WWII

WWII

Wolf of the Atlantic

Fregattenkapitän (Commander) Otto Kretschmer sank or damaged more Allied ships than any other U-boat commander during World War II. Read more

WWII

The Tide Turns at El Alamein

After more than two wearying years of seesaw fighting across the North African desert, the outlook was bleak for the British Eighth Army in the early summer of 1942. Read more

WWII

War at Sea

Gunther Prien grew up at sea, joining the merchant service as a cabin boy at 15. In October 1939, with World War II just a month old, the 31-year-old Prien stood in the conning tower of U-47, a German U-boat plying the North Sea toward the United Kingdom. Read more

WWII

Why the Japanese Lost the Battle of Midway (And How it Changed WWII)

Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, sought to extend Japan’s defensive perimeter in the central Pacific with the seizure of Midway atoll, about 1,300 miles west of Hawaii. Read more

WWII

The Battle of Aschaffenburg: Major Emil Lamberth

The German commander at the Battle of Aschaffenburg, Major Emil Lamberth, was a World War I veteran who had arrived in the city in June 1944 to assume command of the 9th Pioneer (Engineer) Battalion. Read more

WWII

The Battle of the Bulge and Roads to Bastogne

An eternal grayness created a sense of constant gloom. The short, wintry days ended quickly, giving way to endless hours of dark, monotonous cold, and ever-present clouds of ghostlike fog crept slowly over the landscape, blocking all sight. Read more

WWII

The Real Hirohito/Emperor Showa

He was the longest-reigning monarch and head of state in the 20th century, and the third-longest in history behind King Louis XIV of France (72 years) and England’s Queen Victoria (64 years). Read more

WWII

Wehrmacht Operation to Take Leningrad Aborted

It was called Nordlicht, or Northern Lights. With Hitler’s drive toward Stalingrad in full swing, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW—German Armed Forces High Command) was also planning to end the almost year-long siege of Leningrad in a two-pronged attack to capture the city. Read more

WWII

Clubmobile Gal

During World War II, American women flocked to be a part of the war effort. They served as factory workers, government agency clerks, WAVES or WAACS, and artists copying propaganda posters. Read more

WWII

The 12th Army Group Gets Going

By Steve Ossad

A few months after the Normandy campaign and with other fronts competing for the American public’s attention, Lt. Read more

WWII

Turning the Tide

In October 1942, at an obscure railroad whistlestop in the wastes of the Egyptian desert, the tide of World War II turned. Read more

WWII

Britain’s Broomstick Army

As powerful, fast-moving German panzer and infantry columnsrampaged across Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and into northern France early in May 1940, the British held their breath and watched apprehensively from across the narrow English Channel. Read more

WWII

Who Fired Terry Allen and Ted Roosevelt, Jr., the best Combat Generals?

During World War II, Terry de la Mesa Allen and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,were ”relieved” during a victorious campaign. Read more

WWII

The Race to Liberate Paris

Flying a tortuous route from North Africa tothe French coast of Normandy via Casablanca and Gibraltar, an unarmed Lockheed Lodestar of the Free French Air Force broke through cloud cover over the English Channel on the morning of Sunday, August 20, 1944. Read more

WWII

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima: The Story of the Photo

By Chris McGowan

Atop 550-foot Suribachi Yama, the volcano at the southwest tip of Iwo Jima, Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment, 5th Division, hoist the Stars and Stripes, signaling the capture of this key position. Read more

WWII

Rediscoveries of World War II Shipwrecks Bring History to Life for This Generation.

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, continues to deliver on his most recent investment of time and money. His expeditions aboard the Research Vessel (R/V) Petrel have yielded startling rediscoveries and ghostly images of the U.S. Read more

WWII

Piper Bill on the D-Day Beach

The image of the Scottish piper standing erect under fire was commemorated in the film The Longest Day nearly two decades after the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944. Read more

WWII

D-Day’s Concrete Fleet: Making the Mulberry Harbors

No Allied amphibious invasion in World War II left such a bitter legacy as Operation Jubilee, the ill-fated British-Canadian raid on the northern French port of Dieppe on Wednesday, August 19, 1942. Read more

WWII

Operation Dragoon: Second D-Day in Southern France

Winston Churchill was against it. So was Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark in Italy. But the American chiefs of staff were for it, and so was General Dwight D. Read more

WWII

How Lt. Richard Winters and Easy Company saved Utah Beach on D-Day

“Why the hell am I here?” Lt. Richard Winters asked himself as he pulled out of his parachute harness in the first hours of D-Day. Read more