October 2022 Archives

A platoon of the green U.S. 106th Infantry Division trudges through a Belgian woodland. Although they were told that they would occupy a quiet sector of the Western Front in December 1944, the Golden Lions were soon in the teeth of the Battle of the Bulge.

WWII History

Tough Stand of the Golden Lions

By Nathan N. Prefer

When the men of the newly arrived 106th Infantry “Golden Lions” Division arrived on the front lines near St. Read more

This reproduction Soviet Yakovlev Yak-3 fighter aircraft is painted in the colors of the Normandie Niemen and is an accurate representation of the type piloted by Roger Sauvage.

WWII History

Roger Sauvage & Normandie Niemen

By Glenn Barnett and André Bernole

Roger Sauvage was born in Paris in 1917 to a white Parisian woman and a black soldier from Martinique. Read more

American infantrymen enter the war-ravaged French town of Argentan during the effort to trap thousands of retreating German troops in the Falaise Pocket during the final stages of the Normandy Campaign in 1944. The fighting around Argentan was the baptism of fire for the U.S. 80th Infantry Division.

WWII History

The 80th Division’s Baptism By Fire

By Patrick J. Chaisson

As a late summer sun finally dipped below the horizon, Captain William L. Koob, Jr., came to realize that his unit had been abandoned on the battlefield. Read more

Fighting men of the 92nd Infantry Division, the famed Buffalo Soldiers, march past the wreckage of a knocked out PzKpfw. VI Tiger tank in the vicinity of Ponsacco, Italy. The African-American soldiers of the 92nd Division fought racial injustice in their own army, as well as the Germans.

WWII History

The Brave Buffalo Soldiers

By Michael D. Hull

Despite their gallant service in the Civil War, on the Western frontier, and in the Spanish-American War, black soldiers were used mostly for labor and given only a limited fighting role when the U.S. Read more

Following one of many harrowing Luftwaffe raids against London, rescue workers comb through the rubble of a structure looking for survivors. The people of London and other British cities endured many nights of bombing during the Blitz of 1940-1941.

WWII History

Night of Devastation

By David Alan Johnson

The first word of the incoming Luftwaffe raid arrived at about 10:45 p.m. on the night of Saturday, May 10, 1941. Read more

WWII History, Editorial

The meatgrinder of the Hürtgen Forest bedeviled American forces in the autumn of 1944.

Seventy-eight years ago, the U.S. First Army was embroiled in the longest battle of World War II fought on German soil. Read more

Smoke billows from distant fires and a German shell explodes on the beach at Dunkirk as Allied soldiers await evacuation from the east mole or directly into the surf in Operation Dynamo, May-June 1940.

WWII History, Profile

Captain George Tennant, Dunkirk Architect

By Jon Diamond

As aptly stated by historian Max Hastings in his book Warriors, “the leaders most readily admired by fellow-soldiers are those who seem committed to do their duty, and also to bring every possible man home alive.” Read more

Fw-190D-13/R11, named ‘Yellow Ten,” was flown by Franz Götz of JG-26. Götz is shown preparing to surrender at the Luftwaffe airbase at Flensburg near the Danish frontier in the spring of 1945 after the airfield was captured by advancing Allied forces. The original plane has been restored and now resides in the collection of the Champlin Fighter Museum. Painting by Jack Fellows.

WWII History, Ordnance

The Luftwaffe’s Sturmvogel

By David H. Lippman

An American advertising poster for one of their bombers showed a cartoon of a smiling pilot over the captioned question, “Who’s afraid of the big Focke-Wulf?” Read more

WWII History, Insight

Defeat from the Jaws of Victory?

By Mark Carlson

With all it had going for it, how did Germany manage to lose World War II? There are many answers to this deceptively simple question, including the obvious one that the Allies had the technical and industrial advantage. Read more

This artist’s rendering depicts the proposed aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy made out of ice, and its relative size compared to the aircraft carrier HMS Indefatigable.

WWII History, Top Secret

Back-room Genius of World War II

By Frank Johnson

While the Battle of Britain raged and a German invasion was feared in the sunny, tense summer of 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill took time to create an organization that would exemplify his offensive spirit, his love of gadgets and innovations, and his use of cronies. Read more

WWII History, Books

Sprechen sie Deutsch?

By Christopher Miskimon

Gottfried Kurt “Joe” Guennel’s family escaped Germany just after Hitler and his Nazi Party came into power in 1934. Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Commandos 3 – HD Remaster

By Joseph Luster

It’s time to return to the world of Commandos once again. The vaunted series previously had a pair of respected remasters to its name, and now another is on the way in the form of Commandos 3 – HD Remaster. Read more

October 2022

From Around the Network

Bloody Encounter at Hell’s Point: The Story of Al Schmid

Charles de Gaulle seized the opportunity to oppose the Nazis and assert political control in France.

Mark Lee Gardner’s ‘The Earth is All that’s Lasts’

Franz von Papen: Vice Chancellor of Nazi Germany