World War II

The Armistice with Italy, signed on September 3, 1943 at Fairfield Camp in Sicily, marked Italy’s formal military surrender to the Allied powers during World War II. Negotiated in secret between the Italian government under Marshal Pietro Badoglio and Allied commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower,…

The Atlantic Charter, issued on August 14, 1941, was a pivotal joint declaration by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, setting out their shared vision for the post–World War II world. Although the United States was not yet formally involved in the war…

The Tehran Conference was the first wartime meeting between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. The conference focused on military strategy against Nazi Germany and postwar planning. They agreed on Operation Overlord (the…

The Yalta Conference was a pivotal meeting during World War II, where leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union agreed on the final strategy to defeat Nazi Germany and began shaping the post-war world. They planned the creation of the United Nations, set terms for…

<p>Charles Lindbergh and the isolationists of American First opposed Lend Lease and Roosevelt’s attempts to prepare for possible war in Europe.</p>

<p>The famous journalist was arrested for stowing away on a hospital ship to cover the action on Normandy, writing a more compelling article than did her husband, Ernest Hemingway.</p>

<p>Day after day, the sun, the sea, and the sharks cut down the men who clung to the “doughnut” raft: Seaman Heyn’s Story from the Naval Archives</p>

<p><span class="deck"> A down-to-earth story of the way in which the German thrust at the Bulge was halted</span> </p>

<p>An eyewitness account of the World War II battle in the Pacific.</p>

<p><span class="deck">An eyewitness recreates a wonderful, wacky day in August, 1944, when Hemingway, a handful of other Americans, and a s</span>eñorita <span class="deck">named Elena helped rekindle the City of Light. Champagne ran in rivers, and the squeals inside the tanks were not from grit in the bogie wheels.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> For a century Hawaii’s westernmost island has stubbornly resisted the tides of change</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">A single great photograph has become an indelible symbol of the Marines’ heroic fight for the Japanese island. But hours earlier a now-almost-forgotten platoon had raised the first American flag on Mt. Suribachi’s scarred summit—and under enemy fire</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> American forces had returned to the Philippines, and the Japanese Navy was about to make its last, desperate attempt to stave off defeat. Suddenly, by miscalculation, nothing stood between its most powerful task force and the American beachhead at Leyte Gulf but a small group of U.S. escort carriers. Could little Taffy 3 hold off Admiral Kurita’s gigantic battleships?</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> So thought many a weary Marine after the bloody, interminable battle for Guadalcanal. It was only a dot in the ocean, but upon its possession turned the entire course of the Pacific war</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck">A carefree Sunday lay ahead for one of the mess cooks on <em><span class="typestyle">USS Oklahoma</span></em>. His pockets jingled, and a pretty girl awaited him for a picnic on a warm, white beach. Minutes later he lay entombed at the bottom of Pearl Harbor </span></p>

<p>To what extent did greatness inhere in the man, and to what degree was it a product of the situation?</p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">It was the first time in history that British sovereigns had come to see what they lost in 1776. George and Franklin, Elizabeth and Eleanor, hit it off like old friends; even Texas congressmen melted under the royal charm. Brewing was a crucial World War II alliance</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Japanese naval air power was wrecked at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, but, says a U. S. carrier admiral who was there, our Navy missed a chance to destroy the enemy fleet and shorten the war.</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">The Allied drive toward Rome had stalled. Was the destruction of a historic monastery justified in an effort to break the German line and get the campaign moving again?</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Outgunned by the Nazi raider, the</span> Stephen Hopkins <span class="typestyle"> could have struck her colors. Instead she elected to fight</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">Eisenhower dreamed of serving under Patton, but history reversed their roles. Their stormy association dramatically shaped the Allied assault on the Third Reich.</span></span></p>

<p>The admiral who commanded "the ship that wouldn't die" recalls the hellish and heroic hours after a kamikaze turned the carrier <em>Franklin</em> into an inferno.</p>

<p><span class="deck"> The G.I.’s were far more numerous than any army that ever occupied Britain; none left so little visible trace, none so touching a legacy</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck">The furious speaker was Field Marshal Kesselring. The time was 1944. And the “shadow” was cast by Italian partisans and a handful of brave Americans from General Bill Donovan’s O.S.S.</span></p>

<p>Roosevelt, like Lincoln and Wilson, died fighting for his ideals. </p>

<p><span class="deck"> In this final installment from our series on General Joseph W. Stilwell, Barbara W. Tuchman recounts the story of the old soldier’s finest hour</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">Army newspapers in World Wars I and II were unofficial, informal, and more than the top brass could handle</span> </span></p>

<p>Operation Market-Garden promised to lay an airborne red carpet to victory, but its final objective proved to be “a bridge to far.”</p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">It was the most devastating enemy surprise attack since Pearl Harbor—but what mysterious affliction were people dying of two days later?</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck">The making and breaking of codes and ciphers has played an exciting and often crucial part in American history</span></p>

<p>“My God! What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be dead!” the Admiral told Lanikai's skipper when she finally sailed into port</p>

<p>The famed aviator recalls the dramatic bombing raid he led on Tokyo early in World War II.</p>

<p>A soldier remembers a great battle</p>

<p>Ridgeway commanded the 82nd Airborne in World War II, became Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and Army Chief of Staff, and played important roles in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.</p>

<p><span class="deck"> IN ALL THE PACK, DAN COAKLEY DESERVED TO BE CALLED</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck">Remembering Samuel Eliot Morrison</span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> An American Success Story</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">The Agony of J. Robert Oppenheimer</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> to Joseph P. Lash for Roosevelt and Churchill, 1939–1941: The Partnership That Saved the West</span> </span></p>

<p>An infantryman remembers how it was</p>

<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">“For This Challenge, I Had Come Three Thousand Miles and Thirty-six Years of My Life”</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> In his reassessment of a tragic World War II battle, General Gavin concludes that, for the Germans, holding the Huertgen Forest was Phase One of the Battle of the Bulge. For the Americans, trying to occupy the forest was a ghastly mistake.</span> </span></p>

<p>An attempt at modest celebration during the longest battle on German territory during World War II ended badly.</p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> During three harrowing years as a prisoner of the Japanese, an American woman secretly kept an extraordinary journal of suffering, hope, ingenuity, and human endurance</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> The Queen Mary in Peace and War</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> How Americans Met the First Great Gasoline Crisis—Nearly Forty Years Ago</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> A SUBMARINE COMMANDER TELLS WHY WE ALMOST LOST THE PACIFIC WAR</span> </p>