WWII

Japanese planes prepare for takeoff from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Zuikaku in 1942. A veteran of Pearl Harbor, Zuikaku was heavily damaged during the 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea but survived.

WWII

Marianas Turkey Shoot

Dear Editor:

I just finished reading David Lippman’s article on the Marianas Turkey Shoot in the March 2011 issue of WWII History magazine. Read more

A pair of Sherman tanks trains its heavy guns on sniper positions at Aschaffenberg. German snipers were capable of holding up large formations of American troops unable to leave cover.

WWII

Aschaffenberg

Dear Editor:

I read with interest the story of the Battle of Aschaffenburg (January 2011 issue). I was stationed in the village of Munster bei Dieburg in the mid to late 1980s and was in Aschaffenburg many times as it was about 15 miles away. Read more

WWII

Bodies of Japanese Casualties Discovered on Iwo Jima.

While most images of a tourist trip to Hawaii have to do with beautiful beaches, hula skirts, and great surfing, a student of history must make it a point to visit two sites, Pearl Harbor and the Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, commonly referred to as the Punchbowl because of its distinctive location within the crater of a extinct volcano in sight of modern downtown Honolulu. Read more

WWII

Trouble In The Winds

By Peter Kross

The Japanese strike on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941—a “Day of Infamy,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt described it—left the American Pacific Fleet in almost total ruin, plunged the United States into World War II, and set off a controversy regarding the events that led up to the attack that is still being hotly debated. Read more

WWII

A Nation at War

It has become my nightly habit to take a half-hour walk around my Denver neighborhood, during which time I have come to notice a number of homes displaying the American flag. Read more

WWII

Remembering Our Veterans—Individually

Dear Editor:

As I sat down to write a newspaper article for Memorial Day, I wasn’t sure where to start. With recent news of our history, and in turn on our veterans, under assault by a casino at Gettysburg and Wal-Mart at The Wilderness, I wasn’t sure how to best honor our veterans for their sacrifices to this country. Read more

Pictured with several aides, Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was often maligned by other top Nazis. However, history reveals that he did not often receive the credit he was due.

WWII

Hitler’s Second Bismarck

By Blaine Taylor

Despite being ridiculed as a vain, pompous, and glory-seeking imbecile in a spate of biographies, diaries, letters, trial transcripts, and memoirs by leaders, field marshals, generals, and diplomats from both the Allies and his own Axis partners during and after the war, Joachim von Ribbentrop nevertheless was one of the premier foreign affairs practitioners of the Nazi epoch. Read more

Japanese Type 94 tankettes speed through a village in China. The Japanese military operated in China for nearly 15 years beginning in 1931.

WWII

Tanks of the Rising Sun

By Arnold Blumberg

Imperial Japan’s first hesitant steps toward adoption of armored fighting vehicles occurred in 1925 with the creation of two company-strength tank units. Read more

Troops of B Company of the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles stand proudly with a Japanese flag they have captured in battle at Mubo on July 21, 1942.

WWII

Jungle Warriors Against All Odds

By Glenn Barnett

The first Allied victory of World War I occurred when Australian volunteers occupied the German colony of northeastern New Guinea and the adjoining Admiralty Islands. Read more

WWII

Hollywood Goes Pacific

By John Wukovits

“They’re machine gunning! They’re strafing the hospital! The beasts! The slimy beasts!”

“Pearl Harbor! Most of us didn’t know what it was, let alone where it was.” Read more

WWII

The Twilight of the Gods

By Major General Michael Reynolds

By the end of April 1945, two of the most feared divisions of the Waffen-SS, the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler and the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, had both been reduced in strength to little more than reinforced regiments. Read more