WWII Quarterly

Fall 2014

Volume 6, No. 1

COVER: A U.S. Marine looks over the remains of a Japanese soldier killed during brutal fighting on Guadalcanal.

Photo: National Archives

Seeking cover from incoming German artillery shells on June 6, 1944, men of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division run for the chapel in the town of Ste-Mère-Église.

Fall 2014

WWII Quarterly, Editorial

Getting Goosebumps

This year I feel deeply honored to have been chosen by the Smithsonian Institution to lead three 70th anniversary D-Day trips to England and France (one took place in May; the other two are scheduled to take place in September and October). Read more

Fall 2014

WWII Quarterly, Technology

Operation Aphrodite

By Mason B. Webb

When it came to advanced military technology in World War II, arguably no one was better at it than Nazi Germany, whose scientists Adolf Hitler keep busy trying to invent the ultimate “super weapon” capable of defeating his enemies. Read more

Fall 2014

WWII Quarterly, Weapons

The Dachau Memorial

By Mark D. Van Ells

The Nazi regime in Germany has become synonymous with inhuman cruelty. Hitler incarcerated millions in his concentration camps and inflicted on his victims the harshest forms of torture and deprivation imaginable. Read more

Fall 2014

WWII Quarterly

The Sinking of Scharnhorst

By Robert Barr Smith

She was a beautiful ship, long and sleek and very fast. She was christened Scharnhorst,named for Prussian General Gerhard Scharnhorst,one of the revered founders of the Prussian Army. Read more

Fall 2014

WWII Quarterly

A Company K in the Pacific: From Guadalcanal to Peleliu

By Jason Abady

In April 1942, a group of young Marines, having recently graduated from Officers Candidate School, arrived at New River, North Carolina, a sprawling tent city that stretched over a vast area and would eventually become known as Camp Lejeune. Read more