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
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
WWII
Paris was in tumult. The French 2nd Armored Division had rolled into the City of Light on August 25, 1944, ending four years of harsh Nazi occupation. Read more
WWII
In his 1971 autobiography, The Name Above the Title, prestigious Hollywood film director Frank Capra claimed that on Monday morning, December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, two U.S. Read more
WWII
On September 15, 1944, as Allied armies squeezed Germany from east and west, and the Third Reich needed all the experienced, able-bodied soldiers it could find, a strange but far from unusual letter was being written. Read more
WWII
The sacrifices made by American men and women in uniform during World War WII are legion. The contribution made by the workforce of our nation’s industries, exemplified by the image of “Rosie the Riveter” with riveting gun in hand, is also well known by most Americans. Read more
WWII
Out of the darkest of days for the isolated, embattled Japanese American community—and indeed for the rights and privileges protected by the Constitution for all Americans—an amazing transformation began. Read more
WWII
Not long ago I was watching one of my all-time favorite war movies—The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, and many others. Read more
WWII
On November 20, 1943, fully 70 years ago, American Marines hit the beaches on the islet of Betio, the principal spit of land that makes up Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Read more
WWII
Sixty-eight years after his suicide in the Führerbunker beneath the smoking rubble of Berlin, the life of Adolf Hitler remains an enigma. Read more
WWII
In the fall of 1941, the Polish writer Aleksander Wat, recently released from confinement in a Soviet prison, made his way east across the vast expanses of the Soviet Union. Read more
WWII
Sixty-seven years after it sank in the depths of Lake Garda in northeastern Italy on the stormy night of April 30, 1945, an American amphibious vehicle, a 2.5-ton DUKW, has likely been located sitting upright in 905 feet of water. Read more
