August 2014 Archives

WWII History

One in a Thousand Chance

By Christopher Miskimon

The year 1942 was one of crisis for the Allied cause in the Pacific. Until May, almost everything had gone in favor of Imperial Japan. Read more

Smoke from his cigar curls upward as an SS officer and his detachment pause at a road sign directing traffic toward the village of Malmedy, Belgium, during the opening hours of the German Ardennes offensive that came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge. In a field near Malmedy, troops under the command of SS Colonel Jochen Peiper committed one of the most infamous battlefield atrocities of World War II.

WWII History

Adolf Hitler Sends Joachim Peiper to the Bulge

By Josh Quackenbush

During the Battle of the Bulge, the largest battle America has ever fought, Hitler chose the Sixth Panzer Army for the German juggernaut’s most important role. Read more

WWII History

Operation Drumbeat’s Devastating Toll on Allied Shipping

By Michael D. Hull

After refueling in the mid-Atlantic and suffering bow damage from being rammed by a tanker, a 769-ton German submarine reached its destination, the American East Coast, early on Monday, May 4, 1942. Read more

WWII History

An American Invasion in New Zealand

By Bruce M. Petty

Early in the 20th century, the population of New Zealand was just under a million. According to official sources, 20 percent of New Zealand’s eligible manpower served in uniform during World War I. Read more

WWII History

The Battle of Biak: “A Terrifying Glimpse Into the Soul of Mankind”

By David Alan Johnson

“All I knew about Biak was that it was an island a degree south of the equator, one of the Schouten group lying north of Geelvink Bay toward the western end of New Guinea.” Read more

Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in the Iranian capital of Tehran in late 1943. Among the topics of discussion was the opening of a second front in Western Europe.

WWII History

Big Three in Tehran

By Michael D. Hull

World War II made a disparate trio of allies —British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Marshal Josef Stalin, and American President Franklin D. Read more

WWII History, Ordnance

The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver: An Unpopular and Flawed Allied War Machine

By Robert F. Dorr

It sent Japanese warships to the bottom of the ocean. It pulverized fortifications on Japan’s home islands. Read more

WWII History, Profiles

Leslie ‘Dick’ Groves: The Manhattan Project General

By George Davenport Jr.

By the spring of 1945, the outcome of World War II was not in serious doubt. What was in serious doubt was the number of casualties that would eventually be required to bring the war to a successful conclusion. Read more

The SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler was formed during the 1930s as Hitler’s personal bodyguard and later grew into a division of the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the organization. In this photo from the early days of the Leibstandarte, soldiers pass in review as their commander gives the Nazi salute.

WWII History, Insight

The Waffen-SS: Evolution of Armed Evil

By Allyn Vannoy

In 1933, before the Waffen-SS, there was a portion of the Nazi Party’s Schutzstaffel (SS), armed and trained along military lines and served as an armed force. Read more

WWII History, Top Secret

Wingate’s Operation Thursday: Genius or Ineffectual?

By Jon Diamond

The interest in Brigadier Orde Wingate, founder and leader of the Commonwealth Chindits or Special Force, persists to this day, more than 75 years after his fiery death after his B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed in the hills of India. Read more

WWII History, Books

Fox Company’s Airborne Saga

By Christopher Miskimon

Corporal Manning Haney sat atop a dike near Randwijk, Holland, on October 7, 1944, manning a .50-caliber machine gun. Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Wolfenstein: The New Order

By Joseph Luster

Despite the franchise’s age, Wolfenstein remains in the category of “new nostalgia” for some. While it has deeper origins—starting with 2D adventure game Castle Wolfenstein, which made its Apple II debut in 1981—the series is well known for its seminal contribution to the first-person shooter genre with 1992’s Wolfenstein 3D. Read more

August 2014

From Around the Network

A stirring chapter of naval history steeped in controversy.

Colonel John Allen and the River Raisin Debacle

The Odyssey of the Australian Destroyer HMAS Vendetta

Attack on the USS Panay