World War II

Lt. Jim Downing, the second oldest living survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that propelled the United States into World War II, passed away at the age of 104 last week. Downing, who joined the Navy at 19 years old and devoted 24 years to the branch, was serving aboard the USS West […]

Bomb disposal experts from the Royal Navy transported a large, unexploded bomb down the River Thames on Monday night, then detonated it at sea. Airport security the world over has changed dramatically in the years since the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, particularly in nations with close ties to the United States like the […]

Just six weeks after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army Air Corps (later to become the Army Air Force) activated the 8th Bomber Command at Hunter Airfield in Savannah, Georgia. The Eighth was slated for duty in England. Brigadier General Ira C. Eaker took the Eighth Air Force Bomber Command Headquarters to England the next month […]

Audie Murphy was one of the most decorated soldiers of World War II. Murphy lied about his age to enlist in the army and by the time he was 19, had been awarded every major medal for valor of the United States as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. On January 26, 1945, […]

In January 1942, the leaders of the Nazi Third Reich gathered in Wannsee, Germany, a suburb of Berlin to implement their plans and policies for what they termed the “Jewish Question.” The meeting was called and chaired by Reich Main Security Office SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. The Nazi’s plan, the “Final Solution” to the Jewish question […]

On January 14, 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt, English Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to discuss war strategy in Casablanca, Morocco with Combined Chiefs of Staff and how they wanted to proceed with their war plans. Also invited were representatives from the Free French, General Charles de Gaulle and General Henri Girard. The French were in […]

Greg Boyington was a Marine aviator during the Second World War fighting in both the Marine Corps and as a member of the legendary Flying Tigers, the American Group (AVG). Boyington was credited with shooting down 26 enemy planes and was the recipient of the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross. He was shot […]

Retired Captain Jerry Yellin, former Army Air Corps pilot who flew the final combat mission of World War II  has died at the age of 93 in Orlando, Florida. Yellin joined the Army Air Forces in 1941 on his 18th birthday, two months after the Pearl Harbor attacks. Yellin, who was assigned to the 78th Fighter […]

Richard “Dick” Winters was the central figure of the Stephen Ambrose book “Band of Brothers” that focused on the ordinary men that made up a rifle company in the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. Thru their rigorous training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, North Carolina, England before jumping into combat at Normandy on D-Day, […]

On this night, December 29-30, 1940, the Luftwaffe unleashed one of the more deadly raids on the city of London during “The Blitz”, firebombing the capital and destroying a large segment of the city. The Blitz was the name Londoners gave to the German bombing of England that took place between 7 September 1940 – […]

The First American Volunteer Group [AVG] popularly known as the Flying Tigers was a civilian contractor group of US Army, Navy and Marine Corps aviators who volunteered to fight for the Chinese against the Japanese in the early days of World War II. Although the Flying Tigers were in existence for a very short time, […]

During the opening days of the Germans’ Ardennes Offensive late in 1944, elements of the 1st SS Panzer Division [Leibstandarte] committed a series of grisly atrocities against American prisoners of war [POWs] around the Belgian town of Malmedy. These actions by Kampfgruppe Peiper, led by SS Sturmbannführer Joachim Peiper led to a war crimes trial […]