Eastern Front
The Battle of Kursk: Showdown at Prokhorovka and Oboian
By Ludwig Heinrich DyckWith the German Sixth Army destroyed at Stalingrad, the Soviet juggernaut lunged west and southwest across the River Donets. Read more
Eastern Front
The Eastern Front during World War II includes the area of military confrontation involving the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The Soviet Red Army and the Nazi Wehrmacht clashed along the extended Eastern Front, which stretched thousands of miles from the Black Sea in the south to Finland and the approaches to the Arctic Circle in the north.
Eastern Front
Captured Allied Armor: Enemy Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
By Christopher MiskimonThe German crewmen occupied the various stations in their tank as they approached the American roadblock ahead. It was 2100 hours on Christmas Eve, 1944, just outside the town of Manhay, Luxembourg, which was occupied by elements three different U.S. Read more
Eastern Front
The Red Air Force Night Witches: Flight of the Rodina
by George Tipton WilsonDuring the last weekend of September 1938, the attention of the world’s capitals was transfixed by the diplomatic pas de deux Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain were enacting to determine the fate of Czechoslovakia and ultimately the world. Read more
Eastern Front
Red Air Force Heroines: The Night Witches
by George Tipton WilsonIgnoring a nonaggression pact between Hitler and Stalin, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, an invasion of the Soviet Union, on June 22, 1941. Read more
Eastern Front
The German SS at Rzhev: Loyal to Their Deaths
by Ludwig Heinrich DyckEarly in December 1941, Operation Typhoon, the German drive on Moscow, withered in the face of tenacious Soviet resistance and one of the worst Russian winters in living memory. Read more
Eastern Front
How Did Benito Mussolini Die? The Story Behind Il Duce’s Last Moments.
By Wil DeacIt was shortly before seven o’clock on the rain-drenched morning of April 27, 1945, the day before the death of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Read more
Eastern Front
Gottfried P. Dulias: Surviving the Soviet Gulag
By Gottfried P. DuliasGottfried P. Dulias was a young Luftwaffe pilot who had seen plenty of action in the skies above the Eastern Front. Read more
Eastern Front
Iron Annie: The Junkers Ju-52
By William E. WelshShortly before dawn on May 20, 1941, a flight of 500 transport planes took off from seven airstrips on mainland Greece. Read more
Eastern Front
The Thunder of Operation Gallop
by Pat McTaggartAs Adolf Hitler’s vaunted Sixth Army lay in its death throes in the ruins of Stalingrad, German forces to the west of the city faced their own kind of hell. Read more
Eastern Front
From the Luftwaffe: Joachim Benz on the Eastern Front
by Joachim Benz, as told to Peter D. Fyfe and Ward CarrFollowing service as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery during the early 1970s, Ward Carr decided to remain in Germany, residing in Frankfurt. Read more
Eastern Front
Battle for the Ore Deposits: The Red Army vs. Nazi Germany
By Pat McTaggartAt first, it was all about the ore. Magnesium, iron, and manganese ore were the lifeblood of German industry, especially the armaments industry, which used the iron and manganese to produce steel for Hitler’s war machine. Read more
Eastern Front
WWII Ordnance: The Marauding Marder
By William E. WelshOn the second day of Adolf Hitler’s bold invasion of Russia in June 1941, the Germans were confronted with one of their most glaring shortcomings in weapons and armament. Read more
Eastern Front
Operation Barbarossa: Holding the Line at Smolensk
By Victor KamenirAfter crushing the first-line Soviet armies in brutal three-week cauldron battles at the border, the steamroller of German Army Group Center continued deeper into Soviet territory during the opening days of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, which began on June 22, 1941. Read more
Eastern Front
‘Raising a flag over the Reichstag’ Photographer Yevgeni Khaldei
By Michael E. HaskewThe image of Red Army soldiers hoisting their hammer and sickle emblazoned banner atop the Reichstag, the seat of the German parliament, is a classic photo of World War II, an image that told the world Nazi Germany was at last finished. Read more
Eastern Front
Panzers at the Gates of Moscow
By Jonathan JordanThe war map gave Adolf Hitler every reason to be confident. Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union begun on June 22, 1941, had succeeded spectacularly on nearly every front. Read more
