European Theater
The Fight for Singling
By Arnold BlumbergAfter four months and a 600-mile advance from the beaches of Normandy into Brittany and then through eastern France, the spearhead of Lt. 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
Means of Grace, Hope of Glory
By Robert Barr SmithThey carried no weapons, only holy books and rudimentary vestments, a crucifix or a Star of David and sometimes a little Communion kit. Read more
European Theater
Bridging the Rhine at Remagen: Infantryman Paul Priest Recalls the Historic Crossing
By George A. LarsonAs Allied troops advanced along a broad front toward Nazi Germany in the winter of 1945, the United States Army was eager to capture an intact bridge over the Rhine River to allow its troops and heavy equipment to advance rapidly into Germany. Read more
European Theater
Combat Fatigue: How Stress in Battle was Felt (and Treated) in WWII
By Duane SchultzEugene Sledge knew a thing or two about combat fatigue. It was September 15, 1944, on a tiny spit of land called Peleliu: the Japanese opened up with heavy mortar fire just as the Marines moved off the beach and started inland. Read more
European Theater
The Trains That Fueled the Normandy Breakout
By Kerry SkidmoreHistorian Christian Wolmar concludes that the two world wars could not have been fought to such devastation without military railways, in his book Engines of War. Read more
European Theater
Pegasus Bridge: Operation Deadstick’s Glider Assault
By Christopher MiskimonOn a darkened airfield at 2230 hours on June 5, 1944, a reinforced company of British gliderborne infantry, D Company of the Second Battalion, Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Ox & Bucks), boarded gliders, prepared to start the invasion of France. Read more
European Theater
Bitter Fight at Gela
By Christopher MiskimonThe smoke had barely cleared from the battlefields of North Africa when the victorious Allies turned their attention northward to Europe. Read more
European Theater
Battle of the Scheldt Estuary
By Allyn VannoyAs the Allied armies advanced across Western Europe in the summer of 1944, the First Canadian Army undertook the task of clearing the coastal areas and opening the Channel ports. Read more
European Theater
WWII Aircraft: The Arado Ar-234 Blitz Jet
By Robert F. DorrWhen the Arado Ar-234 Blitz jet bomber first appeared in the skies of Europe, most Allied airmen did not know what it was. Read more
European Theater
George C. Marshall: Architect of Victory
By Michael D. HullPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt was disturbed in the autumn of 1938 by the Munich agreement, at which the rights of Czechoslovakia were signed away, and by reports of mounting air strength in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Read more
European Theater
Hitler’s Lebensborn Children: Kidnappings in German-Occupied Poland
By Brent Douglas DyckIn the summer of 1943, Malgorzata Twardecki, a single mother living in Nazi-occupied Poland, received an ominous order to bring her five-year-old son to the local town council office by 6 the following morning. Read more
European Theater
Operation Plunder: Crossing the Rhine
By David Lippman“I am busy getting ready for the next battle,” Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery wrote his son David in early March 1945. Read more
European Theater
Behind Enemy Lines: Escape at the Bulge
By Jay MarquartThe sound of German artillery shells shrieking overhead from across the Siegfried Line was not the wakeup call Technical Sergeant Robert Walter of 3rd Platoon, L Company, 3rd Battalion, 393rd Infantry Regiment expected to receive on the morning of December 16, 1944. Read more
European Theater
Adolf Hitler: On the Eve of the Battle of the Bulge
By Charles WhitingBy early autumn, he was taking 60 pills a day. They ranged from “speed” to the poison strychnine. Read more
European Theater
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress: Daylight Bombing Gamble
by Richard RuleThe B-17 Flying Fortress was the most celebrated four-engine strategic bomber of World War II, but like many other aircraft that achieved lasting fame, it barely made it into production. Read more
European Theater
WWII French Resistance Fighters: Pearl Cornioley
When Pearl Witherington Cornioley died quietly in 2008 at the age of 93 in a retirement home in the Loire Valley of France, some who thought they knew her well may have been surprised to learn that she had risked her life during World War II as an agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Read more
European Theater
The Army Nurse Corps: Caring for the Casualties in WWII
by Glenn BarnettIn October 1944, Army nurse Lieutenant Frances Slanger of the 45th Field Hospital somewhere in Europe wrote a letter to Stars and Stripes, the Army newspaper, to express her admiration of the American soldier. Read more
European Theater
A 101st Airborne Paratrooper’s Combat Journey
By Richard A. BerantyIn one of the most recognized photographs taken by U.S. Army cameramen during World War II, General Dwight D. Read more
European Theater
Nazi U-Boats: Rattlesnakes of the Deep
By Herb KugelAmerica was not at war, but American sailors were dying when American-owned ships were torpedoed by German submarines. Read more
European Theater
Blood for Time: 9th Armored at Bastogne and the Battle of the Bulge
By Charles GutierrezIn December 1944, the Ardennes front or “ghost front” was an area where either veteran Allied units rotated in to rest and recover from terrible combat losses or where new, untested units arrived to gather some combat experience from the minor skirmishes that would occasionally flare up. Read more
