December 2010

Volume 10, No. 1

Cover: An American tank travels along a country road in Normandy as U.S. troops move up to new positions during Operation Cobra, which began July 25, 1944. Photo courtesy of the National Archives

December 2010

WWII History

Armored Blitz to Avranches

By Kevin M. Hymel

Lieutenant General Omar Bradley had reason to be pleased by the last week of July 1944. His First Army had scratched out a substantial foothold on the Normandy coast, capturing three times more French territory than his British allies. Read more

December 2010

WWII History

The St. Nazaire Raid

By Flint Whitlock

Britain badly needed a victory. As if to underline Britain’s difficult fortunes, on May 21, 1941, the German battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen dealt the island kingdom a serious blow by sinking the battlecruiser HMS Hood and severely damaging the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales during a furious engagement in the Denmark Strait.  Read more

December 2010

WWII History

King as Pawn

By Eric Niderost

On May 6, 1939, King George VI of Great Britain and his wife Queen Elizabeth arrived in Portsmouth to board the liner Empress of Australia, which was to take them to Canada and subsequently to the United States. Read more

December 2010

WWII History

Boyd Wagner: Early American Ace

By Sam McGowan

Common wisdom has long held that Japanese pilots and aircraft, particularly their fighters, were superior to the American, Australian, and British counterparts they faced in combat in the Philippines and Southeast Asia in the opening months of U.S. Read more

December 2010

WWII History, Editorial

Piper Bill on the D-Day Beach

By Michael E. Haskew

The image of the Scottish piper standing erect under fire was commemorated in the film The Longest Day nearly two decades after the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944. Read more

December 2010

WWII History, Dispatches

Nazi SS Handar Division

Dear Editor:

As someone who has followed and written about the 1990’s war in Bosnia, my attention was drawn to the article entitled, “Himmler’s Recruits” (Insight, September 2010 issue). Read more

December 2010

WWII History, Profiles

General Arthur Percival: a Convenient Scapegoat?

By Jon Diamond

On February 15, 1942, the island fortress of Singapore surrendered with 130,000 men, thus ending the defense of Malaya as one of the largest military disasters in the history of British arms since Cornwallis’s capitulation to Franco-American forces at Yorktown in 1781 during America’s Revolutionary War. Read more

December 2010

WWII History, Ordnance

Six-Pounder Versus Panzer

By Christopher Miskimon

Sergeant Charles Callistan looked through the sights of an antitank gun at an approaching enemy tank. His weapon, a six-pounder cannon, was in the perimeter of a surrounded British outpost named Snipe. Read more

December 2010

WWII History, Books

Skeletons Disguised as Humans

By Al Hemingway

Just months after General Douglas MacArthur made his way from Philippines via PT-boat to reach Australia, Allied forces, mostly composed of Australian and native troops, took the offensive against the enemy to New Guinea. Read more

December 2010

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Three Games For Budding Tacticians

By Joseph Luster

There may not be a lot of big names in the modern warfare game coming out over the remainder of 2010 and the first few months of 2011, but that doesn’t mean that WWII-based titles are completely off the radar. Read more