WWII Archives

While one U.S. Marine inches forward, another fires a Tommy gun at Japanese positions on Okinawa in April 1945.

WWII

The Thompson Submachine Gun

By Blaine Taylor

In 1939 Time magazine called the Thompson submachine gun “the deadliest weapon, pound for pound, ever devised by man….” Read more

A tough MK II (A14) Matilda tank of the British 7th Royal Tank Regiment stirs up a cloud of desert dust. The most modern tank in the British arsenal at the time of Beda Fomm, the Matilda had surprised Rommel’s elite 7th Panzer Division in May 1940 on the battlefield of Arras in France.

WWII

A Daring Desert Campaign

By David H. Lippman

“It is not a question of aiming for Alexandria or even Sollum,” the message read. “I am only asking you to attack the British forces facing you.” Read more

WWII

Bill Mauldin understood war from the grunt’s-eye view. An enlisted man with the 45th Infantry Division, he turned his hobby into an art, penning Army life in World War II from Sicily and Italy to France and Germany. Read more

A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber of the U.S. Army Air Forces makes a bombing run over the city of Osnabruck, Germany, during World War II. When the B-17 was introduced, many observers considered it too expensive. However, the bomber was a workhorse in the European theater as army air power evolved during the war years.

WWII

The Army and Air Power

By Sam McGowan

When the United States Army first developed an interest in aviation and purchased its first airplane from the Wright Company in 1909, it and the pilots and mechanics who flew and serviced it were assigned to the Signal Corps, a specialty corps that had been established prior to the Civil War to develop visual signals, then later to develop and service telegraph lines. Read more

WWII

Actor Leslie Howard Died in Plane Shot Down by Nazis 80 Years Ago.

On the morning of June 1, 1943, the Douglas DC-3 lifted off from the airport at Lisbon in neutral Portugal. BOAC Flight 777 or Dutch KLM Flight 2L272, as it had been designated, carried 13 passengers and its crew on a flight bound for London. Read more

WWII

Spectacular Magazine

Dear Editor,

To put it simply, WWII History is a spectacular magazine.

Nowhere else can one find such well-researched, clear, or concise articles as the ones found on your pages. Read more

WWII

Confidence in leadership and military will lead to victory in a just cause.

General Douglas MacArthur once said that the soldier above all prays for peace because he knows the terrible price of war. Read more

Marshal Georgi Zhukov, right, poses with British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery after being awarded a British medal in Berlin on July 12, 1945.

WWII

Marshal Georgi Zhukov: Hero of the Soviet Union

By Blaine Taylor

The German Wehrmacht had just invaded the Soviet Union in the predawn hours of June 22, 1941, and the chief of the Soviet General Staff, General Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov, was calling the Kremlin in Moscow to alert dictator Josef Stalin, nicknamed “The Chief. Read more

WWII

Lili Marlene

By Sheldon Winkler

The true story of “Lili Marlene,” possibly the most famous war song ever written because of its universal themes of separation, loneliness, heartbreak, hope, fear of death, and dreaming for one’s love, is varying, contradictory, and controversial. Read more

WWII

Admiral Spruance

Dear Sir,

I have just obtained a copy of your November issue which has just found its way into my local bookshop. Read more

WWII

The National World War II Memorial is scheduled for dedication May 29, 2004.

Fifty-nine years after the end of the most horrific conflict ever known, American veterans of World War II will have a memorial dedicated on May 29, 2004. Read more

WWII

Battle Beyond The Horizon in the Coral Sea

By Wil Deac

In March and early April 1942, American and British codebreakers uncovered indications of a Japanese offensive being prepared in the Pacific against Australia. Read more

Smoke billows from a raging fire in the distance as Japanese troops occupy a barrier in a Nanking street, which was once defended by Chinese soldiers. The 1937 Rape of Nanking was a tragic chapter in the history of Sino-Japanese relations.

WWII

Years after a bitter war, Chinese officials invited Japanese veterans to return to the Asian mainland.

By Ulrich A. Straus

American perceptions of Japan’s war with China (1937-1945) have been formed by the reports on the Nanking Massacre and similar examples of Japanese brutality. Read more

WWII

The U.S. Fifth Air Force: A Strategy to Win

By Sam McGowan

Although the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was the event that served to galvanize America to fight World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt and his military advisers had pervasively decided that defeating the Japanese would be secondary to destroying the Nazi war machine in Europe. Read more

WWII

The Screaming Eagles in Hitler’s Nest

By Kevin M. Hymel

For the Western Allies, the war in Europe ended with more of a whimper than a bang. Read more

WWII

C.R. Smith

Dear Editor:

I awaited the “Dispatches” to question why C.R. Smith’s name was not acknowledged in “Anything, Anywhere, Anytime” (July 2002) about the Air Transport Command (ATC), written by Sam McGowan. Read more

WWII

Adolf Eichmann eluded the authorities for 17 years after the end of WWII.

The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Butcher of Prague, ended the notorious career of one of the most ruthless and anti-Semitic Nazis. Read more

WWII

The exhaustive efforts of dedicated searchers brought home the remains of six U.S. soldiers from shallow graves in Europe.

By Bill Warnock

The metal detector buzzed loudly. Its operator, Jean-Louis Seel, used his foot to unearth a dog tag beneath the pine needles. Read more

WWII

1st Division on D-day

Dear Sirs:

I have enjoyed your new magazine for its subject matter, layout, and graphics. Your challenge is to present articles on subject matter that has been covered for many years by world-class writers such as Cornelius Ryan, Carlo d’Este, and lately Adrian Lewis about D-day. Read more