Blitzkrieg Archives

Blitzkrieg

“My Sister and I”: An Elaborate Literary Hoax

By Sheldon Winkler

During World War II, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, from her exile in London, urged her staff to find a 12-year-old Dutch boy, Dirk van der Heide. Read more

The Nazis attempted to detain the Duke and Duchess of Windsor for propaganda purposes.

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Operation Willi: The Nazi Plot to Kidnap the Duke of Windsor

By Eric Niderost

It was around noon, June 19, 1940, when a small caravan of cars set out from Antibes in southern France en route to the Spanish border. Read more

Combat divisions fielded by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps comprised regulars, recruits, and draftees.

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U.S. Divisions of World War II

By Colonel James W. Hammond

The definitive combat unit of comparable strength among the forces of the world during the 20th century was the division. Read more

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Surviving France’s Shame: French General Maxime Weygand in WWII

By Blaine Taylor

“What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over,” intoned British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. “The Battle of Britain is about to begin.” Read more

Brian G. Horrocks survived a grievous wound and led the British forces in North Africa and Western Europe.

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Brian G. Horrocks: Bernard Montgomery’s Frontline General

By Michael D. Hull

A big challenge faced Maj. Gen. Brian G. Horrocks, an infantryman, when he was cross-posted to take command of the British Army’s 9th Armored Division in March 1942. Read more

T-34 medium tanks and Red Army infantrymen attack across an open plain in the Ukraine. The T-34 proved to be one of the most outstanding armored vehicles of World War II and spearheaded the Soviet advance into the Third Reich.

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Death of the Ternopil Garrison

By Pat McTaggart

The city of Ternopil, located on the eastern bank of the Seret River, was founded in 1540 as a Polish military stronghold. Read more

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Heinz Guderian: Author of the Blitzkrieg

By Phil Zimmer

Hitler was enraged as he stalked his way around the room during the waning months of World War II. Read more

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Panzer Group 4: The March to Leningrad

By Pat McTaggart

Adolf Hitler was obsessed with Leningrad. When planning his invasion of the Soviet Union, the Führer demanded that the capture of the city, which he regarded as the cradle of Bolshevism, be one of the top priorities of the campaign, giving it precedence over the capture of Moscow. Read more

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Mers el Kebir: Why the Royal Navy Sunk the French Fleet in WWII

by Michael D. Hull

When the armistice between France and Germany was put into force on June 25, 1940, the fate of the powerful French Navy—the fourth largest in the world—was of critical importance to the British. Read more

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Nazi Time Capsule Found in Poland

A Nazi time capsule was discovered in Poland, buried in the foundations of the old Nazi training school of Ordensburg Krössinsee. Read more

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George C. Marshall: Architect of Victory

By Michael D. Hull

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was disturbed in the autumn of 1938 by the Munich agreement, at which the rights of Czechoslovakia were signed away, and by reports of mounting air strength in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Read more

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Adolf Galland: Winged Knight of the Luftwaffe

By Michael D. Hull

On a bright spring day in 1944, a Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf 190 fighter encountered a formation of U.S. Read more

Thousands of horses used in WWII German cavalry and as pack animals were killed in combat or slaughtered by starving soldiers.

Blitzkrieg

WWII German Cavalry: Horses of the Blitz

by G. Paul Garson

By 1939 the German Reich possessed 3,800,000 horses to be used in WWII German cavalry while 885,000 were initially called to the Wehrmacht as saddle, draft, and pack animals. Read more

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WWII French Resistance Fighters: Pearl Cornioley

When Pearl Witherington Cornioley died quietly in 2008 at the age of 93 in a retirement home in the Loire Valley of France, some who thought they knew her well may have been surprised to learn that she had risked her life during World War II as an agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Read more

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The Odyssey of the Australian Destroyer HMAS Vendetta

By Glenn Barnett

On October 20, 1941, the Australian destroyer Vendetta weighed anchor in the port of Alexandria, Egypt. After spending nearly two years supporting the Royal Navy in the fight for control of the Mediterranean Sea, the aging engines of the busy warship could no longer give her the speed needed to escort convoys, screen the fleet, or dodge dive- bombers. Read more

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“This is London…”: Edward R. Murrow in WWII

By Roy Morris Jr.

On the evening of August 7, 1937, two neophyte radio broadcasters went to dinner together at the luxurious Adlon Hotel in Berlin, Germany. Read more

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The Muddled History of Philippe Pétain

By Michael E. Haskew

He was, in the truest sense, a national hero. Philippe Pétain, Marshal of France, the hero of Verdun, is, however, best remembered in the modern world as a traitor, a collaborationist who sacrificed the honor of France to make a deal with Hitler and the Nazis. Read more

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Rain of Terror: The Bombing of the British Isles

By Michael D. Hull

First, there was a faint drone, with black specks visible in the sunny sky. Then the drone grew into a thunder, and hundreds of bombers appeared over London. Read more

The island of Guernsey is oddly patrolled by two British bobbies and a German sentry. The Channel Islands were the only British territory to endure occupation by the Nazis during World War II.

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Secret Agent Man: The Story of Eddie Chapman

By Peter Kross

Nations have often pressed unsavory characters and criminals into service during wartime, rationalizing that such action is in the best interest of the country during extraordinary times. Read more