Short-barreled Panzer IVs advance through the mountains of northern Tunisia. At Kasserine Pass, German panzer columns blasted American tanks and then encircled isolated U.S. infantry units.

Erwin Rommel

Panzer Strike at Kasserine Pass

By Mike Phifer

Ignoring the swirling sands stirred up by the fierce winds of the Sahara Desert in the early morning hours of February 14, 1943, Generalleutnant Heinz Ziegler ordered his panzer columns forward to attack the American forces deployed in central Tunisia. Read more

Heinz Werner Schmidt commanded a heavy weapons company during Sidi Rezegh, but was until just days before aide-de-camp to General Erwin Rommel.

Erwin Rommel

Erwin Rommel & Heinz Schmidt at Sidi Rezegh

By Thomas Haymes

On the afternoon of November 23, known as Totensonntag to the Germans, General Ludwig Crüwell, commander of the Afrika Korps, decided to launch both of his armored divisions at the box being defended by the 2nd South African Brigade which had laagered just south of the contested airfield at Sidi Rezegh. Read more

Erwin Rommel

Reassessing Rommel: Anti-Nazi Hero or Opportunist?

By Blaine Taylor

Even before the end of World War II, German General Erwin Rommel’s fame was such that he was already being elevated into the Valhalla of such legendary warriors as Hannibal against the Roman Empire, Napoleon during his defensive campaigns of 1813-1814, and Robert E. Read more

In August 1944, the Allies followed up the massive Normandy Invasion with another in southern France known as Operation Dragoon.

Erwin Rommel

Rampage on the Riviera: Operation Dragoon

By Glenn Barnette and André Bernole

Early in 1944, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the defeated hero of North Africa and now head of Army Group B in France, was tasked with strengthening the Atlantic Wall defenses against Allied invasion. Read more

Erwin Rommel

Smashing Hitler’s Atlantic Wall

By Flint Whitlock

After overrunning France and other Western European countries in 1940, Adolf Hitler was certain that the Allies would one day attempt to invade the European continent and attack through the occupied countries to destroy his regime. Read more

From Around the Network

  • American paratroopers, with their weapons at the ready, advance cautiously through a field near Carentan littered with the bodies of their comrades, picked off by German sharpshooters, June 14, 1944.

    WWII

    Bloody D-Day Clash for Carentan
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  • The Air Transport Command (ATC) began life ferrying aircraft to Europe during Lend Lease and eventually opened up air routes over most of the globe.

    WWII

    The Air Transport Command: From Lend Lease To The Hump
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  • By the late 15th century, knights’ suits of armor had reached their pinnacle. But the weapon that would make them obsolete turned out to be the cannon.

    Military History

    How the Cannon Marked the End of the Knight’s Suit of Armor
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