WWII Archives

The battered entrance to Fort Driant after its capture.

WWII

Patton’s Lost Battle

By Duane E. Shaffer

The road to Fort Driant began for the United States Third Army when it landed on Utah Beach at 3 pm on August 5, 1944. Read more

Newly liberated Polish prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp at Hanover-Ahlem queue up to receive rations of soup from American soldiers.

WWII

Henry Kissinger’s World War II

By Tim Miller

In November 1944, a young American soldier wrote back to his parents in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Read more

Smoke and flames billow from the stricken battleship USS West Virginia in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

WWII

Caught in the War

By Jim Campbell

Because it was such a long and cataclysmic event, World War II still resonates with so many of us. Read more

WWII

Filling the Black Hole

By Michael D. Hull

A generally overlooked factor of World War II has been the influence, sometimes highly significant, of nations that remained neutral. Read more

The Tirpitz fires her 15-inch main guns in the Baltic Sea in 1941. The British Royal Navy saw the huge battle-ship as a threat to merchant vessels and troop convoys bound for the British Isles.

WWII

Saga of the Tirpitz

By Blaine Taylor

April 1, 1939, was a red-letter day in the history of the reborn German Kriegsmarine for two key reasons. Read more

An American officer interrogates two recently captured German soldiers somewhere in France.

WWII

A German-American Teen With a Flair for Psychology

By Phil Zimmer

Stephan H. Lewy was young, militarily inexperienced, and A Most unlikely American soldier. Yet when he reached Utah Beach 30 days after D-Day, he was all business as a staff sergeant in U.S. Read more

A column of Waffen SS soldiers slogs through snow during the Operation Spring Awakening advance in Hungary. The German offensive was hampered by snow, rain, and deep mud, which bogged down tanks and other vehicles, requiring foot soldiers to undertake much of the fighting with limited mechanized support.

WWII

Desperate Offensive for Oil

By Martin Dougherty

The winter of 1944-45 saw Nazi Germany in a grim position. The Allies were well established in Europe and advancing quickly. Read more

WWII

Two Battles at Singapore’s Bukit Timah

By Jon Diamond

Today, Bukit Timah, meaning “Tin Hill” in Malay, is a residential and business neighborhood in the center of the island of Singapore approximately seven and one-half miles northwest of Singapore City. Read more

WWII

Eisenhower to the Front

By Kevin M. Hymel

General Dwight D. Eisenhower enjoyed visiting troops in the field. After the Battle of Normandy and the race across France, the Supreme Allied Commander toured the front in mid-November, 1944. Read more

Showing a pronounced list to starboard, the Coolidge progressively settles underwater in the harbor of Espiritu Santo in October 1942. Troops in the foreground wade to shore in shallow water close to the beach.

WWII

The Sinking of SS President Coolidge

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Ensign Doran S. Weinstein, a U.S. Navy communications officer, stationed himself outside the bridge of a troop transport named SS President Coolidge as it approached the South Pacific island of Espiritu Santo on Monday morning, October 26, 1942. Read more

WWII

Merian Cooper: A Man of Adventure

By Sam McGowan

On March 2, 1933, only a few weeks after the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt as President of the United States, the most spectacular event in the entertainment world premiered in New York. Read more

In this painting by Marine Corps artist John McDermott, a pair of flamethrowing tanks belch fire into a narrow ravine where Japanese troops have taken cover, while Marines move up warily, crouching behind the steel hulls of the armored vehicles. The Marines invaded Peleliu, in the Palaus Island Group, on September 15, 1944.

WWII

Terrible Trial on Peleliu

By Michael E. Haskew

It was a bold prediction. “Rough but fast … We’ll be through in three days. It might only take two.” Read more

Two Marines of the 2nd Division operate a radio on the embattled islet of Betio during the assault on Tarawa Atoll in November 1942.

WWII

Tarawa Radio Failure

By Peter McQuarrie

At dawn on November 20, 1943, U.S. Marines unleashed their first amphibious attack in the Central Pacific Theater. Read more

WWII

Rise of the U.S. Army

By Allyn Vannoy

Winston Churchill described the U.S. Army during the war years as a “prodigy of organization … an achievement which soldiers of every other country will always study with admiration and envy.” Read more

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel visits with troops of the Africa Korps while inspecting positions in the Tobruk fortress belt. Rommel is aboard his light-infantry command vehicle SdKfz. 250/3 ‘Greif.’ The vehicle is equipped with radio-communications gear; note the antenna apparatus atop the open personnel area.

WWII

Clash of Armor at Gazala

By Eric Niderost

Generaloberst Erwin Rommel, commander of the Panzerarmee Afrika, was in his element, riding in an armored car at top speed through the desiccated plains of the Libyan desert. Read more

Marine ace Jim Swett is shown downing his seventh Japanese plane on April 7, 1943 in a painting by Roy Grinnell.

WWII

America’s Few

By Christopher Miskimon

As Jim Swett guided his Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter to a landing at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, he looked forward to getting some rest. Read more

During the epic Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War, Ensign Yamamoto served aboard the Japanese cruiser Nisshin. He lost two fingers from his left hand during the great victory and was wounded in the leg.

WWII

Admiral Yamamoto and the Path to War

By Nathan N. Prefer

For many Americans in late 1941 and early 1942, he was the most hated—and feared—man in the world. Read more

Fire streams from an engine and wing of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber as a rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me-163 fighter aircraft streaks past. Painting by artist Jack Fellows.

WWII

Me-163: The Devil’s Broomstick

By David H. Lippman

The Germans called it the “Komet” and the “Devil’s Broomstick,” for the incredible speed with which it reached its altitude of 30,000 feet, achieving 0.84 Mach while doing so. Read more

WWII

Capturing Hitler

By Richard Baker

When a friend from Wolsey, South Dakota, asked Alven Baker why he was joining the army in 1941 and not another branch of the service, he replied, “To capture Adolf Hitler.” Read more

Soldiers of the 290th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division march through a Belgian woods during the Battle of the Bulge. It was in a forest like this that Staff Sergeant Darrell Bush tried to carry a fellow scout off the battlefield until he took a bullet from Germans firing down from the trees.

WWII

Infantryman in Bastogne

By Kevin M. Hymel

Staff Sergeant Darrell Bush had just carried a wounded soldier on his back to the rear when five enemy bullets seemed to hit him simultaneously. Read more

WWII

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