North Africa
Were P-47 Thunderbolt Aircraft Really Formidable Fighter-Bombers?
By Sam McGowanSince the end of World War II, the aviation press has made the North American P-51 Mustang into the superstar Allied fighter of the war. Read more
North Africa
The North Africa campaign during World War II included major operations from early 1940 through the spring of 1943 as Allied forces fought Axis armies of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. For the Allies, victory in North Africa was critical for control of the Mediterranean Sea and future offensive operations in Italy. Axis forces hoped to dominate the Mediterranean and seize British-held Egypt, the Suez Canal, and potentially the oil fields of the Middle East. The Allies were victorious in North Africa campaign, and the defeat of Axis forces at the Battle of El Alamein was a turning point during World War II.
North Africa
The U.S. Army Medical Corps: Caring for the Casualties in World War II
By Glenn BarnettFor centuries wounded soldiers of every nation were responsible for much of their own care. Medical attention was primitive and often not a high priority for military planners beyond the officer corps. Read more
North Africa
The Rangers’ British Padre: Father Albert Basil
By Michael D. HullOne day shortly after the Battle of El Guettar in central Tunisia in March 1943, Colonel William O. Read more
North Africa
Australia’s Heroic Son
By Christopher MiskimonJohn Hurst Edmondson, known to his friends as Jack, died April 14, 1941, lying on the concrete floor of a sand-swept fighting outpost in the perimeter around Tobruk, Libya. Read more
North Africa
Spartacus: Freedom by the Sword
By Eric NiderostIn the spring of 73 bc, Thracian gladiator Spartacus decided that the time was right to attempt an escape. Read more
North Africa
Jugurtha: Numidian King, Roman Enemy
By William StroockJugurtha, king of the desert nation of Numidia, was a long-time antagonist of Republican Rome. Over more than a decade of war, he was a bold and cunning battlefield commander who used swiftness and determination to make fools of Roman consuls, even as the Romans were systematically conquering his country. Read more
North Africa
Alvan Gillem’s Invasion of Germany
By Chris J. HartleyThe United States had not yet entered World War II when Time magazine noted that the Army had created two new armored divisions. Read more
North Africa
Rommel vs Monty
By Zita Ballinger FletcherThe famous retreat of the “Desert Fox” Erwin Rommel across North Africa following his defeat at the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942 was less a retreat than a series of stubborn battles to hold ground. Read more
North Africa
Panzer Strike at Kasserine Pass
By Mike PhiferIgnoring 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
North Africa
Colonel William O. Darby and the U.S. Army Rangers
By William E. WelshOn the morning of Friday, February 18, 1944, fresh groups of German panzergrenadiers backed by tanks swept south from their defensive positions at Anzio and overran American forward positions at Aprilia, eight miles north of the landing beaches. Read more
North Africa
Erwin Rommel’s War Photos: Images the Desert Fox Took Himself
By Zita Ballinger FletcherThe name Field Marshal Erwin Rommel—associated with tank warfare in Europe and North Africa during World War II—might conjure up mental images of the famous “Desert Fox” riding in a panzer, reviewing maps, or commanding battles. Read more
North Africa
Operation Torch: Invasion of North Africa
By Michael D. HullComing after a series of bitter defeats from France to Norway to Crete, news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II was one of the early high points of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s leadership years. Read more
North Africa
Italian War Criminal Rodolfo Graziani
By Blaine TaylorThe town of Affile in Italy’s Lazio region erected a mausoleum to Italian Army Marshal Rodolfo Graziani in August 2012. Read more
North Africa
Top Secret: Gen. Mark Clark’s Daring Operation Flagpole
By Duane SchultzThe five Americans were trapped in a small, dark, empty wine cellar in an isolated French villa on the coast of Algiers. Read more
North Africa
Commanding Patton’s Personal Tanks
By Kevin M. HymelMajor General George S. Patton, Jr. had no patience for soldiers disobeying the rules of combat at his Desert Training Center in Southern California. Read more
North Africa
Operation Crusader: Erwin Rommel Learns His Lesson
By Robert HaymesBy the time of the Crusader battles in late 1941, the German panzer forces in North Africa had developed a sophisticated combined-arms doctrine. Read more
North Africa
World War II Summary and Synopsis
by Mike HaskewWorld War II spanned six long years from 1939 to 1945. The Allied powers, principally The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, defeated the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. Read more
North Africa
Outlandish D-Day Invasion Tales: Paratrooper Raff: Tank Commander?
By Kevin HymelTo Colonel Edson Raff, jumping out of a plane was “like getting out of the bed in the morning.” Read more
North Africa
SCR-300 WW2 Radio Backpack: The “Walkie Talkie” That Shaped the War
By John NieselEarly in 1945, in the Northern Appenine mountains of Italy, T/5 Harvey, a radioman with the 10th Mountain Division, is carrying his WW2 radio backpack, the ever-handy SCR-300, into combat for the first time. Read more
North Africa
The Scholarly Spies
By Tim MillerEarly in June 1940, refugees from northern France and the low Countries who had flooded Paris in May fled with the residents of the city as the German advance neared. Read more
