WWII
The Battle of Okinawa raged not only on the island itself but in the skies overhead. Japanese aircraft attacked the invading Americans not only through conventional bombing attacks but also by using the dreaded Kamikaze—suicide pilots who turned their planes into guided missiles to inflict more damage. Read more
WWII
I feel deeply honored to have been chosen by the Smithsonian Institution to lead D-Day trips to England and France (one took place in May; the other two were scheduled to take place in September and October). Read more
WWII
As it turns out, Belgium was the perfect place to hide a counteroffensive against the Allies. It is a mountainous country where towns are squeezed close together; the hills are punctuated by forests and small farms; and the forests are filled with small, thin trees while most farms are on slopes. Read more
WWII
Nazi war propaganda was designed in large part by the dictates of Joseph Goebbels (29 October 1897-1 May 1945), based on his read of German public opinion. Read more
WWII
Spring had finally arrived in the mountainous area of the Austrian Waldviertel, land of long winters and short summers. Read more
WWII
The planning was done behind closed doors. The work was done at secret facilities. The result? America’s first jet plane—a fighter that might have seen combat in World War II, had things gone differently. Read more
WWII
Above all, the island was defendable.
From Ritidian Point in the north to the extreme southern coastline, Guam is 34 miles long, made in an irregular shape covering 228 square miles, the largest of all Pacific islands between Japan and New Guinea. Read more
WWII
In the Ardennes region of eastern Belgium, Adolf Hitler rolled the dice for the last time in World War II. Read more
WWII
Major Sam P. Bakshas woke up that morning with the secrets in his head.
Bakshas was one of the men flying B-29 Superfortress bombers from three Pacific islands—Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. Read more
WWII
When word of the German breakthrough in the Ardennes Forest began to move back to the rear echelons of the American command in Western Europe, General Maxwell Taylor, commanding officer of the 101st Airborne Division, was attending a conference in Washington, D.C. Read more
WWII
The necessity for another front as a diversion to German operations in the Soviet Union was early recognized by both the Western Allies and the Russians. Read more
WWII
War spared no one. As modern armies clashed in France’s Normandy countryside, French civilians found themselves in the crossfire or on the receiving end of bombs and heavy weapons. Read more
WWII
On October 4, 2013, Nicholas Oresko passed away in an Englewood, New Jersey hospital at the age of 96. Read more
WWII
The British Admiralty Board of Enquiry into the loss of the battlecruiser HMS Hood, presided over by Vice Admiral Sir Geoffrey Blake, concluded, “The sinking of Hood was due to a hit from Bismarck’s 15-inch shell in or adjacent to Hood’s 4-inch or 15-inch magazines, causing them to explode and wreck the after part of the ship.” Read more
WWII
This year I feel deeply honored to have been chosen by the Smithsonian Institution to lead three 70th anniversary D-Day trips to England and France (one took place in May; the other two are scheduled to take place in September and October). Read more
WWII
Soldatenkaffee, named after a café frequented by German soldiers in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II, is, thankfully, one of a number of choices for luncheon fare in Bandung, Indonesia. Read more
WWII
We recently received several interesting communiqués from our readers. I’ll share three of them with you.
From Dan Paschen: “There I was, thumbing through your magazine (Fall 2013) at Barnes & Noble … and on page 6 was a photo of my uncle, Lt. Read more
WWII
The sniper was perched under a craggy bluff overlooking German Führer Adolf Hitler’s alpine mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. Read more
WWII
Decades of feature films and years of video games have created an image of the World War II American GI and Marine slugging it out against Axis foes with the M1 Garand semiautomatic rifle and the Thompson submachine gun, with the occasional M1 carbine thrown in for good measure. Read more
WWII
The editorial in the Summer 2013 issue of WWII Quarterly concerned the search for an amphibious DUKW that sank with 25 men aboard on April 30, 1945, in Lake Garda, northern Italy’s largest lake. Read more
