Winter 2024

Volume 22, No. 6

Cover: Private George Curran with the 80th Infantry Division takes a break during the division’s assault on Argentan, France, August 20, 1944. Private Curran is armed with a 1903A4 Springfield rifle with mounted scope.

WWII History

From the Publisher

Welcome to WWII History’s new format and publishing frequency—you’ll now find more pages, and more stories, in each issue. Read more

After sustaining damage during the Battle of the River Plate, the Graf Spee sought temporary shelter in the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay. Local authorities insisted that the Germans abide by the rules of the Hague Convention but eventually extended the ship’s time in port to 72 hours.

WWII History, Editorial

Troubling History

By Michael Haskew

The pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee was conceived as a commerce raider. Along with the other panzerschiffe, literally “armored ships,” of the Kriegsmarine, Graf Spee was heavily armed with 11-inch main guns. Read more

WWII History, Profiles

Lee Marvin

By Michael D. Hull

Near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and beside the grave of world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis in Arlington National Cemetery is the resting place of a film star who chose to be remembered first and foremost as a U.S. Read more

WWII History, Ordnance

Kaiten

By Mark Carlson

For nearly three years World War II in the Pacific surged, raging in a hundred places from the Coral Sea to Guam, from Guadalcanal to Tarawa, and from Wake Island to the Philippines. Read more

Searchlights pierce the early morning of February 25, 1942, as a Coast Artillery Brigade fires more than 1,400 antiaircraft shells at a rumored Japanese attack on Los Angeles. Coming two days after a Japanese sub shelled an oilfield near Santa Barbara and less than three months after Pearl Harbor, the incident showed the nervous state of the nation.

WWII History, Insight

Pearl Harbor Jitters

By Frank Johnson

Shortly after noon on Tuesday, December 9, 1941, in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, hostile warplanes were reported 200 miles off the Virginia coast and heading for New York City. Read more

WWII History, Books

World War II Book Reviews for Winter 2024

By Christopher Miskimon Full Reviews

To Besiege a City: Leningrad 1941-42 (Prit Buttar, Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2023, 464 pp., maps, photographs, notes, bibliography, index, $40, hardcover)

Death and Life in the Big Red One: A Soldier’s World War II Journey from North Africa to Germany (Joseph P. Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty

By Joseph Luster

The events that occurred during the Winter War and the Continuation War that followed were truly monumental, and a new game aims to harness those stories to great effect. Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Company of Heroes Collection

By Joseph Luster

Relic Entertainment’s Company of Heroes first brought its real-time strategizing to PC back in 2006 before eventually being ported to iOS and Android devices. Read more

WWII History

The Blue Ridge Division in Europe

By Andy Adkins & Madeline Hanson

The 80th Infantry Division’s lineage goes back to the First World War. It was first organized at Camp Lee, Virginia, on August 5, 1917. Read more

Under the relentless onslaught of Japanese Mitsubishi A6 Zero fighter planes, the Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers of the USS Hornet’s Torpedo Squadron 8 are massacred as they attempt to attack Japanese aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway in this dramatic painting by artist John Hamilton titled “Destruction of a Torpedo Bomber.”

WWII History

Remembering Torpedo 8 of Midway

By Mark Carlson

In 1982, Captain Bert Earnest and Commander Harry Ferrier were present at an event to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway. Read more

These two Matilda Mk.IIs of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment were part of the 74 tanks of the British “Frankforce,” that counterattacked the German spearhead at Arras in May 1940. Cutting through the woods to avoid Junkers Ju 87 attacks, these tanks got stuck in mud and were set on fire by their crews.

WWII History

Counterattack at Arras

By David H. Lippman

The orders he received didn’t make much sense to Lord Gort, but he was going to obey them. Read more

An M4 Sherman medium tank of the U.S. Army enters Old Fort Santiago in the city of Manila after the bitter fighting to liberate the “Pearl of the Orient” from Japanese occupation. This photo was taken on February 26, 1945

WWII History

Destroying the Pearl: Liberation of Manila

By David H. Lippman

The “Pearl of the Orient” had lost all of its luster by January 1945.

Three years of brutal Japanese occupation had left many of Manila’s 800,000 native residents humiliated, tortured, or dead. Read more

WWII History

Last Days of PT-34

By John Domagalski

The bleak opening days of World War II in the Pacific found the American territory of the Philippines under attack from the Japanese. Read more

A squadron of B-25 “Mitchell” medium bombers fly in formation over the Italian countryside. Lieutenant Ben Ernst (inset) of Nashville, Tennessee, joined the Army Air Force for the “glamour,” but was shot down off the coast of Palermo, Sicily, in 1943 and spent 23 months as a prisoner of the Germans.

WWII History

Bomber Pilot to Prisoner of War

By Amy Wannemacher

The second World War seems like a long time ago for most of the world, with the harsh realities of blitzkrieg warfare and the Holocaust primarily learned through books and films, possibly a museum. Read more

Winter 2024

From Around the Network

Winter War: Visiting the Stones River Battlefield

Edward Preble & “Preble’s Boys”

Nicholas Horthy: Hitler’s Vassal?

Hot Air “Fire Balloons”: Japan’s Project Fugo