Conflicting Alliances – The Liberation of Prague, 1945
During the dying days of the Second World War, German forces clung desperately to their last few territories. One of these was a swathe of…
Luftwaffe Eagle: A WWII German Airman’s Story – Review by Mark Barnes
This intriguing book is the autobiography of the Luftwaffe airman Erich Sommer who flew as a navigator on bombing missions and photo-reconnaissance flights before becoming…
The Bureaucratic Goof that Brought Down the Berlin Wall
At 6 o’clock in the evening of November 9, 1989, a befuddled low-level member of the Soviet East German Politburo gave a press conference to…
American Tanks and AFVs of World War II
I keep occasional tabs on a number of Facebook pages dedicated to military vehicles and in particular the US built armor that have become icons…
6 Soviet Cold War Tanks
The Soviets emerged from the Second World War with one of the best tank designs in the world. This set them up for a long…
D-Day Darlings Keep the Magic Alive
The D-Day Darlings were formed ten years ago by Katie Ashbury and have been immensely successful performing at numerous military events, including The Legion’s Festival…
Great Female Aviators – WASPs of WWII
Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, and when the United States faced a pilot shortage in 1942, they freed up male pilots…
Defying Blitzkrieg – Heroes of the Brest Fortress
The defense of the old fortress located near the Belarusian city of Brest has become an example of fortitude and courage. When the German army…
America’s Battle for Cherbourg, June 1944
Cherbourg was one of the US Army’s first major targets during Operation Overlord. The city at the end of the Cotentin peninsula was a significant…
Pavlov’s House – “Fortress” at Stalingrad
In the Russian city of Volgograd today, one of the largest statues in the world stands atop Mamayev Kurgan, a hilltop that changed hands a…
8th Air Force in Britain – Keeping the Past Alive
I had the wonderful opportunity in May of this year to participate in the National WWII Museum’s Masters of the Air Tour of 8th Air…
German U-Boats and Ending the “Filibuster” in Congress
When Woodrow Wilson put forth his proposal to arm American merchant vessels in February of 1917 his reasoning was simple and straightforward: the threat of…