November 11th, 1917. Somewhere near Verdun, France, an American doughboy clutches a rifle that isn’t supposed to be in his hands. Not the Springfield M1903 he trained with back home. Not the rifle featured in recruitment posters. This is something else. A British design, Americanmade, and about to become the most produced US military rifle…
On the 7th of December 1941 Japan launched a devastating surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. They wanted to cripple US Naval power and buy time for their forces to capture important resources in Southeast Asia. And it worked, by March 1942 Japan had secured a huge chunk of territory and…
At 2200 hours on August 6th, 1944, General Derpanza trooper Hans Eberbach stood in his command post near Morta, France, and prepared to launch the largest German armored counterattack since D-Day. Eberbach commanded Panzer Group West, the collective designation for all German armored forces in Normandy. Under his direct control for Operation Lutk were four…
Plymouth Harbor, January 1944. Admiral Sir Charles Little, commander-in-chief of Portsmouth, stood at his office window, watching another convoy into the sound. 18 American Liberty ships, their gray hulls riding low with cargo, their decks stacked with crates and vehicles lashed down under tarpolines. He’d counted 43 such convoys in the past two weeks alone….
At 8:44 a.m. on June 15th, 1944, First Lieutenant Frank Tachsky crouched in a Higgins boat 300 yards from Saipan’s southern beaches as Japanese artillery shells exploded in the surf around him. The 29-year-old Marine officer from New Brighton, Pennsylvania, commanded 40 men behind him, every single one selected from the brig or punishment details,…
I am Raymond Porter. I’m 68 years old. And last Tuesday, I watched them lower my only daughter into the frozen ground of Cedar Hill Cemetery in Minneapolis. But before the priest could even finish his final prayer, my son-in-law grabbed my arm, leaned in close, and whispered, “You have 48 hours to clear out…
It was still dark outside when I heard the pounding on my front door. I looked at the clock, 5:02 a.m. No one knocks at that hour unless something is wrong. I pulled on my sweatshirt and went to the door, heart pounding. When I opened it, my next door neighbor, Gabriel Stone, stood there….
Stop. That was the order. One word crystal clear. Coming directly from Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower. Stop advancing. Halt your army. Wait for supplies. For once in this entire godamn war, George, just follow orders. But George S. Patton didn’t stop. He never stopped. And when Eisenhower discovered that his most brilliant and…
March 22nd, 1945. The phone rang at Supreme Headquarters. Eisenhower picked it up, expecting another routine update from the front. Instead, he heard four words that stopped him cold. We’re across the Rine. It was patent. But that was impossible. Montgomery’s massive operation plunder wasn’t scheduled for two more days. Churchill himself was flying in…
November 26th, 1943. Skies above Bremen, Germany. The pencil shook slightly as Major Francis Gabreski recorded the moment in his log book after landing. Words that would have seemed impossible just 8 months earlier when experienced RAF pilots had openly questioned whether the massive Republic P47 Thunderbolt could survive against nimble German fighters. The Luftwaffer…