WWII Archives

In this painting by John Hamilton, the devastation wrought in Narvik harbor by a marauding British naval squadron is readily apparent.

WWII

The Battles of Narvik & The Norwegian Campaign

by Thomas Haymes

The German mountain troops were dug into their shallow, frozen foxholes waiting for the enemy ski troops to appear across the horizon. Read more

On the coast of Italy, military personnel take time out from their duties at the beach. The water adapted observation plane may have been used for water skiing.

WWII

Uniformed for R&R

Photo Essay by Kevin M. Hymel

For the lucky few that got the opportunity, putting on a bathing suit and hitting the waves or pools was a welcome escape from the war. Read more

In a well known photograph, Hofer is seated in his personal P-51 “Salem Representative” with “Duke” on the wing. Note the British Malcolm hood canopy retrofitted for greater visibility.

WWII

WWII Fighter Aces: Ralph K. ‘Kid’ Hofer

by Paul B. Cora

He could be described as reckless, impulsive, undisciplined, lucky, fearless, and also as one of the most successful fighter pilots in the history of the U.S. Read more

Bloodied but unbowed, a group of wounded Red Army soldiers awaits evacuation after a grueling battle against strong German forces around the Crimean port city of Sevastopol.

WWII

Sturgeon Catch 1942: The Siege of Sevastopol

by Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

By late October 1941, the armies of the Third Reich had swept deep into western Soviet Russia. Read more

WWII

The Invention of Radar vs. The Luftwaffe

By Brooke C. Stoddard

Near the end of World War II, Hitler boasted he was about to unleash Vergeltungswaffen, or “vengeance weapons.” Read more

WWII

Famous Navy Ships: The HMS Electra

By Glenn Barnett

War clouds gathered rapidly once Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Allied demands that Hitler withdraw his armies went unheeded. Read more

WWII

WWII Nazi Spies: ‘Cicero’

by Kelly Bell

On the evening of October 29, 1943, a middle-aged man, innocuous in appearance but for his deep-set, penetrating eyes, appeared at the German embassy in the Turkish capital of Ankara. Read more

Japanese pilots smile as they listen to a comrade recount his experiences of aerial combat over Wake Island.

WWII

Wake Island Survivor

By Eric Niderost

The siege of Wake Island lasted a relatively short time, from December 8 to December 23, 1941, yet it looms large in the annals of the Second World War. Read more

In a wooded area near St. Vith an American soldier takes cover and trains his Thompson submachine gun on an enemy position. Savage fighting has already occurred in the area, as evidenced by the burning vehicle and debris littering the scene.

WWII

Stand at St. Vith

By Charles Whiting

In the early hours of Sunday morning, December 17, 1944, an American brigadier general suffering from piles was heading into the unknown. Read more

Covered with oil and soaking wet, these men head for shore. The Coolidge can be seen in the background (left).

WWII

The Coolidge Goes Down

By Kevin Hymel

It was supposed to be a routine delivery of soldiers to the battlefields of Guadalcanal—but nothing in war is ever routine. Read more

Japanese soldiers, bayonets at the ready, creep forward in their advance on Kohima. The 15th Army was meant to overrun the British supply stations and march into the heart of India.

WWII

Imphal: Battle Royale at the Gateway to India

By John Brown

At the beginning of the battle for Imphal and Kohima, a Japanese Order of the Day instructed the troops: “You will fight to the death. Read more

An R-4 helicopter hovers low over an airfield in Burma during January of 1945. During future wars the helicopter was to become a mainstay of military operations.

WWII

Helicopters in World War II

By Robert F. Dorr

Whirlybird and eggbeater were everyday lingo in 1943 when a few young men went to the Sikorsky factory in Stratford, Conn., Read more

In this painting by artist Nicholas Trudgian, on New Year’s Day 1945, a pair of FW-190s swoop low over an Allied airfield in France as part of a late-war assault plan to cripple Allied air power and help turn the tide of the war in Germany’s favor.

WWII

Death Ride of the Luftwaffe

By David H. Lippman

They were all annoyed. The directive from Jagdkorps (JK) 2 made no sense, but it was clear: all New Year’s Eve parties were cancelled. Read more

WWII

V-E Day: Victory at Last for World War II’s Allies

By Flint Whitlock

Within his reinforced concrete bunker, 50 feet below the garden of the New Reichs Chancellery on Berlin’s Wilhelmstrasse, German dictator Adolf Hitler, his soon-to-be bride Eva Braun, and several hundred friends, SS guards, and staff members could feel the concussion and hear the unending drumroll of thousands of Soviet artillery shells reducing the already-battered capital city of the Third Reich to unrecognizable rubble. Read more

A Coast Guard crewman aboard a landing craft is shown at lower right as his human cargo of combat troops exits toward the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day. This photo was taken while the Americans were under tremendous German fire from the bluffs visible in the distance.

WWII

Omaha Beach H-Hour D-Day June 6, 1944

By Joseph Balkoski

Editor’s Note: The following is excerpted from Omaha Beach: D-Day June 6, 1944 by Joseph Balkoski (Stackpole Books, 2004; www.stackpolebooks.com). Read more

In this romanticized painting by a German war artist, a German E-boat cuts through the waters of the English Channel on patrol against coastal raids launched from Britain.

WWII

The Mystery of Slapton Sands: Operation Tiger

By Charles Whiting

In the early 1970s, a former British Royal Air Force policeman–turned-hairdresser, Ken Small, visited South Devon on England’s Channel coast. Read more

Explosions rock Malta during an enemy air raid. Due to Malta’s location along German and Italian supply routes, its airfields and dockyards were subject to many bombing runs.

WWII

The Siege of Malta in WWII: Holding on to the Island Fortress

By John Brown

When World War II began in September 1939, just nine months before the Siege of Malta, its three small islands in the central Mediterranean were still considered part of the British Commonwealth. Read more

British soldiers put their backs into moving pieces of a Bailey Bridge built on pontoons over the Weser River in Germany, 1945.

WWII

The British Bailey Bridge

By Mike McLaughlin

I was always fascinated by the mastery of water,” Sir Donald Coleman Bailey reflected, long after the end of World War II. Read more

Smoke billows from the German freighter Drachenfels after sustaining damage during a raid by the British.

WWII

The Daring Calcutta Light Horse Raid

By Robert Barr Smith

Freighter Ehrenfels’ siren shrieked through the muggy night across the harbor. As the captain pulled down hard on the alarm cord, the alarm howled out over the steaming darkness, screaming that British raiders were in the harbor, alerting Ehrenfels’ crew and calling for help from ashore. Read more

A pall of black smoke hangs over the shore installations at Rabaul as a B-25 medium bomber streaks above a Japanese merchant ship riding at anchor.

WWII

The Bombing of Rabaul in November 1943

By Sam McGowan

In some historical circles, a mistaken impression has developed that the U.S. Navy’s Task Force 38 launched the aerial offensive on the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul, New Britain, that ultimately rendered the base useless. Read more

WWII

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From Around the Network

Germany’s Versatille 88mm Gun

Operation Aphrodite: Drones versus V2 Rockets

The 17th Indian Division in Burma: Disaster on the Sittang

Surveying the Ground at the Battle of Waterloo