Operation Barbarossa Archives

Artist Edgar Samuel Paxson spent years researching and interviewing participants from both sides of the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn before completing “Custer’s Last Stand” in 1899. Lt. Col. George A. Custer’s widow, Elizabeth Bacon Custer, broke into tears upon viewing the six-by-nine foot painting.

WHN Free Reports

American Tragedy on the Greasy Grass River

By John E. Spindler

A few miles southeast of the Little Bighorn River, known as the “Greasy Grass” to the various Lakota nations camped along its west bank, a number of women dug wild turnips. Read more

German soldiers rush through the streets of Brest at the start of the Axis invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa). In the early morning hours of June 22, 1941, the German army attacked the 19th century Fortress Brest, expecting little resistance to their Blitzkrieg tactics. But the Red Army held out until June 29, in spite of the devastating firepower wielded against them.

WHN Free Reports

‘Hero-Fortress’ of Brest Takes First Blow of Nazis’ Operation Barbarossa

By Victor Kamenir

On the evening of June 21, 1941, foreboding hung like a heavy blanket over the Soviet Union’s western border as indicators of the imminent German invasion increased every day. Read more

“Battle of the Boyne between James II and William III, 11 June 1690,” by Dutch artist Jan van Huchtenburgh (1647 - 1733). The battle, which took place along the Boyne River some 30 miles north of Dublin, was a major setback in James's attempt to regain the thrones of England and Scotland.

WHN Free Reports

Blunder at the Boyne

By Robert L. Durham

Deposed Catholic King James II had come to Ireland with hopes of regaining the throne of England, and after a year of minor successes and setbacks, the time had come for him to make a stand. Read more

With some sleeping soldiers and a Union officer listlessly watching the fire, Winslow Homer’s painting, “In Front of Yorktown,” seems to capture the atmosphere of inaction surrounding Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. Homer covered the war as an artist for Harper’s Weekly magazine.

WHN Free Reports

Army of the Potomac Flounders in Drive for Richmond

By David A. Norris

On April 5, 1862, the Fourth Corps under Brig. Gen. Erasmus Keyes pushed forward along the road by the James River. Read more

Osprey Publishing/Campaign 328: Imjin River 1951/Steve Noon

WHN Free Reports

‘Glorious Glosters’ at the Imjin River

By Michael E. Haskew

On the barren, windswept and war-torn Korean peninsula, the autumn of 1950 brought United Nations forces to the brink of total victory—and complete disaster. Read more

George Rogers Clark and his men trekked nearly 200 miles across what is now Illinois in February 1779. Creeks and rivers flooded by heavy winter rains ranged far beyond their banks, covering open grasslands with several inches of water. On the final push to Vincennes to capture Fort Sackville on the morning of February 22, they faced a vast chest-deep floodplain. Second-in-command, Captain Joseph Bowman kept a detailed journal of the campaign, detailing the difficult surprise march on the British outpost.

WHN Free Reports

‘A Few Men Well Conducted’

By Joshua Shepherd

Benumbed by months of cold and boredom, bleary-eyed British sentries stared over the ramparts of Fort Sackville in the Illinois Country as thick fog rolled in from the Wabash River. Read more

“Rescue and Retreat at Romani,” by Jennifer Marshall depicts Major Michael Shanahan of the 2nd Light Horse Brigade astride “Bill the Bastard” rescuing several soldiers at the Battle of Romani in Egypt. Shanahan was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his actions on August 5,1916.

WHN Free Reports

Death Among The Dunes

By Kevin Morrow

On May 28th, 1915, Ion Idriess, a trooper of the 5th Australian Light Horse Regiment, sat writing in his diary in a dugout at Gallipoli. Read more

“Crossing the Imjin,” a watercolor by Gordon Nicoll, depicts Gloucestershire Regiment POWs crossing back north over the Imjin River under watch of Communist guards in Korea in 1951.

WHN Free Reports, Editorial

The neverending search for the missing.

From the earliest recorded conflict in Mesopotamia around 2,700 BCE until the headlines of today, the world has seen fighting and killing—between families, tribes, cities, nations and religions. Read more

WHN Free Reports, Soldiers

The Red Baron

By Kelly Bell

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen was born May 2, 1892, as the second of four children to Baron Albrecht and Kunigunde von Richthofen. Read more

WHN Free Reports, Uniform

Lt. Jimmie Montieth, 1st Infantry Division, D-Day

Artwork: Keith Rocco

Lieutenant Jimmie Monteith, Company L, 16th Infantry Regiment, arrived off Omaha Beach with the first assault wave, on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Read more

WHN Free Reports, Valor

Captain Lewis L. Millett and the ferocious ‘Battle of Bayonet Hill’ in South Korea.

By Kevin Seabrooke

In the dead of winter at the base of a hill just 20 kilometers south of Seoul, Korea, Easy Company’s 1st platoon found themselves pinned down by a continuous stream of small arms, automatic, and antitank fire coming from above. Read more

The U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is the most advanced flying wing ever built. A combination of classified technology that reduces infrared, acoustic, electromagnetic, visual and radar signatures of the aircraft makes it difficult for enemy defense systems to detect, track and engage it.

WHN Free Reports, Weapons

The Northrop B-2 Spirit

By Kelly Bell

The old axiom that “forewarned is forearmed” is as true nowadays as it was millenia ago. Since 1989 America’s B-2 Spirit flying wing has been assailing the Free World’s foes, and consistently taking them unawares. Read more

WHN Free Reports, Books

10 Military History Book Reviews for Fall 2024

By Christopher Miskimon Full Reviews

At the Gates of Rome: The Battle for a Dying Empire (Don Holloway, Osprey Publishing, 2024, 367 pp., Read more

WHN Free Reports, Simulation Gaming

Ara: History Untold

By Joseph Luster

If grand strategy is your speed, you might want to keep an eye out for Ara: History Untold, which is currently in the works for PC and will also be available through PC Game Pass. Read more

WHN Free Reports, Simulation Gaming

Norse

By Joseph Luster

For a game that marries historical themes with strategy and a gripping narrative, Norse is on the way to bring the untamed beauty of ancient Norway to life in a new way. Read more

Operation Barbarossa

From Around the Network

1st Infantry Division Museum

Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind, helped the town of Vimoutiers, France, to rebuild.

Into The Bitter Forest

Britain’s hollow-cast toy soldiers continue to attract collectors decades after their manufacture.