The WWII Battle of Manila: The Deadliest Urban Battle of the Pacific War
Japanese Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi carried a heavy burden. In November 1942, the USS Washington’s guns had sent his battleship Kirishima to the bottom of the ocean off Guadalcanal. He survived. In Japanese military culture, that survival brought immense disgrace. Two years later, commanding naval forces in Manila, Iwabuchi saw his chance at redemption. General […]
Ex-Army Colonel at Macdill Shared Classified Battle Plans to Woo Woman
For almost four decades, Kevin Charles Luke lived a life of service and sacrifice to the United States. A retired Army combat veteran who worked as a high-level civilian contractor at Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Luke was long entrusted with some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets. But it was an ill-conceived […]
The Battle of Carrizal: America's Worst Defeat in the Hunt for Pancho Villa
Captain Charles T. Boyd led his mounted troopers across the Mexican desert. He had been ordered to avoid a fight. But on June 21, 1916, outside Carrizal, Mexico, Boyd faced 400 Mexican federal troops blocking his path. Their commander, General Félix Uresti Gómez, warned him to turn back. Three months earlier, Pancho Villa had raided […]
The Battle of Chipyong-ni: When American and French Troops Halted the Chinese Advance in Korea
Colonel Paul Freeman’s regiment was exposed and exhausted. Chinese forces were massing nearby. On Feb. 13, 1951, Lieutenant General Edward Almond, X Corps commander, authorized a withdrawal 15 miles south. Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway overruled Almond. The Eighth Army commander reversed the order after meeting General Douglas MacArthur, agreeing that the communists had to be […]
The Battle of Kasserine Pass: The Humiliating WWII Defeat That Transformed the US Army
American soldiers dug foxholes into the ridgeline at Djebel Chambi. They had only arrived in North Africa a few weeks ago and faced light resistance from Vichy French troops. The infamous Afrika Korps under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had just launched a massive offensive the day prior. The Americans knew what was coming. They were […]
The Battle of Hamel: Australian Soldiers Taught American Doughboys to Fight Germans in WWI
At 3:10 a.m. on July 4, 1918, American soldiers climbed out of their trenches in northern France. Most had never seen combat before. They had arrived in Europe weeks earlier. Now they were attacking German positions alongside battle-hardened Australian troops and were under the command of an Australian general. For the first time in American […]
Seven American and German Soldiers Sat Down and Enjoyed a Christmas Dinner Together During the Battle of the Bulge
Elisabeth Vincken had listened to artillery fire for eight straight days before someone knocked on her cottage door on Christmas Eve in 1944. She opened it to find three lost American soldiers, one with a gunshot wound. Hours later, four German Wehrmacht soldiers showed up as well. The German woman forced both groups to surrender […]
The 106th Infantry Division's Forgotten Sacrifice During the Battle of the Bulge
On Dec. 16 1944, German artillery opened fire on an inexperienced American division that had been at the front for less than a week. Within 72 hours, two entire regiments of the 106th Infantry Division ceased to exist. Approximately 7,000 American soldiers became prisoners of war in one of the largest mass surrenders in U.S. […]
German Officer Sacrificed His Life Trying to Save an American Soldier in the WWII Battle of Hurtgen Forest
During the bloody battle for Hurtgen Forest in late 1944, a 23-year-old German lieutenant heard a wounded American soldier crying for help in a minefield. Lt. Friedrich Lengfeld ordered his men not to shoot any American medics who might try to rescue the man. When no help came after hours of listening to the man’s […]
The Only WWII Land Battle Fought on American Soil: The Forgotten Fight for Alaska
When most people think of the Pacific Theater of World War II, they envision tropical islands, heat, and jungle combat. However, the 18-day campaign in May 1943 to retake a remote Aleutian island from Japanese occupation was the total opposite. The fight over the frozen island became the only land battle of World War II […]