WWII Archives

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

Covered with oil and soaking wet, these men head for shore. The Coolidge can be seen in the background (left).

WWII

The Coolidge Goes Down

By Kevin Hymel

It was supposed to be a routine delivery of soldiers to the battlefields of Guadalcanal—but nothing in war is ever routine. Read more

Japanese soldiers, bayonets at the ready, creep forward in their advance on Kohima. The 15th Army was meant to overrun the British supply stations and march into the heart of India.

WWII

Imphal: Battle Royale at the Gateway to India

By John Brown

At the beginning of the battle for Imphal and Kohima, a Japanese Order of the Day instructed the troops: “You will fight to the death. Read more

An R-4 helicopter hovers low over an airfield in Burma during January of 1945. During future wars the helicopter was to become a mainstay of military operations.

WWII

Helicopters in World War II

By Robert F. Dorr

Whirlybird and eggbeater were everyday lingo in 1943 when a few young men went to the Sikorsky factory in Stratford, Conn., Read more

In this painting by artist Nicholas Trudgian, on New Year’s Day 1945, a pair of FW-190s swoop low over an Allied airfield in France as part of a late-war assault plan to cripple Allied air power and help turn the tide of the war in Germany’s favor.

WWII

Death Ride of the Luftwaffe

By David H. Lippman

They were all annoyed. The directive from Jagdkorps (JK) 2 made no sense, but it was clear: all New Year’s Eve parties were cancelled. Read more

WWII

The Battle of Trenton

By Vince Hawkins

By the winter of 1776, the struggle for American independence had reached its lowest point. In June of that year General George Washington’s Continental Army had stood at nearly 20,000 strong. Read more

WWII

Kurt “Panzer” Meyer was known as the fighting general of the Waffen SS.

By Richard Rule

Kurt Meyer was without doubt one of the most outstanding and highly decorated Waffen SS officers of World War II. Read more

Working quickly, a duo of sniper-wary German combat engineers lay communications wire at the front.

WWII

Narva: The Battle of Nations

By Pat McTaggart

In the latter half of 1943, the German Wehrmacht had seen disaster follow disaster on the Eastern Front. Read more

WWII

V-E Day: Victory at Last for World War II’s Allies

By Flint Whitlock

Within his reinforced concrete bunker, 50 feet below the garden of the New Reichs Chancellery on Berlin’s Wilhelmstrasse, German dictator Adolf Hitler, his soon-to-be bride Eva Braun, and several hundred friends, SS guards, and staff members could feel the concussion and hear the unending drumroll of thousands of Soviet artillery shells reducing the already-battered capital city of the Third Reich to unrecognizable rubble. Read more

WWII

From Around the Network

Battle Against an Ally

Roger Sauvage & Normandie Niemen

Blood on the Cross

The Dahlgren Affair: Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid on Richmond