WWII Archives

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

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

The Dieppe Raid: A Tragic Dress Rehearsal

By Richard Rule

By early 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was still unable to boast a single victory in the field against Germany. Read more

WWII

Surviving the German Death March: Hazards of the 600 Mile March

By Al Hemingway

On February 6, 1945, the 10,000 POWs of Stalag Luft IV received their marching orders to move out. Read more

WWII

Project Underworld: The U.S. Navy’s Secret Pact with the Mafia

By Gregory Peduto

In the opening months of 1942, German U-boats pushed Allied supply lines to the breaking point. In the month of January, Axis submarines claimed over 20 Allied vessels including a tanker just 60 miles off the coast of Long Island. Read more

WWII

Joseph Stalin’s Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov: A Soviet Survivor

By Blaine Taylor

In the summer of 1941, as the Nazi German blitzkrieg rolled over the Russian Red Army defenses at the embattled city of Leningrad, today once more St. Read more

WWII

Michael Prestianni: Guarding the War Criminals at Nuremberg

By Roscoe C. Blunt

Perhaps the most feared group of accused criminals in the annals of history was a potpourri of personalities who had been associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Read more

WWII

The WWII Bombing of Pantelleria Island: A Test of Air Power

By Robert F. McEniry

On May 13, 1943, nearly 300,000 Axis soldiers surrendered to the Allies in northern Tunisia. This successful conclusion to the North African campaign led to speculation at the time as to where the Allies would strike next. Read more

WWII

Operation Jericho: Mosquito Raid on Amiens Prison

By Robert Barr Smith

Many of the prisoners knew this night was probably their last on earth. Amiens Prison had seen a great many judicial murders and much Gestapo torture and brutality, so except for those about to die, executions were routine. Read more

WWII

From Around the Network

David A. Smith’s ‘A New Force at Sea’

Visiting the Battle of Chickamauga

Napoleon Bonaparte’s Russian Campaign: The Patriotic War of 1812

The 28th Infantry Division’s Heroic Defense during the Battle of the Bulge