Mussolini

The Siege of Malta in WWII: Holding on to the Island Fortress

By John Brown

When World War II began in September 1939, just nine months before the Siege of Malta, its three small islands in the central Mediterranean were still considered part of the British Commonwealth. Read more

Mussolini

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

Mussolini

Palermo Captured

By Kevin Hymel

When the Sicilian port city of Palermo fell to Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Seventh Army on July 22, 1943, his soldiers were surprised by their reception. Read more

Mussolini

The Real English Patient Behind the Ralph Fiennes Film

By Ron Gilliam

On the morning of May 15, 1942, a strange motorcade rolled out of Campo Four, located 170 hot, dusty miles south of the Italian base at Jalo oasis in northeast Libya. Read more

Mussolini

The Irish Brigade in WWII

By Tim Newark

It was a letter in the London Times that caught the attention of British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Read more

Mussolini

Operation Greif and Otto “Scarface” Skorzeny

By Don Hollway

With a quarter of a million German troops pouring through the Ardennes Forest, three Americans fleeing in a jeep should have raised no alarm. Read more

Mussolini

May 8, 1945: V-E Day and the Surrender of Germany

by Flint Whitlock

In May 1945—70 years ago—the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) sent out a terse, unemotional, 15-word communiqué: “The mission of this Allied force was fulfilled at 0241 local time, May 7, 1945.” Read more

Mussolini

Felice Benuzzi’s Extraordinary Climb of Mount Kenya

By Chuck Lyons

Felice Benuzzi’s part in the war may have been a small one, but his story is one of the oddest to come out of World War II. Read more