WWII Archives

General George S. Patton Jr., left, assigned command of the fictitious First U.S. Army Group, jokes with Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery. Montgomery would command the D-Day ground forces.

WWII

Operation Fortitude: The Great Deception

by Brent Douglas Dyck

The Allied invasion of Normandy in France on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, was the largest amphibious operation in modern history. Read more

In the autumn of 1944, Japanese soldiers and troops of the anti-British Indian Liberation Army launch an attack in Burma. Allied forces suffered stinging defeats in the China-Burma-India Theater (CBI) but eventually turned the tide despite disagreements between senior commanders General Joseph Stilwell and Field Marshal Archibald Wavell.

WWII

Stilwell Versus Wavell in the CBI Theater

By Jon Diamond

The initial command structure in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater of World War II produced a sharp contrast and clash of wills between two of the principal Allied leaders: British Field Marshal Archibald Wavell, and his American counterpart, Lieutenant General Joseph W. Read more

Italian tanks advance through Karrin Pass in British Somaliland during their offensive of 1940. Although the Italians were initially victorious, their occupation collapsed following a British counteroffensive launched later in the year.

WWII

Italy’s Short-lived Success in Somaliland

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

ONE of World War II’s least known campaigns was fought over one of the most desolate places on earth. Read more

British soldiers hoist a lightweight, inflatable dummy Sherman tank. Soldiers in the U.S. Army’s top-secret “23rd Headquarters Special Troops” unit, also known as the “Ghost Army,” were detailed to deceive the Germans about Allied troop build-ups and positioning and draw the enemy away from the actual Allied intentions.

WWII

Deception in WWII

by Mason B. Webb

For Operation Neptune/Overlord, the Allies had 6,939 naval vessels, 11,590 aircraft, and 156,000 infantrymen and airborne soldiers (both parachute and glider) ready to participate in the D-Day invasion of northern France on June 6, 1944. Read more

WWII

Commemorating the End of the World’s Worst War

By Flint Whitlock

It is an intriguing truism of history that those who start wars inevitably end up losing them. A few examples spring to mind: Napoleon vs. Read more

Gudrun Himmler with her father Heinrich at a Nazi sports festival, 1938.

WWII

Death of a Nazi Princess

It seems that every month there is a news item that relates to World War II. Here’s one you may have missed:

Gudrun Margarete Elfriede Emma Anna Himmler Burwitz, the true-believing daughter of Heinrich Himmler, head of the dreaded SS and one of Adolf Hitler’s closest henchmen, died in or near Munich last year. Read more

WWII

Ten Interesting World War II Facts

1. The first American serviceman killed in World War II was Captain Robert M. Losey from Andrew, Iowa. He was serving as a military attaché and was killed in Norway on April 21, 1940, when German aircraft bombed the Dombås railway station where he and others were awaiting transportation. Read more

WWII

The Blunder of Barbarossa

By Michael D. Hull

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

A group of Japanese Americans who have renounced their U.S. citizenship and expressed a desire to return to Japan are in custody of law enforcement officers at the Tule Lake relocation camp. These men were en route to the Santa Fe internment camp, where nationals of Axis countries were held during the war.

WWII

Detention In Wartime

By Gene Eric Salecker

After the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, many Americans in authority began to fear the large number of people of Japanese ancestry living along the West Coast of the United States, thinking that some of them might have sympathies for Japan and might assist in a possible invasion or sabotage American efforts to resist such an invasion. Read more

A German tanker stands on the Russian steppe near Voronezh after emerging from the turret of his PzKpfw. III tank. In the summer of 1942, Hitler mounted an armored thrust to the south along the Eastern Front, and it led to ruin.

WWII

Derailing Case Blue

By Pat McTaggart

After the brutal defensive fighting during the winter of 1941-1942, Adolf Hitler was ready for another round with the Russians. Read more

WWII

The Bold Bull of Scapa Flow

By Phil Zimmer

Late on the night of Friday, October 13, 1939, Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien surfaced his 218-foot-long submarine, U-47, and guided it through the protected, shallow, narrow channel at Kirk Sound. Read more

WWII

Mussolini’s Fall from Power

By Blaine Taylor

At 10:30 on the night of May 9, 1936, as 400,000 people stood crowded together on Rome’s Palazzo Venezia underneath the most famous balcony in the world, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, 52, the leader of the country’s ruling Fascist Party, strode forward and began to speak to the silent masses below him. Read more

German Ambassador to Turkey Franz von Papen stands at far left, near Adolf Hitler, prior to a Nazi rally before the outbreak of World War II. At right is Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels.

WWII

The Vermehren Betrayal

By Tim Miller

After the long journey from Germany to Istanbul, their escape to North Africa and finally to England, the two defectors ended up in an apartment in South Kensington, one of the more wealthy neighborhoods of London. Read more

WWII

Ireland’s Quixotic Neutrality

By Robert E. Cray

Ireland’s refusal to take part in World War II agitated Winston Churchill during the war’s first months. Read more

WWII

A Time of Unreasoning Hatred

By Eric Niderost

On February 28, 1942, Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr of Colorado received a telegram from the White House. At that moment he was in his office, surrounded by staff, but routine business had to be put on hold while Carr quickly scanned the missive that came directly from the president of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt. Read more

WWII

The Brandenburgers: Seeing Without Being Seen

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

It was in the early hours of the German invasion of Holland, May 10, 1940, and a Wehrmacht doctor was tending to a soldier wounded during the capture of the key Gennep border bridge. Read more

WWII

Hitler’s Masters of Murder

By Mark Simner

“I must tell you something…. I took part in a mass killing the day before yesterday.

[When we shot the Jews brought by] the first truck, my hand trembled somewhat during the shooting, but one gets used to it. Read more

WWII

Standing on Hallowed Ground, 75 Years Later

This past June I once again had the honor of guiding a group of 30 Smithsonian guests to the hallowed ground of Normandy, France, to visit the sites. Read more

WWII

Holding Hosingen At All Costs

By Alice Flynn

Ordered to “hold at all costs,” 300 American soldiers defended the small Luxembourg town of Hosingen during the first three days of the Battle of the Bulge. Read more