WWII

Advancing past a knocked-out Mk IV panzer, an American infantry patrol picks its way through the rubble of a Normandy village, wrecked during the Operation Cobra bombings. Cobra was launched to break through the second line of German defenses and regain the momentum lost after the initial Operation Overlord landings.

WWII

Normandy Breakout

By Brian Todd Carey

Concentrated against the beaches of Normandy on June 6, Operation Overlord landed 9 army divisions plus support troops on five beaches in anticipation of a breakout across France and toward Berlin. Read more

WWII

Better Or Best: The B-17 Vs. The B-24

By Sam McGowan

One of the most frequently discussed arguments to come out of World War II is which was the “better” bomber, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress or the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. Read more

British prisoners march off under German guard after the capture of Tobruk. Rommel was aided in this astonishing coup of June 1942 by knowledge of British plans intercepted from messages by the U.S. Military Attaché in Cairo.

WWII

Colonel Bonner Fellers

By Harold E. Raugh, Jr.

German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, renowned as “the Desert Fox,” was a master of mobility and maneuver warfare during the see-saw North African campaign of World War II. Read more

During the opening hours of Operation Goodwood, a Sherman tank carrying infantrymen, a Sherman flail tank nicknamed a “Crab,” and a halftrack serving as an ambulance await orders to advance on July 18, 1944. Caen was a D-Day objective, but the Allies were required to fight for weeks to capture the town.

WWII

Capturing Caen

By Alan Davidge

One of the most important tasks for Allied troops after the D-Day landing was to seize the city of Caen, nine miles behind Sword Beach. Read more

Medics, who have lost most of their supplies, still treat the wounded on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, in this mural by Keith Rocco. Center, left, bandaging a soldier’s leg is medic Charles Norman Shay, of the Penobscot Indian Nation, who received a Silver Star. Further to the left is wounded African American medic Waverly Woodson, Jr., who is helping a fellow soldier crawl forward. Woodson, who treated more than 200 men before collapsing after 30 hours, received a Bronze Star.

WWII

The Big Red One on D-Day

By Kevin Seabrooke

In celebration and commemoration of the courageous actions of the “The Big Red One” during the Allied Invasion of Normandy, the First Division Museum at Cantigny has unveiled two interpretive murals and a companion book outlining both the story of First Division on D-Day and the making of the murals by artist Keith Rocco. Read more

WWII

Cassin Young

By Glenn Barnett

In Hawaii, on Saturday, December 6, 1941, Commander Cassin Young eased his repair ship, Vestal, outboard of the battleship USS Arizona. Read more

WWII

The Rise and Fall of the Japanese ‘Zero’

By Mark Carlson

For thousands of Allied airmen the most terrifying sight they ever beheld was a Mitsubishi A6M Zero bearing down on them—burnished black cowling over a snarling Sakae engine, staccato bursts flashing from two machine guns and two cannon—often the last thing they ever saw. Read more

WWII

Bold Gamble Above Cologne

By Michael D. Hull

Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Travers Harris, the burly, red-haired chief of Royal Air Force Bomber Command, was an anxious man on the evening of Saturday, May 30, 1942. Read more