October 2023 Archives

WWII History

Fighting 80th Division at Bastogne

By Leon Reed

In a letter to his fiancée, Betty Craig, on December 16, 1944, from Helleringen, France, newly promoted Staff Sergeant Frank Lembo of Company B, 305th Engineer Combat Battalion, 80th Division, wrote of a battalion show the night before, complete with Red Cross girls serving donuts and the division band; an upcoming dance; doing laundry; and other pastimes of a soldier experiencing a period of reserve status. Read more

WWII History

B-25 Mitchell Medium Bomber: ‘Big Gun’ of the Mediterranean

By Mark Carlson

There is no disputing what the North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber contributed to the Allied victory in World War II. Read more

During the crucial Battle of Stalingrad, a German Sturmgeschutz III self-propelled assault gun rumbles across the snow covered landscape while Wehrmacht soldiers hitch a ride.

WWII History

Stalingrad: Battle in the Cauldron

By David H. Lippman

The imperious ringing of a field telephone broke up the meeting that General Vasili Chuikov was holding with his exhausted 62nd Army staff in their dugouts in Stalingrad. Read more

American sailors crowd the deck of the Japanese submarine I-14, tied up to the submarine tender USS Proteus. The object of their curiosity is the Japanese submarine I-400, which surrendered in Tokyo Bay in September 1945. Type B-1 submarines like the I-35 were the first Japanese cruisers with a surface range of 16,000 miles. The I-400 class, with a range of 43,123 miles, were the largest conventional submarines ever built. They were not eclipsed in size until the introduction of nuclear ballistic missile submarines in the 1960s.

WWII History

The Sinking of I-35

By Peter McQuarrie

In the autumn of 1943, the U.S. Navy had regained strength after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and plans were made for a big offensive in the Pacific. Read more

The Kriegsmarine pocket battleship Admiral Scheer is photographed from the deck of the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen en route to Norway during Operation Cerberus—the “Channel Dash”—in February 1942. Aircraft recognition markings are visible on the deck of Prinz Eugen, as is a portable 20mm antiaircraft gun mounted further aft.

WWII History

Operation Cerberus: The Kriegsmarine ‘Channel Dash’

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Battleships,” said Adolf Hitler, “have had their day.”

In a military conference held December 29, 1941, Hitler took time to remind those in attendance that not so many months ago the Bismarck went down with all but 115 of her 2,200 crewmen after a 100-hour sea battle. Read more

WWII History, Editorial

An Execution That Lingers

The photograph is brutal, harsh, and unsettling. The death of Sergeant Leonard George Siffleet occurred on October 24, 1943. Eighty years ago, Siffleet was bound and blindfolded, transported to the beach at Aitape, New Guinea, after two weeks of torture and mistreatment at the hands of his Japanese captors. Read more

WWII History, Profiles

Up through the Ranks

By Nathan N. Prefer

He was one of only two soldiers in the United States Army to rise from private to four-star general and to command one of the largest armies in America’s biggest conflict. Read more

Tanks of the German Army’s 17th Panzer Regiment, 19th Panzer Division advance through Belarus on June 25, 1941, three days after the launch of Operation Barbarossa. These tanks are Panzer 38(t) models, made in Czechoslovakia and pressed into Nazi service with Hitler’s occupation of the country.

WWII History, Ordnance

Czech Tanks Gave Nazis Early Edge

By Arnold Blumberg

In March 1939, Adolf Hitler dissolved the Republic of Czechoslovak, incorporating its lands into the Third Reich. As a consequence, much military equipment fell into the hands of the Wehrmacht, including 469 armored fighting vehicles. Read more