Adolf Hitler

Operation Greif and Otto “Scarface” Skorzeny

With a quarter of a million German troops pouring through the Ardennes Forest, three Americans fleeing in a jeep should have raised no alarm. Read more

Adolf Hitler

War Machines: The Failure of German Mechanization in WWII

“Hitler’s generals, raised on the dogma of Clausewitz and Moltke, could not understand that war is won in the factory.” Read more

Adolf Hitler

The Battle of the Bulge: An Allied Logistic Victory

When Adolf Hitler’s last major World War II offensive burst through the chill Ardennes Forest early on December 16, 1944, it scattered American frontline units and caused many anxious hours in the Allied high command. Read more

Adolf Hitler

The Army Air Corps at the Battle of the Bulge

At daybreak on December 16, 1944, three senior officers in the Army Air Corps and a Royal Air Force air vice marshal arrived at an elegant chateau near the town of Spa in southeastern Belgium that was the headquarters of Lt. Read more

Adolf Hitler

May 8, 1945: V-E Day and the Surrender of Germany

In May 1945—70 years ago—the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) sent out a terse, unemotional, 15-word communiqué: “The mission of this Allied force was fulfilled at 0241 local time, May 7, 1945.” Read more

Adolf Hitler

The Nazi Aircraft Carrier Program: Erich Raeder vs. Hermann Göring

On June 6, 1944, as the massive Allied naval armada made its way from ports in England across the English Channel to launch the projected D-day invasion at Normandy, a German fleet sortie swept down from its home ports on the North Sea and from occupied Norway. Read more

Adolf Hitler

A Sea Drama of Epic Proportions: The Altmark, Graf Spee & Cossack

In the early months of World War II, Altmark, Graf Spee, and HMS Cossack all had important roles in a sea drama of epic proportions. Read more

Adolf Hitler

Joachim Peiper’s Escape from the Battle Of the Bulge

By December 24, 1944, the commander of the Sixth Panzer Army’s strongest battlegroup, SS Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Jochen Peiper, was facing the ultimate military nightmare. Read more

Adolf Hitler

Galeazzo Ciano’s Diary: The Inside Story of Mussolini’s Government

On July 19, 1940, fresh from his victorious campaigns on the Western Front, German Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler delivered his “peace speech” to the Reichstag in Berlin’s Kroll Opera House. Read more

Adolf Hitler

Einsatzgruppen in Germany: The Nazi Killing Squad

The wide-scale murder of Jews by Nazi Germany’s Einsatzgruppen began in Poland in September 1939, protested only by German Army Generals Johannes Blaskowitz and Georg Kuchler. Read more

Adolf Hitler

The German American Bund: Confessions of a Nazi Spy

CONFIDENTIAL TO LEADERS

It is a well-known fact, of course, that any movement needs something to dramatize it, to appeal to the public’s sense of sensationalism. Read more

Adolf Hitler

The Sinking of Scharnhorst

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

Adolf Hitler

The Fieseler Storch Fi 156

On March 12, 1939, Heroes’ Memorial Day (or Veterans Day) in the Nazi Third Reich, the thousands of onlookers at the giant annual parade in Berlin were treated to an unusual sight as a small monoplane landed on the Unter den Linden between Hermann Göring’s State Opera House and the Neue Wache (New Guardshouse). Read more

Adolf Hitler

Operation Silver Fox: An Opportunity Lost at Murmansk

As Adolf Hitler began to formulate his grandiose plans for the conquest of the Soviet Union, he considered the far northern operation area little more than a sideshow. Read more

Adolf Hitler

The Assassination Of Reinhard Heydrich, The Butcher Of Prague

The morning sun caressed the hills of the Czech capital of Prague, coaxing a slight haze from the ancient city. Read more

Adolf Hitler

Allies’ Failure To Assist Jews During Holocaust Continues To Stir Debate

One of the most enduring questions emerging from World War II is the reaction of the West, and particularly the United States, to the plight of the Jews as they faced Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Read more

Adolf Hitler

Hans Baur: Hitler’s Pilot Flew Führer Across Europe and History

Adolf Hitler’s wartime Armaments Minister Albert Speer was right when he termed the Führer’s pilot from 1932 to 1945, Lt. Read more

Adolf Hitler

Prince Paul Karađorđević of Yugoslavia

On June 2, 1939, the last great prewar military parade of the Third Reich came rolling past the reviewing stand under Nazi eagles with swastikas in their taloned grip in front of the Berlin Technical High School. Read more

Adolf Hitler

Operation Weseruebung: the German Invasion of Norway & Denmark

The German invasion of Denmark and Norway, known as Operation Weseruebung, heralded a new stage in warfare in which cooperation of air, land, and sea forces was essential for successful offensive operations. Read more

Adolf Hitler

Benito Mussolini & Count Galeazzo Ciano

Allied victory in North Africa and the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, meant only one thing for the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini. Read more