WWII

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

The Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum’s rare, airworthy P-47D Thunderbolt Tallahassee Lassie in flight at Paine Field near Everett, Washington, in 2019. The restored “jug” serves as a flying tribute to Col. Ralph C. Jenkins, who led the 510th Fighter Squadron from the hedgerows of France all the way to Germany.

WWII

Thunderbolts Strike the Bocage

By Gerald Felix

As the pilots of the U.S. Army Air Force’s 510th Fighter Squadron hit their bunks on the night of June 5, 1944, the chatter among the “Buzzards” was the usual moaning about boring missions and wondering when they would see some real action. Read more

WWII

Into the Third Reich

By Daniel R. Champagne

Scouting for the best route for his motor pool through Nuremberg, Germany, 1st Battalion, 15th Regiment Transportation officer Lt. Read more

From the deck of a warship in the English Channel, General Eisenhower scans the horizon along the coastline of France June 7, 1944. Eisenhower managed to maintain a sometimes tenuous partnership between the British and American Allies.

WWII

General Dwight D. Eisenhower Shouldered the Burden of Command.

By Michael E. Haskew

When the military might of the Allies began to move inexorably toward Europe, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, told the troops that they were embarking on a “great crusade” to rid the world of the scourge of Nazi tyranny. Read more

WWII

Joe Rosenthal: Flag-Raising Photographer

By Gene Beley

The “Raising of the Flag” photo taken by 33-year-old Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal on the fifth day of the Iwo Jima battle provided the world with a much-needed uplifting symbol in February 1945. Read more

This stirring image titled “Douglas A. Munro Covers the Withdrawal of the 7th Marines at Guadalcanal”was painted by artist Bernard D’Andrea for the observance of the bicentennial of the United States Coast Guard.

WWII

U.S. Coast Guard Goes to War

By Michael D. Hull

Recently put ashore, three companies of U.S. Marines advanced stealthily along the Matanikau River on the northern coast of Guadalcanal on September 27, 1942. Read more

With their BT-13 basic trainer aircraft in the background, a pair of flight students in the enlisted pilot training program confer following a flight.

WWII

Sergeants, Service Pilots and Civilians

By Sam McGowan

Most historical accounts of World War II aviation relate the experiences of commissioned officers, men who obtained their wings through completion of a military pilot training program. Read more

Adolf Hitler gives a stiff Nazi salute to seven men killed in an assassination attempt in Munich during the 1939 anniversary observances of the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch of 1923.

WWII

A Sting In Venlo

By David H. Lippman

Sir Alexander Cadogan did not believe it.

He had been given a report from Admiral Sir Archibald “Quex” Sinclair, head of MI6, on October 6, 1939, that German generals were reaching out to the British Embassy in The Hague in neutral Holland, to orchestrate a coup against Adolf Hitler that would replace the Nazi regime with a military junta, which would then make peace. Read more

By 1940, cruisers built under the post-World War I naval treaties were feeling their age. Anove, a captured Japanese photo- graph shows the HMS Cornwall succumbing to an air attack.

WWII

HMS Cornwall: a Symbol of British Naval Power

By William R. Hawkins

Following the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 (and roughly four years prior to the construction of the HMS Cornwall), cruisers became a focus of the interwar naval arms race, no less keenly felt by the British, whose survival depended on the sea-lane. Read more

WWII

To Conquer a Fortress

By Bastiaan Willems

The storming of Fortress Königsberg in April 1945 was the finale of a two-month Soviet siege. The city, one of the few triumphs of Hitler’s fortress strategy, had been encircled by late January and lay hundreds of kilometers behind the main front line by the time the Soviets launched their final assault toward the Nazi capital of Berlin. Read more

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