WWII Archives

WWII

Barbarossa: Hitler’s Great Blunder

By Frank Johnson

By April 1941, just over a year and a half into World War II, Nazi Germany was the master of Europe. Read more

Robert Capa’s famous blurry image of the 1st Infantry Division’s amphibious landings at the Easy Red/Fox Green sectors of Omaha Beach indelibly captures the fear and chaos of the D-Day invasion. Four rolls of Capa’s film were rushed back to LIFE magazine’s London office, where a darkroom mistake ruined all but 11 images.

WWII

“A Hell of a Good Place to Die”

By Christopher Miskimon

Corporal Michael Kurtz stood on the deck of an attack transport ship sitting off the Normandy coast. Gazing out over the ship’s railing in the pre-dawn hours, he could see the ship’s crew working the davits and ropes for the landing craft. Read more

Keith Ferris’s painting, Fortresses Engaged, shows two German fighters attacking head-on through a formation of B-17s of the 100th Bomb Group.

WWII

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Flew Deep into Enemy Territory

By John Emmert

Second Lieutenant John Bosko was flying his seventh mission on August 24, 1944. He was reasonably seasoned as far as bomber commanders went but was unaware of his target’s macabre reputation. Read more

Arthur Beaumont’s depiction of the Japanese first wave attack that destroyed several VMF-211 aircraft and killed 23 Marines. A total of 52 U.S. military personnel died during the 16-day battle and over 400 were taken prisoner.

WWII

Wake Island: Japan’s First Setback

By Nathan N. Prefer

It didn’t look like much—just a speck in the vast ocean. Most travelers spent only a night in the Pan American Hotel and never ventured far from the small adjoining airfield. Read more

WWII

Faces of War

A Photo Essay By Eric Hammel

Noted chronicler of the Pacific Theater Eric Hammel recently spent three years sorting, scanning, cleaning, selecting, and captioning United States Marine Corps World War II photos for six pictorial books. Read more

A British M4 Sherman medium tank races past a knocked-out German PzKpfw. IV tank during the desperate fight for control of the crossroads and communications hub of Caen during the weeks after D-Day. Allied planners had projected that Caen would be in British hands on D-Day itself; however, a month of bitter fighting was required for Allied forces to capture the town.

WWII

Panzer Fury at Caen

By Kelly Bell

The black uniformed German panzer crews climbed into their Panther tanks at 10 pm on June 8, 1944. Read more

New recruits wearing soft headgear board a C-47 for their first practice jump.

WWII

How Paratroopers Earned Their Wings

Photo Essay By Kevin M. Hymel

Every American soldier who jumped into North Africa, Europe, the Philippines, and other combat zones around the globe during World War II had to first learn his trade at Fort Benning, Georgia. Read more

Two 100-pound Siberian Huskies await takeoff from a Canadian airfield. A flight surgeon, with protective gear and mask, is responsible for getting them out of the plane.

WWII

Raining Dogs! U.S. Army Parachute Animals in World War II

By Michael Dolan and Kevin Hymel

The U.S. Army trained dogs for a number of tasks during World War II. From checking for mines to guarding prisoners of war, the dogs performed admirably, but a few special dogs actually earned jump wings. Read more

Two GIs run for cover during the Battle of the Bulge. The Nazis initiated their Ardennes Offensive in December 1944, hoping to cross the River Meuse and advance to the port of Antwerp, Belgium, splitting Allied forces in two. Hitler authorized Operation Nordwind two weeks after the Ardennes Offensive was launched in an attempt to exploit gains made to the north as the Allies shifted troops and military assets in response to the Ardennes threat. The stand at Hatten was critical in wresting the initiative away from the Germans.

WWII

Heroic 52 Hours Defending Hatten

By Patrick J. Chaisson

The GIs defending Pillbox No. 9 watched in despair as a weak January sun set behind them. Read more

WWII

Operation Goodwood: Monty’s Armored Corridor

By Major General Michael Reynolds

The political and military reasons for launching Operation Goodwood have been discussed in virtually every book written about the Normandy campaign. Read more

Corpsmen attend to a wounded Marine while others bring another wounded man up the beach at Betio. Illustration by Kerr Erby.

WWII

Brutal Battle For Betio

By Steven Weingartner

Betio is the main island of the Tarawa Atoll in the Central Pacific nation of Kiribati, formerly known as the Gilbert Islands. Read more

Trucks and trailers loaded with supplies pass a sign warning civilian traffic to stay off the express route reserved for Red Ball Express and military use.

WWII

Red Ball Express: The Allies’ Unprecedented Lifeline to Victory

By Allyn R. Vannoy

While supply and logistics may seem like dull, dry topics, they are absolutely essential to military operations, for no victory can be achieved without a steady, uninterrupted flow of food, fuel, ammunition, clothing, medical supplies, and other key matériel. Read more

WWII

Home Front USA: Rationing

By Herb Kugel

In 1941-1942, British journalist Alistair Cooke traveled through the United States. In his description of his trip, American Home Front 1941-1942, he reported stopping for breakfast at a restaurant in West Virginia where, “the sugar was rationed at breakfast, and there was a note on the menu requesting that … in the interests of ‘national defense,’ keep to one cup of coffee.” Read more

From their position inside a ruined house, two solders from the 4th Infantry Division’s 22nd Infantry Regiment fire on a German tank with a 3.5-inch rocket launcher, commonly called a “bazooka,” during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944.

WWII

The Cold Shoulder

By Allyn Vannoy

Army commanders understand that the key to dealing with an enemy breakthrough is to slow the enemy’s advance and prevent the breach from widening—that is, “holding the shoulders.” Read more

Allied forces on the beach in Normandy in June 1944. Double agent Juan Pujol Garcia led the Germans to believe that the Normandy landings were a diversion and the main landing would be at the Pas de Calais.

WWII

How Juan Pujol Garcia (a.k.a. “Garbo”) Made The D-Day Invasion Happen

By Peter Kross

In the predawn hours of June 6, 1944, the largest armada ever sent into war assaulted the coast of France at Normandy. 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

WWII

Flak Gunner for the Luftwaffe

Interview by Allyn R. Vannoy

An estimated 1.2 million people were employed by the German ground-based air-defense system by the end of the war in Europe. Read more

Aerial view of the USS Wasp (CV-7) near San Diego, California, in June 1942, shows 38 Hellcats and Dauntlesses, some with their wings folded, arrayed on the flight deck.

WWII

The Death of the USS Wasp

By Mason B. Webb

After the debacle at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States realized that it had its hands full. 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

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

WWII

From Around the Network

Visiting Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

Frontiersman Daniel Morgan

Devils in the Forest

The Sites That Bring Petersburg National Battlefield to Life