April 2019
WWII History
Bombing Burma’s Bridges
By Bob BerginThirty-five Boeing B-17C Flying Fortress bombers of the 7th Bomb Group happened to be on their way to Asia the morning the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Read more
April 2019
Volume 18, No. 3
Cover: PFC Thomas Gilgore, 8th Infantry Division, appears to show the strain of battle during combat in the Hürtgen Forest, December 5, 1944.
Photo: National Archives
April 2019
WWII History
Cape Matapan Triumph
By David H. LippmanIt was called “rodding,” and it was a complex manual procedure used by British cryptographers at Hut Eight in the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park to decipher Italian Naval Enigma coded messages. Read more
April 2019
WWII History
The Battle of Hürtgen Forest: A Tactical Nightmare for Allied Forces
By Michael D. HullGray skies hung low and a steady drizzle dripped through the tall, dense fir trees near the German-Belgian border on the morning of Thursday, November 16, 1944, during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. Read more
April 2019
WWII History
Last Stand at Völkerschlachtdenkmal: The Battle of Leipzig, 1945
By Michael E. HaskewIn October 1813, the combined allied armies of Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Saxony, and Württemberg met and defeated the French Grand Armee under Napoleon Bonaparte at the German city of Leipzig, forcing him to retreat and hastening his eventual abdication and exile to the island of Elba. Read more
April 2019
WWII History
Great Raid on Cabanatuan
By Charles W. SasserOn January 30, 1945, a group of U.S. Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts, and Filipino guerrillas set out on a daring nighttime raid on Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines. Read more
April 2019
WWII History, Editorial
The Bold British Stroke at Taranto Preceded the Royal Navy Victory at Cape Matapan
The great British Royal Navy victory at Cape Matapan sealed the fate of the Italian Regia Marina, rendering Mussolini’s fleet virtually impotent after the spring of 1941. Read more
April 2019
WWII History, Ordnance
The M29 Weasel: The WWII Track Vehicle Never Used as Intended
By Bob GordonThe M29 Weasel was a machine conceived by a bizarre British chemist obsessed with ice for a unit that did not exist and a mission that never occurred. Read more
April 2019
WWII History, Profiles
Ireland’s Quixotic Neutrality
By Robert E. CrayIreland’s refusal to take part in World War II agitated Winston Churchill during the war’s first months. Read more
April 2019
WWII History, Insight
A Time of Unreasoning Hatred
By Eric NiderostOn February 28, 1942, Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr of Colorado received a telegram from the White House. At that moment he was in his office, surrounded by staff, but routine business had to be put on hold while Carr quickly scanned the missive that came directly from the president of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt. Read more
April 2019
WWII History, Top Secret
The Vermehren Betrayal
By Tim MillerAfter the long journey from Germany to Istanbul, their escape to North Africa and finally to England, the two defectors ended up in an apartment in South Kensington, one of the more wealthy neighborhoods of London. Read more
April 2019
WWII History, Books
Slogging into the Reich
By Christopher MiskimonLieutenant William Paul Chapman’s fellow soldiers were tank hunting on the afternoon of August 11, 1944. The Battle of Mortain was raging around them, a counterattack by a German armored spearhead against the growing and inexorable advance of the Allied armies out of the Normandy beachhead. Read more
April 2019
WWII History, Simulation Gaming
April War Games
By Joseph LusterQuality aircraft combat games aren’t exactly a dime a dozen, and publisher Iggymob aims to fill in that hole with the upcoming Dogfighter: World War 2, which is currently in development collaboratively with iBong and Grumpy for PlayStation 4. Read more
