Winter 2025

Volume 23, No. 4

Cover: A Marine lobs a grenade while searching for enemy troops on Iwo Jima. The dangerous task of rooting out diehard Japanese troops later fell to soldiers of the 147th Infantry Regiment.

Major Charity Adams and Captain Abbie Campbell inspect the ranks of the 6888th Central Postal Battalion in England. The WACs of the battalion were proud of their service record in Europe.

WWII History, Editorial

The Six Triple Eight Big Screen Debut

After years in obscurity, the story of the 6888th Postal Directory Battalion is coming to selected theaters and to Netflix in December with the release of the feature film, The Six Triple Eight. Read more

WWII History, Profiles

Draper Kauffman’s Underwater Demolition Team

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Lieutenant Commander Draper Kauffman was crawling across a moonlit beach on enemy-held Tinian Island when he first noticed the sound of voices. Read more

WWII History, Ordnance

The Fate of the USS Sculpin

By Richard Camp

Two days after receiving intelligence on the route of an important enemy convoy, the USS Sculpin (Sargo-class submarine SS-191) made radar contact with the Japanese ships near the Caroline Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean. Read more

WWII History, Insight

Private SNAFU

By Peter Zablocki

Bumbling Army Private Snafu was the title character of a series of 26 short cartoons sanctioned by the U.S. Read more

WWII History, Top Secret

The Jablunkov Incident

By Peter Zablocki

At around 9:30 p.m. on August 25, 1939, a German Opel staff car burst into the courtyard of the temporary headquarters of the Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) near the Slovakian and Polish border. Read more

WWII History, Books

Seven World War II Book Reviews for Winter 2025

By Christopher Miskimon Full Reviews

The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini and Hitler–How War Made Them and How They Made War (Phillips Payson O’Brien, Dutton Books, New York NY, 2024, 544 pp., Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

World War Armies

By Joseph Luster

In the realm of competitive World War II games, there are plenty of options out there for folks who want to go head-to-head against like-minded wargamers. Read more

WWII History, Simulation Gaming

Classified: France ’44 (DLC)

By Joseph Luster

It didn’t take long for Classified: France ‘44 to add to its base game with some expansions, and the second DLC touched down back in May 2024. Read more

WWII History

Operation Olive: Autumn Assault in Italy

By Allyn Vannoy

Allied forces had been fighting their way up the Italian peninsula since landing at Salerno on September 9, 1943. Read more

WWII History

Hollywood Delivers The story of the 6888th Battalion

By D.C. Montana

When Hollywood’s Tyler Perry heard a story about the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the U.S. Army’s only all-female, all-Black unit of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) to go overseas in World War II, he knew he had to make a movie about it. Read more

A group of medics around a seriously wounded soldier perform an emergency foot amputation. Medics saved many lives on and near the battlefield during World War II.

WWII History

Medics: Battlefield Mercy

By Allyn Vannoy

Men of the Medical Detachment of the 2nd Battalion, 274th Infantry Regiment, 70th Infantry Division, arrived in France in December 1944, and within days found themselves in action in Alsace-Lorraine as the unit was sent to help blunt the German offensive—Operation Nordwind. Read more

WWII History

Hell at 21,000 Feet

By Patrick J. Chaisson

Four miles above the snow-covered city of Steyr, Captain Jack Horner peered down through his Norden bombsight in a desperate attempt to identify the target. Read more