General Douglas MacArthur

Unnecessary Hell: The Battle of Peleliu

By Eric Niderost

In the predawn hours of September 15, 1944, the official start of the two-month Battle of Peleliu, a powerful fleet of U.S. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

The Battle of Peleliu: Was it necessary?

by Eric Niderost

If Peleliu was one of the bloodiest campaigns of the Pacific Theater, it was also one of the least known until recently. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

The Shinano Carrier: How Allied Forces Sunk Such a Secret

By Kelly Bell

The first torpedo struck the Shinano carrier farthest aft. Over the next 30 seconds three more warheads detonated against the massive aircraft carrier’s hull, working their way forward. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

Australia’s Backyard Wars

By John Brown

In June 1943, with the war on the island of New Guinea in its last stages, a proposal was under discussion in Washington that the huge Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain be bypassed and “left to wither on the vine.” Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

FDR’s Dilemma: Did Politics Trump Strategy?

By Robert A. Rosenthal

It was late November 1943, almost two years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

Fateful Decision: The Dropping of the Atomic Bomb

By Flint Whitlock

On August 7, 1945, the day after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, President Harry S. Truman announced, “The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey

By Glenn Barnett

Just before dawn, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise turned into the wind to launch her planes. Nervous and excited pilots roared into the darkness of the vast Pacific toward the unsuspecting Japanese. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

The Kokoda Track Campaign: World War II’s Trail of Death

by A.B. Feuer

The Kokoda track campaign involved a trail that leada south along the western side of the Eora Creek Gorge and through the villages of Deniki and Isurava to a trail junction at Alola. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

Americans Faced Blown Out Bridge During Retreat To 38th Parallel

By Marc D. Bernstein

December 7, 1950 dawned bitter cold in the remote mountains of North Korea. More than 14,000 U.N. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

Eisenhower and MacArthur: an In-Depth Comparison

by Michael Haskew

Two of America’s most famous senior commanders to emerge from World War II were Eisenhower and MacArthur. These officers were largely responsible for command decisions that resulted in Allied victories in the South Pacific and in Europe. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur Masterminds The Korean War’s Inchon Invasion

By Blaine Taylor

Late in the evening of June 25, 1950 U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson was at his Maryland farmhouse reading when a call arrived to inform him of a serious situation in the Far East. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

The USS DuPage: Braving Kamikazes From Air And Sea

By Don Smart

The mighty invasion armada for the main thrust at Luzon in the Philippine Islands was being assembled on December 28, 1944. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

Merrill’s Marauders Fought Tenaciously In Burma

By Michael D. Hull

A series of swift victories took Japanese troops to the gates of India in 1941-1942 when British and Indian units fell back to the Assam hills northwest of Burma. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

“Red” Mantini: Hero Of The 24th Infantry Division In Philippines

By Richard A. Beranty

Angelo J. “Red” Mantini was hardly an angel growing up in the small coal-mining towns of western Pennsylvania in the 1930s. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

William Nolan: Remembering the Bataan Death March

By John Wukovits

Staff Sergeant William Nolan dared not raise his hopes this August day in 1945, but something unusual was unfolding. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

Guerrilla War on Luzon During World War II

By Sam McGowan

If there is a group of men whose mention evokes thoughts of heroism, it is those who were surrendered to the Japanese on Bataan and subsequently became part of the “Death March” up that peninsula in the Philippines to POW camps in central Luzon. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

Military Intelligence: Japan’s BW Group

By Charles N. Tallesen

Confronted with war, some men seem capable of assuming almost any evil. Such were the actions of General Shiro Ishii and the men of his Manchuko Unit 731, which developed means of biological warfare in the 1930s and ’40s. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

The HMS Illustrious & Other Armored British Carriers Left Their Mark

By Sam McGowan

When one thinks of carrier warfare in World War II, the Japanese and U.S. navies usually come to mind. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

The Battle Of Buna: Costly For Both Allies and Japanese

By Glenn Barnett

In March 1942, General Douglas MacArthur was ordered out of the doomed Philippines by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to organize the defense of Australia. Read more

General Douglas MacArthur

Japanese Battleship Yamato Makes Its Final Stand

Dy Gerald Astor

In the late afternoon of April 6, 1945, five days after American GIs and leathernecks scrambled onto an Okinawa beach a scant 500 miles from Japan, two U.S. Read more