WWII

WWII

Lee Marvin

By Michael D. Hull

Near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and beside the grave of world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis in Arlington National Cemetery is the resting place of a film star who chose to be remembered first and foremost as a U.S. Read more

A squadron of B-25 “Mitchell” medium bombers fly in formation over the Italian countryside. Lieutenant Ben Ernst (inset) of Nashville, Tennessee, joined the Army Air Force for the “glamour,” but was shot down off the coast of Palermo, Sicily, in 1943 and spent 23 months as a prisoner of the Germans.

WWII

Bomber Pilot to Prisoner of War

By Amy Wannemacher

The second World War seems like a long time ago for most of the world, with the harsh realities of blitzkrieg warfare and the Holocaust primarily learned through books and films, possibly a museum. Read more

WWII

Kaiten

By Mark Carlson

For nearly three years World War II in the Pacific surged, raging in a hundred places from the Coral Sea to Guam, from Guadalcanal to Tarawa, and from Wake Island to the Philippines. Read more

WWII

Last Days of PT-34

By John Domagalski

The bleak opening days of World War II in the Pacific found the American territory of the Philippines under attack from the Japanese. Read more

Searchlights pierce the early morning of February 25, 1942, as a Coast Artillery Brigade fires more than 1,400 antiaircraft shells at a rumored Japanese attack on Los Angeles. Coming two days after a Japanese sub shelled an oilfield near Santa Barbara and less than three months after Pearl Harbor, the incident showed the nervous state of the nation.

WWII

Pearl Harbor Jitters

By Frank Johnson

Shortly after noon on Tuesday, December 9, 1941, in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, hostile warplanes were reported 200 miles off the Virginia coast and heading for New York City. Read more

WWII

World War II Book Reviews for Winter 2024

By Christopher Miskimon Full Reviews

To Besiege a City: Leningrad 1941-42 (Prit Buttar, Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2023, 464 pp., maps, photographs, notes, bibliography, index, $40, hardcover)

Death and Life in the Big Red One: A Soldier’s World War II Journey from North Africa to Germany (Joseph P. Read more

After sustaining damage during the Battle of the River Plate, the Graf Spee sought temporary shelter in the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay. Local authorities insisted that the Germans abide by the rules of the Hague Convention but eventually extended the ship’s time in port to 72 hours.

WWII

Troubling History

By Michael Haskew

The pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee was conceived as a commerce raider. Along with the other panzerschiffe, literally “armored ships,” of the Kriegsmarine, Graf Spee was heavily armed with 11-inch main guns. Read more

In this painting by Jack Fellows, P-39s flown by Major George Greene, Jr., (foreground) and “Buzz” Wagner take on Japanese Zeros over the Salamaua Peninsula.

WWII

WWII Planes: The Bell P-39 Airacobra “Peashooter”

by Sam McGowan

If there is an American combat airplane that has achieved an ill-deserved reputation, no doubt it would be the much-maligned Bell P-39 Airacobra, a tricycle landing gear single-engine fighter whose reputation was greatly overshadowed by the more famous, and of more recent design, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, and North American P-51 Mustang. Read more

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    WWII

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    WWII

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