Belisarius is shown triumphant over the Ostrogoths and heading for Rome.

Tinian

Military Myths and Legends: Belisarius

By James Allan Evans

It was a sorry tale. A brilliant general, military hero, and faithful servant of the state, blind and reduced to penury in his old age, sitting on the main street of Constantinople begging for his living. Read more

Tinian

Byzantine Spies in the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars

By Arnold Blumberg

Byzantium, the successor state to ancient Rome, lasted over a thousand years. But it all could have been different because its first major enemy—Persia—was a fierce and determined competitor bent on the Empire’s demise. Read more

battle of Tinian

Tinian

Marine Fight for Tinian

By Richard Camp (Colonel, USMC, ret.)

The island of Tinian is located in the Northern Marianas, three miles southwest of Saipan, 100 miles north of Guam, and 1,500 miles from mainland Japan. Read more

Tinian

The U.S. 3rd, 5th, and 4th Marine Divisions: Uncommon Valor at Iwo Jima

By Nathan N. Prefer

“You know,” said Marine Maj. Gen. Clifton B. Cates to a war correspondent on the eve of Operation Detachment, the invasion of Iwo Jima, “if I knew the name of the man on the extreme right of the right-hand squad of the right-hand company of the right-hand battalion, I’d recommend him for a medal before we go in.” Read more

Tinian

Seek…Attack…Destroy

By Patrick. J. Chaisson

Admiral Soemu Toyoda needed answers. The newly appointed commander in chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet, Toyoda found himself facing several unpleasant facts. Read more

Tinian

The Port Chicago Disaster

By Mason B. Webb

In the summer of 1944, with American forces battling their way ever closer to the Japanese home islands, the need for ammunition in the Pacific was hitting its peak. Read more

Marines pause on one of the invasion beaches on Guam in July 1944. An amphibious tracked vehicle is seen at left, while soldiers take up positions and prepare to advance inland.

Tinian

Liberating Guam

By David H. Lippman

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

Tinian

First Casualties at Iwo Jima

By Christopher Marks

Lieutenant Harold Gilson Payne, Jr., was one of the first Americans to die at Iwo Jima. He did not fall in the carnage of the Marine invasion that began on February 19, 1945. Read more

The massacre of the Burgundians in 437 became the historical backdrop for the Middle High German epic poem, The Nibelungenlied.

Tinian

Burgundian Massacre: the Story of the Nibelungenlied

by William E. Welsh

When the Huns swept through the plains of northern Europe in spring 451 on their way to what would become one of the decisive battles of Late Antiquity, the Frankish peoples could do little to resist the swarming bands of horsemen who showed no mercy to anyone in their path. Read more

With smoke and dust rising below, a B-29 bomber flies over Osaka in June 1945.

Tinian

Low Level, No Guns

By Robert F. Dorr

Major Sam P. Bakshas woke up that morning with the secrets in his head.

Bakshas was one of the men flying B-29 Superfortress bombers from three Pacific islands—Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. Read more