WWII Archives

The dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London looms against the surreal glow of fires ignited during a Luftwaffe bombing raid. The cathedral itself was in great peril during the Germans’ Blitz against the British capital city in 1940. (The Art Archive/Culver Pictures)

WWII

Luftwaffe Raids: St. Paul’s Stands Proud

By David Alan Johnson

At St. Paul’s Cathedral, the rooftop lookout telephoned the cathedral control center at 6 pm to report that air raid sirens were sounding off to the southwest. Read more

WWII

The Afrika Korps at El Alamein: Beginning of the End

By John Brown

Tobruk, the vital Libyan seaport on the coast of Cyrenaica, fell to General Erwin Rommel and his victorious Afrika Korps in less than 24 hours after an unexpected and devastating air, armor, and infantry attack on June 21, 1942. Read more

WWII

“I Order You To Die”

By Victor J. Kamenir

In the English-speaking world, most students of military history would be hard-pressed to identify the time, place, or antagonists of the Canakkale Campaign. Read more

Laying the foundation stone at the Volkswagen factory at Fallersleben on the occasion of Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday.

WWII

The Volkswagen Beetle

By Albert Mroz

The Volkswagen, or “People’s Car,” that so many millions have known for more than half a century had its genesis in Nazi Germany. Read more

WWII

The Great German Escape

By Charles Whiting

Devizes in southern England had had a quiet war. It had not suffered any bombing as most English cities had. Read more

The German crew, which has manned a captured British Matilda tank in the Western Desert in 1941, surrenders to a group of New Zealand troops after the vehicle has been disabled by antitank fire. Note the German markings and flag draping the tank. (Australian War Memorial)

WWII

Captured Allied Armor: Enemy Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

By Christopher Miskimon

The German crewmen occupied the various stations in their tank as they approached the American roadblock ahead. It was 2100 hours on Christmas Eve, 1944, just outside the town of Manhay, Luxembourg, which was occupied by elements three different U.S. Read more

Preparing for an invasion by the Japanese, Indian troops, which comprised a large number of the British Commonwealth forces in Burma, march past a pagoda toward defensive positions. (Imperial War Museum)

WWII

The 17th Indian Division in Burma: Disaster on the Sittang

By Marc D. Bernstein

The Japanese looked unstoppable. Two divisions of the 15th Army had crossed from Thailand into Burma in mid-January 1942, bent on capturing Rangoon before the British could land reinforcements and block the seizing of the Burma Road. Read more

WWII

Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess: Foe or Ally?

By Sherman Gengler

Throughout the reign of the Nazi Party in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s, Adolf Hitler’s inner circle comprised a diverse group of men from many walks of life. Read more

WWII

The USS Utah: The Memorial & The Pearl Harbor Paradox

By Richard Klobuchar

Very few among the throngs of visitors to Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu are aware of an anomaly, but it definitely exists in the case of the USS Utah. Read more

Not yet a second lieutenant or a pilot, student flier Grant Stout poses with the Stearman PT-17 Kaydet primary trainer that was the initial aerial classroom for so many.

WWII

What happened to fighter pilot Grant Stout?

By Robert F. Dorr

It was loud. It was violent. Gunfire ripped into 1st Lt. Grant G. Stout’s Republic P-47D Thunderbolt fighter high over Dortmund, Germany, near midday on March 19, 1945, and the aircraft trembled and shook. Read more

A group of Greek partisans searches for remiaining Nazis in a Greek town.

WWII

The Greek Civil War: World War II’s Epilogue in the Mediterranean

By Jon Latimer

As 1944 drew to a close, the British in Greece found themselves in a parlous situation. They had agreed to support the restoration of Greek civil authority while overseeing the distribution of aid and the re-creation of armed forces to ensure internal security, all while commitments elsewhere were straining them almost to the breaking point. Read more

WWII

The British Prosper Spy Network: Destroyed to Protect D-Day?

By Peter Kross

On June 6, 1944, hundreds of thousands of Allied troops, planes, and ships departed from their bases in England bound for the shores of France in what was to be the greatest invasion of all time. Read more

VMF-113 Corsairs escort a B-25 assault on the Japanese coastal defense gun atop Jokaj Rock at Ponepeh. The Corsair, which the Japanese nicknamed “Whistling Death,” was easily distinguished from other aircraft due to its full wing configuration. (Jack Fellows Aviation Art, www.jackfellows.com. Opposite: Amber Books)

WWII

Splashing a Dinah

By Robert F. Dorr

When the Marines put Willis “Bud” Dworzak into the cockpit of a Vought F4U-1C Corsair fighter aircraft, they expected him to provide close air support to fellow leathernecks who were slugging it out on Okinawa. Read more

Photographed after its capture by Allied troops, this modified He-111 bomber was one of those intended for use as a flying bomb carrier during the implementation of the Reichenberg Project.

WWII

Hanna Reitsch, the Reichenberg Project & Germany’s Kamikazes

By David Alan Johnson

By early 1944, the Luftwaffe was only a shadow of what it had been at the beginning of the war. Read more

WWII

Guadalcanal: Bloody Encounter at Hell’s Point

By Al Hemingway

On the humid morning of August 19, 1942, infantrymen from Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines carefully eyed the landscape for any signs of Japanese soldiers as they slowly made their way through the thick jungle on the island of Guadalcanal, located in the Solomon Islands. Read more

Colonel David Stirling, founder of the SAS, poses with several of his men prior to their departure for a raid. The heavily armed Jeeps usually mounted twin Vickers machine guns and carried provisions for extended forays into the desert.

WWII

Commando Paddy Mayne: Ireland’s Wolf of the Desert

By Kelly Bell

The night of December 14, 1941, was bitterly cold in the North African desert. Midway between El Agheila and Tripoli, Libya, was the German and Italian air base outside the town of Tamet. Read more

A million people lined the 25-mile parade route leading to the Hatch Memorial Shell in Boston, where General Patton delivered a war bonds speech.

WWII

The Real Story of General George Patton, Jr’s Death & Final Days

By Major General Michael Reynolds

The commander of the U.S. Third Army, General George Patton, Jr., took no great pleasure in the end of the war in Europe; he already knew that despite his lobbying of many influential figures in Washington, D.C., Read more

WWII

The WWII Sniper: Caught in the Crosshairs of Famous Sharpshooters

By Jon Latimer

The art of sniping developed from the sharpshooting practiced during earlier conflicts. During the 19th century, the steadily improving technology of the rifle led to the use of sharpshooters during the American Civil War and the Boer War. Read more

Artist John G. Hanlen depicted the rather austere conditions that prevailed at the headquarters of an Allied army in China. John Birch, whose name has become synonymous with an anti-Communist organization in the United States, would have been familiar with such surroundings. (U.S. Army Art Collection)

WWII

For God and Country: The Story of John Birch

By Sam McGowan

In the 1960s the John Birch Society was well known to most Americans as a right-wing political organization noted for its anti-communism and conspiracy theories. Read more

Racing through shellfire on the Eastern Front in 1944, a German courier on horseback attempts to deliver a message.

WWII

Warhorses—collateral casualties of WWII

By G. Paul Garson

By 1939 the German Reich possessed 3,800,000 horses while 885,000 were initially called to the Wehrmacht as saddle, draft, and pack animals. Read more

WWII

From Around the Network

William R. Dunn: Eagle Squadron Pilot

Talking Code with the Navajo

Soviet Partisans: The Rag-Tag Scourge Along WWII’s Eastern Front

Robert E. Lee’s Brother: “The Handsomest Man in the Confederacy”