European Theater

European Theater

Fast Boats in Harm’s Way

The U.S. Navy put many ships in harm’s way during World War II, but none more so than the Patrol Torpedo or“PT” Boats. Read more

European Theater

Patton’s Fateful Verdun Meeting

On the morning of December 19, Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., prepared his Third Army for a battle raging north of him—the Battle of the Bulge. Read more

European Theater

War Through an Artist’s Eyes

Newspaper artist Howard Brodie enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, soon joining the combat artist program. He was sent by Yank magazine to capture his impressions of the war with a pencil during the Guadalcanal campaign and then the fighting in Europe. Read more

European Theater

Siegfried Line: Breaking the Dragon’s Teeth

As the battalion officers surveyed the terrain before them, they must have been worried about the men who would have to cross it—the 300 yards of open ground to the banks of the Saar River lined with barbed-wire, concrete pillboxes, anti-vehicle “dragon’s teeth,” and reinforced with minefields in depth known as the Westwall or, more commonly, the “Siegfried Line.” Read more

European Theater

Combat Command: Glory in the Wrenches

The U.S. Army’s drive across France and Belgium during the late summer and fall of 1944 was made possible by the support of the logistics and maintenance personnel that performed their duties magnificently—but received little credit or glory. Read more

European Theater

Warsaw Rising: The Battle for Poland’s Capital

Polish General Tadeusz “Bor” Komorowski knew the fight for the Old Town Warsaw was over. His last hope—and that of his army—was to slip out unnoticed and move the headquarters position to the town center. Read more

European Theater

The Battle of Garfagnana: Italy’s ‘Battle of the Bulge’

There are important similarities between Hitler’s final great push into Belgium and Luxembourg and Mussolini’s drive south of Garfagnana. Read more

European Theater

As a teen, she worked at a concentration camp in Poland. At 97, she went on trial for her Nazi past.

German prosecutors continue to go after anyone associated with the Third Reich’s concentration and death camps with a tenacity that would make Hitler’s victims proud. Read more

European Theater

The Great German Escape

Devizes in southern England had had a quiet war. It had not suffered any bombing as most English cities had. Read more

European Theater

Bulgaria Betwixt and Between

Though neutral for most of it, few countries had such a Passage through World War II as did Bulgaria. Read more

European Theater

Desperate Venture at Avellino

The Fifth U.S. Army was in trouble and dropping 600 paratroops at Avellino to disrupt the communications of the 16th Panzer Division seemed like a sound solution. Read more

European Theater

Oberstleutnant Alfred Becker

Students of World War II know the name Percy Hobart—a British general who raised and trained several armored divisions and who invented all sorts of unique and unusual weapons of war—swimming tanks, flail tanks (for exploding landmines), a flame-throwing tank, a tank that laid down its own roadway, and many other odd-but-useful devices. Read more

European Theater

Hold at All Costs

After D-Day, the Allied armies slowly advanced across Europe and pushed the German army back. Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944, the Belgian capital of Brussels fell on September 3, and the important port of Antwerp was taken two days later. Read more

European Theater

Operation Biting: ‘The Bruneval Raid’

By January 1942, Britain was still in the fight of her life. Germany had occupied all western Europe, controlled the Mediterranean, and was threatening British colonies in North Africa. Read more

European Theater

Letters from Oblivion: Auschwitz and Buchenwald

Henry Zguda, a Polish Catholic, spent three and a half years interned at Auschwitz and Buchenwald as a political prisoner. Read more

European Theater

A “Bright Opportunity” At Remagen

It was March 7, 1945––a gray, overcast day with a nasty chill in the air, the kind of day in which a soldier at the front wished he could relax in front of a toasty fire with a canteen cup full of hot coffee and think about home. Read more

European Theater

Destruction Of The Colmar Pocket

By Christopher Miskimon

On January 25, 1945, every officer in Company B of the 15th Infantry Regiment of the American 3rd Infantry Division became a casualty in the fight for the “Colmar Pocket” except Lieutenant Audie Murphy. Read more

European Theater

Cloak and Dagger Mounties

In the early morning of Monday, November 9, 1942, the german U-boat U-518 surfaced off the bleak Quebec coast. Read more

European Theater

Devils in the Forest

The German paratroopers marched the captured Canadian officer through the dark forest to the damp underground bunker that served as their platoon headquarters. Read more

European Theater

Nuremburg Prosecutor

On March 23, 1991, at a reunion of the postwar Nuremberg International Military Tribunal staffers in Washington, I had occasion to meet the former American prosecutor, Brigadier General Telford Taylor. Read more