WWII Archives

WWII

Iron Annie: The Junkers Ju-52

By William E. Welsh

Shortly before dawn on May 20, 1941, a flight of 500 transport planes took off from seven airstrips on mainland Greece. Read more

A Polish tank commander salutes as his unit passes in review during a ceremony in Scotland prior to deployment to Normandy. Polish units made a significant contribution to the Allied offensive in Western Europe. (National Archives)

WWII

Poles in the West: Fighting in the Falaise Pocket

By Major General Michael Reynolds

The dismemberment of Poland by the German and Soviet armies in September and early October 1939 saw the temporary destruction of the Polish armed forces. Read more

Soldiers drive jeeps onto waiting LCTs at a British port in preparation for the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944.

WWII

The D-Day Invasion: The Road to Operation Overlord

By Michael D. Hull

Soon after the tattered British Expeditionary Force was miraculously rescued from Dunkirk in June 1940, planners at the War Office in London began dreaming of returning to the German-occupied European continent. Read more

WWII

Was It Right to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima & Nagasaki?

By Sam McGowan

The most controversial decision of the 20th century—probably in all of history—was the one reportedly made by President Harry S. Read more

Marching along on the Eastern Front at the head of his men, SS officer Leon Degrelle was a foreign-born politician who became a decorated military leader and saw extensive combat with German forces in World War II.

WWII

Was Leon Degrelle a Traitor of Belgium, or a German Army Hero?

By Richard Rule

Leon Degrelle was born in 1906 in Belgium to a prosperous family in the French-speaking region of Wallonia. Read more

WWII

Adolf Hitler’s Elite Bodyguard at Mortain

By Major General Michael Reynolds

By the morning of July 27, 1944, General Omar Bradley’s First U.S. Army had won the “Battle of the Hedgerows” in Normandy and stood ready to break out to the south. Read more

Shown rolling along a dirt road in northwest Europe on November 29, 1944, a captured German Panther tank is in use by the British 4th Coldstream Guards, 6th Guards Tank Brigade. (Imperial War Museum)

WWII

How the Allies Used Captured German Tanks and Vehicles

By Christopher Miskimon

Geijsteren Castle sits north of the Dutch town of Venlo on the banks of the Meuse River. In late 1944, the castle was a strongpoint in the local German defenses and under attack by elements of the British Sixth Guards Tank Brigade. Read more

With infantry charging alongside, a motorcycle unit of the Red Army roars into action against German positions in July 1942. The submachine gun appears to be the weapon of choice for these soldiers.

WWII

Leningrad & Tikhvin: Nazi Winter Repulse During Operation Barbarossa

By Pat Mc Taggart

The men of Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb’s Heeresgruppe Nord (Army Group North) had little sleep during the night of June 21, 1941. Read more

On January 21, 1945, soldiers of the U.S. 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division move cautiously through the town of Moesdorf, Luxembourg. (All photos: National Archives)

WWII

Ernest Hemingway and the Ivy Leaguers in World War II

By Charles Whiting

During the second week of July 1944 a young, sharp Lieutenant Goldstein of the 4th Infantry Division’s 22nd Infantry Regiment was told by his boss, Colonel Buck Lanhan, “Expect a special civilian, a big war correspondent is coming to visit us. Read more

WWII

The Garand ‘Ping’

By John Brylor

An iconic infantry weapon of World War II, the M-1 Garand rifle developed a reputation for placing substantial firepower in the hands of a single soldier. Read more

The Duke of Windsor, fourth from right, accompanies the Viscount Gort and a contingent of British Army officers during an inspection of troops in France early in World War II.

WWII

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor: A Dark Royal Secret?

By Peter Kross

One of the most interesting yet little known aspects of World War II was the role played by the Duke of Windsor, previously King Edward VIII of England, and his covert relationship with Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Read more

To the Attack by U.S. Coast Guard Chief Boatswain's Mate and combat artist Tore Asplund depicts American soldiers hitting the beach as part of Operation Dragoon in southern France on August 15, 1944. Asplund also painted images of the D-Day invasion at Normandy.

WWII

The Assault on Pillbox Hill

By Daniel R. Champagne

Staff Sergeant Audie Murphy advanced inland from the beaches of southern France with his rifle platoon until, near the small town of Ramatuelle, intense machine-gun and small-arms fire from a boulder covered hill forced them to hit the dirt. Read more

Consolidated B-32 bombers line the floor at an assembly line in Fort Worth, Texas. This photo was taken in 1944 as the Dominator was beginning to hit stride in production.

WWII

The B-32 Dominator

By John E. Spindler

Sergeant Anthony Marchione, an aerial photographer, felt vulnerable as the Japanese fired on the aircraft he was aboard for this August 18, 1945 sortie. Read more

While a German naval officer stands on deck, the guns of the old battleship Schleswig-Holstein fire on the Polish ammunition depot on the Westerplatte near the free city of Danzig during the opening hours of World War II, September 1, 1939.

WWII

Opening Battle of World War II

By Peter Zablocki

The fog that descended over the Westerplatte peninsula in the Bay of the Free City of Danzig, Poland, on August 31, 1939, refused to lift as if trying to stop the night from making way for a new day. Read more

WWII

14 World War II Book Reviews for Summer 2025

By Christopher Miskimon Full Reviews

Leyte Gulf: A New History of the World’s Largest Sea Battle (Mark Stille, Osprey Books, Oxford UK, 2025, 320 pp., Read more

WWII

Italian Convoy Intercepted

By Glenn Barnett

By April 1941, Great Britain had been at war for 19 months. Although nurtured and nourished by her empire, she took all the body blows from an increasingly vicious enemy. Read more

WWII

Vera Lynn

By Alan Davidge

Another concert in a hospital ward for more British soldiers–this time for wounded from the front line near Kohima, brought down to Dimapur for treatment. Read more

WWII

Daylight Mission to Bremen

By Joseph M. Horodyski

The average American airman in World War II faced some tough challenges. Products of the Great Depression, roughly 50 percent of those who fought the war came from rural America. Read more

WWII

Operation Nordwind: The Last Offensive

By David H. Lippman

Snow and biting cold covered American foxholes in the Vosges and the Alsace plain as GI wristwatches ticked down the last hours of December 31, 1944, awaiting the German attack. Read more

WWII

Marine Lieutenant George Cannon

By Edward F. Murphy

Marine Lieutenant George Cannon flinched instinctively as a barrage of shells erupted short of the sandy beach with a violent roar, sending columns of water and sand soaring into the air. Read more

WWII

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