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.

As if seen in flight, this Vought-Sikorsky U.S. Navy Corsair R4U hangs close to a visitor viewing platform.

WWII

Museums: The UDVAR-HAZY Center

Anyone traveling to Washington, DC, should take the time to head west to Chantilly, Virginia (near Dulles International Airport), and visit the Steven F. Read more

Two million joyful people fill Times Square in New York City to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany.

WWII

“It’s All Over, Over Here”

By Flint Whitlock

On Tuesday, May 8, 1945, a strange sound was heard across all of Europe—the sound of silence. It was as if someone had suddenly flipped the war switch to “Off.” Read more

WWII

Third Reich Women at War

By Paul Garson

During the 12 years of the highly militarized society of the Third Reich, some 20 million Germans—men and women as well as children—donned a uniform of one kind or another. Read more

WWII

The Workhorse Lancaster

By Nigel Price

Powerful, brisling with firepower and able to carry an amazingly large bombload, the majestic Avro Lancaster, along with the iconic Supermarine Spitfire, has come to symbolize the might of the Royal Air Force in World War II. Read more

WWII

Australia’s Heroic Son

By Christopher Miskimon

John Hurst Edmondson, known to his friends as Jack, died April 14, 1941, lying on the concrete floor of a sand-swept fighting outpost in the perimeter around Tobruk, Libya. Read more

WWII

This Month Marks the Anniversary of ‘If Day.’

The Defending soldiers surrendered at 9:30 am and marched with their hands up to a central point in the city. Nazi soldiers frisked them and made certain that they were unarmed. Read more

WWII

A Flawed and Brilliant WWII Combat Leader

By Christopher Miskimon

General George S. Patton, Jr., entered his first World War II battlefield on the morning of November 8, 1942. Read more

WWII

A Marine Scout’s War Journey

By Matt Broggie

Sergeant Larry Kirby will always remember the fighting on the morning of March 12, 1945, as his unit, Easy Company, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division, attempted to move against Hill 362C under the cover of darkness in northeastern Iwo Jima. Read more

After German forces overran their country in September 1939, tenacious Poles, such as these shown in Hungary, escaped the continent to reconstitute their forces in Britain and prepare for the day they could strike back at the Nazis.

WWII

Polish Army’s Heroic Stand at Falaise

By Alan Davidge

Poland does not always get the recognition it deserves for helping to defeat Nazi Germany and end the war in Europe. Read more

WWII

The U.S. Third Army and XIX TAC: Partners for Victory

By Sam McGowan

In the summer of 1944, the Third United States Army under Lt. Gen. George S. Patton made a spectacular dash across France, a daring advance that ranks high on the list of great military endeavors. Read more

A squad of Red Army machine gunners leap from tanks in an effort to halt the German advance. Soviet losses were heavy but Hitler soon called a halt to the successful Operation South Wind to mount another—Operation Spring Awakening—an attempt to secure vital oil reserves in Hungary that proved to be a failure.

WWII

Operation South Wind’s Battle for the Gran Bridgehead

By Major General Michael Reynolds

By the end of 1944, the Soviet Red Army had surrounded the Hungarian capital of Budapest and established strong defensive positions running from Esztergom on the Danube to Lake Balaton. Read more

A Fu-Go bomb snagged on a tree in Kansas, February 23, 1945. Approximately 9,000 balloons were launched, but only about 900 made it across the Pacific; several landed in the Midwest.

WWII

The Deadly Balloon Bombs of Imperial Japan

By 1944, the Japanese still had no long-range bombers to match the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. And a great many of Dai Nippon’s warplanes and aircraft carriers were lying at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Read more

Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division patrol the perimeter of the besieged town of Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge.

WWII

The Wayward Helmet Liner

By Berry Craig

First Lieutenant William Parks of the 101st Airborne Division left a snow-camouflaged helmet liner behind when the storied Screaming Eagles moved out following the American victory in the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945. Read more

WWII

Pegasus Bridge: D-Day’s Textbook Mission

By Flint Whitlock

Late on the night of June 5, 1944, while American paratroopers were on their way to drop behind Utah Beach, another, smaller air armada carrying 170 British airborne troops was also dashing headlong into battle like an aerial cavalry charge towards the far eastern flank of the Normandy invasion site. Read more

Russian infantry advance behind T-34 tanks during the counterattack that began on July 12, one day before Hitler called off the attack. From that point on, the strategic initiative shifted irreversibly to the Soviet Union, and by the end of the year they had liberated the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

WWII

After Kursk, Soviets Favored Broad-Front Offensives to Retake Territory

“The big defeat at the Kursk bulge was the beginning of a fatal crisis for the German army,” said Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky, the Soviet Chief of the General Staff. Read more

WWII

From Around the Network

The Thompson Gun’s Curious History, from World War I to World War II

The Thunder of Operation Gallop

Hideki Tojo vs Isoroku Yamamoto: Conflict in the Military Ranks

Breaking the Square: Britain Takes on Mahdi at the Battle of Abu Klea