNAFU

By Peter Zablocki

Bumbling Army Private Snafu was the title character of a series of 26 short cartoons sanctioned by the U.S. Read more

A young soldier of the armored forces trains with a Springfield Arsenal .30-06 M1 Garand rifle at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in early 1942. Soldiers liked the rifle’s rugged construction and dependable operation. A skilled marksman could hit targets at a range of 450-500 yards.

WWII

America’s trusty M1 Garand rifle was “Woven into the fabric of the nation.”

By David J. Little

After the Great War, in which American troops were sent into combat with either the bolt-action M1903 Springfield rifle or the bolt-action British Enfield, planners in the War Department realized that, if the United States were ever drawn in combat again, they would need a far superior weapon. Read more

WWII

Cape Matapan Triumph

By David H. Lippman

It was called “rodding,” and it was a complex manual procedure used by British cryptographers at Hut Eight in the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park to decipher Italian Naval Enigma coded messages. Read more

WWII

Cold War Spies: General Reinhard Gehlen

By Peter Kross

By 1944, many top generals in Adolf Hitler’s army understood the war was lost and that they had better make arrangements to ensure their safety. Read more

WWII

Tarawa: ‘Marine Corps’ Toughest Battle

By Flint Whitlock

For a week before November 20, 1943, U.S. Navy and Seventh Air Force planes did their best to destroy the Japanese defenses on the tiny Pacific atoll of Tarawa. Read more

WWII

From Around the Network

Incomplete Victory at Falaise

Throwing Heroes Under the Bus

The Plan to Destroy the Albemarle

General Douglas MacArthur’s Navy