WWII Archives

WWII

Mystery at the Battle of Ramree Island

By Chuck Lyons

The nights were “the most horrible ever experienced,” Bruce S. Wright, a Royal Canadian Lieutenant Commander later wrote about his time in Burma in February 1945. Read more

WWII

9 World War II Book Reviews for Spring 2026

By Kevin Seabrooke Full Reviews

The Hitler Years: Holocaust 1933–1945 (Frank McDonough, Apollo/Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, NY, 416pp., Jan. 27, 2026, $45 HC)

Resisting Nazism: True Stories of Resistance to the World’s Most Dangerous Ideology, from 1920 to the Present (Luke Berryman, Bloomsbury Academic, New York, NY, 296 pp., Read more

WWII

Philip Neame

By Bradley P. Tolppanen

During the Second World War the Western Desert campaign was a graveyard for the reputations of British generals—all at the hands of the Desert Fox, Gen. Read more

Troops of the U.S. Army’s 306th Regimental Combat Team, 77th Infantry Division, come ashore at tiny Geruma Shima, one of the Kerama Retto group of islands near Okinawa, during Operation Iceberg, March 26, 1945.

WWII

Kerama Retto: Key to Victory at Okinawa

By Pierre V. Comtois

Close to the northern end of the island of Tokashiki, the largest member of a tiny group of islands called Kerama Retto, located 15 miles west of Okinawa and hardly 400 miles from the Japanese home islands, Corporal Alexander Roberts and the rest of the 306th Regimental Combat Team rested for the night beneath the starry skies of the northern Pacific. Read more

WWII

Allies’ Failure To Assist Jews During Holocaust Continues To Stir Debate

By Peter Kross

One of the most enduring questions emerging from World War II is the reaction of the West, and particularly the United States, to the plight of the Jews as they faced Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Read more

WWII

Queen of the Desert: The Infantry ‘Matilda’ Tank

By Jon Diamond

The origins of the Matilda Tank or “I” Tank date back to 1934, when Maj. Gen. Percy C.S. Read more

WWII

Normandy Breakout

By Brian Todd Carey

On June 6, 1944 the Allies opened the Second Front against Nazi Germany. Concentrated against the beaches of Normandy, Operation Overlord landed 20 army divisions plus support troops on five beaches in anticipation of a breakout across France and toward Berlin. Read more

WWII

Battle of Rennell Island: A Fiery End for the USS Chicago

by John Domagalski

With bond clerk Marge Henning standing by as a witness, Colonel Frank Eldridge removed the first piece of the puzzle. Read more

Gillars smokes a cigarette as she talks to reporters at U.S. Counter-intelligence headquarters in Berlin, Germany, March 21, 1946.

WWII

Mildred Gillars (a.k.a. ‘Axis Sally’) in WWII

“This is Berlin calling the American mothers, wives and sweethearts. And I’d just like to say, girls, when Berlin calls it pays to listen.” Read more

The Regia Marina’s Luigi Torelli arrives at the BETASOM sub base in Bordeaux on February 4, 1941, after completing its first Atlantic patrol. She had begun her patrol on November 12, but had to return to base for electric motor repairs after 10 days. She set out again on January 9, 1941.

WWII

Italian Sub Luigi Torelli

Patrick J. Chaisson

History has not been kind to the Italian Royal Navy. Since World War II scholars have largely ignored La Regia Marina Italiana and the often pivotal role it played in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. Read more

Infantry from the 40th Division follows Sherman tanks advancing on Japanese positions on Panay Island, Philippines in March 1945. This photograph is one of four from the camera of Lt. Robert Fields who was killed by incoming Japanese fire shortly after this photo was taken.

WWII

Bud Elliott and the Forgotten 40th

By Scott Elliott

The time had finally arrived. They would play second fiddle no more. An armada of American ships stretching as far as the eye could see entered Lingayen Gulf in Northwestern Luzon on the morning of January 9, 1945. Read more

WWII

Bombs Over Balikpapan

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Lieutenant Gus Connery and the crew of Juarez Whistle, a Consolidated B-24D Liberator heavy bomber, first spotted their target around midnight. Read more

Soviet paratroopers in front of a TB-3 bomber transport. Though they had more on paper, there were only 39 PS-84 transport planes and 22 TB-3 bomber transports—and only 19 fighters—available for the January 27 jump. German aircraft attacks on planes and airfields, as well as technical difficulties, left only two TB-3s and 10 PS-84s still operational by January 31, further delaying the deployment of paratroopers.

WWII

20 Million Lives

By Michael E. Haskew

Citizens of the Soviet Union,” blared the voice of Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov to a stunned nation on June 22, 1941, “the Soviet government and its head, Comrade Stalin, have authorized me to make the following statement: “Today at 4 o’clock am, without any claims having been presented to the Soviet Union, without a declaration of war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders at many points and bombed from their airplanes our cities; Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunus and some others, killing and wounding over 200 persons. Read more

Russian soldiers advance beneath the fire support of one of their tanks. The Russians had planned a counterattack and made it fearsome.

WWII

The Kursk Battle: The Eastern Front’s Turning Point

By Jonas Goldstein

When they invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Germans were confident of a swift victory over the Russian untermenschen (subhumans). Read more

WWII

The B-25 Mitchell Bomber and the Man Behind the Plane

By Sam McGowan

During the 1920s, roughly two decades before the B-25 Mitchell bomber came into service, U.S. Army Air Service commander Brig. Read more

WWII

Eleanor Roosevelt and Admiral Halsey

By John Wukovits

Prim, proper, and lacking any trace of braggadocio, the first lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, preferred placid pastimes and exchanging letters with close friends. Read more

A platoon of green troops from the U.S. 106th Infantry Division, somewhere near St. Vith, Belgium. Expecting to occupy a quiet sector of the Allied line in December 1944, the “Golden Lions” found themselves in the path of Hitler’s last major offensive—Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine).

WWII

The Most Serious Reverse

By Flint Whitlock

The HMS Queen Elizabeth, the largest passenger liner afloat, took only five days to transport the entire 106th Division from New Jersey to Glasgow, Scotland, making port on November 17, 1944. Read more

WWII

German Heer Infantryman, Battle of the Bulge

By Johnny Shumate

The German unified armed forces were renamed Wehrmacht “defense force” from 1935 to 1945, comprising the Heer (army), Kriegsmarine (navy) and Luftwaffe (air force)—all distinctly separate from the paramilitary Waffen Schutzstaffel “armed-protection squad” of the Nazi Party. Read more

American paratroopers come to earth as Douglas C-47 transport aircraft drone in the skies above. Cows are grazing peacefully in this photo, undisturbed by the early events of Operation Market-Garden.

WWII

Tough Fight at Mook

By Patrick J. Chaisson

In the midst of the ambitious Operation Market-Garden, Brigadier General James M. Gavin, 82nd Airborne Division Commander, first heard about the crisis at Mook, along the Maas River, from his chief of staff, Lt. Read more

WWII

Britain’s Decisive Aerial Victory

By David Alan Johnson

“I say, better wake up.”

Red Tobin opened one eye, rolled over, and found his squadron mate, Pilot Officer John Dundas, shaking him by the shoulder and staring into his face. Read more

WWII

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