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Knives at Each Other’s Throats: The Resistance Movements of Mihailović and...
Operation 25, the invasion of Yugoslavia, part of Adolf Hitler’s strategic blunder added this Balkan nation and Greece to the list of countries conquered by the German Army. After military victory was...
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Tuskegee Airmen vs. Me-262s
“We knew the German jets were faster than we were. Instead of going directly after them, we went away from them and then turned into their blind spots.” Tuskegee students talk about flying their...
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Men Against Mosquitoes: Malaria in War
More than arrows, swords, bullets, or bombs, disease has been the biggest killer of soldiers until quite recently. Malaria was not the only illness that shaped the course of history, but it was one of...
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Torpedo Scandal: Rear Adm. Charles Lockwood, the Mark 14, and the Bureau of...
“[We] clinked ’em with a clunk.” —Lt. Cmdr. William John “Moke” Millican, Thresher captain, referring to a dud torpedo impact on a ship In 1942, submarines in the three regional Pacific Ocean commands...
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Turning Things Around: Patton Takes Over II Corps
The American debacle at the Battle of Kasserine Pass had brought the simmering command crisis of II Corps to a head. But Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied forces in North Africa,...
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Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow, All for the War Effort
On March 6, 1943, the New York Times reported that 11-year-old Anita Hochberg of Sea Cliff, Long Island, had donated 14 inches of her “patriotic blonde” hair to the Bendix Aviation Corporation. She was...
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Wartime Me 262 Pilot Said He Flew Faster Than Sound
Hans Guido Mutke loomed larger than life, say those who knew him. A very experienced but very junior German military pilot, Mutke flew the Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe (Swallow) jet fighter near the...
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The Virtues of Stubbornness: Mules at War
Mules don’t exist in nature. They are an artificial product of human ingenuity, and like many such products, it didn’t take long before they found a place in the grim business of war. A mule is the...
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Nazi Helicopters: Henrich Focke’s Fa 61
Nature devised the rotary wing as a way to disperse tree seeds on the wind. Generations of daydreamers, observing the spiraling flight of maple or ash seeds, imagined riding just as effortlessly...
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Warren Spahn, Hall of Fame Pitcher, Was Seasoned by World War II
Like fellow Baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams, pitcher Warren Spahn had his career interrupted by World War II. Unlike Williams, who was already famous when he was drafted, Spahn achieved notoriety...
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Nazi Helicopters: Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache and Fa 330 Bachstelze at War
After Focke’s Fa 61 experimental helicopter (described in Part 1) proved stable in flight and reliable in service, in 1938, Lufthansa, the German airline, ordered a six-passenger version to whisk VIP...
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Fiorello LaGuardia Tries to Become a General
Of all the challenges Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall tackled, arguably none was greater than dealing with his commander in chief, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A serio-comic tug-of-war...
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The Court-martial of Jackie Robinson
On the afternoon of Tuesday, April 15, 1947, at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators that included 14,000 African-Americans, Brooklyn Dodger Jack “Jackie” Roosevelt Robinson took his...
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Project Extraversion: P-80 Shooting Stars in World War II
One of the untold stories of early jet aviation is about the four Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star fighters that reached Europe as early as January 1945. German jets, in particular the Messerschmitt Me 262,...
View ArticleThe Doolittle Raid l Photos
Today marks 71 years since the Doolittle Raid on Japan conducted by Lt. Col. “Jimmy” Doolittle and 79 other volunteers. The Doolittle raiders launched B-25 Mitchell bombers from the deck of the USS...
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POW Escape from Davao, Part 1
April 1943 would become a landmark month in the history of prisoners of war (POWs). In Stalag Luft III, a Luftwaffe-run POW camp in Lower Silesia, Germany, Squadron Leader Roger Bushell of the RAF...
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POW Escape from Davao, Part 2
On the morning of April 4, 1943, two POW work details made up of Lt. Cmdr. Melvyn H. McCoy, U.S. Navy; Maj. Mike Dobervich, Capt. Austin Shofner, and 1st Lt. Jack Hawkins, U.S. Marine Corps; Maj....
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The Katyn Massacre: The Pot Calling the Kettle Black
In 1939, Nazi Germany and its then-ally the Soviet Union divided conquered Poland between them per the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Some senior members of the Polish government and military...
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The Last Reunion of the Doolittle Raiders
They arrived on the April 16 supported by the Ft. Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Ft. Walton Beach Military Affairs Committee, and several corporate sponsors who were not allowed to use the event...
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Adm. Sir Max Horton and Western Approaches Command
Of all the battles fought in World War II, none was more critical than the Battle of the Atlantic. For the United States, responsibility fell on the shoulders of Commander in Chief U.S. Atlantic Fleet...
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