A Sherman tank from the Canadian 27th Tank Regiment rolls through the shattered, deserted streets of Caen after the Germans pulled out. The British/Canadians lost thousands of men and 300-500 tanks. The delay in securing Caen badly damaged Montgomery’s reputation among the Allies.

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

The Mystery of Slapton Sands: Operation Tiger

By Charles Whiting

In the early 1970s, a former British Royal Air Force policeman–turned-hairdresser, Ken Small, visited South Devon on England’s Channel coast. Read more

A Texas outfit, the 36th Infantry Division landed in southern France and fought a confused battle with the Germans during Operation Anvil.

European Theater

The 36th Infantry Division: From the Alamo to Operation Anvil

By Bruce L. Brager

Operation Anvil, the invasion of southern France, was originally planned for June 1944, the same time as the Normandy invasion. Read more

European Theater

Cold War Spies: General Reinhard Gehlen

By Peter Kross

By 1944, many top generals in Adolf Hitler’s army understood the war was lost and that they had better make arrangements to ensure their safety. Read more

European Theater

Hell in a Small Place: the Canadian Paratroopers of Operation Varsity

by Bernd Horn

In the hut no one spoke, no one joked. The assembled British and Canadian paratroop commanders awaited the briefing from their brigade commander on their next major operation. Read more

European Theater

The Invention of Radar vs. The Luftwaffe

By Brooke C. Stoddard

Near the end of World War II, Hitler boasted he was about to unleash Vergeltungswaffen, or “vengeance weapons.” Read more

European Theater

Veterans Day Special: A Gallery of Heroes

by Al Hemingway

When the United States was plunged into World War II on December 7, 1941, more than 16 million Americans answered their country’s call and donned a uniform. Read more

European Theater

Princess Ecaterina Caradja: Angel of Ploesti

By Duane Schultz

Lieutenant Richard Britt, navigator aboard a Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber named Chattanooga Choo Choo, woke up to find himself trapped in the wreckage. Read more

During World War 2 the Allied fighter strategy in Europe did not come up with a winning formula for a long time in the battle for air supremacy.

European Theater

Victory Delayed: The Battle for Air Supremacy in World War II

By Eric Hammel

The popular conception of the struggle in the air over northern Europe during World War II is of squadrons of sleek fighters racing over the German heartland to protect contrailed streams of lumbering bombers stretching beyond sight. Read more

The rivalry between General George S. Patton, Jr., and Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery became a significant obstacle in Allied cooperation.

European Theater

Patton and Montgomery: Fighting the Nazi Army (And One Another)

By Michael Hasew

The most contentious of command rivalries during World War II involved General George S. Patton, Jr., of the U.S. Read more

A B-17 crew of the 390th Bomb Group endured a harrowing gauntlet of German defenses during a November 30, 1944, mission over Merseburg.

European Theater

390th Bomb Group’s Risky Run Over Merseburg

By Milton J. Elliott III

When the call came that morning, it was not unlike the 25 times previously when they had flown, or all those other times when weather intervened and postponement was ordered. Read more

Jim White survived the ill-fated attempted Rapido River crossing in Italy and endured 14 months as a prisoner of war.

European Theater

World War II’s Deadly Rapido River Crossing

By Richard A. Beranty

The attempted crossing of the Rapido River in Italy by two infantry regiments of the U.S. 36th Division in January 1944 was one of the costliest failed attacks made by American forces during World War II. Read more

European Theater

Operation Tidal Wave Takes Aim at Ploesti

By Sam McGowan

If there was a name of a prospective target that caused Allied airmen in the European Theater of Operations to blanch in the fall of 1943 and the spring of 1944, it was Ploesti. Read more

On the Morning of June 6, 1944, British Paratroopers silenced the German gun battery at Merville and saved lives on the invasion beaches of Normandy.

European Theater

Attack on The Merville gun battery during D-Day

By Robert Barr Smith

Just boys facing danger, please God make them men; If they live through the danger, make them boys once again. —Sergeant Ginger Woodcock, June 5, 1944

On the morning of June 6, 1944, the greatest amphibious fleet in history bore in toward the coast of Normandy. Read more

The OSS supported the French Resistance by parachuting agents, including Marines, into the Haute Savoie region of France.

European Theater

The OSS: Assisting French Resistance In the Haute Savoie Region

vby Al Hemingway

On a moonless night in January 1944, in the Haute Savoie region of southeast France, the drone from the engine of a RAF bomber could be heard in the distance. Read more