April 2021

Volume 20, No. 2

Cover: A German soldier, photographed during the Battle of the
Bulge. This is one of a series of photographs recovered from a German camera by Americans during the battle.
Photo: National Archives

Two GIs run for cover during the Battle of the Bulge. The Nazis initiated their Ardennes Offensive in December 1944, hoping to cross the River Meuse and advance to the port of Antwerp, Belgium, splitting Allied forces in two. Hitler authorized Operation Nordwind two weeks after the Ardennes Offensive was launched in an attempt to exploit gains made to the north as the Allies shifted troops and military assets in response to the Ardennes threat. The stand at Hatten was critical in wresting the initiative away from the Germans.

WWII History

Heroic 52 Hours Defending Hatten

By Patrick J. Chaisson

The GIs defending Pillbox No. 9 watched in despair as a weak January sun set behind them. Read more

Italian tanks advance through Karrin Pass in British Somaliland during their offensive of 1940. Although the Italians were initially victorious, their occupation collapsed following a British counteroffensive launched later in the year.

WWII History

Italy’s Short-lived Success in Somaliland

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

ONE of World War II’s least known campaigns was fought over one of the most desolate places on earth. Read more

This painting by Jack Fellows depicts Flying Tiger pilot R.T. Smith’s Curtiss P-40 #77. The P-40 B and C variants made tough, reliable fighter planes. The engine was underpowered at high altitudes, lacking a supercharger, but at lower altitudes the P-40 was a fine pursuit plane.

WWII History

The Flying Tiger and the Demon

by Bob Bergin

Erik Shilling, a pilot of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) Flying Tigers, faced the angry mob. There were about 30 of them, all in loincloths and leather vests with no buttons. Read more

WWII History

The Fight of USS California

by John J. Domagalski

The first rays of sunlight on December 7, 1941, marked a typical Sunday morning for the sailors aboard the battleship USS California at Pearl Harbor. Read more

Troops of the U.S. Army’s 306th Regimental Combat Team, 77th Infantry Division, come ashore at tiny Geruma Shima, one of the Kerama Retto group of islands near Okinawa, during Operation Iceberg, March 26, 1945.

WWII History

Kerama Retto: Key to Victory at Okinawa

By Pierre V. Comtois

Close to the northern end of the island of Tokashiki, the largest member of a tiny group of islands called Kerama Retto, located 15 miles west of Okinawa and hardly 400 miles from the Japanese home islands, Corporal Alexander Roberts and the rest of the 306th Regimental Combat Team rested for the night beneath the starry skies of the northern Pacific. Read more

Hitler confers with his subordinates Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel (left) and Field Marshal Walter von Brauchitsch (center) as the three contemplate a military map on the table before them. As Operation Barbarossa progressed, Hitler sacked Brauchitsch and took personal command of all German forces on the Eastern Front. TOP: The burned-out hulks of Soviet T-26 light tanks destroyed during early fighting against the invading Nazis lie derelict on the battlefield.

WWII History, Editorial

Auction of Hitler Notes Sparks Controversy

A recent auction of handwritten speech notes scrawled by none other than Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, aroused the ire of Jewish groups, which find the commercial activity reprehensible since the Nazi regime was responsible for the deaths of more than six million Jews during the 12 years of the Third Reich. Read more

In artist Jack Fellows’ painting, “Sakai-7 August 1942,” Japanese fighter ace Saburo Sakai flies toward the scene of aerial combat in the skies above Guadalcanal in the Solomons Islands.

WWII History, Profile

Zero Ace Over Guadalcanal

By Allyn Vannoy

Flight Petty Officer Saburo Sakai was anxious to engage the American carrier pilots for the first time, testing his skills against what he had been told were the best opponents he would come up against. 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 History, Ordnance

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

General George S. Patton Jr., left, assigned command of the fictitious First U.S. Army Group, jokes with Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery. Montgomery would command the D-Day ground forces.

WWII History, Top Secret

Operation Fortitude: The Great Deception

by Brent Douglas Dyck

The Allied invasion of Normandy in France on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, was the largest amphibious operation in modern history. Read more

In the autumn of 1944, Japanese soldiers and troops of the anti-British Indian Liberation Army launch an attack in Burma. Allied forces suffered stinging defeats in the China-Burma-India Theater (CBI) but eventually turned the tide despite disagreements between senior commanders General Joseph Stilwell and Field Marshal Archibald Wavell.

WWII History, Insight

Stilwell Versus Wavell in the CBI Theater

By Jon Diamond

The initial command structure in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater of World War II produced a sharp contrast and clash of wills between two of the principal Allied leaders: British Field Marshal Archibald Wavell, and his American counterpart, Lieutenant General Joseph W. Read more