January 2008 Archives

U.S. Navy dive-bombers attack a Japanese cruiser at the Battle of Midway in this painting by Robert Benny.

WWII History

Lifting the Japanese Military

By John W. Whitman

Japanese military successes in 1941 and 1942 shocked the West. Behind those successes lay a logistics effort not often appreciated, that of shipping. Read more

A Junkers Ju-52 returns from Crete, bringing home wounded parachutists and Alpine patrol soldiers.

WWII History

Fliegen und Siegen: Photographs from the Luftwaffe

By A. Burke

Sixty-five years ago, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring’s Luftwaffe showcased its aerial triumphs in a 1942 commemorative book of photographs entitled Fliegen und Siegen (“Flying and Victory”). Read more

War artist Gary Sheenhan captured the prisoners’ misery, fear, and deprivation at Buchenwald in 1945. The revolts in Sobibor and Treblinka were the last chance for the inmates to survive as the Nazis began to cover up their heinous deeds.

WWII History

Revolts in the Death Camps

By Jonathan F. Keiler

By the spring of 1943, the Nazi deaths camps in eastern Poland—Sobibor, Belzac, and Treblinka—were running out of victims. Read more

In a photo taken from another B-29 in formation, this heavy bomber disgorges incendiary bombs from the skies above Formosa. The largest B-29 raid of the war to date took place on October 14, 1944. The target was the repair and supply facilities at Okayama on the island.

WWII History

B-29 Superfortress: The Plane That Bombed Japan Into Submission

By Sam McGowan

As the Japanese delegation stood on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, preparing to sign the documents that ended World War II, a large formation of Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers swooped low over Tokyo Bay as a reminder of the terrible destruction that had befallen their nation and turned Japan’s cities into ruins. Read more

Having been issued ammunition, Abyssinian troops known as Shifta advance on the run to take up positions against the advancing enemy.

WWII History

South Africans in the Breech: Expelling Mussolini From Ethiopia

By Jon Latimer

Boarding a train at the famous station built by the French as a terminus on the line from Djibouti, the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of God, Ras Tafari, Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia left his capital Addis Ababa on May 2, 1936. Read more

On September 12, 1943, at Vella Lave, New Caledonia, Major John Burden and Nisei soldiers of the 25th Division Language Section, attached to G2 (Military Intelligence), interrogate a Japanese prisoner of war in a temporary stockade.

WWII History, Profiles

Speaking the Enemy’s Language

By Dr. Carl H. Marcoux

American soldiers of Japanese ancestry made remarkable contributions to the Allied victory during World War II. Read more

During this action, Ware’s small assault group was fully engaged in attacking enemy positions.

WWII History

Bloody Fight for Hill 351: Skirmish in the Colmar Pocket

By Dan Champagne

On a cold, dark December morning in 1944, B Company, 1st Battalion, 15th Regiment began the slow ascent up Hill 351. Read more

WWII History, Editorial

Sergeant Martin Troy’s remains are recovered 63 years after his death.

Thousands of military personnel killed in action during World War II rest in unmarked graves, high on mountaintops, beneath the ocean amid the wreckage of sunken ships, in remote jungles and arid deserts. Read more

WWII History, Dispatches

Red Air Force Pe-2

Dear Editor:

I read with interest George Tipton Wilson’s article “Red Air Force Heroines” in the September issue of WWII History. Read more

British commandos march through the ruins of the French town of Caen. An objective of the Allied D-Day landings that was supposed to have been captured on June 6, stiff German resistance prevented the city from being liberated until a month later.

WWII History, Profile

Fleming, Ian Fleming

By Hervie Haufler

Some accounts of Ian Fleming’s life make it seem that only at the age of 44, as an antidote to the shock of finally agreeing to get married, did he suddenly commit himself to the unplanned task of creating his James Bond novels. Read more

A U.S. Navy destroyer escort was originally conceived as something of a stopgap measure during World War II. Later, the design proved to be effective in all theaters. Here, a destroyer escort is shown under way during sea trials.

WWII History, Ordnance

Holding the Line on the High Seas

By Paul B. Cora

Through the first half of World War II, Allied shipping losses to German U-boats climbed steadily from over 400,000 tons in the last four months of 1939 to more than two million tons each in 1940 and 1941, before reaching a staggering 6,266,215 tons in 1942 following the entry of the United States into the war. Read more

General Patton signs an autograph for war correspondent Ernie Pyle.

WWII History, Insight

George S. Patton: A Life Shaped by Dyslexia

By Glen Jeansonne, Frank C. Haney, and David Luhrssen

General George S. Patton, Jr., was one of the most flamboyant and controversial figures of World War II. Read more

Under attack five days after Pearl Harbor, shore installations and U.S. Navy barges at Cavite in the Philippines burn furiously following a Japanese air raid.

WWII History, Top Secret

A Suicide Mission From the President?

By Ron Gilliam

As he read the decrypt of the radiogram from Admiral Harold Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, several things bothered Admiral Thomas C. Read more

WWII History, Books

Horrific Fight on Land and Sea

By Mason B. Webb

Operation Iceberg, the battle of Okinawa, which lasted from April to June 1945, was the final and largest air-sea-land battle of the Pacific campaign. Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

SMERSH takes on the Germans.

By Eric T. Baker

The Soviet counterintelligence agency known as SMERSH is so famous for its role in Ian Flemming’s James Bond novels, that its real, historical role is comparatively unknown. Read more

January 2008

From Around the Network

The Sam Browne Belt Assembly

German Intelligence Chief Wilhelm Franz Canaris

The S.S. Bremen: Last Voyage of a Luxury Liner

﻿Europa Universalis IV: Mare Nostrum

Europa Universalis IV: Mare Nostrum