August 2023

Volume 22, No. 4

Cover: A 5th Infantry Division soldier brushes snow off the machine gun mounted on his Jeep during Third Army’s advance to relieve Bastogne. Photo: National Archives

M4 Sherman medium tanks of the 35th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division, clear the road to Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. The 4th Armored Division was the spearhead of the Third Army drive north to relieve the 101st Airborne Division holding Bastogne, a vital crossroads.

WWII History

Patton’s Dual Drives

By Kevin M. Hymel

This article is excerpted from Kevin Hymel’s latest book, Patton’s War: An American General’s Combat Leadership, Volume 2: August—December 1944, published by University of Missouri Press. Read more

This stirring image titled “Douglas A. Munro Covers the Withdrawal of the 7th Marines at Guadalcanal”was painted by artist Bernard D’Andrea for the observance of the bicentennial of the United States Coast Guard.

WWII History

U.S. Coast Guard Goes to War

By Michael D. Hull

Recently put ashore, three companies of U.S. Marines advanced stealthily along the Matanikau River on the northern coast of Guadalcanal on September 27, 1942. Read more

A Soviet artillery crew services its gun during the battle for Berlin, capital of Nazi Germany. After days of difficult fighting, the Red Army took control of the devastated city.

WWII History

Brutal Brawl for Berlin

By Michael E. Haskew

By the end of March 1945, the Western Allied armies were across the Rhine, the last major geographical barrier to an all-out final assault against the Third Reich. Read more

A Lockheed PV-1 Ventura bomber is shown in flight in the Solomon Islands. During the early days of the Solomons campaign the Ventura was modified to serve as a night fighter with the squadron based at Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field.

WWII History

Grey Ghosts Over The Solomons

By Patrick J. Chaisson

It didn’t take long for Rear Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., to notice how exhausted the men all seemed. Read more

WWII History, Editorial

Actor Leslie Howard Died in Plane Shot Down by Nazis 80 Years Ago.

On the morning of June 1, 1943, the Douglas DC-3 lifted off from the airport at Lisbon in neutral Portugal. BOAC Flight 777 or Dutch KLM Flight 2L272, as it had been designated, carried 13 passengers and its crew on a flight bound for London. Read more

An M3 Grant tank leads a column of armored vehicles during maneuvers at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in June 1942. The Grant was a stopgap design with a sponson mounted 75mm gun.

WWII History, Ordnance

M3 Grant/Lee Tank: The Armored Stopgap

By David H. Lippman

Standing 10 feet tall, equipped with both a 75mm and 37mm, an impressive mass of steel and rivets, the Grant and Lee M3 tank seemed like the definitive answer to Hitler’s raging panzer tanks. Read more

WWII History, Profiles

Archibald Wavell: Hero and Scapegoat

By Michael D. Hull

No Allied field commander in World War II shouldered such heavy burdens, with so few resources and over such a wide area, as did British General Archibald P. Read more

A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber of the U.S. Army Air Forces makes a bombing run over the city of Osnabruck, Germany, during World War II. When the B-17 was introduced, many observers considered it too expensive. However, the bomber was a workhorse in the European theater as army air power evolved during the war years.

WWII History, Insight

The Army and Air Power

By Sam McGowan

When the United States Army first developed an interest in aviation and purchased its first airplane from the Wright Company in 1909, it and the pilots and mechanics who flew and serviced it were assigned to the Signal Corps, a specialty corps that had been established prior to the Civil War to develop visual signals, then later to develop and service telegraph lines. Read more

Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers of the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force fly through thick enemy flak during bombing runs against the oil refinery complex at Ploesti, Romania. These bombers executed one of the most hazardous missions of World War II, and accurate weather information decrypted from German sources facilitated such air operations.

WWII History, Top Secret

Department G Code Breaker

By Glenn Barnett

Throughout World War II the center of cryptography among the Allies was at the top-secret location at Bletchley Park outside London. Read more

In this painting by British war artist W. Krogman, Matilda II tanks rush past the burning hulks of German armor and fire their guns at distant targets. The Matilda in the foreground is emblazoned with a Union Jack on its hull.

WWII History, Books

World War II Book Reviews for Summer 2023

By Christopher Miskimon Full Reviews

Desert Armour: Tank Warfare in North Africa, Beda Fomm to Operation Crusader, 1940-41 (Robert Forczyk, Osprey Books, Oxford, UK, 2023, 336 pp., Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Aces of Thunder

By Joseph Luster

The War Thunder series recently revealed plans to deliver an aerial combat spinoff titled Aces of Thunder in the most immersive way possible. Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Broken Lines: The Drunk and the Dead

By Joseph Luster

It’s time to venture into uncharted territory with narrative-driven alternate timeline tactical RPG Broken Lines, which just unleashed a DLC expansion titled The Dead and the Drunk. Read more

August 2023

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