A civilian with a fire hose (right) races to try and extinguish a burning house while a 10th Armored Division Sherman tank with a 76mm main gun rolls through the German town of Grosswald, in the Saarland. By war’s end, the 10th Armored, known as both the “Tigers” and the “Armoraiders,” had traveled 600 miles through five countries, seized 410 towns and cities, and taken 56,000 prisoners.

Winter 2022

Volume 13, No. 2

Cover: During the amphibious assault on Sicily, July 11, 1943,
Lt. Gen. George S. Patton personally helped repel an Axis attack against the town of Gela.
Photo: Imperial War Museum.

WWII Quarterly, Editorial

The Legacy of Justice Jackson

A few weeks ago, I was able to take a long-delayed summer vacation, this time to New England, where I took in the Maine Maritime Museum and Bath Iron Works (where many American warships were constructed in WWII—and are still being built). Read more

Real paratroopers or fake? The Allies were inspired to use dummy parachutists from the Germans, who deployed decoys during their 1940 attack on the Belgian fortress of Eben-Emael. (Shown here are real Americans during Operation Market Garden.)

WWII Quarterly, Top Secret

Operations Titanic’s Paradummies

By Richard L. Baker

Using parachutes to insert large forces behind enemy lines quickly fostered the idea of also using decoys to sow doubt and confusion. Read more

As museum visitors emerge from the trench-like entrance of the Nation Overseas Gallery, cast figures, lighting effects, imagery, and sounds of distant battle recreate a setting based on a famous photograph of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

WWII Quarterly, Museums

The long-awaited National Museum of the U.S. Army is a stunning tribute to America’s oldest branch of service.

by LTC Adam Morgan

After many years of planning, fundraising and construction, the spectacular, long-awaited National Museum of the United States Army was finally opened on Veterans Day, 2020, promptly shut down due to Coronavirus restrictions, and has reopened. Read more

WWII Quarterly

Patton’s War for Sicily’s Beaches

By Kevin M. Hymel

“Only God and the Navy can do anything until we hit the shore,” Lt. Gen. George S. Read more

A frightening sight to the Japanese: the underbelly of a B-29 Superfortress. Some 4,000 of the giant bombers were produced during the war. One of the last two flyable examples is “Fifi,” which was delivered to the USAAF in 1945. It was purchased in 1971, restored, and is flown today by the Commemorative Air Force. It is based at the Vintage Flying Museum at Meacham International Airport in Fort Worth, Texas.

WWII Quarterly

Flaming Death in Tokyo

By Nathan N. Prefer

Despite his nickname, General Henry Harley (“Hap”) Arnold was unhappy. In early 1945 he was having major problems with one of his own special projects, the development of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress strategic bomber, for which he had often risked his career. Read more

A little girl hands a flower to a lieutenant of the 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, as flag-waving Luxembourgers welcome the liberating Yanks to their village, September 1944. Unfortunately, the celebration was premature; the Germans launched a counteroffensive that became known as the Battle of the Bulge three months later and nearly drove the Americans out of Luxembourg. Tom Myers was a soldier in the 110th Infantry whose unit was caught up in the chaos.

WWII Quarterly

The Fight for Weiler

By Allyn Vannoy

IN a house in a small, nameless Belgian village, 26-year-old Sergeant Tom Myers, a newly assigned member of the 5th Armored Division, was upstairs changing his filthy uniform for a fresh one. Read more

WWII Quarterly

Tigers on the Prowl

By Mason B. Webb

During World War II, the United States fielded 16 armored divisions, and all contributed to the Allied victory. Read more

Soviet soldiers storm the ruins of School # 6 in a photpgraph by Russian newspaper photographer Georgy Zelma.

WWII Quarterly

Stalingrad: Apocalypse on the Volga

By John Walker

After Adolf Hitler’s audacious invasion of Russia finally ground to a halt in December 1941 on the forested outskirts of Moscow, the exhausted German Army stabilized its winter front in a line running roughly from Leningrad in the north to Rostov in the south. Read more

WWII Quarterly

Operation Crusader at Sidi Rezegh—Siege of Tobruk

By Thomas Haymes

By the end of the second day visibility was reduced to almost zero. Burning hulks of everything from ME-109s to M3 “Honey” tanks, Panzer IIIHs, and trucks of all descriptions littered the battleground that was once an airfield. Read more

Soviet tanks and infantrymen advance into the smoking ruins of Königsberg. The city fell on April 9, 1945. OPPOSITE: Red Air Force Ilyushin IL-2 fighters fly uncontested over Königsberg, April 1945. Such planes strafed columns of refugees and attacked defenseless ships packed with evacuees.

WWII Quarterly

Operation Hannibal: The Third Reich’s Last Hurrah

By Dr. Richard Selcer

As Soviet armies threatened Berlin in February 1945, Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels promised the German people that the capital would be defended to the last stone and the last man. Read more

Winter 2022

From Around the Network

Eisenhower, Marshall, and MacArthur

USS Indianapolis: Gallant Ship, Tragic End

Snared in a Prussian Trap

Bravery in Embattled Bastogne