European Theater
Airborne at La Fière: Slugfest in Normandy
By Flint WhitlockThe night of June 5, 1944, and the morning of June 6 were without a doubt some of the most pivotal hours in the history of the 20th century. Read more
European Theater
The European Theater of Operations (ETO) during World War II is generally regarded as the area of military confrontation between the Allied powers and Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The European Theater encompassed the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Eastern Front, Western Front, and Arctic areas of operation.
European Theater
A Brief History of the British Commandos
The Commando role was born of the decision to mount vigorous raiding operations against occupied Europe as British forces were withdrawing from France in 1940. Read more
European Theater
The 1st Commando Brigade’s Invasion of Germany
By Mark Simmons“The big day came and we moved off to our positions. Shortly a huge bombing raid commenced on the town of Wesel, followed by an artillery barrage which virtually shook the very ground under us. Read more
European Theater
Patton in Lorraine: Breaking the Moselle Line
By William E. WelshBy mid-September 1944, the U.S. Third Army was poised to strike at the soft underbelly of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich along a fabled corridor in northeastern France used for centuries by armies tramping across Europe. Read more
European Theater
The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center
By Borden BlackThe American Infantry’s illustrious history, which is older than that of the country, comes alive in an impressive, $100,000,000, 190,000-square-foot museum located just outside Fort Benning, Georgia. Read more
European Theater
D-Day+1: Canadians at the Battle of Buron and Authie
By Herb KugelOn June 7, 1944, D+1, two volunteer Canadian 3rd Division, 9th Infantry Brigade regiments, the North Nova Scotia Highlanders (the North Novas) and the 27th Canadian Armoured Regiment (the Sherbrooke Fusiliers)—together with volunteer units from the Camerons of Ottawa and Forward Observers from the 14th Field Regiment—fought an important but now generally forgotten battle in Normandy. Read more
European Theater
The Battle of Arracourt: Patton’s Third Army vs Manteuffel’s Panzers
By Leo BarronLieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., the commander of the newly constituted U.S. Third Army, had one simple order that late summer of 1944: “Go east and go like Hell.” Read more
European Theater
Belgium Besieged: From Blitzkrieg to Occupation
By William FloydOn May 9, 1940, a black Mercedes automobile drove inconspicuously away from the Reich Chancellery in Berlin and merged with the weekend traffic. Read more
European Theater
An American Sergeant at Brest: Caught in the Crosshairs
By Kevin M. HymelThe German sniper scanned the battlefield outside his bunker on the outskirts of the port city of Brest, on France’s Brittany peninsula. Read more
European Theater
Warsaw Uprising: The Story of Bogdan Mieczkowski
By Yanek Mieczkowski“This mission is suicidal,” thought Bogdan Mieczkowski. In the autumn of 1944, the 19-year-old Polish resistance fighter battled in the Warsaw Uprising. Read more
European Theater
Deal of the Devils: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
By Mark AlbertsonOn August 23, 1939, Soviet Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, V.P. Potemkin, waited at the Moscow Airport for Joachim von Ribbentrop, Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany. Read more
European Theater
Costly Victory in Hürtgen Forest
By Kelly BellOn Sunday, September 10, 1944, all bridges over the German-Belgian border rivers, the Our and the Saur, were dynamited. Read more
European Theater
American Eagles Over Dieppe
By David Alan JohnsonAll the pilots of No. 71 (Eagle) Squadron, Royal Air Force, had been ordered to report to the briefing room on the afternoon of August 18, 1942. Read more
European Theater
Last Man In Hell: A Navy Beachmaster on Omaha Beach
By Kevin M. HymelThe Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) carrying Army engineers and Navy beachmasters hit a mine on its way into Omaha Beach. Read more
European Theater
The Panzer VIII Maus: The Heaviest Tank Ever Built
By Brandt HeatheringtonAs early as 1941, the German high command had visions of military technology that was far ahead of its time, and many innovative technological concepts were becoming reality. Read more
European Theater
“John Ford’s Navy”: A Filmmaker in the OSS
By Michael D. HullWith such award-winning films as Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, Drums Along the Mohawk, The Grapes of Wrath, The Long Voyage Home, and How Green Was My Valley behind him, John Ford was one of Hollywood’s most respected directors by the time World War II broke out in 1939. Read more
European Theater
The Last Flight of Nelson King
By Keith BuchananThe Nelson King, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, was en route to Berlin on March 6, 1944, when it flew into a whirlwind of Luftwaffe fighters. Read more
European Theater
The Big Three in Tehran: The Meeting That Shaped WWII
By Michael D. HullWorld War II made a disparate trio of allies —British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Marshal Joseph Stalin, and American President Franklin D. Read more
European Theater
How Politics, Blunders, and Betrayal in the European Theater Shaped the Postwar Order
By William WeidnerBritish historian Alan Clark wrote in his book Barbarossa, “Roosevelt’s betrayal of Eastern Europe, whether out of calculation or gullibility, is so notorious as to need no further recapitulation.” Read more
European Theater
“Flak Was Our Worst Enemy”: Wilbur Bowers’ Air War Over Europe
By Richard A. BerantyFor 33 months beginning in 1942, the U.S. Eighth Air Force and its precision daylight bombing strikes against German targets in Europe tried to pound the Third Reich into submission. Read more
