Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

The Nazi ‘Gold Train Incident’

By Peter Kross

By the spring of 1945, Hitler’s thousand year Reich had come crashing down in flames. The Allied armies that had landed at Normandy almost one year earlier had penetrated deep inside Germany. Read more

Under Van Deman, the Military Intelligence Section had wide powers of intelligence collection and investigation.

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

Famous Military Spies: Ralph Van Deman

By Peter Kross

In the long history of American military intelligence, the names that come to mind most often are those of Nathan Hale, Benedict Arnold, Herbert Yardley, and William Donovan. Read more

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

The OSS and the Fourth Dimension of Warfare

By Bob Bergin

Major General John K. Singlaub was a young airborne lieutenant when he took up an offer from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to become engaged in “hazardous duty behind enemy lines.” Read more

A Chinese soldier sheds some light on the German transmitter Farrell accidentally discovered in Canton. The discovery led him on a two-year investigation and the arrest of 21 German spies.

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

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

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

V-E Day: Victory at Last for World War II’s Allies

By Flint Whitlock

Within his reinforced concrete bunker, 50 feet below the garden of the New Reichs Chancellery on Berlin’s Wilhelmstrasse, German dictator Adolf Hitler, his soon-to-be bride Eva Braun, and several hundred friends, SS guards, and staff members could feel the concussion and hear the unending drumroll of thousands of Soviet artillery shells reducing the already-battered capital city of the Third Reich to unrecognizable rubble. Read more

Donning camouflage, a team of OSS operatives lands ashore. Despite initial skepticism, the OSS more than proved its worth during numerous operations in Italy and North Africa.

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

OSS Operation Ginny

By Don Smart

The three rubber dinghies struggled through the rough surf in the pitch black night toward an inhospitable stretch of rocky beach. Read more

U.S. soldiers walk past the bombed-out barracks that once housed members of Adolf Hitler’s SS guard. The building was hit during an Allied bombing raid.

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

The RAF Attempt to Assassinate Adolf Hitler

By Charles Whiting

Adolf Hitler believed in Vorsehung (providence). The German leader felt that if anything was going to happen to him, such as assassination, there was nothing he could do about it. Read more

During an inspection tour of OSS headquarters in New Delhi, General William, "Wild Bill" Donovan stands fifth from the left. To Donovan's right is Colonel John Coughtlin, commander of the New Delhi unit. Elizabeth McIntosh stands third on Donovan's right.

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

Inside the OSS: An Interview With Elizabeth P. McIntosh

By Bob Bergin

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was America’s first strategic intelligence organization. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized its establishment on June 13, 1942, six months after World War II began, to collect and analyze strategic intelligence and to conduct special services, including subversion, sabotage, and psychological warfare. Read more

Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen proceed to the opening of the Reichstag on March 21, 1933.

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

Franz von Papen: Vice Chancellor of Nazi Germany

By Scott A. Beal

On May 31, 1932, Franz von Papen achieved the pinnacle of a long career serving his country when, in a surprising move, the aging President Paul von Hindenburg named him Chancellor of Germany. Read more

German camp authorities and delegates of the International Red Cross discuss the disposition of packages at Luft Stalag III B.

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

Steve Stupak: Surviving the German Death March

By Al Hemingway

By 1945, the war in Europe was nearing its conclusion. Having suffered a severe defeat at the hands of the Allies in the Battle of the Bulge, Adolf Hitler’s seemingly indestructible Third Reich was quickly crumbling under the Allied juggernaut. Read more

From Around the Network

  • German cruiser SMS Konigsberg, displacing 3,400 tons, sailed from Germany for Africa in April 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I.

    Military History

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    WWII

    Slaughter in the Sunda Strait
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  • Admiral Yi Sun Shin was not only a highly skilled militarist; he was also a writer. He wrote a war diary and composed poems. Here he is seen writing in a quiet and secluded moment.

    Military History

    The Imjin War: The Japanese Invasion of Korea
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  • Adolf Hitler rose from obscurity to lead the Nazi Party to power in Germany and embarked on a campaign of conquest and destruction.

    Military History

    Adolf Hitler Led Germany To Ruin In World War II
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