WWII Archives

Under the relentless onslaught of Japanese Mitsubishi A6 Zero fighter planes, the Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers of the USS Hornet’s Torpedo Squadron 8 are massacred as they attempt to attack Japanese aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway in this dramatic painting by artist John Hamilton titled “Destruction of a Torpedo Bomber.”

WWII

Remembering Torpedo 8 of Midway

By Mark Carlson

In 1982, Captain Bert Earnest and Commander Harry Ferrier were present at an event to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway. Read more

After sustaining damage during the Battle of the River Plate, the Graf Spee sought temporary shelter in the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay. Local authorities insisted that the Germans abide by the rules of the Hague Convention but eventually extended the ship’s time in port to 72 hours.

WWII

Troubling History

By Michael Haskew

The pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee was conceived as a commerce raider. Along with the other panzerschiffe, literally “armored ships,” of the Kriegsmarine, Graf Spee was heavily armed with 11-inch main guns. Read more

WWII

The Blue Ridge Division in Europe

By Andy Adkins & Madeline Hanson

The 80th Infantry Division’s lineage goes back to the First World War. It was first organized at Camp Lee, Virginia, on August 5, 1917. Read more

WWII

Eleventh-Hour Peril: The U.S. Naval Escape from China

by Eric Niderost

On November 11, 1941, the U.S. Navy gunboats USS Luzon and Oahu were ordered to “make quietly all preparations within the ship for a cruise at sea.” Read more

German soldiers in winter camouflage defend their lines against oncoming Russians.

WWII

Furious Fight in a Frozen Hell

By Pat McTaggart

It was the third winter in Russia for the men of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein’s Army Group South, and things were going from bad to worse. Read more

Shortly after a surrender to U.S. forces, German officers hand out rations of bread to hungry soldiers.

WWII

The German 11th Panzer Division: Giving Up the Ghost

By Brig. Gen. Raymond E. Bell Jr.

It was an impressive sight. Upon the reviewing stand as honored guest was General Dwight D. Read more

WWII

Frederic John Walker & the German U-Boat

by Robert Barr Smith

On this writer’s desk sits a small, pewter mug, dented and somewhat bat-tered. It is neatly engraved, and the lettering reads: “Wardroom H.M.S. Read more

Using a machine gun and carbine rifles, infantrymen sight up enemy positions during an attack on Cape Gloucester.

WWII

Operation Cartwheel: Seizing the Solomons and Beyond

by Douglas Sterling

On the island of New Britain, at the north end of the Solomon chain, lay a major base that provided Japanese forces with the naval power, supplies, and reinforcements to control the sea lanes of the Southwest Pacific. Read more

In this painting by Jack Fellows, P-39s flown by Major George Greene, Jr., (foreground) and “Buzz” Wagner take on Japanese Zeros over the Salamaua Peninsula.

WWII

WWII Planes: The Bell P-39 Airacobra “Peashooter”

by Sam McGowan

If there is an American combat airplane that has achieved an ill-deserved reputation, no doubt it would be the much-maligned Bell P-39 Airacobra, a tricycle landing gear single-engine fighter whose reputation was greatly overshadowed by the more famous, and of more recent design, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, and North American P-51 Mustang. Read more

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay streaks through the clouds on August 6, 1945 in artist William S. Phillips’s The Beginning of the End.

WWII

Paul Tibbets: The Man Who Piloted the Enola Gay

By Bill Van Orman

Today, in his nineties, Paul Tibbets is still a handsome man. He has a full head of silver hair. Read more

In this painting by German war artist R. Hanzl, a Spanish mortar crew, equipped and uniformed by the Germans, fires on a Russian town.

WWII

The Spanish Blue Division Along WWII’s Eastern Front

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

To their Russian enemies they were the “Spanish mercenaries of Hitler’s Fascist lackey, Franco.” To Hitler himself, “One can’t imagine more fearless fellows. Read more

WWII

Discharged: George Faulkner’s Odyssey from Soldier to Civilian

By Kevin M. Hymel

Every man in uniform dreamed of taking that big boat home, but stepping foot on American soil was just part of the journey. Read more

A pair of Douglas SBD Dauntless dive-bombers depart a carrier in the Pacific as they embark on a mission in late July 1944.

WWII

Scout Squadron 6 During the Pearl Harbor Attack

By Richard L. Hayes

Many people have heard of the six American Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk fighters that actually got off the ground and contested the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Read more

Donning camouflage, a team of OSS operatives lands ashore. Despite initial skepticism, the OSS more than proved its worth during numerous operations in Italy and North Africa.

WWII

OSS Operation Ginny

By Don Smart

The three rubber dinghies struggled through the rough surf in the pitch black night toward an inhospitable stretch of rocky beach. Read more

Soldiers watch from a distance as the Warsaw Ghetto burns.

WWII

Warsaw 1943: A War of Desperation

By Kelly Bell

In April 1940, Adolf Hitler’s SS began building a walled compound in occupied Warsaw in which to imprison Jews who had survived the previous autumn’s bitter fighting as the German juggernaut romped through western Poland. Read more

Masses of SS, SA, and members of the German army crowd the docks at Wilhelmshaven during the launching ceremonies for the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer. The Scheer was arguably the most successful German surface raider of WWII.

WWII

Marauding Kriegsmarine Raider

By Ralph Segman

Say the words “pocket battleship” and up pops the name Admiral Graf Spee. Her two sister ships, the Deutschland/Lutzow and the Admiral Scheer are virtually unknown to Americans. Read more

WWII

WWII Heroes: Aristides de Sousa Mendes

By Michael D. Hull

Panic and confusion reigned across France as the bright, warm spring of 1940 turned into summer.

Blitzkrieg, a brutal new mode of warfare, was on the loose in Western Europe. Read more

Several American pilots pose at Clark Field in August 1941. Standing left to right are: Carl Gies, Max Louk, Erwin Crellin, and Varian Kieler.

WWII

U.S. Heavy Bombers in WWII: Caught on the Ground

By Sam McGowan

In the popular history of World War II, the assertion that the United States was caught unprepared in Hawaii and the Philippines has become widely accepted as fact. Read more

American soldiers rush to cross the captured Ludendorff railroad bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany, captured largely intact, by Combat Command B from the 9th Armored Division. The German officers in charge of defending, then destroying, the bridge at Remagen were court martialed and shot.

WWII

The Bridge at Remagen

By Victor Kamenir

By the end of January 1945, Hitler’s desperate Ardennes Offensive had ground to a halt. Though the last-ditch push to the west had inflicted heavy casualties on American forces, it was the German army that suffered irreplaceable losses in men, equipment, and materiel and was no longer capable of offensive operations. Read more