WWII Archives

Smoke billows from distant fires and a German shell explodes on the beach at Dunkirk as Allied soldiers await evacuation from the east mole or directly into the surf in Operation Dynamo, May-June 1940.

WWII

Captain George Tennant, Dunkirk Architect

By Jon Diamond

As aptly stated by historian Max Hastings in his book Warriors, “the leaders most readily admired by fellow-soldiers are those who seem committed to do their duty, and also to bring every possible man home alive.” Read more

This artist’s rendering depicts the proposed aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy made out of ice, and its relative size compared to the aircraft carrier HMS Indefatigable.

WWII

Back-room Genius of World War II

By Frank Johnson

While the Battle of Britain raged and a German invasion was feared in the sunny, tense summer of 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill took time to create an organization that would exemplify his offensive spirit, his love of gadgets and innovations, and his use of cronies. Read more

Dauntlesses dive bombers and Wildcat fighters from the USS Ranger attack German shipping in Bodo harbor in northern Norway in a painting by Mark Postlethwaite.

WWII

Carrier Strike in Norway

By Christopher Miskimon

The morning sun arose late in the North Atlantic Ocean on October 4, 1943. In the far northern latitudes 100 miles off the coast of Norway, the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-4) slid smoothly through the icy waters, turning into the wind to launch its aircraft. Read more

WWII

Monty’s Folly: The British paratroopers at Arnhem paid a heavy price in the failed operation.

American Generals privately gloated over the failure of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s Operation Market Garden in September 1944. The British had conceived the idea, although Allied units from many nations participated in the operation. Read more

Albert Kesselring visits with Luftwaffe pilots at their airfield in France in 1940. Kesselring was wary of Hitler’s decision to halt ground forces before the British lines at Dunkirk, expecting the Luftwaffe to deal the final blow to the British Expeditionary Force.

WWII

Albert Kesselring: Hitler’s Go-To Guy

By R. Jeff Chrisman

He was seemingly everywhere—Poland, France, Holland, Italy, and the western front during the last days of the Third Reich. Read more

Japanese soldiers on the main island of Luzon celebrate their victory over the Americans and Filipinos, April 1942.

WWII

Two Roads to China

By Christopher Miskimon

May 1942 was a dark time for Colonel Nicoll F. “Nick” Galbraith and his fellow American soldiers in the Philippine Islands. Read more

The bombardier of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber mans the .50-caliber machine gun in the plane’s nose and scans the skies for German fighters as the formation enters hostile airspace. The Münster raid of October 10, 1943, proved costly for the Eighth Air Force in both men and aircraft.

WWII

Disaster In A Bright Blue Sky

By Allyn Vannoy

Lieutenant Robert Sabel struggled to get his Fortress, the Rusty Lode, home. Eight B-17s of his bomb group, the 390th, had already been shot from the sky. Read more

WWII

Chase’s Flying Columns

By Ed Miller

Santo Tòmas University, Manila, Philippines, about 9:00 p.m., February 3, 1945: Louis G. Hubele, a 45-year-old civilian internee of the Japanese, heard more than the usual amount of vehicle traffic on España Street. Read more

A British airborne soldier, identifiable by his sleeve patch showing Bellerophon riding the flying horse Pegasus, poses for a publicity photo with his Sten gun. To assault the Merville Battery, airborne troops landed both by glider and parachute, but the attack began unraveling from the beginning.

WWII

D-Day Disaster at the Merville Battery

By Flint Whitlock

The small French village of Merville (1940 population: 470), located just south of the coastal town of Franceville-Plage, had as its neighbor on its southern fringe an unwelcome German battery consisting of four concrete bunkers housing artillery pieces that pointed northwest toward Ouistreham and the mouth of the Orne River. Read more

On March 20, 1944, soldiers of the 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division proceed cautiously through the rubble of Zweibrucken, Germany. Some fires still burn in the devastated city.

WWII

For Love and Country

By Walt Larimore and Mike Yorkey

During World War II, the U.S. Army determined that the typical frontline infantryman couldn’t take much more than 200 to 240 days of combat before mentally falling apart. Read more

In July 1943, Lieutenant Katye Swope, a nurse with the 802nd Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron, prepares patients for a flight from Agrigento, Sicily, to Britain for further medical treatment. Allied air evacuation operations began during the campaign in North Africa in February 1943 and continued for the duration of World War II in every theater.

WWII

2nd Lt. Reba Z. Whittle, flight nurse—and the only female P.O.W. in the ETO

By Stephen D. Lutz

On September 27, 1944, a C-47 Skytrain named “Mary,” tail number 43-48395, prepared to depart Royal Air Force Base Wharton in Lancashire, England, filled with assorted medical supplies destined for a U.S. Read more

WWII

Ukraine 2022: Echoes of 1939

Unlike the weekly current-events magazines, WWII Quarterly is edited, assembled, and sent off to the printer well in advance of the day you receive it in the mail or pick it up at the newsstand. Read more

Moments after hitting the beaches of southern France during Operation Anvil-Dragoon in August 1944, these American soldiers sprint toward the cover of a grove of pine trees. These men are loaded with full packs of equipment and provisions for the long fight ahead.

WWII

From the Alamo to the Riviera

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

A derelict, rusting Quonset hut is all that remains of the sprawling Camp Tarawa on the Big Island of Hawaii.

WWII

Stumbling Over History

Has this ever happened to you? You’re on vacation or taking a trip and unexpectedly you stumble across a piece of history you didn’t even know existed. Read more

WWII

Tigers in the Sky

By Christopher Miskimon

America had been at war for less than two weeks when Claire Chennault watched his American Volunteer Group (AVG) take off for its first combat mission. Read more

The cruiser HMNZS Achilles, manned by its crew of New Zealanders, opens fire on the German pocket battleship Graf Spee during the early moments of the Battle of the River Plate. The British naval squadron, which also included the British cruisers Ajax and Exeter, drove the German raider to seek safety in the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay.

WWII

Death of the Graf Spee

By Michael D. Hull

When German dictator Adolf Hitler loosed his troops into Poland on Friday, September 1, 1939, he hoped that a lightning conquest would result in a negotiated peace with Great Britain and France. Read more

During funeral services for Pfc. Felix Longoria on February 16, 1949, family members pause beside the flag-draped casket. Longoria was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery after a funeral home in his hometown of Three Rivers, Texas, refused to provide services to the Mexican American family.

WWII

The GI Forum

By Mike Shepherd

Hector Garcia was born in Llera, Tamaulipas, Mexico, on January 17, 1914, to schoolteacher parents, Jose Garcia Garcia and Faustina Perez Garcia. Read 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

WWII

From Around the Network

Dickey Chapelle: First Female Photojournalist Killed in Action

Bloody Repulse at Fontenoy

Charlemagne

Gardening in Salonika: World War I in the Balkans