Winter 2015

Volume 6, No. 2

COVER: A U.S. paratrooper prepares to exit his transport plane for a U.S. Army publicity photo.
Photo: National Archives

American soldiers move through La Roche, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge. Task Force Hogan reached La Roche on December 19, 1944, and Hogan’s men made a stand along with an assault-gun platoon in defense of the town. The remainder of Hogan’s command kept moving northward.

WWII Quarterly, Editorial

A Letter from a Bastogne Foxhole

With 2014 being the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, I wanted to share something from a close family friend our son’s age. Read more

WWII Quarterly, Personalities

Against the Odds: Jeanette Rankin

By Martin K.A. Morgan

An Associated Press report described “a chorus of hisses and boos” that echoed through the chamber when the Congresswoman from Montana cast her vote. Read more

WWII Quarterly, Museums

La Gleize Battle of the Bulge Museum

By Michel De Trez

There is no shortage of museums in the Belgian Ardennes to record the region’s dark winter of World War II. Read more

WWII Quarterly

How Pearl Harbor Happened

By Richard G. Higgins

Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, strike leader for Operation Hawaii and 20-year veteran of the Imperial Japanese Navy (Kaigun), strapped himself into the observer’s seat as his Nakajima B5N2 “Kate” torpedo bomber, piloted by Lieutenant Mitsuo Matsuzaki, and lifted off from the carrier Akagi on the black morning of December 7, 1941. Read more

WWII Quarterly

On a Wing and Several Prayers: The Story of a B-17 Tailgunner

By Glenn Barnett

On August 25, 1944, Larry Stevens and the rest of his Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber crew completed their 35th mission over Nazi-occupied Europe. Read more

WWII Quarterly

The Nevada and I Survived the War

By Charles T. Sehe

I am of Polish, Irish, and American Indian descent and grew up in the small (population 3,800) northern Illinois town of Geneva. Read more

WWII Quarterly

The WW2 Paratrooper: First-Hand Accounts of the D-Day Invasion

By Kevin M. Hymel

What was it like to be a WW2 paratrooper, parachuting into Normandy in the opening minutes of June 6, 1944—D-Day? Read more

May 1944: Chinese troops advance through the streets of the ancient city of Tengchung, held by the Japanese for two years. The Japanese garrison at Tengchung was wiped out.

WWII Quarterly

The Salween Offensive: Blundering to Success in Burma

By Marc D. Bernstein

After launching an invasion of Burma (today Myanmar) not long after Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Army went on to overrun much of China by May 1942 and closed the Burma Road—the vital, 717-mile-long mountain highway built in 1937-1938 that ran from Kunming in southern China to the Burmese border. Read more

WWII Quarterly

The U.S. 3rd, 5th, and 4th Marine Divisions: Uncommon Valor at Iwo Jima

By Nathan N. Prefer

“You know,” said Marine Maj. Gen. Clifton B. Cates to a war correspondent on the eve of Operation Detachment, the invasion of Iwo Jima, “if I knew the name of the man on the extreme right of the right-hand squad of the right-hand company of the right-hand battalion, I’d recommend him for a medal before we go in.” Read more

Winter 2015

From Around the Network

A Brief History of the British Commandos

World of Diving Game Review

Hitler’s blunder resulted in a devastating defeat for the German Army on the Eastern Front.

The Guns of Finger Ridge: Airborne Artillery on the Defense in Market-Garden