United States Marine Corps Archives

During the Korean War, U.N. forces retreating to the 38th Parallel were stalled at Funchilin Pass when a section of the bridge was blown.

United States Marine Corps

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

OSS Captain Frank Farrell was a journalist turned Marine turned spy who uncovered and brought to justice Nazi spies operating after the war in China.

United States Marine Corps

OSS Captain Frank Farrell Prosecuted Nazi Spy Ring In Postwar China

by Colonel Richard D. Camp, Jr. USMC (Ret) and Ms. Suzanne Pool

Marine Captain Frank Farrell stood in the open door of the Army Air Corps C-47 waiting for the “green light,” the signal to leap into space, on a mission that could mean life or death for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people. Read more

During the early days of the Korean War, Douglas MacArthur attempted a daring amphibious Inchon Invasion to retake Seoul.

United States Marine Corps

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

Japanese troops advance through the rubble of a destroyed building in Shanghai on October 29, 1937. Young Marine Captain Evans Carlson witnessed the onslaught.

United States Marine Corps

Creating the OSS: FDR’s Network of Personal Spies

By Peter Kross

One of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s longtime interests was the hidden world of espionage. In the months before the United States entered World War II, the commander-in-chief was dabbling in the covert world of intelligence-gathering, using a number of trusted personal friends as his own private eyes and ears around the globe. Read more

U.S. troops storm ashore during an amphibious landing on Japanese-held Saipan. Navy combat artist William Draper painted the image and titled it The Landing.

United States Marine Corps

The Battle of Saipan

By Al Hemingway

Peering through his binoculars, Vice Adm. Chuichi Nagumo was in awe of the nearly 800 ships from Vice Adm. Read more

United States Marine Corps

U.S. Marine legend Lewis ‘Chesty’ Puller

By Michael D. Hull

Crouched in their foxholes along Edson’s Ridge on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, the Marines formed a critical but thin defense line between strategic Henderson Field and seasoned Japanese infantry lurking in the jungle. Read more

A squad of French Resistance fighters, some sighting automatic weapons, anticipates action against the Nazis, August 1944.

United States Marine Corps

The OSS: Assisting French Resistance in the Haute Savoie Region

By 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

Sterling Hayden played tough characters in films such as 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'The Godfather,' but he also went to war.

United States Marine Corps

Sterling Hayden, From Dr. Strangelove To The Godfather

by Al Hemingway

He stood six foot five in his leather jumping boots and weighed close to two hundred and thirty pounds,” wrote the actor Sterling Hayden in his 1963 autobiography Wanderer. Read more

The Battle of Buna during the defense of Australia in New Guinea saw both sides battle stubborn resistance, harsh jungle, and treacherous mountains.

United States Marine Corps

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

In the wake of the Pearl Harbor aftermath, the Navy's gallant salvage effort became an epic of skill, bravery, and ingenuity.

United States Marine Corps

Pearl Harbor Aftermath: the Salvage Effort to Keep the Navy Fighting

By Mike McLaughlin

The Pearl Harbor aftermath presented the U.S. Navy with a sobering question: how to recover? More than 2,000 men had died. Read more

Carlson’s Marine Raiders participate in rigorous training with rubber boats along a Hawaiian beach. A month later, the Raiders were in action on the Japaese-held island of Makin.

United States Marine Corps

Evans Carlson Forms Carlson’s Raiders

By Michael D. Hull

One of America’s earliest heroes in World War II was the tall, soft-spoken son of a Connecticut Congregational minister who distinguished himself in some of the fiercest fighting in the South Pacific. Read more

Today, we look back on the men and women throughout our history who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country.

United States Marine Corps

Memorial Day

By James Hart

Since its first inception as “Decoration Day” in 1868, Memorial Day has served as an important reminder regarding those who died in service to their country. Read more

The 'Shores of Tripoli' in the Marines' Hymn, Edward Preble and the U.S.S. Philadelphia are all hallmarks of the Tripolitan War of 1801.

United States Marine Corps

“To the Shores of Tripoli…”: The Tripolitan War & Birth of the Navy

by Brad Reynolds

Following the exploits of John Paul Jones and the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, the U.S. Read more

As Nurses, Reservists and Corpsmen, those who served in the new female auxiliary units became some of the most important women in World War 2.

United States Marine Corps

Important Women in World War 2: Women’s Auxiliary Units

by Patricia McBride

Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, America had maintained a popular non-interventionist position with World War 2. Read more

United States Marine Corps

Evans Carlson & America’s First Special Operations Team

By Duane Schultz

Major Evans Carlson stood on a rickety platform built from wooden crates, the kind their rations came in. Read more

United States Marine Corps

How The Battle of Iwo Jima Saved American Lives

By Mike Haskew

On February 19, 1945, thousands of American Marines hit the beaches on the Volcano Islands in the Pacific, starting what we call today the Battle of Iwo Jima. Read more

United States Marine Corps

The Reel Life Alamo

By Eric Niderost

The siege of the Alamo is one of the most celebrated military confrontations in American history. There have been other instances of American soldiers fighting against the odds, from Custer’s Last Stand in 1876 to the embattled Marines defending Wake Island against the Japanese in 1941. Read more

United States Marine Corps

Protecting & Repatriating American Remains at the Battle of Saipan

By Mike Haskew

Many vestiges of World War II in the Pacific linger, denying the ravages of time.

The battleship USS Missouri, where the war ended nearly 70 years ago, remains as a floating monument and museum at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Read more

United States Marine Corps

Literally Cutting Down Your Enemy in a Vought F4U Corsair

By Christopher Miskimon

The Battle of Okinawa raged not only on the island itself but in the skies overhead. Japanese aircraft attacked the invading Americans not only through conventional bombing attacks but also by using the dreaded Kamikaze—suicide pilots who turned their planes into guided missiles to inflict more damage. Read more

In the October 2014 issue of WWII History Magazine, you'll see rare photographs of French children who struggled to cope with the hardships of war.

United States Marine Corps

Taking Guam from Japan in 1944

Above all, the island was defendable.

From Ritidian Point in the north to the extreme southern coastline, Guam is 34 miles long, made in an irregular shape covering 228 square miles, the largest of all Pacific islands between Japan and New Guinea. Read more

From Around the Network

“Mad” Mike Calvert: A British Legend in Burma

Brian G. Horrocks: Bernard Montgomery’s Frontline General

Hitler’s Lebensborn Children: Kidnappings in German-Occupied Poland

Cornelius Gurlitt’s Secret Nazi Art Collection