Operation Greif – Nazi in Disguise

    Ardennes Counteroffensive Even though the Normandy landings in June of 1994 allowed the Allies to establish a foothold in Northern France, Belgium, and its immediate surroundings, the situation in the rest of Europe was still far from secure. Supply lines opened up through the channel at Normandy, but the further…

    Famous Soviet Sniper Who Killed 309 Nazis in World War II: Lyudmila Pavlichenko

    “I am writing this at the request of the Soviet Antifascist Youth Committee… I’m Ukrainian. I was born in the town of Bila Tserkva, not far from Kyiv, 26 years ago. I am a most ordinary-looking girl, medium height, and dark brown hair, which I used to wear long. I…

    Operation Barbarossa Begins

    June 22, 1941, Operation Barbarossa begins. This Operation is the German invasion of the Soviet Union, and they are invading with the largest invasion force in the history of warfare. In the early morning of the 21st, a submarine commander in the Soviet Red Navy reports the sighting of a…

    Focke-Wulf Fw 190 – The Butcher Bird

    When the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 first saw combat in 1941, it was an instant success and inflicted heavy casualties upon its opponents, particularly RAF Spitfires. During a career that lasted for a period of four years, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 served in every German theater of war from the cold…

    Battle of Lanzerath Ridge – 18-man I&R platoon vs. 500 German paratroopers

    On December 16 of 1944, 18 American soldiers from a reconnaissance platoon faced off against a German advance, outnumbered 27-to-one in what would come to be known as the Battle of Lanzerath Ridge. The day-long confrontation saw the 18 soldiers battle 500 German paratroopers with such ferocity that the German…

    Battle of Peleliu – Bitterest Fight for the Marines in World War 2

    When US forces approached the tiny island of Peleliu inside the Japanese National Defense Zone in late-1944, the Imperial Japanese high command was determined to defend the small landmass at any cost. By then, the Empire was strictly on the defensive, as their forces had suffered blow after blow while…

    American Traitors – The Incredible Story of Martin James Monti

    American citizens serving in Germany’s notorious SS, fact or fiction. Well, a little bit of both actually. During the war the Germans particularly the SS recruited vary widely and from all of the occupied territories they conquered. They also recruited from amongst their enemies and it’s well known that the…

    Dietrich von Choltitz – General who refused to burn Paris to the ground

    Hitler's Third Reich was rapidly crumbling before his very eyes; the vast empire that had once spanned from Tripoli to Rome to Kyiv was now shrinking, drawing ever so close to Berlin. Also, Paris was still under Nazi control, but not for long. By the summer of 1944, Allied forces…

    The Goebbels Family – The Story of Hans Goebbels

    The story of Dr. Goebbels’ brother Hans is the story of Nazi nepotism. Relatives of the Nazi party leadership, rose to positions of great power and influence on the coattails of their more famous siblings, and many like Hans Goebbels ended up paying the price for that association at the…

    The Heroic Stand of Audie Murphy at Holtzwihr

    It’s January 26th, 1945. Just after 2:00 PM. The newly appointed company commander, Audie Murphy, and more than three dozen American GIs lay down on the snow-covered ground near the town of Holtzwihr in Alsace, France. In the distance, thundering booms from the German artillery are followed by eerie hissing…

    British Commandos

    Commandos are actually used by the British before Dunkirk. Looking into unconventional warfare for the Military Intelligence Research department, researchers were interested in a different type of soldier. By the spring of 1940, they have approval to recruit 10 new ‘guerrilla companies’ from other army units. British troops lined up…

    Ghost Plane of the Libyan Desert: Lady Be Good

    Following years of fighting across the harsh terrain of North Africa, in May 1943, the German and Italian forces which still remained there surrendered to the Allies. A month earlier the 514th Squadron of the 9th Air Force was stationed at the Soluch Air Base near the town of Benghazi…

    Battle of Aachen – First German City to Fall in WW2

    Following D-Day and the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. The German Army in the West collapsed and retreated towards the defenses of the Westwall, known more popularly in the West as the Siegfried Line. Westwall – Siegfried Line The Allied armies followed hot on their heels, hoping…

    Léo Major – The Sole Savior of Zwolle

    It’s the night of April 13, 1945, in Zwolle in the Netherlands. Canadian soldiers from the Régiment de la Chaudière cautiously approach the city under the cover of darkness. Crouching low beside the road, the commanding officer asks for two volunteers. For those who dare to step forward, the mission…

    Battle of Kursk – The Largest Tank Battle of World War 2

    Preparing the Offensive The Fuhrer and the military command believed that during the first months of Operation Barbarossa, the city of Moscow would fall to the unstoppable German forces. But they quickly discovered that they had underestimated the Soviet population. Despite successfully encircling and crushing multiple Soviet Armies that surpassed…

    Top 5 American Tanks of World War 2

    Before World War II, the United States Army thought the mission of the tank was to support infantry. The job of fighting other tanks was assigned to the tank-destroyer class of vehicles. These vehicles were fast and had powerful guns but sacrificed a lot of armor to achieve such a…

