Franklin D. Roosevelt
Dorie Miller: A Black Sailor’s Heroism at Pearl Harbor
By Michael D. HullHis name was Doris, but he was a powerfully built football fullback, a heavyweight boxer, and the first black American hero of World War II. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
USS Murphy: Long Service in Wartime
By William B. AllmonEighty 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
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The FDR Presidential Library
By Blaine TaylorIt seems to me that the dedication of a library is in itself an act of faith.” The date was June 30, 1941, and the speaker was President Franklin D. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Bomber Gunner Ben Kuroki: “Most Honorable Son”
By Sam McGowanIn 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
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Fatal Pride at Peleliu
By John McManusInside the shabby tent that served as his command post on Peleliu, a despondent Maj. Gen. William Rupertus sat on his bunk, slumped over with his head in his hands. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Wake Island: Alamo in the Pacific
By Kelly BellIt was already December 8, 1941, on Wake Island’s side of the international date line. The Americans on the tiny specks of land in the western Pacific Ocean roused themselves at 6 am. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
U.S. Divisions of World War II
By Colonel James W. HammondThe definitive combat unit of comparable strength among the forces of the world during the 20th century was the division. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Tactical Thunder: The Ninth Air Force
By Sam McGowanAs the landing craft carrying the invading Allied ground forces of Operation Overlord motored toward the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, they were protected and supported by the largest aerial armada the world has ever seen. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Soviet Invasion of Manchuria: Catching Japan Unawares
By John WalkerAt 11:02 am on August 9, 1945, an American warplane dropped an atomic device nicknamed “Fat Man” onto the city of Nagasaki, Japan. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Citizen Spies: Simon and Marie Koedel
By Michael W. WilliamsBuried in the October 24, 1944, edition of the New York times was the headline: “German Ex-Officer Held as Nazi Spy: Captain in Kaiser’s Army, 62 and Foster Daughter Accused of Sending Ship Data Before U.S. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
What did FDR know about the Katyn Forest Massacre?
By Michael E. HaskewMonths after the Red Army stormed across the Polish frontier from the east and occupied approximately half of Poland in the autumn of 1939, the Soviet secret police (NKVD) rounded up thousands of Polish Army officers and summarily executed them at various locations around the war-torn country. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Battle of the Coral Sea
By John WukovitsWorld War II was less than six months old when the American public, already stunned by the debacles at Pearl Harbor and Guam, faced one of its darkest moments. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Argentia Conference: How the Allies Were Formed
by Michael D. HullA British battleship and an American cruiser converged secretly in a remote bay on the Newfoundland coast early in August 1941. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa)’s Triumph
By Blaine TaylorIt was fated to be the last wartime conference of the Big Three Allies of World War II, but it was the first not attended by the late American President Franklin D. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Top Flying Tiger: General Claire Chennault
By Michael D. HullLaden with 500-pound bombs and incendiaries, 10 Japanese twin-engine Mitsubishi Ki21 Sally bombers took off from the Hanoi airfield in Indochina on the morning of Saturday, December 20, 1941. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The USS Panay: First Step on the Road to War
By Eric NiderostAround 10 o’clock on the morning of December 13, 1937, New York Times correspondent Hallett Abend received an unexpected visitor: Rear Admiral Tadao Honda of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and the Nazi Saboteur
By David Alan JohnsonIt was just about midnight on June 12, 1942, and the Abwehr (Nazi Germany’s intelligence agency) hoped that Dasch and his three men, along with another four-man group to be put ashore on the coast of Florida, would be able to destroy factories of the Aluminium Company of America (ALCOA) located in the United States. Read more
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Free France Resurgent: Charles de Gaulle in World War II
By Glenn BarnettOn the evening of June 16, 1940, Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain was appointed Prime Minister of France. It was a critical time. Read more
