WWII

Warfare History Network, home of the foremost WWII History and WWII Quarterly magazines, is your best source for military history online. Here you’ll find our in-depth and vivid accounts of the greatest war in history, from Pearl Harbor to the Battle of the Bulge; from the desperate fighting on the Eastern Front to Iwo Jima and the Battle of Midway. Our vast collection of rare photographs, battle maps, illustrations and meticulously researched articles will give you new insight into the battles, leaders, weapons, and much more.

WWII

Liberating Paris

By Jean René Champion (with Marc and David Champion)

Jean René Champion (or René, as he preferred to be called) was born in 1921 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a commune on the west side of Paris. Read more

Naval artist John Hamilton depicted the night action on November 13, 1942, when eight U.S. destroyers and five cruisers engaged in an all-out slugfest against two Japanese battleships and 12 destroyers in “the Slot,” between Guadalcanal and Florida Island. The action lasted only 20 minutes but ended in a victory for the U.S. Navy. During the six-month-long campaign, the two combatants lost over 60 ships and more than 1,200 aircraft.

WWII

Guadalcanal: Ending with a Whimper

By John J. Domagalski

Admiral Ernest J. King wanted the battle for Guadalcanal to be over. There were additional objectives for the United States to pursue in the South Pacific and by the middle of January 1943 he was becoming impatient. Read more

A Finnish pilot at the controls of his Avro Anson FAF LeLv46 AN101 reconnaissance aircraft based at Tikkakoski, March 7, 1940, shortly before the Winter War ended in a truce. The Finns successfully blunted the Soviet invasion, thanks in large part to their air force.

WWII

David vs Goliath

By Glenn Barnett

When Stalin and Hitler signed a non-aggression pact in August 1939, they secretly created spheres of influence. Besides dividing up Poland, they agreed to allow each other free reign over nations and territories they deemed important. Read more

WWII

Infantry’s Armored Fist

By Brig. Gen. (ret.) Raymond E. Bell, Jr.

The 782nd Tank Battalion spent two years training stateside as part of the U.S. Read more

A long line of American soldiers are about about to begin their long journey into captivity. Most of the troops were moved by rail; Allied planes sometimes unknowingly attacked trains that carried American POWs.

WWII

Captured in the Bulge

By Flint Whitlock

It took the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the world’s largest passenger liner, only five days to transport 15,000 men of the 106th Infantry Division from New Jersey to Glasgow, Scotland, making port on November 17, 1944. Read more

Japanese American children at the Raphael Weill Public School in San Francisco recite the Pledge of Allegiance, April 1942. The two girls in the front row were both sent to internment camps along with their parents.

WWII

“Justice for All”

By Susan Zimmerman

In the fall of 1941, as relations worsened between the United States and Japan and war became imminent, the presence of 110,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast pushed the issue of internment to the forefront. Read more

Sergeant Fedor Pekov and Vladimir Mikeyev patiently wait for their enemy.

WWII

Training Stalin’s Red Army Sharpshooters

By Kevin M. Hymel

Snipers played an important a role in World War II, just as much as any tank, airplane, or artillery piece. Read more

Fighting men of the 92nd Infantry Division, the famed Buffalo Soldiers, march past the wreckage of a knocked out PzKpfw. VI Tiger tank in the vicinity of Ponsacco, Italy. The African-American soldiers of the 92nd Division fought racial injustice in their own army, as well as the Germans.

WWII

The Brave Buffalo Soldiers

By Michael D. Hull

Despite their gallant service in the Civil War, on the Western frontier, and in the Spanish-American War, black soldiers were used mostly for labor and given only a limited fighting role when the U.S. Read more

American infantrymen enter the war-ravaged French town of Argentan during the effort to trap thousands of retreating German troops in the Falaise Pocket during the final stages of the Normandy Campaign in 1944. The fighting around Argentan was the baptism of fire for the U.S. 80th Infantry Division.

WWII

The 80th Division’s Baptism By Fire

By Patrick J. Chaisson

As a late summer sun finally dipped below the horizon, Captain William L. Koob, Jr., came to realize that his unit had been abandoned on the battlefield. Read more

WWII

A BDM Girl Comes to America

By Don A. Gregory

Frieda’s last doll was bought for her by her father, August Streit, in 1938. At age 10 she was really too old for dolls, her father thought, but he would buy her this last one. Read more

A line of German soldiers marches past a burning Russian building somewhere on the Eastern Front. The vast spaces of the USSR swallowed German armies and led to mass casualties. Few German POWs lived to return home.

WWII

Suicide or Surrender

By William Lubbeck and David Hurt

BACKSTORY: Wilhelm Lubbeck served as an enlisted man in the 58th Infantry Division on the Eastern Front during Germany’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union before being promoted to lieutenant. Read more

Following one of many harrowing Luftwaffe raids against London, rescue workers comb through the rubble of a structure looking for survivors. The people of London and other British cities endured many nights of bombing during the Blitz of 1940-1941.

WWII

Night of Devastation

By David Alan Johnson

The first word of the incoming Luftwaffe raid arrived at about 10:45 p.m. on the night of Saturday, May 10, 1941. Read more

The Bismarck had tremendous firepower. She is shown firing her four double 15-inch guns in a modern painting.

WWII

Trapping the Bismarck

By John Protasio

Baron Burkhard von Mullenheim-Rechberg’s life was in danger. An officer aboard the German battleship Bismarck, Mullenheim-Rechberg was at his station as his ship was trading salvos with several British warships. Read more