WWII
Once again, the Japanese regarded an upcoming naval engagement as the “decisive battle,” but it had been two years since her aircraft carriers and battleships had emerged from their Inland Sea lairs to menace the United States Navy. Read more
WWII
The German Luger is, most likely, the most famous pistol in modern warfare. Almost every World War II movie ever made featuring German armed forces seems to show it as an integral part of its action sequences. Read more
WWII
Task force commander Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Hogan, eager to get any advantage over the entrenched enemy of the 12th Infantry Division, requested a section of M2 flamethrowers from the 23rd Engineer Battalion. Read more
WWII
Ensign Kay Kopl Vesole, USNR, did not like being a sitting duck. Normally he would have enjoyed the warm Italian sunshine, but as commander of the Navy Armed Guard aboard the John Bascom, a 7,176-ton Liberty ship, he was not permitted to relax while his ship lay moored in crowded Bari harbor, a small though vital port on the heel of Italy. Read more
WWII
The message was sent to a staff officer for Brig. Gen. Paul Robinett to read, and it made very little sense. Read more
WWII
Mission No. 443, dispatching the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Air Divisions against Nazi-occupied Europe was launched by the U.S. Read more
WWII
Second Lieutenant Erving L. Peterson led a seven-man reconnaissance patrol along the coastal road out ahead of the 158th Infantry’s main column. Read more
WWII
Sometime during the middle of July 1944, a well-meaning war correspondent asked an officer with the Third Marine Division if his men were ready for the landings on Guam. Read more
WWII
After German Chancellor Adolf Hitler had rejected all offers of peace, Prime Minister
Winston Churchill declared in June 1940 that “The Battle of Britain is about to begin.” Read more
WWII
Once, during the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German officer made his way to the attic of 7 Rue des Grands-Augustins, home and studio of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Read more
WWII
Pearl Harbor: Japan’s Greatest Disaster (Mark Stille, Osprey/Bloomsbury Publishing, 368pp., 16-pages b.w photos, appendices, Nov. 4, 2025 $35 HC)
Redemption: MacArthur and the Campaign for the Philippines (Peter R. Read more
WWII
Nestled among patches of dwarf birch trees on the side of a hill gently rising above the dockyard of the Russian Northern Fleet in Severomorsk (formerly known as Vaenga) lies a nondescript cemetery bearing witness to the savage conflict that engulfed the Soviet Union’s northern frontiers during the latter half of 1941. Read more
WWII
Taking a break from intense strategy games, which tend to dominate the World War II gaming landscape, we have something completely different but no less engaging in Blitzkrieg Express. Read more
WWII
Lieutenant Commander Shigeru Itaya eased the throttle lever forward in the cockpit of his Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter as it left the deck of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) carrier Akagi just after 6 a.m. Read more
WWII
The events of early August 1945 brought World War II in the Pacific to an end and ushered in a new era of warfare, one with the potential for apocalyptic annihilation. Read more
WWII
As dawn broke on December 26, 1943, the unmistakable silhouettes of American warships could be easily seen by the Japanese defenders on New Britain Island. Read more
WWII
Early in World War II, the British War Office and the Admiralty were shocked by daring small boat attacks, some of them suicidal, on Allied shipping in the Mediterranean Sea. Read more
WWII
As the winter of 1944-1945 slowly gave way to spring, the combined Allied armies ground their way into Germany. Read more
WWII
The definitive combat unit of comparable strength among the forces of the world during the 20th century was the division. Read more
WWII
Marine aviators of Fighter Squadron 211, or VMF-211, looked up in frustration as Japanese war planes thronged over Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Read more
