World War II

Seventy-five years ago, the entire world was still at war. In Europe, the Allied armies of American, British, Canadian and Free French forces were pushing Germany in the west while huge Soviet armies were driving east into Germany. Other Allied troops were pushing northward up through Italy, putting the Nazis into an ever-tighter circle. In […]

Maj. Light Shin, 173rd Airborne Brigade chaplain, talks with retired U.S. Army Master Sgt. Richard Adams, a former 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment paratrooper who was involved in the retaking of Corregidor Island in 1945, during a ceremony to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of U.S. service members regaining control of the island at the U.S. Embassy […]

Marines who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima take a group photo at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, Feb. 14, 2020. Marines and their families got together in honor of the 75th anniversary of the day Marines stormed Iwo Jima in 1945. You can read more about the battle here.

William Orlando Darby is one of the icons of the Army’s Special Operations community. He organized, trained, and led the first of the Army’s Ranger Battalions during World War II. He fought in North Africa, Sicily, and mainland Italy. Later, as the Assistant Division Commander of the 10th Mountain Division, he was killed in action […]

Nancy Wake was given the moniker, “the White Mouse” by the Germans during World War II, for her uncanny ability to escape out of any trap. However, the glamorous female agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), was deadly; in one instance she killed an SS guard, taking him out with her bare hands to […]

Chuck Yeager always had the “Right Stuff” regardless if NASA never selected him for the space program. Yeager was a decorated fighter pilot in World War II and became a test pilot and was the first man to exceed the speed of sound in level flight. Yeager was born to a farming family on February […]

Today is the birthday of Sterling Hayden, he would have been 103 years old today. Most people when they hear his name think of the crooked cop, Captain McCloskey in “The Godfather”. Working with a rival faction of Mafiosi, Hayden met his end when Michael Corleone shot him in a restaurant. He was also outstanding […]

After the forces of Hitler’s Nazi Germany overran most of Europe in the summer of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered that the military create a force that could carry out raids against Nazi-occupied Europe. “Enterprises must be prepared, with specially-trained troops of the hunter class, who can develop a reign of terror down […]

As anyone who has read about the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and SOE (Special Operations Executive) of World War II knows, Virginia Hall is one of the true rock stars of the clandestine services for both Britain and the United States.  In the outstanding book, “A Woman of No Importance,” Sonia Purnell tells a […]

On this day 75 years ago one of the most famous lines ever uttered by an American military officer was said when the Germans surrounded the 101st Airborne around Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge. General Anthony McAuliffe, the acting Division Commander in the absence of General Maxwell Taylor who was in the […]

Adolf Eichmann was one of the key architects of the Nazis’ “Final Solution” of the Jews in Europe. His arrest/kidnapping by the Mossad in Argentina and subsequent trial in Israel brought to the public’s awareness the horrors of the Holocaust. And the widespread use of television transmitted them straight to the public’s living room.  His […]