Mediterranean Archives

Mediterranean

A Pyrrhic Parachute Victory in Crete

By Richard Rule

In May 1941, General Kurt Student’s elite paratrooper forces descended like an anvil on the British garrison defending Crete. Read more

Free French and American troops, veterans of the fierce fighting in the border region of Alsace along the French frontier with Germany, are reviewed by General Charles de Gaulle on February 14, 1945.

Mediterranean

Free France Resurgent: Charles de Gaulle in World War II

By Glenn Barnett

On the evening of June 16, 1940, Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain was appointed Prime Minister of France. It was a critical time. Read more

General Patton signs an autograph for war correspondent Ernie Pyle.

Mediterranean

George S. Patton: A Life Shaped by Dyslexia

By Glen Jeansonne, Frank C. Haney, and David Luhrssen

General George S. Patton, Jr., was one of the most flamboyant and controversial figures of World War II. Read more

Mediterranean

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

Mediterranean

Iron Annie: The Junkers Ju-52

By William E. Welsh

Shortly before dawn on May 20, 1941, a flight of 500 transport planes took off from seven airstrips on mainland Greece. Read more

Burly bluejackets from the Royal Navy muscle the landing craft to shore during the British amphibious landing at Aboukir Bay, Egypt, on March 8, 1801, in this contemporary oil painting by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg.

Mediterranean

Alexandria: Redcoats in the Land of the Pharaohs

By Eric Niderost

It was a spectacle never to be forgotten by those few who were lucky enough to witness it. Read more

French artillerymen efficiently handle a 75mm cannon and caisson at the First Battle of the Marne, September 1914. French artillery was key to holding off the rampaging German Army and keeping it out of Paris.

Mediterranean

The French 75 Gun: The Secret Cannon Used for Over Half a Century

By Christopher Miskimon

A regiment of Bavarian infantry advanced quietly in the dark, rising from its own trenches and moving toward the French lines across the desolate no-man’s-land in between. Read more

Mediterranean

Were P-47 Thunderbolt Aircraft Really Formidable Fighter-Bombers?

By Sam McGowan

Since the end of World War II, the aviation press has made the North American P-51 Mustang into the superstar Allied fighter of the war. Read more

Mediterranean

WWII Warplanes: The Superb Supermarine Spitfire

By Sam McGowan

In the annals of World War II, one of the most famous airplanes is the British-developed Supermarine Spitfire, an agile, elliptical-wing fighter that has become synonymous with the Royal Air Force victory in the Battle of Britain. Read more

Mediterranean

The Rangers’ British Padre: Father Albert Basil

By Michael D. Hull

One day shortly after the Battle of El Guettar in central Tunisia in March 1943, Colonel William O. Read more

In an ambush led by Arminius (later known as Hermann), three Roman legions were destroyed in Germania in 9 CE. The event, one of Rome’s worst defeats, was seized upon by nationalists in the 19th-century, and later by the Nazi Third Reich, as the mythological origin of the German state. Paintings such as “The battle of Hermann in the Teutoburg Forest,” (1840) by Wilhelm Lindenschmit the Elder, helped popularize Hermann as the father of the German nation.

Mediterranean

Havoc in the Teutoburger Forest

By Michael D. Greaney

One of the most devastating events to shake the early Roman Empire was the defeat of Legate Publius Quinctilius Varus and his army at the hands of Arminius in the Battle of Teutoburgerwald in 9 ad. Read more

A column of German PzKpfw. III tanks rolls along a dirt road in North Africa. When American troops of the II Corps came up against the German veterans, the initial results were disastrous. The American commander, Maj. Gen. Lloyd Fredendall, was also found unequal to the task of leading troops in combat.

Mediterranean

The Battle of Kasserine Pass and the Failure of General Lloyd Fredendall

By Jerome Baldwin

He came highly recommended, praised by General George C. Marshall as “one of the best.” But ultimately from these high hopes and expectations would come disastrous failure. Read more

Mediterranean

Before the Battle of the Bulge: Forming the 551st “GOYAs”

By Donald Roberts II

By summer’s end 1944 Adolf Hitler, along with much of his staff, began to realize that Germany was in serious danger of losing the war. Read more

Mediterranean

How Did Benito Mussolini Die? The Story Behind Il Duce’s Last Moments.

By Wil Deac

It was shortly before seven o’clock on the rain-drenched morning of April 27, 1945, the day before the death of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Read more

Mediterranean

The Betrayal of Viriathus of Spain

By Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

In 150 BC a young shepherd wandered down from the hills to surrender with others of his kind to the Romans. Read more

Mediterranean

The Battle of Lepanto: “The Best Day’s Work in Centuries”

By William J. McPeak

For Europe, there was great news from Malta in August 1565. The Ottoman Turks had lifted their siege and made for home. Read more

Mediterranean

Battle of Cape Ecnomus & the First Punic War

By Marc G. De Santis

“But so long as the Carthaginians held unchallenged control of the sea, the issue of the war still hung in the balance. Read more

On November 10, 1942, American troops occupy a machine-gun position in North Africa. The troops met sporadic resistance from Vichy French forces.

Mediterranean

General Mark Clark’s Secret Mission to North Africa

By Jon Mikolashek

Rain battered the shore and the seas were rough on the night of October 21, 1942. Under the surface of the water, a submarine carried the Allies’ best hope for turning the tide of war in 1942. Read more

The British battleships Warspite, Valiant, and Barham fire upon the Italian cruisers Fiume and Zara during the Battle of Cape Matapan on March 28, 1941. The Italian fleet suffered a humiliating defeat in the pivotal Mediterranean engagement.

Mediterranean

Mussolini’s Navy Foiled: The Battle of Cape Matapan

By Glenn Barnett

In June 1940, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini wrestled with a dilemma. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was the very essence of a victorious warlord. Read more

In full gear, paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division wait calmly in the skies above Sicily for the order to stand up and hook up aboard their Douglas C-47 Dakota transport aircraft.

Mediterranean

WWII Letters: Corporal James. G. Delaney

By Maura B. Delaney

Letters were a valuable commodity to the World War II soldier. They were the link to home and to all things familiar in a most unfamiliar place and time. Read more

From Around the Network

Theodore Roosevelt’s Cowboy Regiment

Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’s Drive to the Don

The Jablunkov Incident

Collecting Vintage Grenades