A paratrooper with the 2nd Parachute Battalion takes part in combat training. Paras conducted the Bruneval Raid to seize components of a new German radar system from a post in the coast of France.

April 2023

Volume 22, No. 2

Cover: Sergeant Herbert Liman, a member of the 134th Infantry Regiment, searches for a German sniper during the Battle of the Bulge. See story page 24. Photo: National Archives

WWII History

The 28th Infantry Division Stands

By Nathan N. Prefer

On September 16, 1944, Adolf Hitler revealed his master plan for reversing Germany’s declining fortunes in the West during World War II. Read more

U.S. Army Air Forces Boeing B-17 bombers fly in formation en route to a target in Germany. Enemy fighters and antiaircraft fire took a heavy toll on the airmen aboard.

WWII History

The Borkum Island Massacre and Trial

By William R. Hogan

On August 4, 1944, a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress heavy bomber, tail number 43-37909, so new that it did not have a nickname or nose art yet, took off from England on a bombing run over Germany that would end in a crash landing on Borkum Island in the North Sea. Read more

British commandos sit aboard a Whitworth Whitley aircraft during exercises.

WWII History

Operation Biting: ‘The Bruneval Raid’

By Nathan N. Prefer

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

This painting of the nocturnal Battle of the Java Sea shows the torpedoed Dutch light cruiser De Ruyter burning as the cruiser HMAS Perth turns to avoid a collision on February 27, 1942. One night later, the Perth, along with the USS Houston would go down in the Battle of the Sunda Strait.

WWII History

Slaughter in the Sunda Strait

By David H. Lippman

It was nearly over. Since Singapore had fallen to the Japanese on February 14, 1942, the Allied forces defending the Dutch East Indies had battled against a Japanese pincer-like movement, which consisted of aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, aircraft, and well-trained “Special Naval Landing Forces”—Japan’s version of American and British Marines. Read more

WWII History

Letters from Oblivion: Auschwitz and Buchenwald

By Katrina Shawver

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

WWII History, Editorial

Conrad Veidt Lived Out His Anti-Nazi Commitment

The 1942 film Casablanca remains one of the most popular Hollywood creations of all time, immortalizing the characters played by Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine) and Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa Lund). Read more

In this painting by artist Gary Sheahan titled “Birth of the Atomic Age,” scientist Enrico Fermi and his colleagues anxiously proceed with the first sustained nuclear chain reaction in history at the University of Chicago.

WWII History, Ordnance

First Sustained Nuclear Reaction

By Eric Niderost

Enrico Fermi’s face was a study in concentration as his fingers deftly moved across the well-worn surface of his slide rule. Read more

WWII History, Profiles

Major General Edward L. Spears

By Jon Diamond

On May 22, 1940, within a fortnight of being appointed Britain’s prime minister, Winston S. Churchill was confronted with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), under Lord Gort, retreating from Belgium. Read more

Caught in an attack by U.S. Army Air Forces bombers, a Japanese merchant ship takes hits off the coast of Dutch New Guinea during a June 1944 raid. Codebreaking work by cryptanalysts like Sergeant Joseph Richard helped detect enemy convoy movements.

WWII History, Top Secret

Codebreaking Sergeant Richard

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Wewak Convoy 21 was being annihilated, and the Japanese Army could do nothing to stop it.

The first vessel to die was Yakumo Maru. Read more

A Marine shares his water with a badly wounded fellow Marine during the fight for Peleliu. Although less well known than Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, the battle was no less brutal.

WWII History, Books

World War II Book Reviews for Spring 2023

By Christopher Miskimon Full Reviews

Bitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War’s Worst Battlefield (Joseph Wheelan, Osprey Books, Oxford, UK, 2022, 336 pp., Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Wolfpack

By Joseph Luster

Some World War II games give you control over an entire battlefield, or offer you an abundance of vehicular options that you can easily swap between at any given moment. Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Vanguard: Normandy 1944

By Joseph Luster

If you’re looking for a historically-accurate World War II shooter, the team at Pathfinder Games has your back with Vanguard: Normandy 1944. Read more

April 2023

From Around the Network

The Wereth 11 Massacre During the Battle of the Bulge

Austria-Hungary and the Triple Alliance

William de Bohun: Masterful Defense at Morlaix

The Real English Patient Behind the Ralph Fiennes Film