United States
Ford’s Willow Run Factory
By Samantha L. QuigleyThey said it couldn’t be done. Doubters chided Henry Ford for declaring that his Willow Run Bomber Plant could turn out a B-24 Liberator heavy bomber every hour. Read more
United States
Female Revolutionary War Heroes: the Front Lines and at Home
by Mike Haskew Martha Custis Washington: General’s Wife and First LadyMartha Custis Washington, wife of General George Washington, came to the winter quarters of her husband’s army each winter of the Revolutionary War. Read more
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Union General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea
By Mike Haskew
Union General William T. Sherman was a friend and trusted subordinate of General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of all Union armies in the field during the Civil War. Read more
United States
American Civil War Timeline: the Road to War
by William WelshOne of the catalysts for a major rebellion in the United States were irregular warfare in “Bleeding Kansas” from 1854 to 1861 between anti-slavery Free Staters and pro-slavery border ruffians. Read more
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Against the Odds: Jeanette Rankin
By Martin K.A. MorganAn Associated Press report described “a chorus of hisses and boos” that echoed through the chamber when the Congresswoman from Montana cast her vote. Read more
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Operation Aphrodite
By Mason B. WebbWhen it came to advanced military technology in World War II, arguably no one was better at it than Nazi Germany, whose scientists Adolf Hitler keep busy trying to invent the ultimate “super weapon” capable of defeating his enemies. Read more
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Battle of Chickamauga: Death in the Deep Woods
By Cowan BrewIt was nearly 11 on the morning of September 20, 1863, and the woods around slow-moving Chickamauga Creek in northwest Georgia were ominously quiet. Read more
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Attack on the USS Panay
By Chuck LyonsFor some Americans, World War II started early. In December 1937, four years before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor propelled the United States into the war, Japanese planes attacked an American gunboat, the USS Panay, on China’s Yangtze River, strafing and bombing the boat, sinking it, killing three American crew members, and the wounding 45 others. Read more
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Saga of the Eggbeater
By Mark AlbertsonOn September 14, 1939, Igor Sikorsky attained stability and control with the initial flight of an open cockpit test bed known as the VS-300. Read more
United States
Harpers Ferry: The Rise of Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart
By Melanie SavageOn the morning of October 17, 1859, an aide to Secretary of War John B. Floyd hurried off with an urgent message for Colonel Robert E. Read more
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Why the Japanese Lost the Battle of Midway (And How it Changed WWII)
by Mike HaskewSix months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, sought to extend Japan’s defensive perimeter in the central Pacific with the seizure of Midway atoll, about 1,300 miles west of Hawaii. Read more
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The Lee-Enfield Rifle and its Effectiveness in World War II
By Arnold BlumbergBy 1901, the Small Arms Committee—the body within the War Office tasked with arming the British Army with weapons—sought to replace their then-standard issue rifle: the Magazine Lee-Metford Rifle Mark II. Read more
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Prelude to Iwo Jima: The Japanese Assault On B-29 Base On Marianas
By Michael P. SlaterFrom an altitude of 30,000 feet, the swift Japanese reconnaissance aircraft flew high over Saipan and Tinian, photographing the brisk and extensive engineering effort under way on the American airfields far below. Read more
United States
WWII Vehicles: The British Universal (or “Bren Gun”) Carrier
by Arnold BlumbergThe origins of the Universal Bren Gun Carrier can be traced to the Ford T-powered Carden-Loyd machines developed in Great Britain in the mid-1920s, specifically the Mark VI model of 1927. Read more
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What Made the Dreaded Type 89 Knee Mortar So Damaging
By Robert CashnerWhen it came to weapons production, the Imperial Japanese Army’s requirements often came in second to the needs of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Read more
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Engineering Excellence, Political Dysfunction: Mercedes-Benz in WWII
by Albert MrozFew would argue that Daimler-Benz is one of the most prominent and highly regarded motor vehicle manufacturers in automotive history. Read more
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The Katyn Forest Massacre: Cracks in the Allied Cause
by Michael E. HaskewThe enemy of my enemy is my friend, so an old saying goes. Perhaps it was the grandest exercise in political pragmatism and expediency that the world has ever known. Read more
United States
Black Soldiers, Blue Uniforms
By John WalkerAlthough several overzealous Union Army field commanders organized African Americans into ad hoc militia units early in 1862 and several black regiments were mustered into service later that year, it wasn’t until after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863, that the federal government began actively recruiting and enlisting black soldiers and sailors. Read more
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Nuremberg Prosecutor: Brigadier General Telford Taylor
By Blaine TaylorOn March 23, 1991, at a reunion of the postwar Nuremberg International Military Tribunal staffers in Washington, I had occasion to meet the former American prosecutor, Brigadier General Telford Taylor. Read more
United States
The Nazi ‘Gold Train Incident’
By Peter KrossBy 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
