WWII Archives

WWII

How the Men of the USS West Virginia Died During Pearl Harbor

By Don Haines

When Nathan and Jane Olds of Stanton, ND; Ralph and Vera Endicott of Aberdeen, Wash.; and Effie Costin of Henryville, Ind., Read more

One of Operation Cobra’s most costly casualties, the loss of General Lesley McNair, came from an unfortunate incident of friendly fire.

WWII

General Lesley McNair: His Tragic Death During Operation Cobra

By Brian Todd Carey

As Allied bombs rained down from B-17s and B-24s on their own men to open Operation Cobra, a three-star general was visiting the front lines: Commander of Army Ground Forces Lt. Read more

U.S. Rangers scramble up a hillside near Chiunzi Pass under a smoke screen.

WWII

Leading the Way: William Orlando Darby’s Rangers in World War II

By Michael D. Hull

On a June morning in 1942, a battalion of American soldiers stepped down from a train at Fort William in the northern highlands of Scotland. Read more

Crewmen service the quad mounted 40mm cannon aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer escort. A 5-inch gun turret is visible in the background.

WWII

Savagery off Samar: Interview with Jack Yusen

Interview by John Wukovits

The 18-year-old seamen bobbed in the oily waters off the Philippine coast with other survivors of the October 25, 1944, battle. Read more

WWII

Engineering Excellence, Political Dysfunction: Mercedes-Benz in WWII

by Albert Mroz

Few would argue that Daimler-Benz is one of the most prominent and highly regarded motor vehicle manufacturers in automotive history. Read more

WWII

Donald R. Lobaugh: From Delinquent to Medal of Honor Recipient

By Richard A. Beranty

Donald R. Lobaugh was a juvenile delinquent, a kid sent to reform school when he was 16 years old. Read more

WWII

Legendary Panzer Ace Michael Wittmann

By Michael D. Hull

Straddling the River Orne nine miles from the English Channel coast, the French medieval city of Caen was the focal objective of Lt. Read more

WWII

Vladimir Peniakoff: Popski’s Private Army

By John Brown

In September 1942, two patrols of armed jeeps and trucks of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) raided the German airfield at Barce. Read more

WWII

Leningrad & Operation Spark: Breaking the Nazi Stranglehold

By Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

With the German Sixth Army in its death throes at Stalingrad in January 1943, Stavka, the Soviet High Command, sought to capitalize on the disaster by unleashing massive offensives along the entire German-Soviet front. Read more

WWII

The Chance-Vought F4U Corsair: Whistling Death in the South Pacific

by Sam McGowan

Thanks to the rather far-fetched mid-1970s TV series Black Sheep Squadron, the bent-wing image of the Chance-Vought F4U Corsair is no doubt one of the most vivid of the World War II fighters in the minds of most Americans. Read more

The amazing feat of sinking three Japanese submarines is commemorated in this painting by artist Alfred Johnson titled “Batfish Gets a Hat Trick.”

WWII

Famous Navy Ships: The Triumph of the USS Batfish

By Robert Barr Smith

She was a sleek, efficient, deadly killer, a home to six officers and 60 enlisted men, and a holy terror to the enemy. Read more

In this vivid painting by artist Jack Fellows, Douglas A-20 Havoc bombers of the 312th Bombardment Group, U.S. Army Air Forces, attack Clark Field in the Philippines on January 14, 1945. The planes use parafrag bombs against Japanese kamikaze aircraft on the ground at the air base near Manila. This was a follow-up raid to one that had taken place a week earlier, and both were intended to destroy suicide aircraft before they had the chance to damage American ships.

WWII

Kamikazes Caught on the Ground: Raid on Clark Field

By Robert F. McEniry, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.)

General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander Southwest Pacific Area, kept his promise to return to the Philippine Islands when his Sixth Army under the command of Lt. Read more

WWII

Americans in the Royal Air Force

by David Alan Johnson

As they boarded the train for Montreal, the two Americans tried to look as inconspicuous as possible. Read more

Prospective Eagle Squadron pilots were required to undergo standard RAF flight training even though they already held certifications. In this photo American pilots fly trainers in formation above an RAF flight training school.

WWII

Yanks in the RAF: From Eagle Squadron to 4th Fighter Group

by David Alan Johnson

The first of the three Eagle Squadrons was formed at Church Fenton, Yorkshire, in September 1940. The idea of forming an all-American squadron in the RAF was not a wildly popular one— with either the British or the Americans. Read more

WWII

Battle of the Philippine Sea & The ‘Great Marianas Turkey Shoot’

By John Wukovits

Lieutenant Tom Bronn glanced anxiously at the fuel gauge on his Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. He had been aloft for almost four hours, engaged in a hectic combination of trying to locate Japanese ships he knew to be in the Philippine Sea, diving down to unleash his four bombs at a carrier as dusk enveloped his aircraft, and then embarking on a desperate search for his own carrier, the USS Lexington, in the darkness. Read more

Early in the war, German troops advance in the company of a Czech-made tank and under cover of a smoke bomb they have ignited. The German occupation of Czechoslovakia provided the Wehrmacht with a windfall of military hardware.

WWII

WWII Vehicles: The Czech Panzer 38(t)

by Arnold Blumberg

Poland, the Netherlands, France, the Balkans, and Russia were subjected to Germany’s blitzkrieg between 1939 and 1941. At the forefront of those assaults were tanks of Czechoslovakian design. Read more

On April 18, 1945, only days before his death, famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle shares cigarettes with a group of Marines from the U.S. 1st Division on the wartorn island of Okinawa.

WWII

WWII War Correspondent Ernie Pyle

By Dr. Carl Henry Marcoux

Ernest Taylor Pyle was born August 3, 1900, in Dana, Indiana. He came from a farm family. Read more

WWII

The Red Army’s Bloody Clash at Izyum

By Pat McTaggart

During the winter of 1941, both the Red Army and the German Wehrmacht experienced a terrifying bloodletting. Adolf Hitler’s seemingly invincible armies, having advanced hundreds of miles inside the Soviet Union, were slowed by the October muddy season that had turned all but a few roads into almost impassible quagmires. Read more

WWII

The Imperial Japanese Army’s Takasago Volunteers

by Glenn Barnett

When Commodore Matthew C. Perry sailed out of Tokyo Bay after his historic visit in 1854, he left in his wake a desire among the Japanese to emulate all things Western. Read more

A Japanese prisoner of war stands dejected before his American captors near Baguio in north- central Luzon. Japanese soldiers were rarely taken prisoner, choosing instead to fight to the death according to their ancient warrior code of Bushido.

WWII

Hiro Onoda’s Surrender: Fighting World War II Until 1974

By Glenn Barnett

The Japanese empire was a fine place for young Hiro Onoda. In 1939, at age 17, he hired on with a lacquerware company that posted him to Hankow (Wuhan) in Japanese-occupied China. Read more

WWII

From Around the Network

Dismal British Retreat to Corunna

Trampled Banners: The Battle of Nördlingen (1634)

Famous Navy Ships: The HMS Electra

Furious Fight in a Frozen Hell