Axis
Night Jump into Tragedy
By Victor KamenirIn August 1943, immediately after the Battle of Kursk, the Red Army launched a series of follow up operations, resulting in the liberation of a large swath of Nazi-occupied Soviet territory. Read more
Axis
Red Army Airborne
By Victor KamenirThe official history of Russian and Soviet airborne forces began on August 2, 1930, when 12 parachutists were dropped during maneuvers in the Moscow Military District. Read more
Axis
German All-Terrain Vehicle
By Blaine TaylorThe first published photo of one of the odd—but highly versatile —frontline vehicles of World War II appeared on the cover of the July 1942 edition of German Propaganda Minister Dr. Read more
Axis
A Fighting Foot Soldier of the 45th
By Christopher MiskimonThe morning of February 16, 1944, dawned foggy over the Via Anziate in Anzio, Italy. The 45th Infantry Division’s 2nd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment had advanced overnight to take positions on the west side of the roadway, assuming its place on the front line. Read more
Axis
The Battle of Cape Esperance: A Sorely Needed Naval Victory
By David Alan Johnson“One large, two small vessels, one six miles from Savo off northern beach, Guadalcanal. Will investigate closer.” Read more
Axis
Rudolf Hoess: Infamous Mass Murderer of Auschwitz
By Richard RuleAt 10 am on Wednesday April 16, 1947, the former commandant of Auschwitz extermination camp, SS Oberstürm bannführer (lieutenant colonel) Rudolph Hoess, briskly walked under armed escort toward the small wooden gallows specifically built for him inside the camp grounds. Read more
Axis
Japan’s “Diving Shells” in the Battle of Cape Esperance
By David Alan JohnsonThe eight-inch shell that penetrated the cruiser’s hull and threatened to blow up her forward magazines was a Type 91 armor-piercing shell, which had been designed to continue through the water when it fell short of its target and penetrate the ship’s hull below the waterline. Read more
Axis
Operation Pedestal: The Rescue of Malta
By Michael D. HullLocated 58 miles south of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, the rocky, 122-square-mile island of Malta was the hinge upon which all Allied operations in the Middle East turned during the first half of World War II. Read more
Axis
The Teller Mine and other German WWII Land Mines: The Hidden Danger
By Alan VannoyGerman Teller mines were insidious weapons—killing or maiming thousands of Allied soldiers and civilians. The Wehrmact employed others, too, to great effect during the Second World War. Read more
Axis
Italy’s North African Misadventure
By Walter S. ZapotocznyWhen most people think of the Italian Army in North Africa during World War II, they tend to believe that the average Italian soldier offered little resistance to the Allies before surrendering. Read more
Axis
Thin Line of Air Defense
By Herb KugelIn the 40 minutes between 7:50 and 8:30 am, on April 5, 1942, Royal Air force pilot Don McDonald experienced his air base being bombed in a Japanese surprise air raid that should never have been a surprise. Read more
Axis
Hell on New Britain
By Adam LynchThe American effort to neutralize the big Japanese air-sea base at Rabaul on the island of New Britain in the South Pacific was heating up, and 18-year-old aviation radioman John Kepchia was about to feel the heat. Read more
Axis
The Abwehr’s Man in Havana
By Peter KrossIn espionage fiction, there are three types of spies. The first is the suave, dapper James Bond, 007, license to kill, a hit with the ladies. Read more
Axis
War on Civilians
The fire-bombing raids on Japan constituted all-out war on a civilian population. By Sam McGowanIt was a method of warfare that would have been anathema to Americans only a few short years before. Read more
Axis
How the Cossacks Were Betrayed by Britain in World War II
By Blaine TaylorAn estimated four million Red Army soldiers were captured by the Germans during the six months after the launching of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, on June 22, 1941. Read more
Axis
Armored Blitz to Avranches
By Kevin M. HymelLieutenant General Omar Bradley had reason to be pleased by the last week of July 1944. His First Army had scratched out a substantial foothold on the Normandy coast, capturing three times more French territory than his British allies. Read more
Axis
General Arthur Percival: a Convenient Scapegoat?
By Jon DiamondOn February 15, 1942, the island fortress of Singapore surrendered with 130,000 men, thus ending the defense of Malaya as one of the largest military disasters in the history of British arms since Cornwallis’s capitulation to Franco-American forces at Yorktown in 1781 during America’s Revolutionary War. Read more
Axis
Six-Pounder Versus Panzer
By Christopher MiskimonSergeant Charles Callistan looked through the sights of an antitank gun at an approaching enemy tank. His weapon, a six-pounder cannon, was in the perimeter of a surrounded British outpost named Snipe. Read more
Axis
German Antiaircraft Defenses
By Allyn VannoyDuring the Allied air campaign against the Third Reich in World War II, well over a million tons of bombs were dropped on German territory, killing nearly 300,000 civilians and wounding another 780,000. Read more
Axis
To Watch the Weather
By Marty MorganThroughout World War II the Allies enjoyed a certain advantage over the Axis that was purely the product of geography. Read more
