General Omar Bradley Archives

General Omar Bradley

The Venerable General Matthew B. Ridgway

by R. Manning Ancell

Siren wailing, the jeep propelling Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker headed north from Walker’s tactical command post in Seoul. Read more

General Omar Bradley

The Forgotten American Airborne of Operation Market-Garden

By Major General Michael Reynolds (ret.)

“In the years to come everyone will remember Arnhem, but no one will remember that two American divisions fought their hearts out in the Dutch canal country,” wrote U.S. Read more

American tanks and armored gun carriers drive over snow-covered terrain to Samree during the Battle of the Bulge. Capture of the city opened the way to Houffallize, heart of the Bulge.

General Omar Bradley

The End of the Battle of the Bulge

By Arnold Blumberg

Wednesday, December 27, 1944, found the military situation in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium stalemated. After 12 days of unrelenting struggle, the American and German forces on this part of the Western Front found themselves locked in brutal combat, unable to drive each other back. Read more

Shortly after a surrender to U.S. forces, German officers hand out rations of bread to hungry soldiers.

General Omar Bradley

The German 11th Panzer Division: Giving Up the Ghost

By Brig. Gen. Raymond E. Bell Jr.

It was an impressive sight. Upon the reviewing stand as honored guest was General Dwight D. Read more

Smoke billows from a generator employed at Ludwigshafen along the banks of the Rhine River. The ruins of the city of Mannheim, Germany, are visible in the background.

General Omar Bradley

Smokescreens: Fighting for Metz

By Jon Latimer

With the defeat of the German Seventh Army and the closing of the Falaise Gap in the summer of 1944, the Allies pursued the retreating enemy across France. Read more

Rocket-firing British Typhoons lay down a deadly barrage on German armor attempting to escape through the Falaise Gap in Normandy following the American breakout at St. Lo.

General Omar Bradley

Closing the Falaise Pocket

By Mike Phifer

After almost two months of bloody and desperate fighting, the Allies had failed to break through the German defenses that had been limiting their hold on Normandy since D-Day. Read more

General Omar Bradley

General Omar Bradley: Dwight D Eisenhower’s Indispensible Lieutenant

By Cole Kingseed

Great commanders need great subordinates. In the campaigns in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of World War II, General Dwight D. Read more

M-4 Sherman tanks of the 11th Armored Division await the call to advance near Eterville on June 30, 1944. Three weeks after Operation Overlord had begun, the fighting near Caen was bitter.

General Omar Bradley

Operation Jupiter: The Fight for the Key to Normandy

By Jon Latimer

The Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, produced a bitter struggle for control of the invasion beachhead. Read more

A pitiful Buchenwald inmate lifts a food bowl to his frail mouth, hardly seeming to comprehend that freedom has come at last. For many, the end of the nightmare had come too late.

General Omar Bradley

WWII Concentration Camps: The Horrific Discovery at Buchenwald

By Flint Whitlock

When Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, the world changed forever.

Not only was Hitler determined to pay back Germany’s enemies for his country’s defeat during the Great War, but he was also determined to rid Germany and the rest of Europe of persons whom his twisted Aryan ideology believed were “inferior” or “subhuman.” Read more

In the close quarters of a rubble-strewn street in Aachen, American soldiers fire a 57mm antitank weapon against a distant German target. Urban warfare became a new concept for Allied armies, and they adapted during the advance into Germany. (National Archives)

General Omar Bradley

The Battle of Aachen: Breaking Down the Door to Europe in WWII

By Flint Whitlock

By the autumn of 1944, German resistance in the West was quickly crumbling as the British and Americans approached the German border 233 days ahead of schedule. Read more

General Omar Bradley

Alvan Gillem’s Invasion of Germany

By Chris J. Hartley

The United States had not yet entered World War II when Time magazine noted that the Army had created two new armored divisions. Read more

General Omar Bradley

4th Infantry Division: The “Easy” Victory at Utah Beach

By Mason B. Webb

In the weeks leading up to the still-undefined D-Day, commanders argued about every detail of Operation Overlord. Read more

General Omar Bradley

Teddy Roosevelt Junior: Steadying the Troops at Utah Beach

By Mason B. Webb

Teddy Roosevelt Junior had enjoyed a distinguished career even before D-Day. He had commanded a battalion in France during the Great War, served as secretary of the Navy from 1921 to 1924, been the governor of Puerto Rico from 1929 to 1932, and been governor-general of the Philippines for a year in the early 1930s. Read more

General Omar Bradley

Operation Market Garden: The American Airborne’s Audacious Role

By Michael E. Haskew

With his troops in a bitter fight with German forces in northern France in the late summer of 1944, General Omar Bradley, commander of the Allied 12th Army Group, could not believe his ears. Read more

General Omar Bradley

The Allies’ Strong Stand Atop Mortain

by Kevin Hymel

A German SS officer, holding a white flag of truce, walked through the American lines and up to a tall lieutenant from Texas. Read more

General Omar Bradley

With the “Ragtag Circus” Across Europe: The Story of Frank Fauver

By Susan Zimmerman

The 83rd U.S. Infantry Division had been mobilized for World War I in September 1917. Its unit patch was a downward-pointing black triangle with the letters O-H-I-O stitched as an abstract gold monogram in the center. Read more

General Omar Bradley

Herrlisheim: What Became of the 12th Armored Division’s Lost Battalion

By Nathan N. Prefer

On January 17, 1945, as Allied forces prepared to descend on Germany itself and put an end to the war in Europe, an American tank battalion disappeared. Read more

Teddy Roosevelt Jr. suffered health problems throughout the entire war, and died shortly after the D-Day Invasion.

General Omar Bradley

Teddy Roosevelt Jr.: Rare Photos from His Funeral in Normandy

This picture was taken by Army Pfc. Sidney Gutelewitz roughly a month after the D-Day Invasion, according to the Los Angeles Times. Read more

In this March 11, 1945, image, troops and M4 Sherman tanks of the U.S. First Army cross the Ludendorff railroad bridge to the eastern bank of the great Rhine River. The last natural barrier along the western frontier of Germany, the Rhine was also crossed by Allied armies in other locations.

General Omar Bradley

Assault on Ludendorff Bridge: The First Allied Crossing of the Rhine

By Jon Diamond

On a cold March evening in the Goldenrod Café in West Point, Nebraska, Mary Timmermann, a waitress there, picked up the telephone receiver when her boss told her it was Omaha calling long distance for her. Read more

General Omar Bradley

Vierville-sur-Mer: Cracking a Critical Draw at Omaha Beach

By Kevin M. Hymell

Shortly after 8 am on June 6, 1944, a German officer overlooking the Vierville-sur-Mer Draw on Omaha Beach reported that the soldiers defending the beach were repelling the Americans: “The enemy is in search of cover behind the coastal zone obstacles. Read more

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Corregidor: Gibraltar of the East

Swords and Citizens: Romans & the Samnites

A tragic loss of life, a tragic loss of history

Snared in a Prussian Trap