Summer 2026 Archives

WWII History, Editorial

The Battle for North Africa

By John F. Murphy,Jr.

When Rashid Ali seized power in Baghdad in 1941, his coup provided Nazi Germany with a key piece of its world strategy for victory. Read more

WWII History, Profiles

Junior J. Spurrier: “One-Man Army” BAR Gunner

By Edward F. Murphy

The heavy staccato thumping of a Browning Automatic Rifle echoed throughout the small French village. “Who’s doing all that firing?” Read more

A Douglas B-18 Bolo—rechristened the Digby Mk.I in Canadian service—soars through the skies of World War II in this painting by Standa Hájek. Overshadowed by more famous heavy bombers, these rugged aircraft served as the backbone of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols.

WWII History, Ordnance

The Digby Mk.I: RAF U-boat Killer

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Seaman Franz Machon was enjoying a smoke on deck when lookouts sounded the alarm. “Enemy aircraft!” they shouted before dropping down inside their vessel, a German Type IXC submarine named U-512. Read more

During the 1945 liberation of the Philippines, the 25th Infantry Division faced stiff resistance in the mountains near Baguio. Here, a flame-throwing team works in tandem to shutter a Japanese pillbox during the height of the Luzon campaign.

WWII History, Insight

The Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) Command

By Marc C. Jeter

Analyzing war and its outcomes remains an important exercise—for tactical, political, humanitarian and a whole host of other reasons—though not all critics or analysts will agree on the ideas that emerge from such scholarship. Read more

WWII History, Books

Eight World War II Book Reviews for Summer 2026

By Kevin Seabrooke Full Reviews

Ghosts of Sicily: The True Story of the Naval Intelligence Agents Who Courted the Mob to Fight Nazis in America and the Battlefields of Italy (Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, Harper Select, New York, NY, 304 pp., Read more

WWII History

Foxhole Airborne

By Joseph Luster

For those just joining us in the ‘hole, the elevator pitch is war on a massively-multiplayer scale, with players zooming in close to control individual soldiers that each have their own crucial role to play in battle. Read more

WWII History, SImulation Gaming

Over the Top: WWI

By Joseph Luster

Dialing things back a moment from WWII, let’s enter the trenches of WWI with the help of a recently-launched contender known as Over the Top: WWI. Read more

German Fallschirmjägers (Paratroopers) in an entrenched machine-gun position await the advancing Allied forces in Normandy’s le Bocage in the summer of 1944.

WWII History

Hell In The Hedgerows

By Bill Warnock

Rudolf Jackl dove headfirst from the aircraft door, stretching his arms toward the ship’s port wing to keep from getting tangled in his parachute’s shroud lines as he was slammed by turbulent air. Read more

This illustration shows Britain’s “desert workhorse,” the Valentine Mk. III navigating the heat of North African combat in WWII. Though celebrated for its mechanical grit and reliability in the sand, the tank’s 2-pounder gun eventually proved inadequate. Large numbers of “Valentines” were later shipped to the Soviet Union to bolster the Eastern Front.

WWII History

Bitter Road to Tobruk

By Michael D. Hull

When powerful German forces stormed through the Low Countries and France was about to fall in the late spring of 1940, Great Britain faced the darkest hour in its history. Read more

A 12th Armored Division GI stands guard over a group of surrendering Wehrmacht soldiers in April 1945. Manpower shortages forced the U.S. Army to retrain soldiers in service units—including African-Americans—as combat riflemen in 1945.

WWII History

Ending the Divide

By David H. Lippman

Three German armies surprised the Allies by breaking across the Our River and storming into the Ardennes on December 16, 1944. Read more

Staff Sergeant Audie Murphy races through the set of a war-torn village in a scene from the the 1955 autobiographical film, To Hell and Back, based on his 1949 memoirs of the same name. Murphy, the most decorated U.S. soldier of World War II earned 33 awards, decorations, and citations—including the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, Legion of Merit, two Bronze Star Medals (one with a “V” device), three Purple Hearts, a French Legion of Honour and a French Croix de Guerre with silver star—played himself in the film.

WWII History

Through the Vosges

By Daniel R. Champagne

On the morning of October 3, 1944, an all-out assault was launched to drive the enemy from Cleurie Quarry in northeast France. Read more

WWII History

The Dawn of Destruction

By John Wukovitz

The seaplane tender USS Tangier floated at its moorings that peaceful day at Pearl Harbor. Little disrupted the serenity of the beautiful Sunday morning. 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

Summer 2026

From Around the Network

The Bulgarian Legion

Frankish Disaster in Saxony

Queen Boudicca exacts her revenge against the Romans in a new Rome at War game.

Adolf Hitler’s Brush with Death in World War I