May 2008

Volume 7, 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.

A Polish tank commander salutes as his unit passes in review during a ceremony in Scotland prior to deployment to Normandy. Polish units made a significant contribution to the Allied offensive in Western Europe. (National Archives)

WWII History

Poles in the West: Fighting in the Falaise Pocket

By Major General Michael Reynolds

The dismemberment of Poland by the German and Soviet armies in September and early October 1939 saw the temporary destruction of the Polish armed forces. Read more

Crewmen of an American submarine go about their business as their craft heads out on another combat patrol. U.S. submarines decimated Japanese merchant shipping in the Pacific and also sank a number of enemy warships during the course of the war.

WWII History

Darter & Dace at the Battle of Leyte Gulf

By David Alan Johnson

As soon as he arrived on the bridge of the submarine USS Dace, Lt. Cmdr. Rafael C. Read more

Rolling across a muddy field in France, the Sherman tank of Sergeant Harvey Woodward and his crew heads for the front. Shortly after this photograph was taken, the tank was hit by enemy fire and the entire crew killed.

WWII History

Patton’s Panthers: The Story of the 761st Tank Battalion

By Charles W. Sasser

In the Academy Award-winning film Patton, the setting was all wrong when actor George C. Scott delivered General George S. Read more

WWII History, Dispatches

More on Patton’s Dyslexia

Dear Editor,

Please allow me to express my displeasure concerning the article in the January 2008 issue, “A Life Shaped by Dyslexia” by Jeansonne et al. Read more

Sitting atop their Stuart light tanks, soldiers of the 761st wait for orders to enter the town of Coburg, Germany, to clean out pockets of stubborn German resistance.

WWII History, Editorial

Segregation in the U.S. Military: Ruben Rivers

By Michael Haskew

On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order No. 9981, which stated in part, “It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.” Read more

WWII History

The Thunder of Operation Gallop

By Pat McTaggart

As Adolf Hitler’s vaunted Sixth Army lay in its death throes in the ruins of Stalingrad, German forces to the west of the city faced their own kind of hell. Read more

WWII History, Ordnance

Iron Annie: The Junkers Ju-52

By William E. Welsh

Shortly before dawn on May 20, 1941, a flight of 500 transport planes took off from seven airstrips on mainland Greece. Read more

Marching along on the Eastern Front at the head of his men, SS officer Leon Degrelle was a foreign-born politician who became a decorated military leader and saw extensive combat with German forces in World War II.

WWII History, Profiles

Was Leon Degrelle a Traitor of Belgium, or a German Army Hero?

By Richard Rule

Leon Degrelle was born in 1906 in Belgium to a prosperous family in the French-speaking region of Wallonia. Read more

WWII History, Top Secret

WWII Secrets: The Mysterious Inga Arvad

By Peter Kross

Shortly before Pearl Harbor, an attractive Danish journalist arrived in the United States to pursue a writing career. Read more

Soldiers drive jeeps onto waiting LCTs at a British port in preparation for the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944.

WWII History, Insight

The D-Day Invasion: The Road to Operation Overlord

By Michael D. Hull

Soon after the tattered British Expeditionary Force was miraculously rescued from Dunkirk in June 1940, planners at the War Office in London began dreaming of returning to the German-occupied European continent. Read more

WWII History, Books

Tragedy and Courage in a Storm-Tossed Sea

By Mason B. Webb

In mid-December 1944, between Guam and the Philippines, the greatest enemy Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey’s Third Fleet encountered was not the Japanese but a monstrous typhoon—the largest storm the U.S. Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Shoot your way through World War II in three new games.

By Eric T. Baker

If you have children, there is a good chance that you also have a Wii. And if you have a Wii, you’ve probably played tennis on it, and maybe even gone fishing, but you probably have not played a war game on the console, or if you have, it may have been Medal of Honor Vanguard, previously the best war game available on the Wii. Read more

May 2008

From Around the Network

A Letter from a Bastogne Foxhole

Viking Father & Son: Erik the Red & Leif Eriksson

At the Costly Anzio Beachhead

Allied Air Retribution