May 2009

Volume 8, No. 3

Cover: A French soldier mans a machine gun on the Western Front, France, December 1939. © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS.

May 2009

WWII History

A Soviet Red Army Victory at Vienna

By Major General Michael Reynolds

In mid-March 1945, the Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Red Army launched a major offensive with the aim of clearing Axis forces out of Hungary and forcing them back to the very borders of Hitler’s Greater German Reich. Read more

May 2009

WWII History

Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa)’s Triumph

By Blaine Taylor

It was fated to be the last wartime conference of the Big Three Allies of World War II, but it was the first not attended by the late American President Franklin D. Read more

May 2009

WWII History

They Also Served

By Kevin M. Hymel

When it came to the global war against tyranny, America’s blacks would not be denied a stake in the action. Read more

May 2009

WWII History, Editorial

The German Cruiser Königsberg

By Michael E. Haskew

When the German invasion of Norway was set in motion on April 9, 1940, much of the planning for the event had been done on a shoestring. Read more

May 2009

WWII History

The Battle of Surigao Strait

Dear Editor:

In the December 2008 issue, Mr. David Johnson does a very good job of retelling the story of the only time American battleships engaged and sank their opposite numbers from Japan. Read more

May 2009

WWII History, Profiles

Subhas Chandra Bose: Champion of Indian Nationalism

By Blaine Taylor

When British diplomat Lord Halifax arrived at the Berghof in the Bavarian Alps on November 19, 1937, he mistook German Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler for a footman and was about to hand him his coat and hat when Foreign Minister Baron Constantin von Neurath hissed, “The Führer! Read more

May 2009

WWII History, Ordnance

The Odyssey of the Australian Destroyer HMAS Vendetta

By Glenn Barnett

On October 20, 1941, the Australian destroyer Vendetta weighed anchor in the port of Alexandria, Egypt. After spending nearly two years supporting the Royal Navy in the fight for control of the Mediterranean Sea, the aging engines of the busy warship could no longer give her the speed needed to escort convoys, screen the fleet, or dodge dive- bombers. Read more

May 2009

WWII History, Insight

The Generals’ Battle: British War Minister Leslie Hore-Belisha

By Jon Diamond

Lord John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort, Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France in 1940, and his chief of staff, General Henry Pownall, have both been forever associated with the British Army’s greatest continental defeat; namely, the retreat through Flanders and eventual evacuation from the harbor and beaches of Dunkirk in May and June, after being engaged with the invading German Wehrmacht for only three weeks. Read more

May 2009

WWII History, Top Secret

OSS Bugatti: Fighting Alongside the Maquis

By John Mancini

The tempo of war planning intensified for the invasion of Europe during the early months of 1944. Finally, at daylight on June 6, 1944, Allied infantry stormed ashore along the German-held Normandy coast. Read more

May 2009

WWII History, Books

Countdown to Pearl Harbor

By Mason B. Webb

“I do believe that the United States fleet would not have been in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, had I been the chief of naval operations at that time.” Read more