WWII

American soldiers ford one of Guadalcanal’s numerous streams in Action on the River by Dwight Shepler. In the Solomons, U.S. troops battled both a determined enemy in the Japanese and the harsh tropical climate of the South Pacific. Guadalcanal was the first offensive land operation undertaken by American forces in the Pacific Theater. The island was secured after seven months of fighting.

WWII

The Ill-Fated Goettge Patrol

By John Wukovits

The summer of 1942 had brought uplifting news for the United States in the Pacific Theater. After a numbing series of setbacks, including the December 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent fall of Guam and the Philippines, the nation’s Navy had husbanded its depleted forces and, with the crucial aid of naval intelligence, halted the Japanese in the May 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea and the June Battle of Midway. Read more

WWII

Dealers of Death

By Christopher Miskimon

Lyudmila Pavlichenko had not moved for more than 24 hours. She was a small, stout 25-year-old woman able to crawl on her belly for hours at a time. Read more

WWII

Redemption at Hill 609

The inexperienced U.S. Army matured rapidly during the fighting in North Africa. There was no other choice. Its British allies had been immersed in World War II since 1939 and gained a hardened edge. Read more

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Ralph Bard boards the wreck of USS Oklahoma (BB-37), at Pearl Harbor during salvage operations in April 1942.

WWII

“Unknown” no more.

In the last issue, I wrote about the pain of families of military persons listed as “missing in action.” Shortly after that issue was published, government sources announced that about 30 of the sailors who died when the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) was attacked and sunk at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and were buried as “unknown” have been identified. Read more

WWII

Benito Mussolini & The Fascist March on Rome

By Blaine Taylor

On March 23, 1919, but four months after the armistice that ended the Great War—100 young toughs, ex-Italian Army war veterans, former socialist politicians, and newspapermen met in Milan’s Piazza San Sepolchro in industrial northern Italy to form a new political party. Read more

WWII

Portugal during WW2: Covering the Azores Gap

By Norman Herz

The year 1944 dawned with America already at war for over two years. In an event not marked by history books, the 96th Navy Construction Battalion, Seabees, crossed the Atlantic from Davisville, Rhode Island, on the Abraham Lincoln, a converted banana boat escorted by two destroyers, the USS Ellis and USS Biddle. Read more

WWII

Preview – Attentat 1942

By Joseph Luster

Many of us have friends and family members who served in the military during World War II, but how intimately do we know their story? Read more

WWII

Review – Wolfenstein II: the New Colossus

By Joseph Luster

When last we saw the mighty Captain William J. Blazkowicz, well, he wasn’t looking quite so mighty. Sure, he managed to score a major victory in the battle against the postwar alt-history Nazi regime, but he was left more or less on death’s fickle doorstep. Read more

WWII

Lost, Now Found

A few weeks ago, a surprising story was announced: the wreckage of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, which was torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-58 on July 30, 1945, had been located. Read more

WWII

The Killing of Il Duce

By Blaine Taylor

At 3 am on Sunday, April 29, 1945, a yellow furniture truck stopped at the Piazzale Loreto, a vast, open traffic roundabout where five roads intersected in the northern Italian city of Milan. Read more