October 2016

Volume 15, No. 6

Cover: Private Nicholas Pappas of the 9th Infantry Division advances toward a pillbox along the Siegfried Line. See story page 58. Photo: National Archives

October 2016

WWII History

Behind Enemy Lines: Escape at the Bulge

By Jay Marquart

The sound of German artillery shells shrieking overhead from across the Siegfried Line was not the wakeup call Technical Sergeant Robert Walter of 3rd Platoon, L Company, 3rd Battalion, 393rd Infantry Regiment expected to receive on the morning of December 16, 1944.  Read more

October 2016

WWII History

Deadly Dash Forward

By Gene Eric Salecker

By the time the attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II, Japan had been preparing for an all-out offensive in the Pacific for months. Read more

October 2016

WWII History

Mishap at Maleme

By Jon Diamond

Brigadier Leslie Andrew, VC, DSO, was born in New Zealand on March 24, 1897. He served his country and the British Empire during both world wars. Read more

October 2016

WWII History

Cracking the Geilenkirchen Salient

By Nathan Prefer

Geilenkirchen had been a thorn in the side of the Allies ever since the first penetration of the Siegfried Line had been made just to the south. Read more

October 2016

WWII History, Ordnance

Saga of the Eggbeater

By Mark Albertson

On September 14, 1939, Igor Sikorsky attained stability and control with the initial flight of an open cockpit test bed known as the VS-300. Read more

October 2016

WWII History, Profiles

Bomber Command Pathfinder

By Bruce Petty

Alan George was born in 1918 and was fourth-generation New Zealander. His great grandparents arrived in New Plymouth in 1841 from Cornwall, England, aboard the 506-ton ship Oriental. Read more

October 2016

WWII History, Insight

North Atlantic Odyssey

By Earl Rickard

Joseph A. Gainard, captain of the American freighter City of Flint, hated to threaten his crew with piracy; the men were only reacting as any sailors would to the seizure of their ship by a foreign power. Read more

October 2016

WWII History, Top Secret

Sinking the Bismarck Myth

By Mark Carlson

In 1960 Twentieth Century Fox released the film Sink the Bismarck! Based on C.S. Forrester’s bestselling book The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck, the documentary-style film tells a gripping and reasonably factual account of the most famous sea chase in history. Read more

October 2016

WWII History, Books

Missed Opportunity

By Christopher Miskimon

In early April 1942, the Royal Navy was preparing for the worst in the Indian Ocean. Prior to the war this body of water was akin to an English lake, so much of it bordering Imperial territory and patrolled by its warships. Read more

October 2016

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Fury Software Digs into Classic Hex-Based World War II Strategy

By Joseph Luster

When it comes to strategy games, it doesn’t get more classic than top-down, hex-based maps. That’s the style developer Fury Software (Global Conflict, WWI Breakthrough, Assault on Communism, and many more in the Strategic Command series) is aiming to return to with Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe. Read more

October 2016

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

We Check in on Driven Arts’ Successfully Crowdfunded Shooter

By Joseph Luster

We recently covered Driven Arts’ Days of War, a project that aims to deliver a “fiercely competitive shooter in a visually stunning WWII environment” and takes inspiration from Day of Defeat: Source, a team-based first-person WWII shooter from Valve (Half-Life, Team Fortress, Portal, Left 4 Dead) that originally hit PC back in 2005. Read more