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

Armored Soldiers at the Battle of the Bulge

By William Hogan

By mid-December 1944, the 3rd Battalion, 33rd Armored Regiment, Third Armored Division “Spearhead” had seen plenty of action. Read more

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel visits with troops of the Africa Korps while inspecting positions in the Tobruk fortress belt. Rommel is aboard his light-infantry command vehicle SdKfz. 250/3 ‘Greif.’ The vehicle is equipped with radio-communications gear; note the antenna apparatus atop the open personnel area.

WWII

Clash of Armor at Gazala

By Eric Niderost

Generaloberst Erwin Rommel, commander of the Panzerarmee Afrika, was in his element, riding in an armored car at top speed through the desiccated plains of the Libyan desert. Read more

Marine ace Jim Swett is shown downing his seventh Japanese plane on April 7, 1943 in a painting by Roy Grinnell.

WWII

America’s Few

By Christopher Miskimon

As Jim Swett guided his Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter to a landing at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, he looked forward to getting some rest. Read more

During the epic Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, Ensign Yamamoto served aboard the Japanese cruiser Nisshin. He lost two fingers from his left hand during the great victory and was wounded in the leg.

WWII

Admiral Yamamoto and the Path to War

By Nathan N. Prefer

Reluctantly, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto executed the Attack on Pearl Harbor and brought war with the United States. Read more

Fire streams from an engine and wing of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber as a rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me-163 fighter aircraft streaks past. Painting by artist Jack Fellows.

WWII

Me-163: The Devil’s Broomstick

By David H. Lippman

The Germans called it the “Komet” and the “Devil’s Broomstick,” for the incredible speed with which it reached its altitude of 30,000 feet, achieving 0.84 Mach while doing so. Read more

WWII

Capturing Hitler

By Richard Baker

When a friend from Wolsey, South Dakota, asked Alven Baker why he was joining the army in 1941 and not another branch of the service, he replied, “To capture Adolf Hitler.” Read more

Soldiers of the 290th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division march through a Belgian woods during the Battle of the Bulge. It was in a forest like this that Staff Sergeant Darrell Bush tried to carry a fellow scout off the battlefield until he took a bullet from Germans firing down from the trees.

WWII

Infantryman in Bastogne

By Kevin M. Hymel

Staff Sergeant Darrell Bush had just carried a wounded soldier on his back to the rear when five enemy bullets seemed to hit him simultaneously. Read more

WWII

Joe Rochefort: Unsung Hero of World War II

Eighty years ago this month, the U.S. Navy inflicted the decisive defeat of World War II in the Pacific against the marauding Japanese. Read more

British troops, just rescued from the beach at Dunkirk on May 31, 1940, reflect desperation and relief after their ordeal on the European continent. Operation Dynamo did succeed beyond the expectations of its organizers.

WWII

Desperation at Dunkirk

By Michael E. Haskew

Within days of Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, and the British declaration of war two days later, the vanguard of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) arrived on the continent of Europe. Read more

WWII

Resurgent U.S. Navy

By Christopher Miskimon

The United States Navy entered World War II well before Pearl Harbor and long before the rest of the nation. Read more

Japanese soldiers ride atop Type 89 I-Go medium tanks during their push toward the Philippine capital of Manila in this photo taken on December 22, 1941. A car lies toppled on its side after being removed from the roadway. Obstacles to the advance were brushed aside as the Japanese moved swiftly across the island of Luzon to confront the American and Filipino defenders in their last-ditch defensive positions at Bataan and Corregidor.

WWII

Bataan and Corregidor: Valor Without Hope

By Michael D. Hull

They had no armor, no air support, and little hope, but the American and Filipino troops on Luzon and the Bataan peninsula waged a fighting retreat that was the longest and most gallant in U.S. Read more

A U.S. Navy airship patrols the Atlantic Ocean above a convoy in June 1943. Airships were serving regularly in anti-submarine patrols during the Battle of the Atlantic.

WWII

U.S. Navy Airships vs. German U-boats in the Atlantic

By Eric Niderost

Kapitanleutnant Volker Simmermacher gazed intently through his attack periscope, sizing up the target that so far seemed oblivious to his presence. Read more

SAS veterans of the Desert War photographed just after completing a three-month patrol. Their Jeeps are armed with machine guns and include Jerry cans containing fuel and water.

WWII

SAS: Owning The Desert

By Frank Johnson

Second Lieutenant David A. Sterling of the Scots Guards was serving with Lt. Col. Robert E. “Lucky” Laycock’s No. Read more

Traversing the rugged terrain of the interior of Burma, tanks of the 19th Indian “Dagger” Division roll down a dirt path while infantrymen pause to glance at the armored vehicles. General William Slim, commander of the British 14th Army, led his forces from the brink of total defeat to victory over the Japanese in the China-Burma-India Theater.

WWII

Out of Defeat, a Hard-Won Triumph

By Michael D. Hull

One ominous day in mid-May 1942, Lt. Gen. William J. Slim stood on the Imphal Plain, high in the Assam hills of northeastern India, and watched columns of tattered, malaria-ridden British, Indian, and Burmese soldiers straggle across the frontier from Burma. Read more

Soldiers of the U.S. 5th Infantry Division, part of General George S. Patton’s Third Army, march through the snowy streets of the town of Ettelbruck, Luxembourg, in January 1945. These soldiers were involved in the Allied counteroffensive that reduced the bulge formed by the German Ardennes Offensive. Some of these soldiers are wearing white sheets as camouflage.

WWII

Flattening the Bulge

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Corporal Thomas B. Tucker stood shivering in the bitterly cold night air as he looked down on a ribbon of water that separated his unit from the enemy’s front-line positions. Read more

WWII

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