WWII Archives

WWII

Fighting 80th Division at Bastogne

By Leon Reed

In a letter to his fiancée, Betty Craig, on December 16, 1944, from Helleringen, France, newly promoted Staff Sergeant Frank Lembo of Company B, 305th Engineer Combat Battalion, 80th Division, wrote of a battalion show the night before, complete with Red Cross girls serving donuts and the division band; an upcoming dance; doing laundry; and other pastimes of a soldier experiencing a period of reserve status. Read more

This reproduction Soviet Yakovlev Yak-3 fighter aircraft is painted in the colors of the Normandie Niemen and is an accurate representation of the type piloted by Roger Sauvage.

WWII

Roger Sauvage & Normandie Niemen

By Glenn Barnett and André Bernole

Roger Sauvage was born in Paris in 1917 to a white Parisian woman and a black soldier from Martinique. Read more

WWII

The Second Great War (and the Weather that Defined it)

By Eric Niderost

Weather has long played a vital role in human history. Kublai Khan’s attempted conquest of Japan was foiled when his invasion fleet was destroyed by a typhoon. Read more

In this photo taken on August 12, 1943, Red Army infantrymen advance down a dirt road near the embattled city of during the Soviet Rumyantev offensive.

WWII

The Battle of Kiev: How it Brought About an End to Nazi Terror

By Pat McTaggart

It was less than a month since the great blood letting in the Orel salient in July 1943 had taken place, and just some months to go before the infamous Second Battle of Kiev. Read more

WWII

M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyers Failed on the Battlefield

By William F. Floyd Jr.

In 1940, existing U.S. Army tactical doctrine called for a cordon of towed antitank guns to defend against an enemy tank attack, but army planners studying the Battle of France in May of that year realized that a tactical plan of that nature was outdated and likely would not thwart a large-scale armor attack. Read more

The SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler was formed during the 1930s as Hitler’s personal bodyguard and later grew into a division of the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the organization. In this photo from the early days of the Leibstandarte, soldiers pass in review as their commander gives the Nazi salute.

WWII

The Waffen-SS: Evolution of Armed Evil

By Allyn Vannoy

In 1933, before the Waffen-SS, there was a portion of the Nazi Party’s Schutzstaffel (SS), armed and trained along military lines and served as an armed force. Read more

WWII

Task Force Raff’s Race Against Time

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Colonel Ed Raff kept glancing at his wristwatch while trying to control the growing sense of dread inside him. Read more

A Lockheed PV-1 Ventura bomber is shown in flight in the Solomon Islands. During the early days of the Solomons campaign the Ventura was modified to serve as a night fighter with the squadron based at Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field.

WWII

Grey Ghosts Over The Solomons

By Patrick J. Chaisson

It didn’t take long for Rear Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., to notice how exhausted the men all seemed. Read more

WWII

Boyd Wagner: Early American Ace

By Sam McGowan

Common wisdom has long held that Japanese pilots and aircraft, particularly their fighters, were superior to the American, Australian, and British counterparts they faced in combat in the Philippines and Southeast Asia in the opening months of U.S. Read more

The six British Horsa gliders assigned to Operation Dead-stick swoop down on the Caen Canal Bridge at under cover of night on June 5-6.

WWII

Lightning Assault on Pegasus Bridge

By Joshua Shepherd

At midnight of June 6, 1944, a trio of Halifax bombers, each towing a Horsa glider, roared above the black waters of the English Channel. Read more

In this painting by artist John Hamilton, the Japanese cruisers Mogami and Mikuma writhe under heavy American air attack on the last day of the Battle of Midway. Mikuma was sunk, but the seriously damaged Mogami managed to limp away to safety.

WWII

Mogami: Japan’s Luckless Cruiser

By David H. Lippman

She was the lead ship of her class, built under the 1930 London Naval Treaty, which imposed limits on cruiser, destroyer, and submarine tonnage for the United States, Great Britain, and Japan. Read more

Roosevelt confers with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during their historic meeting at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, in August 1941. The leaders drafted the Atlantic Charter during their conference. (National Archives)

WWII

How Franklin D. Roosevelt Prepared the U.S. for World War II

By Peter Kross

By June 1940, during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s seventh year in office, Europe was ablaze. In that month, France fell to the Nazi blitzkrieg that threatened to overtake the entire continent. Read more

WWII

Gauntlet of Steel at Okinawa

By John Wukovits

Edward T. Higgins had witnessed few spectacles to match the one that unfolded all about him in the waters surrounding Okinawa, an island 400 miles southwest of the Japanese Home Island of Kyushu. Read more

British paratroopers of the 1st Airborne Division, who were tasked with the highway bridge over the Nederrijn at Arnhem, land in an open field at the outset of Operation Market Garden.

WWII

Hellish Fight at Arnhem

By John E. Spindler

As the clock struck 8:00 p.m. in Arnhem, Holland, Lt. Col. John Frost’s British 2nd Parachute Battalion captured the north end of the road bridge over the Nederrijn River. Read more

An American soldier of the 31st Infantry Division carries an M3 submachine gun, known as the Grease Gun, during landings on the island of Morotai in the Pacific in September 1944.

WWII

The Controversial M3 Grease Gun

By Patrick J. Chaisson

No one ever used the words “graceful” or “elegant” to describe the M3 submachine gun. Instead, those soldiers, sailors and Marines who carried it called the M3 a “plumber’s nightmare” or “the cake decorator.” Read more

WWII

Operation Long Jump: The Nazi Assassination Attempt on the “Big Three”

By Mason B. Webb

In German it was called Operation Rösselsprung, which translates to “Long Jump.” Its goal was to kill or kidnap the Allies’ “Big Three” leaders––Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston S. Read more

WWII

Slogging into the Reichswald

By David H. Lippman

(Continued from Part 1 in the August 2020 issue)

Just after midnight on February 9, 1945, across the diamond-shaped mass of forest, hills, and flooded terrain that defined the Reichswald, rain fell in a steady downpour upon a battlefield that had already seen some of the most ferocious fighting of World War II in Western Europe. Read more

Fire from the guns of the Australian cruiser HMAS Perth splits the darkness in the opening moments of the Battle of Sunda Strait on February 25, 1942. The Australian vessel and the American cruiser Houston were lost in action against the Japanese.

WWII

Heroic Fight Against Long Odds

By John Wukovits

The haggard American sailors aboard the limping cruiser hoped that the journey upon which they had just embarked was the long-expected voyage back to the United States. Read more

Portuguese soldiers board the passenger ship Mouzinho in Lisbon harbor, April 1941. Their destination was the Azores, where they would reinforce the garrison against the threat of German invasion.

WWII

Portugal’s Political Tightrope

By B. Paul Hatcher

“With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the freedom of the Americas. Read more