Axis

Deep Strike on Augsburg

By Allyn Vannoy

In the spring of 1942, the Allies were hard pressed battling German U-boats in the Atlantic as Britain was struggling to feed its people. Read more

Axis

Daring Raid on Algiers Harbor

By Christopher Miskimon

In November 1942, the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa, Operation Torch, caused a short but intense conflict with French forces loyal to the Vichy regime in power on the European mainland. Read more

Axis

Hard Charging Landings

By Kevin M. Hymel

To naval aviators, any landing they could walk away from was a good landing. The escort aircraft carrier USS Charger trained men in good landings, but bad landings were also part of the education. Read more

Axis

Surging Toward the Alps: Last Battles of the Italian Campaign

By Michael E. Haskew

For the Allied armies in Italy, the final winter of World War II was one of planning, replenishment, and the continuing effort to make existence in a war-ravaged land in the midst of snow and ice as bearable as possible. Read more

Axis

Maskirovka: The Hidden Key to Soviet Victory

By Phil Zimmer

Promoted to full colonel in the German Army and an award of the prestigious Knight’s Cross were significant accomplishments, even in the waning days of World War II. Read more

Axis

Hellfire on the Hornet’s Nest: Flamethrower Tanks at Bougainville

By Steve Zaloga

U.S. portable flamethrowers were first used in combat during the Guadalcanal campaign in January 1943. It quickly became apparent that the exposed flamethrower operator was vulnerable to Japanese small arms fire. Read more

Axis

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

Axis

“The Story of G.I. Joe”: Poignant Death of an American Soldier

By Duane Schultz

There was a time, in January 1944, when everyone in America had heard of Captain Henry T. Waskow from Belton, Texas. Read more

Axis

The Birth of the Viet Minh: World War II’s Prelude to the Vietnam War

By John Brown

In the late 18th century, the French established Catholic missions in Indochina, and until the 1820s they enjoyed local protection, but after that persecution began and increased steadily, particularly under Emperor Tu-Duc, who reigned from 1847 to 1883 and wanted to stamp out Christianity. Read more

Axis

Royal Navy Destroyers

by Glenn Barnett

­­No class of ship in World War II saw more service than the destroyers of the Royal Navy. Read more

Axis

Battle at Bir el Gubi

By Arnold Blumberg

February 1941 saw the fortunes of war favor the British in the North African wasteland of Cyrenaica (modern Libya). Read more

Axis

The Katyn Forest Massacre: Cracks in the Allied Cause

by Michael E. Haskew

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so an old saying goes. Perhaps it was the grandest exercise in political pragmatism and expediency that the world has ever known. Read more

Axis

The Malmédy Massacre and the Battle of the Bulge

By Major General Michael Reynolds

Malmédy is an attractive and prosperous town situated in eastern Belgium, 15 miles from the German border. Read more

Axis

U.S. Forces in the Philippines: Too Little, Too Late

by Sam McGowan

In the popular history of World War II, the assertion that the United States was caught unprepared in Hawaii and the Philippines has become widely accepted as fact. Read more

Axis

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

Axis

The U-505: WWII To Today

by David Alan Johnson

After its capture, U-505 became USS Nemo and was manned by a U.S. Navy crew. The submarine’s main duty was to sell war bonds, and the former enemy vessel visited seaports up and down the Atlantic coast during her bond tour. Read more

Axis

WWII Spies: the Soviet Cambridge Network

by Peter Kross

In the modern era, the majority of those accused of spying have done so for monetary purposes—the quick acquisition of wealth as opposed to ideological or philosophical reasons. Read more

Axis

William R. Dunn: Eagle Squadron Pilot

By David Alan Johnson

“I jammed the throttle wide open and, attacking the Me-109 from the port quarter, fired one burst of four seconds and three bursts of two seconds each,” Pilot Officer William R. Read more

Axis

The Battle of Kursk: Showdown at Prokhorovka and Oboian

By Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

With the German Sixth Army destroyed at Stalingrad, the Soviet juggernaut lunged west and southwest across the River Donets. Read more

Axis

The Argentia Conference: How the Allies Were Formed

by Michael D. Hull

A British battleship and an American cruiser converged secretly in a remote bay on the Newfoundland coast early in August 1941. Read more