July 2002

Volume 1, No. 4

Cover: “The Doolittle Raiders” by Robert Taylor. A B-25 Mitchell bomber heads for China after striking targets outside of Tokyo. Painting © Robert Taylor, courtesy of the Military Gallery.

In a painting by Robert Taylor, B-25 Mitchell bombers of Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle’s force wing away from smoking targets around Tokyo.

July 2002

WWII History

Pearl Harbor Payback

By John Wukovits

President Franklin D. Roosevelt sat in his White House study, an aging leader suddenly appearing older and wearier. Read more

July 2002

WWII History

Hermann Göring and His Final Judgment at Nuremberg

By Blaine Taylor

The Allied indictment against Hermann Wilhelm Göring (1893-1946) at Nuremberg as issued by the International Military Tribunal in 1945 reads as follows:

“The defendant Göring between 1932-45 was: member of the Nazi Party, Supreme Leader of the SA (Brownshirts), General in the SS, a member and President of the Reichstag, Minister of the Interior of Prussia, Chief of the Prussian Police and Prussian Secret Police, Chief of the Prussian State Council, Trustee of the Four Year Plan; “Reich Minister for Air, Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, President of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich, member of the Secret Cabinet Council, head of the Hermann Göring Industrial Combine, and Successor Designate to Hitler. Read more

U.S. troops hit the beach in North Africa on November 8, 1942. Operation Torch was the first major offensive action by American troops during the war against Nazi Germany.

July 2002

WWII History

Operation Torch and The Assassination of Admiral Jean Darlan

By Peter Kross

Less than a year after the sudden and devastating Japanese attack against the United States at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the American military was about to embark on a large-scale offensive operation against German and Italian forces in North Africa. Read more

In a painting by Richard Eurich, British commandos drop from the night sky and scramble onto the beach during the daring raid on the Bruneval radio location station in coastal France, February 27-28, 1942.

July 2002

WWII History

Operation Biting: the Bruneval Raid to Capture German Radar

By Robert Barr Smith

Through the long, lovely days of the summer of 1940, almost two years before Operation Biting or the “Bruneval Raid,” Royal Air Force Spitfire and Hurricane fighter planes turned back the might of the Luftwaffe over southern and southeastern Britain. Read more

Portuguese soldiers board the passenger ship Mouzinho in Lisbon harbor, April 1941. Their destination was the Azores, where they would reinforce the garrison against the threat of German invasion.

July 2002

WWII History

Portugal’s Political Tightrope

By B. Paul Hatcher

“With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the freedom of the Americas. Read more

July 2002

WWII History, Dispatches

The Carro Veloce L 3/33

Dear WWII History:

I would like to put the controversy regarding the “Sten gun carrier” to rest. As a reader of the May 2002 issue correctly noticed, the vehicle depicted on page 37 is not a Sten gun carrier. Read more

The B-17 bomber flown by Captain Colin P. Kelly, Jr., is shadowed by a Zero piloted by famed Japanese ace Saburo Sakai, who shot Kelly down on December 10, 1941.

July 2002

WWII History, Ordnance

The Mitsubishi Zero Gave ‘Made in Japan’ New Respect

By Joseph M. Horodyski

The psychological and military shock that the Allies experienced when they first encountered Mitsubishi’s legendary A6M2 Zero fighter plane at the beginning of the Pacific War may be difficult to understand today. Read more

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