October 2020

Volume 19, No. 6

Cover: Sergeant Audie Murphy poses for a promotional photo during filming of the Holywood movie, “To Hell and Back.” The film was based on Murphy’s exploits during World War II.
Photo: Alamy

WWII History

Audie Murphy: Most Highly Decorated

By Michael D. Hull

Short, slightly built, baby-faced, and soft-spoken, Audie L. Murphy of Texas was far removed from the popular image of a warrior or hero. Read more

German infantrymen march past a PzKpfw. III tank that has momentarily halted during the rapid advance of the Wehrmacht through France and the Low Countries in the spring of 1940. The German onslaught on May 10 shattered the uneasy months of peace that had been labeled the ‘Phony War.’

WWII History

Dunkirk: Debacle in the West

by Matt Broggie

Tanks—seven divisions of them concentrated at one point, the weakest position in the Western defenses—that was what did it.” Read more

WWII History

The Nazi March on Baghdad

By John F. Murphy, Jr.

With Rommel driving on Egypt and the British pushed out of Greece, a sudden pro-Nazi coup d’état in Iraq lay rich oil fields and more at Germany’s feet. Read more

WWII History

Just after midnight on February 9, 1945, across the diamond-shaped mass of forest, hills, and flooded terrain that defined the Reichswald, rain fell in a steady downpour upon a battlefield that had already seen some of the most ferocious fighting of World War II in Western Europe. Read more

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the cruiser USS Pensacola was caught up in the confusion of the early days of American involvement in World War II while escorting troops and materiel to the Philippines. In this photo a convoy of ships assembles for a hazardous wartime voyage.

WWII History

Alone at Sea

By Glenn Barnett

The American military presence in China, which stretched back to the 1850s, came to an abrupt end in November 1941. Read more

WWII History, Editorial

General Jonathan M. Wainwright survived the privations of captivity at the hands of the Japanese.

Amid the great assembly of senior Allied officers who stood by while the representatives of the Japanese government and those of the victors of World War II in the Pacific signed the instrument of surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, two of the most unlikely attendees waited solemnly to step forward. Read more

WWII History, Ordnance

The Allies’ Armored Workhorse

By Michael D. Hull

Early on the gray, chilly afternoon of Tuesday, December 26, 1944, a column of mud-stained Sherman medium tanks, armored cars, and half-tracks of the U.S. Read more

WWII History, Profile

Konstantin Rokossovsky: Marshal of Two Historic Enemies

By Blaine Taylor

The year was 1944, and the embattled Soviet Union’s top-level field commanders were meeting in conclave to discuss Operation Bagration, an upcoming offensive against the retreating German Army. Read more

WWII History, Top Secret

Suppressing the E-boats

By Phil Zimmer

A wily British scientist, a secret weapon, and a daring daytime Bombing raid helped break the back of the deadly German E-boat attacks on the Allied ships that supported the early D-Day landings at Normandy. Read more

WWII History, Books

Naval Showdown in the Solomons

By Christopher Miskimon

The First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal began with a delay. Shortly before 1:30 am on November 13, 1942, the American cruiser USS Helena spotted a Japanese task force: “Radar contact. Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Change WWII History With a Toy-Soldier Style Battle for the Ages, and Take the Fight to the Tabletop

By Joseph Luster

For a World War II simulator with a surprisingly colorful twist, developer Noobz from Poland recently came through with the aptly titled Total Tank Simulator. Read more

October 2020

From Around the Network

Operation Willi: The Nazi Plot to Kidnap the Duke of Windsor

Joseph Plumb Martin: Revolutionary War Soldier In The Continental Army

Seven Meetings to D-Day

Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History