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.

In this painting titled Wounded Warrior by artist Richard Taylor, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress nicknamed Silver Meteor, heavily damaged during a raid on Munich, Germany, on July 11, 1944, is escorted safely to its base in England by a pair of North American P-51 Mustang fighters. The Mustang provided long-range escort for the heavy bombers penetrating deep into German airspace.

WWII

Little Friends

By Sam McGowan

Undoubtedly, the World War II aircraft type that attracts the most attention is the fighter plane. Yet, before the war, the U.S. Read more

An Sdkfz.261 light armored radio vehicle in Russia in 1941. Scouting vehicles were an integral part of the reconnaissance battalions of panzer and motorized regiments in World War II.

WWII

German light and heavy armored cars enabled scouts to gather vital intelligence for panzer units.

By William E. Welsh

Following World War I, Visionaries within the German Reichswehr formulated and refined concepts for mobile warfare built around tanks. Read more

The vessel is now a museum at Jack London Square in Oakland, California.

WWII

The USS Potomac served as FDR’s floating White House during World War II.

By Eric Niderost

Washington, D.C., is not known for its mild climate, but the summer of 1941 seemed particularly enervating. The city was enveloped in a fierce humid heat that tended to suck the air out of one’s lungs even as it drenched one’s body in perspiration. Read more

Australian, New Zealand, Dutch, and British prisoners of war lay track on the Burma-Thailand “Death Railway” near Ronsi, Burma, 1943. More than 12,000 Allied POWs and tens of thousands of Asian civilian workers died while working on the line. The Japanese needed the railway to supply Japanese forces in occupied Burma and exploit that country’s natural resources.

WWII

Building Burma’s Notorious “Death Railway”

By Mark Simner

“Your heart stops. You feel dizzy and sick. You think you’re going to piss yourself and then you feel the pain. Read more

The battered entrance to Fort Driant after its capture.

WWII

Patton’s Lost Battle

By Duane E. Shaffer

The road to Fort Driant began for the United States Third Army when it landed on Utah Beach at 3 pm on August 5, 1944. Read more

WWII

Japan’s Hellish Unit 731

By David D. Barrett

The final months of World War II saw the liberation of hundreds of ghastly concentration camps and the awful reality of Nazi racism. 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

The Indy’s Marine Guard under No. 1 turret, photographed shortly before the sinking.

WWII

Wartime Tragedy

By Richard Camp

Lieutenant Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto, Imperial Japanese Navy, stared intently through I-58’s periscope. Visibility was poor until the moon peeked through the clouds and he spotted a dark silhouette on the horizon. Read more

Newly liberated Polish prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp at Hanover-Ahlem queue up to receive rations of soup from American soldiers.

WWII

Henry Kissinger’s World War II

By Tim Miller

In November 1944, a young American soldier wrote back to his parents in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Read more

Smoke and flames billow from the stricken battleship USS West Virginia in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

WWII

Caught in the War

By Jim Campbell

Because it was such a long and cataclysmic event, World War II still resonates with so many of us. Read more

WWII

Filling the Black Hole

By Michael D. Hull

A generally overlooked factor of World War II has been the influence, sometimes highly significant, of nations that remained neutral. Read more

B-29 Superfortress bombers rain destruction on Japan in 1945.

WWII

Game Changer: The B29

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was a game changer. First rolling off the assembly line as a production aircraft in July 1943, the Superfortress was the answer to America’s need for a high-level long-range strategic bomber. Read more

The best place to be in an urban battle was next to the buildings where it was possible to find a degree of cover from enemy fire. An American machine-gun team belonging to the 26th Infantry Regiment engages the enemy in mid-October.

WWII

Bloodbath in Aachen

By William F. Floyd Jr.

With weapons at the ready, the American squad advanced cautiously on both sides of the tree-lined boulevard toward the German strongpoint in Aachen. Read more

The Tirpitz fires her 15-inch main guns in the Baltic Sea in 1941. The British Royal Navy saw the huge battle-ship as a threat to merchant vessels and troop convoys bound for the British Isles.

WWII

Saga of the Tirpitz

By Blaine Taylor

April 1, 1939, was a red-letter day in the history of the reborn German Kriegsmarine for two key reasons. Read more

An American officer interrogates two recently captured German soldiers somewhere in France.

WWII

A German-American Teen With a Flair for Psychology

By Phil Zimmer

Stephan H. Lewy was young, militarily inexperienced, and A Most unlikely American soldier. Yet when he reached Utah Beach 30 days after D-Day, he was all business as a staff sergeant in U.S. Read more

WWII

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