WWII Archives

U.S. Navy Helldiver aircraft attack the Japanese battleship Musashi in the Sibuyan Sea during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Painting by Sam L. Massette.

WWII

Clash in the Sibuyan Sea

By John Wukovits

In warfare, desperate times call for desperate measures, and in the fall of 1944 the empire of Japan found itself in precisely that predicament. Read more

American tanks and armored gun carriers drive over snow-covered terrain to Samree during the Battle of the Bulge. Capture of the city opened the way to Houffallize, heart of the Bulge.

WWII

The End of the Battle of the Bulge

By Arnold Blumberg

Wednesday, December 27, 1944, found the military situation in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium stalemated. After 12 days of unrelenting struggle, the American and German forces on this part of the Western Front found themselves locked in brutal combat, unable to drive each other back. Read more

WWII

Operation Greif: Assassinate Eisenhower?

By Charles Whiting

On the morning of Monday, December 18, 1944, a mixed group of white MPs and black American service troops stood guard on the little bridge at Aywaille in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium. Read more

WWII

The Bloody Triangle along WWII’s Eastern Front

By Victor J. Kamenir

In 1941, the year of the Battle of the Bloody Triangle, the northwestern corner of the Ukraine was not what one would call tank country. Read more

WWII

Famous Military Commanders: Admiral Philip Vian

By the time the British Pacific Fleet began staging air strikes against the Japanese in the spring of 1945, its aircraft carrier commander had already seen plenty of naval action since the beginning of World War II. Read more

Rifles in hand, a French patrol proudly poses for the camera in front of a log blockhouse fortification atop a rocky outcrop in Belgium.

WWII

The 1940 Battle of Gembloux

By Jonathan F. Keiler

On May 10, 1940, a daring group of German parachutists descended on the mighty Belgian fortress of Eben Emael, compelled its surrender, and opened the way for the German Army’s drive into Belgium. Read more

WWII

Lilya Litvak: The Red Air Force’s Female Fighter Ace

By Michael D. Hull

When German panzer and infantry columns rumbled across the frontier into Russia on June 22, 1941, the Soviet Air Force was woefully unready for war. Read more

In this combat photo from April 6, 1944, soldiers of Company K, 25th Infantry Regiment, 93rd Infantry Division return fire from a Japanese biovac.

WWII

The Fight Near Hill 250: K Company at the Battle of Bougainville

By John Kennedy Ohl

In an article in the Pittsburgh Courier on April 15, 1944, correspondent Billy Rowe, who was covering the activities of the 93d U.S. Read more

WWII

Hitler’s ‘Swimming Car’: The German Type 166 Schwimmwagen

By Blaine Taylor

In the spring of 1940, as the German armed forces were sweeping across Western Europe, famed automobile designer Dr. Read more

WWII

The Harrowing Return from the The Bombing of Bremen

by Lowell L. Getz

“Bombs Away” rang out over the intercom static of the 29 aircraft of the 91st Bomb Group (Heavy). Read more

Lt. Gen. Hugh Drum is seen meeting with other senior military personnel at Grenier Field, New Hampshire.

WWII

Wartime Politics: Generals Hugh A. Drum and Joseph W. Stillwell

By Bruce Graham

It was the worst of times for the Allies. It was the time of opportunity for senior U.S. Read more

Making their way through a misty wood, U.S. assault teams push inland in southern France.

WWII

The 36th Infantry Division: From the Alamo to Operation Anvil

By Bruce L. Brager

Operation Anvil, the invasion of southern France, was originally planned for June 1944, the same time as the Normandy invasion. Read more

WWII

Hell in a Small Place: the Canadian Paratroopers of Operation Varsity

By Bernd Horn

In the hut no one spoke, no one joked. The assembled British and Canadian paratroop commanders awaited the briefing from their brigade commander on their next major operation. Read more

In an artist’s rendering, U.S. paratroopers lead the D-day invasion of June 6, 1944. German double agents working for the Allies passed misleading information to the German high command, leading Hitler to believe the Normandy landings were a feint, with the main assault to follow.

WWII

Military Secrets: The Nazi Spies Who Never Were

By Hervie Haufler

As the 1930s unfolded, Adolf Hitler sought to avoid having Great Britain join the war he intended to launch. Read more

WWII

The Plot Against Einstein

By Eric Niderost

When Albert Einstein arrived in Pasadena, California, in early 1933, he was to take up his duties as visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology for about three months. Read more

American soldiers drive by a destroyed German vehicle and the bodies of its former occupants during the Battle of the Bulge. U.S. Army PFC Frank Cohn and his team were suspected of being German spies when they were stopped and interrogated at an American checkpoint in Belgium.

WWII

‘Vat Goes on Here?’

By Kevin M. Hymel

On a Belgian hillside at the height of the Battle of the Bulge, an American lieutenant watched as a jeep carrying four men dressed in American uniforms stopped on the road in front of him. Read more

WWII

The Boy Who Got Rommel

By R. Douglas Nunes

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the infamous “Desert Fox,” was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Army Group B on the Western Front and put in charge of strengthening the Normandy coastal defenses. Read more

WWII

The Bloody Gilberts: ‘Another Road to Tokyo’

By Nathan N. Prefer

By the spring of 1943, the Japanese advance across the Pacific had been brought to a halt. Read more

WWII

The USS Zane

By Glenn Barnett

Much credit goes to the American ability to quickly manufacture the many ships and planes needed to fight the Pacific War and overwhelm the Japanese enemy. Read more

U.S. Army medical personnel use stretchers across the hood of a Jeep to evacuate wounded soldiers from the front line in Bastogne, Belgium, during heavy action—evidenced by the bullet hole in the Jeep’s windshield.

WWII

Germans Seize Field Hospital at Bastogne

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Captain (Dr.) Willis P. McKee did not like what he was seeing. For several hours now, crowds of panicky civilians had been streaming past his unit’s tent hospital located at a crossroads eight miles northwest of Bastogne, Belgium. Read more

WWII

From Around the Network

Citizen Casualties at the Bloody Battle of Aschaffenburg

Choose Between Diplomacy and War in the Year 2027, and Take to the Battlefield in the Latest Crack at the Battle Royale Genre.

Battle of the Standard — August 22, 1138 AD

The Desert Fox was respected by both friend and foe.