European Theater

European Theater

Montgomery’s Manpower Crisis at Caen

In an August 14, 1944, General Bernard L. Montgomery was facing a manpower crisis, unable to drive the Germans out of Caen. Read more

European Theater

Arnhem Bridge: Why it was “Britain’s Alamo” in WWII

It was getting dark when they reached Arnhem bridge, but there it was, still intact.

Lieutenant Jack Grayburn’s No. Read more

European Theater

Raid on Bruneval: Stealing the Enemy’s Eyes

The parachute of aptly named Major J.D. Frost cracked open in the freezing air high above the French Channel coast at 12:45 am, and he commenced drifting down through the moonlit gloom. Read more

European Theater

Clear Skies Over Bastogne: Patton’s Prayers Answered

“This is the shortest day,” General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied forces in Western Europe, wrote in his diary for December 21, 1944. Read more

European Theater

D-Day Funnies: No Joke to the Nazis

German defenders hunkered in their concrete and steel bunkers along the Normandy coast were in for two major shocks on Tuesday, June 6, 1944. Read more

European Theater

Hot Chow on the Frontlines

From the training grounds to the battlefront, soldiers and Marines usually dined on C and K rations. Read more

European Theater

Defending the Beachhead at Brolo

Fresh off a tense telephone conversation with Maj. Gen. Lucian Truscott, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., climbed into a jeep and rumbled over to Truscott’s 3rd Infantry Division headquarters east of Terranova, on Sicily’s northeastern coast. Read more

European Theater

Key to the Normandy Breakout: The Hill Over St. Lo

The darkness held a terror of its own—any false movement or unwarranted sound could easily betray the presence of the 16-man patrol that crept ever closer to the enemy lines. Read more

European Theater

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress: Stories from a WWII Pilot

The following story describes one of our air raids when I was piloting a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II. Read more

European Theater

“My Sister and I”: An Elaborate Literary Hoax

During World War II, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, from her exile in London, urged her staff to find a 12-year-old Dutch boy, Dirk van der Heide. Read more

European Theater

WWII Aircraft: The Douglas C-54 Skymaster

At the beginning of World War II, the globe seemed huge—covered by thousands of miles of ocean and uninhabited land mass, but by the time it ended everything had been brought closer together, thanks largely to the four-engine transports of the United States Army Air Transport Command, particularly the Douglas C-54 Skymaster. Read more

European Theater

The Falaise Pocket Scourge: The RAF’s Hawker Typhoon

From the Supermarine Spitfire to the North American P-51 Mustang, and from the Soviet Yak series to the Vought F4U Corsair, the Allies were able to field a formidable array of fighter planes against the Axis powers in World War II. Read more

European Theater

The 90th Division Comes of Age

Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, commander of the U.S. First Army, considered his 90th Infantry Division a problem unit. Read more

European Theater

WWII Weapons: The Hetzer Tank Destroyer

By 1943 it was obvious to the Germans that their tank production could not keep pace with battlefield losses. Read more

European Theater

M4 Sherman: “Blunder” or “Wonder” Weapon?

For the Allied tankers and infantrymen of the American, British, Canadian, and Free French armies battling German Panther and Tiger tanks in Normandy in the summer of 1944, the Sherman tank’s failures were glaringly evident as their own shells bounced off the hulls of the Nazi armor and they were themselves destroyed at a far greater range by the powerful German tanks. Read more

European Theater

USS Murphy: Long Service in Wartime

Eighty miles off the coast of New Jersey and 280 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean lies the forward section of a World War II destroyer, where it came to rest more than 60 years ago. Read more

European Theater

ANZACs at Maleme

“Maleme. 20th May, 1941. Usual Mediterranean summer day. Cloudless sky, no wind, extreme visibility; e.g., details on mountains 20 miles to the southeast easily discernible.” Read more

European Theater

The National World War II Museum

Opened on June 6, 2000, on the 56th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the National D-Day Museum, as it was then known, initially focused on the amphibious invasion of Normandy. Read more

European Theater

Bomber Gunner Ben Kuroki: “Most Honorable Son”

In 1942, many Americans considered anyone of Japanese ancestry to be an enemy, regardless of where they had been born or how long their families had lived in the United States. Read more

European Theater

The Concrete Fleet of WWII

It is a fact that war has sparked some amazing innovations. It has at the same time spawned incredible desperation. Read more