May 2004 Archives

American soldiers ford one of Guadalcanal’s numerous streams in Action on the River by Dwight Shepler. In the Solomons, U.S. troops battled both a determined enemy in the Japanese and the harsh tropical climate of the South Pacific. Guadalcanal was the first offensive land operation undertaken by American forces in the Pacific Theater. The island was secured after seven months of fighting.

WWII History

The Ill-Fated Goettge Patrol

By John Wukovits

The summer of 1942 had brought uplifting news for the United States in the Pacific Theater. After a numbing series of setbacks, including the December 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent fall of Guam and the Philippines, the nation’s Navy had husbanded its depleted forces and, with the crucial aid of naval intelligence, halted the Japanese in the May 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea and the June Battle of Midway. Read more

The bloody battle for Okinawa is displayed in graphic detail in this painting. In the last major land battle of the Pacific War, Okinawa was fiercely defended by the Japanese, who developed fortified defensive lines in the southern section of the island. Offshore, kamikaze aircraft assaulted U.S. naval vessels.

WWII History

Final Conflict on Okinawa

By Dr. Carl H. Marcoux

Although neither side was aware of it at the time, the battle for Okinawa would be the last major battle of World War II. Read more

WWII History

A Pyrrhic Parachute Victory in Crete

By Richard Rule

In May 1941, General Kurt Student’s elite paratrooper forces descended like an anvil on the British garrison defending Crete. Read more

WWII History

Operation Goodwood: Monty’s Armored Corridor

By Major General Michael Reynolds

The political and military reasons for launching Operation Goodwood have been discussed in virtually every book written about the Normandy campaign. Read more

Two 100-pound Siberian Huskies await takeoff from a Canadian airfield. A flight surgeon, with protective gear and mask, is responsible for getting them out of the plane.

WWII History

Raining Dogs! U.S. Army Parachute Animals in World War II

By Michael Dolan and Kevin Hymel

The U.S. Army trained dogs for a number of tasks during World War II. From checking for mines to guarding prisoners of war, the dogs performed admirably, but a few special dogs actually earned jump wings. Read more

WWII History

U.S. VIII Bomber Command: From Savannah to Glory

By Sam McGowan

When World War II in Europe came to an end, the Eighth Air Force was the most famous unit in the U.S. Read more

WWII History

Operation Downfall would have been the most costly military effort in U.S. history.

As terrible as the fighting at Okinawa had been, and as costly as the struggle had proven to be in terms of lives and equipment, there is no doubt that the nearly two-month struggle for control of the island would have been dwarfed by what might have come next. Read more

WWII History, Dispatches

General Andrei Vlasov

Dear Editor:

I was considering whether to renew my subscription to WWII History. I then received the January 2004 issue and noticed the article, “Free French Stand at Bir Hachiem,” by Edward L. Read more

Shooting up a German airfield with their eight .50-caliber wing-mounted machine guns, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter planes of the 84th Squadron, 78th Fighter Group, Eighth Air Force roar past a flaming German fighter.

WWII History, Ordnance

P-47 Thunderbolts at the Battle of the Bulge

By Robert F. Dorr & Thomas D. Jones

The captured German pilot was cocky and boastful. He had just parachuted into the American airfield, now lit up by the fires of burning Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, a sprinkling of bright torches amid the gray January gloom and the dirty white snow. Read more

Hungarian Jews arrive at Auschwitz in May 1944. Healthy young people were sent to work in the factory, while the aged, sick, and children went to their deaths in the gas chambers.

WWII History, Top Secret

The Wannsee Conference & Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’

By Blaine Taylor

It is, perhaps, not as well known as other prewar and wartime gatherings of the World War II era, but the quietly held meeting of top Nazi bureaucrats at a secluded villa on Lake Wannsee in the Berlin suburbs on January 20, 1942, was just as much a landmark event as others with higher profiles. Read more

WWII History, Profiles

Red Army Generals: Ivan D. Chernyakhovsky

By Steven L. Ossad

The American jeep holding the 3rd Belorussian Front Commander, General Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky, drove quickly through the city of Mehlsack, just outside Königsberg. Read more

Residents of an English town gather around an Army band to listen to their favorite songs in Band Concert by Olin Dows. Many of the songs that were written and performed during World War II are standards today.

WWII History, Insight

World War II Music

By Sheldon Winkler

Some of the most memorable and enduring popular music of the 20th century was written during World War II. Read more

WWII History, Books

The pilots of the Fifth Air Force fought an innovative kind of war in the South Pacific.

By Sam McGowan

Once in a great while a truly historical figure takes the time to write a memorable account of that part of his life that put him in the history books. Read more

May 2004

From Around the Network

Oda Nobunaga: The Rise of One of Japan’s Earliest Unifiers

The House of Plantagenet & The War of the Roses

Midway Air Hero Remembered

Wunderwaffen: Hermann Göring & the Messerschmitt Me-262