WWII Archives

B-17 tail gunner Ken Tucker thought his crew's luck had run out on a raid over Germany—just as flak had ripped into the wing of this Flying Fortress over Vienna in February 1945. But he managed to complete 35 missions with only one wound.

WWII

Diary of a B-17 Tail Gunner

By Allyn Vannoy

Just after releasing their bomb-load, flak slammed into the B-17, causing it to go out of control, falling fast. Read more

After having failed to conquer his long-time rival Greece, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini asked Axis partner Adolf Hitler for help. Here, German soldiers raise the German war banner atop the Acropolis in Athens after forcing the Greeks to surrender on April 27, 1941. Terrible atrocities by the Germans against the Greek populace followed.

WWII

The Greek Holocaust

By Nathan N. Prefer

In late 1940 and early 1941, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was concentrating on his next great conquest, the Soviet Union. Read more

WWII

Luftwaffe Attacks Civilian DC-3

On the morning of June 1, 1943, the Douglas DC-3 lifted off from the airport at Lisbon in neutral Portugal. BOAC Flight 777 or Dutch KLM Flight 2L272, as it had been designated, carried 13 passengers and its crew on a flight bound for London. Read more

A U.S. PT boat goes up against a fleet of Japanese ships in the night action called the Battle of Surigao Strait. The Japanese ships were bent on destroying American forces assembled in the Philippines’ Leyte Gulf.

WWII

The Battle of Leyte Gulf: Oldendorf’s Textbook “Crossing the T”

By Donald J. Roberts II & Lawrence C. Schneider

In 1944, following the American victories in the South Pacific of operational commanders General Douglas MacArthur in western New Guinea and Admiral Chester Nimitz in the Marianas, American planners considered the next offensive against Japan’s empire. Read more

As Allied troops attempt to slowly break out of the hedgerow country of France, several maintain watch over a defensive position, while another catches a few winks of sleep. Painting by Olin Davis.

WWII

Thomas D. Howie: The Major of St. Lô

By Stan Federman

In the late afternoon of July 18, 1944, in what was left of the main square of battle-scarred St. Read more

A procession of fatigued soldiers, refugees, trucks, and ambulances snakes its way along a muddy war-torn Italian hillside in this painting by Harry Davis.

WWII

My Battle Up the Boot: Paul McNelis in the Italian Campaign

By Richard A. Beranty

The U.S. 85th Infantry Division was one of the Allied workhorses in Italy during World War II. Read more

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

WWII

Breaking out of Hell: The Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket

By Ludwig H. Dyck

On January 26, 1944, in the midst of the Ukrainian winter, the tanks of Gen. Ivan S. 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

Despite its tragic end, the USS Tang officially sank 31 vessels for a combined total of 227,800 tons.

WWII

Famous Navy Ships: The USS Tang

By Flint Whitlock

During World War II, the United States employed 288 submarines, the vast majority of which raided Japanese shipping in the Pacific, thus preventing the enemy’s vital supplies and reinforcements from reaching the far-flung island battlefields. 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

“Mad” Mike Calvert, left, Lt. Col. Shaw, and Major James Rutherford, right, with 77 Brigade in a Burmese village.

WWII

“Mad” Mike Calvert: A British Legend in Burma

By Colonel Robert Barr Smith

The English officer studied the Burmese river and its surroundings. The area seemed quiet, for the moment peaceful. Read more

Cronkite and General Eisenhower tour German bunkers in Normandy after the war.

WWII

Walter Cronkite: The War As He Saw It

by Eric Niderost

Walter Cronkite is the acknowledged dean of American journalists, an icon whose distinguished career spanned 60 years. Cronkite is best known as the anchorman and managing editor of The CBS Evening News, a position he occupied from 1962 to 1981. Read more

WWII

OSS Spymaster Allen Dulles

By Peter Kross

During World War II, Switzerland was one of the few neutral countries to survive unscathed amid the death and destruction that was being heaped upon the rest of Europe. 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

WWII

U.S. Navy Captain Forrest Biard

By Hervie Haufler

“For several months after the outbreak of the war with Japan the very fate of our nation rested in the hands of a small group of very dedicated and highly devoted men working in the basement under the Administration Building in Pearl Harbor.” Read more

WWII

From Around the Network

George C. Marshall: The Indispensable Man

The Fall of Malaya: Japanese Blitzkrieg on Singapore

Why Kaiser Wilhelm II Almost Attacked America’s East Coast

Russia’s Conquest of Siberia