WWII

WWII

A Luftwaffe Ace’s Joy-Ride in a Spitfire

When Hugo Broch flew his fighter for the Luftwaffe, he probably didn’t imagine he would ever find himself in the cockpit of a Supermarine Spitfire. Read more

WWII

Hitler’s Religion: Was Hitler an Atheist, Christian, or Something Else?

Guest Post By History on the Net

No matter how little you know about history, you know something about Adolf Hitler. Read more

WWII

FOUND! The Largest Nazi Cache in Argentina’s History

Enter into this suburban home outside Buenos Aires and you perhaps wouldn’t imagine it held the largest cache of Nazi artifacts in Argentinian history. Read more

WWII

A Screaming Eagle’s Journey: The Story of Lud Labutka

In an effort to calm his nerves just before he jumped into Normandy on D-Day, Lud Labutka thought it might be a good idea to accept the drink being offered from the paratrooper sitting across from him on their C-47 transport as it crossed the English Channel. Read more

WWII

The USS Ling: its History, Legacy, and Modern Problems

A New York Times article revealed the sorry state of a historic World War II submarine stuck in the Hackensack River. Read more

WWII

A Soviet Red Army Victory at Vienna

In mid-March 1945, the Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Red Army launched a major offensive with the aim of clearing Axis forces out of Hungary and forcing them back to the very borders of Hitler’s Greater German Reich. Read more

WWII

The Allies’ Biggest Blunder?

Before World War II, the Belgian port city of Antwerp was one of the world’s great ports, ranking with those of Hamburg, Rotterdam, and New York. Read more

WWII

19 Hours in Kamikaze Hell

They knew they were coming. They had been waiting for days, expecting at any minute to be rushed to battle stations, but for days nothing much had happened. Read more

WWII

The Real English Patient Behind the Ralph Fiennes Film

On the morning of May 15, 1942, a strange motorcade rolled out of Campo Four, located 170 hot, dusty miles south of the Italian base at Jalo oasis in northeast Libya. Read more

WWII

The Band of Brothers: A Company to Remember

Something about the series Band of Brothers struck a chord with television viewers all over the world. Read more

WWII

On a Wing and Several Prayers: The Story of a B-17 Tailgunner

On August 25, 1944, Larry Stevens and the rest of his Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber crew completed their 35th mission over Nazi-occupied Europe. Read more

WWII

Fiery Fight for a Frozen Hell: Battle of the Bulge in Luxembourg

Described in one U.S. Army report as “the quiet paradise for weary troops,” the tiny nation of Luxembourg was viewed by American commanders in late 1944 much like Belgium—liberated, safe, and an ideal location for combat-worn troops to rest and for untested replacements to get exposed to outdoor living and military routine before being exposed to combat. Read more

WWII

La Gleize Battle of the Bulge Museum

There is no shortage of museums in the Belgian Ardennes to record the region’s dark winter of World War II. Read more

WWII

Remembering a Day of Remembrance

This year, as I have done almost every year for the past 30 years, I took part in the Memorial Day ceremony at the 10th Mountain Division War Memorial near the division’s former training area high up in the Colorado Rockies. Read more

WWII

75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway

Seventy-five years ago this month, the pivotal battle of World War II in the Pacific occurred in the waters surrounding an otherwise obscure atoll, Midway, roughly 1,300 miles from Pearl Harbor, where American involvement in the conflict had begun so suddenly just six months earlier. Read more

WWII

Polish Cavalry Myth Debunked: CNBC vs the Polish Embassy

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money show, made a mistake on May 11th when he jokingly parroted a common misconception about the German invasion of Poland. Read more

WWII

The Lions of Carentan Part III: Operation Cobra

Background: In this, the third and final installment of a three-part series excerpted from The Lions of Carentan, the 2011 book by a respected German military historian, Fallschirmjäger Regiment 6 (FJR 6) has been pushed out of Ste.-Mère-église, Read more

WWII

The Lions of Carentan Part II: Defending Carentan

Background: Fallschirmjäger Regiment 6, under the command of Major Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte, had the fortune (or misfortune) to be stationed in Normandy at the time of the Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944. Read more

WWII

The Lions of Carentan Part I: Paratrooper vs Paratrooper on D-Day

Background: Fallschirmjäger Regiment 6 was organized in February 1943, under the command of Major Egon Liebach. It was part of the 2nd Fallschirmjäger Division and was stationed in France, where it trained in parachute and glider operations. Read more

WWII

Michael Wittmann: How the Legendary Panzer Ace Died in World War II

During the late morning of August 8, 1944, the day famed tank commander Michael Wittmann would meet his end in combat, German SS-Oberführer (Colonel) Kurt “Panzer” Meyer sat in his staff car as his driver made his way toward the town of Cintheaux, France, near the front lines. Read more