May 2007

Volume 6, No. 3

Cover: Private L.C. Byrd of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, mans a machine gun on the turret of an M4 Sherman tank of the 761st Tank Battalion near Nancy, France, November 5, 1944. Photo courtesy of the National Archives

WWII History

German U-Boats: Scapa Flow Shock

By Jon Latimer

World War II had been in progress for six weeks when on the evening of October 12, 1939, the German submarine U-47 surfaced off the Orkney Islands at the northern tip of Scotland. Read more

WWII History

Still a Splendid Sight: Merrill’s Mauraders

By Al Hemingway

Private First Class Frank Rinaldi cautiously made his way through the dense foliage. He and other soldiers were on patrol when they heard the unmistakable sound of Japanese voices, and they inched their way forward to investigate. Read more

The town of cassino is left a shambles in the aftermath of heavy allied bombardment. anchoring the western end of the formidable gustav line, cassino and the benedictine abbey that crowned the adjacent mountaintop proved costly for the allies to capture. the wreckage of a sherman tank and a prefabricated bailey bridge lie in the foreground.

WWII History

First Deadly Round at The Battle of Monte Cassino

By David H. Lippman

By December 1943, the phrase “sunny Italy” had evolved from being a travel agent’s selling point to becoming an ugly joke for the British and American troops of the Allied Fifth Army, advancing north from Naples to Rome. Read more

A forlorn group of German soldiers carries the body of a dead comrade on a makeshift canvas stretcher. After a series of rapid successes on the Eastern Front, the Germans were subjected to the harsh Russian winter, followed by the sledgehammer blows of a rejuvenated Red Army.

WWII History

From the Luftwaffe: Joachim Benz on the Eastern Front

By Joachim Benz, as told to Peter D. Fyfe and Ward Carr

Following service as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery during the early 1970s, Ward Carr decided to remain in Germany, residing in Frankfurt. Read more

Polish troops were given the mission of capturing the Benedictine monastery atop Monte Cassino, May 1944, after three previous Allied assaults had failed.

WWII History

On the fourth Allied attempt to capture Monte Cassino, the Polish II Corps succeeded.

In the spring of 1944, the Italian Campaign was one of frustration and stalemate for the Allies. General Mark Clark’s Fifth Army had been stymied at Cassino, and strong German defenses barred the gateway to the valley of the Liri River and Rome, the Eternal City and capital of fascist Italy. Read more

Once out of hedgerow country, Sherman tanks of the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade roll in support of the 2nd Canadian Division during Operation Tractable.

WWII History, Dispatches

Sherman versus Tiger

Dear Sir,

Isn’t it time you told it like it really was about the breakout from the Normandy beach-head? That the Sherman tanks the Allies had were absolutely no match for the German tanks, and that the Americans had refused to countenance attempts by the British to upgrade the Sherman’s peashooter gun with the Firefly because they couldn’t accept a non-American gun on an American tank? Read more

A Lockheed Hudson bomber of the Royal Australian Air Force scores a hit against a Japanese freighter near Port Moresby, New Guinea.Variants of the Lockheed Electra and Lodestar designs saw service around the globe during World War II.

WWII History, Ordnance

Lockheed’s Electra and Lodestar

By Sam Mcgowan

During its history, the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation has earned a reputation for building versatile airplanes. Its 1950s era C-130 Hercules is no doubt the most famous, but it was not the first. Read more

This photograph of the historic February 23, 1945, flag raising atop Mount Suribachi was taken as Marines took up positions and sought to anchor the pole in the debris and rock atop the extinct 550-foot volcano.

WWII History, Profiles

Franklin Sousley & The Battle of Iwo Jima

By Randall B. Ingram

Everyone has seen the now famous photograph of the three firefighters hoisting Old Glory over the ruins of the World Trade Center. Read more

In full gear, paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division wait calmly in the skies above Sicily for the order to stand up and hook up aboard their Douglas C-47 Dakota transport aircraft.

WWII History, Insight

WWII Letters: Corporal James. G. Delaney

By Maura B. Delaney

Letters were a valuable commodity to the World War II soldier. They were the link to home and to all things familiar in a most unfamiliar place and time. Read more

During a conversation with Attorney General Francis Biddle (left), J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, gestures toward a display at a conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House on April 7, 1942.

WWII History, Top Secret

Walter Koehler & J. Edgar Hoover

By David Alan Johnson

Throughout his lifetime, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover always boasted that no enemy agent, either spy or saboteur, ever operated at large in the United States during World War II. Read more

WWII History, Books

New Tarawa book captures horror and heroism of bloody Pacific battle.

By Mason B. Webb

On all sides, shells detonated in bloody geysers, bullets churned the water, which looked as if it were agitated by a storm, and wounded Marines, some hideously disfigured and dying, shouted, even begged, for help.” Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Refight the major battles of WWII on the Wii.

By Eric T. Baker

Early last year, Nintendo released a new game console with the unlikely name of Wii. Anyone reading this column has probably heard of it. Read more

May 2007

From Around the Network

Hedy Lamarr: Allied Inventor and Actress

Seizure of the Surcouf

The Army Nurse Corps: Caring for the Casualties in WWII

The Byzantine Army’s Varangian Guard