    Fall of Tobruk 1942

    In June of 1942, the German forces under the command of General Erwin Rommel were on the run from the British 8th Army. The Allies had recently liberated Tobruk from a famous eight-month siege in which the heroic actions of the 9th Australian maintained the port in Allied hands against…

    Operation Haudegen – The last German soldiers to surrender after World War 2

    On the 7th of May 1945, German General Alfred Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany at the Allied headquarters in Reims, France. It meant the Second World War had come to an end, at least, in the European theater of war. But… the war didn’t end for a…

    Stopping the Nazi Atomic Bomb

    The Plan Due to its relative inaccessibility, means of infiltrating the plant were limited and dangerous. The bridge across the valley below the plant was heavily guarded and the mountains above had been rigged with landmines. Bombing the plant was out of the question, both due to risk of civilian…

    SAS Raid on Sidi Haneish

    By early 1942, the tide was starting to turn for the British in North Africa. As over 70% of supplies going to General Rommel’s Afrika Korps and his Italian allies were being sunk crossing the Mediterranean. As a result, the Germans employed more Luftwaffe aircraft to move supplies and these…

    Operation Tidal Wave – Blowing Up Hitler’s Gas Station

    Before entering World War II, the U.S Army Air Corps, which in 1941 became the Army Air Forces, developed and perfected a particular attack method. It consisted of high-altitude, daylight mass precision bombings of enemy military and industrial structures. This doctrine combined with the British Royal Air Force’s specialty on…

    Simo Häyhä – The World’s Most Successful Sniper in History

    The invading Soviet soldiers grew to be straight-up terrified of Häyhä. Having to patrol the blanched Finnish wilderness with the knowledge that Häyhä could be out there waiting dipping them with a spectacular long distant shot earned him the nickname Belaya Smert, which is Russian for White Death. However, Häyhä’s…

    Yugoslav Resistance – Partisans and Chetniks

    After the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the kingdom is carved up by the four antagonists: Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria. What was one country is now divided into nine different territories. Large parts are occupied or annexed, such as Slovenia by Germany and Italy, parts of Serbia by…

    Heinrich Severloh: The Beast of Omaha

    Heinrich Severloh was born into a farming family in northern Germany. At the age of 19, he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht in July 1942. He would initially serve in the 19th Light Artillery Replacement Division before being transferred to the 321st Artillery Regiment, he would train for a few…

    Schwerer Gustav – The Largest Gun Ever Built

    Schwerer Gustav, or the “Heavy Gustav,” was the largest and most powerful gun used in World War II. It was initially commissioned by Hitler to destroy the French Maginot Line; however, it was actually only used extensively in the siege of Sevastopol on the Eastern Front. Dismantled by the Germans…

    SuperKiwi Charles Upham

    New Zealand-born Charles Upham was and still remains the only combatant to receive two Victoria Crosses. During World War II while the nazis swept across Europe and Africa, Upham would enlist with the New Zealand Army and set sail in early 1941. In March 1941, second lieutenant Upham found himself…

    The Soviet Cook Who Captured a German Tank with an Ax

    It’s the 2nd of July 1941. At a field kitchen in a forest near Dünaburg, Latvia. Ivan Pavlovich Sereda calmly peels potatoes for the evening soup. Graduate from culinary college, Sereda is assigned to the 91st Tank Regiment, 46th Tank Division of the 21st Mechanized Corps as a cook. It’s…

    The Story of the Dreaded Reinhard Heydrich

    Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was born as the second of three children on March 7, 1904 in Halle an der Saale. His father was a versatile musician, opera singer, and composer who founded the First Halle Conservatory for Music, Theater, and Teaching in 1899 and was director of it. Reinhard…

    OSS: The Forerunner of the CIA

    In 1940, the British set up an organization known as the Special Operations Executive or SOE. This was responsible for intelligence gathering and secretive operations throughout Europe. Come 1942 after some training from the British in the previous year, the Office of Strategic Services or OSS was created in the…

    The KV-2 that single-handedly held up the entire 6th Panzer Division for a day

    The Eastern Blitzkrieg After the annexation of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and ultimately Poland, the United Kingdom and France decided to go to war to prevent Germany from becoming a world power once again. While this happened, Adolf Hitler had signed a secret peace treaty with Stalin. Both nations took over half…

    Werwolf: SS Stay-Behind Organization

    The idea of creating some kind of behind the lines German resistance organization originated with Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. The original concept was something akin to Otto Skorzeny’s commandos, highly trained and well-armed uniform formations rather than Nazi partisans. Heinrich Himmler taking target practice with a Luger P08 pistol Himmler chose…

    Kurt Knispel – The Ace of Panzer Aces

    Kurt Knispel is according to the books, the best tank ace with the most so-called kills, yet he is also the most forgotten Panzer Ace of them all. In this article, we will take a closer look at the actions of this forgotten yet incredible Panzer Ace. What is astonishing…
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