Distinguished Service Cross Archives

A flight of famed North American P-51 Mustang fighters flies in tight formation.

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P-51 Mustang: The Untamed Beast of the Skies

By Sam McGowan

If a single airplane has captured the public imagination more than any other, it is undoubtedly the North American P-51 Mustang fighter. Read more

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Sergeant Alvin York: Personal Accounts That Reveal His True Story

By Lt. Col. Taylor V. Beattie

They had spent a cold, wet, miserable evening in October 1918 in a drainage ditch along the Varennes-Fleville road. Read more

A procession of fatigued soldiers, refugees, trucks, and ambulances snakes its way along a muddy war-torn Italian hillside in this painting by Harry Davis.

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My Battle Up the Boot: Paul McNelis in the Italian Campaign

By Richard A. Beranty

The U.S. 85th Infantry Division was one of the Allied workhorses in Italy during World War II. Read more

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

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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

Three 10th Mountain Division soldiers ski above Camp Hale and the Pando Valley. A cloud of dark coal smoke from stoves and passing freight trains darkens the otherwise pristine mountain air.

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Skiing Off To War: A Squad Leader in the 10th Mountain Division

By Bruce K. Campbell with Glenn Barnett

I was born in Los Angeles in 1924 and attended local schools. In high school I enrolled in ROTC and, when I could, I went skiing for fun. Read more

In this March 11, 1945, image, troops and M4 Sherman tanks of the U.S. First Army cross the Ludendorff railroad bridge to the eastern bank of the great Rhine River. The last natural barrier along the western frontier of Germany, the Rhine was also crossed by Allied armies in other locations.

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Assault on Ludendorff Bridge: The First Allied Crossing of the Rhine

By Jon Diamond

On a cold March evening in the Goldenrod Café in West Point, Nebraska, Mary Timmermann, a waitress there, picked up the telephone receiver when her boss told her it was Omaha calling long distance for her. Read more

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Pearl Harbor: The Sleeping Giant Awoken

By Flint Whitlock

It was, as the phrase goes, another perfect day in paradise. As the sun rose above the Pacific in the clear, cloudless sky east of the Hawaiian Islands, on December 7, 1941, the giant U.S. Read more

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Japanese Attack on the Philippines: The “Other” Pearl Harbor

By Sam McGowan

While the surprise Japanese attacks against U.S. military bases in the Hawaiian Islands on December 7, 1941, are certainly the best-known aspect of the opening of hostilities between the two aLess well known today were the Japanese attacks on Clark Field and Iba Field on the opening day of hostilities in the Philippines. Read more

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Battle of Reipertswiller: The 157th Infantry’s Heroic Stand During Operation Nordwind

By Christopher Miskimon

By mid-January 1945, the famous Battle of the Bulge, a massive and fatal failure for the Third Reich, was virtually over. Read more

An American machine gunner sprints for cover while carrying his Browning .30-caliber machine gun as an ammunition carrier follows, his rifle slung across his back. This photo was taken in the French arrondissement of Sarreguemines at the height of the fighting in the Colmar Pocket during early February 1945.

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The Path of Heroism

By Stephen J. Ochs, PHD

On the morning of April 18, 1945, amid street fighting in rubble-strewn Nuremberg, Germany, 20-year-old U.S. Read more

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Battle of Nijmegen Bridge: Taking the Crossings Over the Waal

By Jan Bos

The city of Nijmegen, in the southeastern part of Holland and about six miles from the Dutch-German border, is believed to be Holland’s oldest city, going back some 2,000 years. Read more

In his stark painting titled The Point, artist Larry Selman captures the drama as Rangers of the 2nd Battalion reach the summit of Pointe du Hoc on D-Day.

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The Pointe du Hoc Rangers: a Madman’s D-Day Mission

By Daniel R. Champagne

On the morning of June 6, 1944, the 2nd Ranger Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder, began its ascent of a sheer 100-foot precipice called Pointe du Hoc. Read more

Major Richard Bong was America’s Ace of Aces.

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Richard Bong (1920-1945)

By Sam McGowan

Without dispute, the P-38 was the airplane of the aces. While other fighter types had their share of aces, the P-38 was flown by most of the top scorers, of whom Major Richard Ira Bong was at the top of the heap. Read more

U.S. Rangers scramble up a hillside near Chiunzi Pass under a smoke screen.

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Leading the Way: William Orlando Darby’s Rangers in World War II

By Michael D. Hull

On a June morning in 1942, a battalion of American soldiers stepped down from a train at Fort William in the northern highlands of Scotland. Read more

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Escape From Bataan

By Glenn Barnett

Most Americans were surprised by the Japanese attack on pearl Harbor, but the military had known that war with Japan was inevitable. Read more

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Blue and Gray at Omaha Beach

By Major General Michael Reynolds

The U.S. 29th Infantry Division was formed in July 1917, three months after America entered World War I. Read more

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The Race To Messina: George S. Pattons’ Fall From Grace

By Maj. Gen. Michael Reynolds

On August 3, 1943, the day that General George S. Patton, Jr., learned that his superior, General Dwight D. Read more

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Frederick’s Devil’s Brigade & Bringing Back the V-42 Stiletto

By Michael Haskew

The fight at Monte La Difensa on December 3, 1943, was swift but brutal as members of the First Special Service Force, a combined unit of U.S. Read more