WWII

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was a heavy aircraft powered by a large radial engine. It was capable of absorbing severe punishment and bringing its pilot home.

WWII

The Famed Jug

By Michael D. Hull

Losses were high and morale low when the U.S. Eighth Air Force intensified its heavy bomber missions over Nazi-occupied Europe in late 1942. Read more

Fey von Hassell smiles faintly for the camera at her estate, Brazza, in the summer of 1944. Fey is accompanied by a pair of German officers, who were apparently assisting with the children in preparation for relocation.

WWII

Incredible Wartime Odyssey

By Kelly Bell

By the spring of 1943 the situation for Nazi Germany was becoming grave as military reverses in Russia and Africa sent the formerly unstoppable Wehrmacht reeling. Read more

A Curtiss SOC-3 Seagull careens from the catapult aboard the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans in 1943. The Seagull was replaced by the Vought OS2U Kingfisher as the war progressed.

WWII

Heroic Sacrifice Over Sicily

By Patrick J. Chaisson

A thousand questions flashed through Lieutenant Cy Lewis’s mind as he spotted the pair of German Messerschmitt Me-109 fighters banking in to attack him. Read more

Weary GIs move inland after landing in Sicily in July 1943 in this contemporary painting, Red Beach at Gela, 1700, by Mitchell Jamieson.

WWII

The Big Red One in World War II

By Steven Weingartner

The outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939, found the United States in an isolationist mood that precluded, for the time being, any direct involvement in the conflict. Read more

Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers run the gauntlet of enemy antiaircraft fire and fighters to bomb the oil refineries and other facilities at Ploesti, Romania, on August 1, 1943.

WWII

The Return of Hadley’s Harem

By Duane Schultz

First Lieutenant Gilbert B. Hadley—he liked to be called “Gib”—was buried back home in Kansas in 1997, some 54 years after he was killed in action on August 1, 1943. Read more

WWII

Suppressing the E-boats

By Phil Zimmer

A wily British scientist, a secret weapon, and a daring daytime Bombing raid helped break the back of the deadly German E-boat attacks on the Allied ships that supported the early D-Day landings at Normandy. Read more

Japanese tanks advance across a bridge toward the town of Johor Bahru during their lightning conquest of the Malay Peninsula. This photo was taken in late January 1942, and within weeks the British bastion of Singapore had fallen to the invaders.

WWII

Yamashita’s Bluff Takes Singapore

By Jon Diamond

Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto was not the only gambler in Imperial Japan’s military hierarchy. Lt. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, appointed commander of the Imperial Japanese Army’s (IJA) 25th Army on November 2, 1941, to lead the invasion of Malaya and Singapore, also took risks to capture the prized British territory in less than 100 days after his invasion commenced on December 8. Read more

An artist’s depiction of the USS Indianapolis disaster. The cruiser, with nearly 1,200 men aboard, sank within 12 minutes of being torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58 on July 30, 1945; only 316 men survived after several days in the shark-infested waters. (Painting by maritime artist Chris Mayger)

WWII

A Survivor’s Tale

By Flint Whitlock

The mission was top secret. The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35) had just delivered the last parts of the atomic bomb from California to the island of Tinian and was heading, unescorted, to Guam when it was intercepted by a Japanese submarine, the I-58, and torpedoed on July 30, 1945. Read more

Searchlights stab into the darkness as Royal Navy warships illuminate Italian cruisers during the Battle of Cape Matapan. Prince Philip served aboard the battleship HMS Valiant during the decisive naval victory over Mussolini’s fleet.

WWII

Prince Philip’s War

By Michael E. Haskew

The son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, Prince Philip was the last of five children and a great-great grandchild of Queen Victoria. Read more

Trailing a tank destroyer down a road, an American soldier raises his M-1 rifle to fire at a German sniper. These soldiers are en route to the Seine River bridge north of Fontainebleau.

WWII

Breakout Across the Seine

By Arnold Blumberg

On August 14, 1944, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., paused after his daily staff conference to offer a short speech about the accomplishments of his Third Army. Read more

A Marine Raider machine-gun crew uses palm fronds to camouflage its position during intense training prior to the Makin Raid. The Marines fought heroically against a stout Japanese garrison on the atoll and withdrew after controversially considering surrender to the enemy.

WWII

Raid on Makin

By David H. Lippman

In the darkness, the two American submarines moved toward the hostile beach, inching carefully through badly marked waters. Read more

WWII

Axis Collapse in Normandy

By Robert L. Durham

German panzergrenadiers surrounded Hill 314 just east of Mortain in Normandy on August 7, 1944, trapping several companies of the 2nd Battalion of the U.S. Read more

In this detailed painting by artist Rick Reeves titled Avengers of Bataan, soldiers of the U.S. 38th Infantry Division advance toward Japanese positions while under heavy fire during the bloody battle for Zig Zag Pass.

WWII

Back to Bataan

By Nathan N. Prefer

Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese caught the United States Army Air Forces units in the Philippines on the ground late on December 8. Read more

WWII

The Battle of Iwo Jima: Red Sun, Black Sand

By John Walker

No foreign army in the 5,000-year history of Japan had ever successfully conquered Japanese territory. In late 1944, American war planners were about to challenge that statistic on the tiny Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Read more

A German tank commander peers from the turret of a formidable PzKpfw. I Tiger tank somewhere in Russia. The great tank battle at Kursk was a significant defeat for the German Army on the Eastern Front, and one of Hitler's favorite commanders, General Walter Model, failed him at a critical time during the action.

WWII

Model’s Failure in Command

By Pat McTaggart

Colonel General Walter Model was a rising star in the German ArFmy in early 1943. The son of a music teacher, Model was born on January 24, 1891, in Genthin, Saxony-Anhalt. Read more

An abandoned German weapons carrier lies smashed along a roadside as soldiers of the British Eighth Army search for German snipers in Acquino on May 27, 1944.

WWII

Eternal City Liberated

By Michael E. Haskew

Italy was unforgiving. German resistance to Allied operations had been brutal since the Salerno landings in the autumn of 1943, and by the following spring frustration had mounted upon frustration. Read more

From Around the Network

  • Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest rose from the ranks to become a daring and audacious cavalry commander during the American Civil War.

    Civil War

    Legendary Cavalry Commander Nathan Bedford Forrest
    Read More

  • Latest Posts

    From D-Day to VE-Day in a C-47
    Read More
  • Its destroyers and other warships being too large, the U.S. Navy developed the Swift Boat to patrol coastal areas and rivers during the Vietnam War.

    Military History

    The Vietnam War: The Swift Boat vs. the Destroyer
    Read More
  • Approximately 80 miles north of Lashio, Burma, American infantrymen engage Japanese troops in a fight for control of a section of the Old Burma Road. The overland link was a vital supply connection for Allied troops fighting in the China-Burma-India Theater.

    WWII

    Yankee Guerrillas in Burma: The Story of OSS Detachment 101
    Read More