World War 2 | War History

Staff Sergeant William Bordelon: First US Marine from Texas to be awarded MOH

Jeff Edwards

Were it not for the epic battles fought there, many people would likely have gone through their lives never having heard of any of the…

1st Lieutenant Victor Kandle: Medal of Honor Recipient in WWII

Jeff Edwards

Given that there were 15 other men with him, one might question whether Victor Kandle should be given full credit for the death or capture…

Singing Waltzing Matilda, This Lieutenant Colonel Took Out 2 Machine Gun Posts With A Pistol & Grenades

Charles Anderson was a truly remarkable person. Not only did he serve and live through two world wars, but he also collected medals for bravery…

The One-Armed Warrior Who Was Awarded The Victoria Cross

Some soldiers are so pig-headedly persistent that they go down in legend; including one who did so with only one arm. George Albert Cairns was…

I-17 & the Shelling of the Bankline Oil Refinery – February 23, 1942 – by Martin K.A. Morgan

Thanks go to Marty Morgan for this wonderful article. Two months after Pearl Harbor, World War II raged around the world in places like the Philippines…

“A War Overlooked” – W. Martin, WWII Veteran Performed Anti-Submarine Service Aboard Planes in the Caribbean

War History online proudly presents this Guest Piece from Jeremy P. Ämick, who is a military historian and writes on behalf of the Silver Star…

The Battle of Tarawa: 76 Hours of Hell – 5,700 Dead for Twelve Square Miles

The Battle of Tarawa was one of the more terrible American experiences in the Pacific theater of World War Two. It was one that would…

The Story of Big Week: The Plan to Cripple the Luftwaffe, Some Say it Was a Waste of Men & Machines

In 1944 the United States Strategic Air Forces decided they had to do something about the German Luftwaffe. What they did became known as Big…

The Tragedy of Exercise Tiger: A Training Mission That Left More GIs Dead Than Utah Beach

Exercise Tiger is one of Britain’s most harrowing wartime secrets. It involved the slaughter of young American soldiers on the shores of a Devon beach. At…

The ‘Cisco Kids’: Tuskegee Airmen brothers George and Arnold Cisco

War History Online presents this Guest Article from Eugene Jones Baldwin Arnold and George Cisco grew up in mostly white, rural Jerseyville, Illinois, graduating with…

The American Fighter Pilot Who Served in Two Wars and Shot Down 16 Enemy Planes

The American aerial mission over battle-scarred Western Europe may have been short and sweet, but one pilot managed to stand out from the rest of…

How the Finns Saved Helsinki from the Bombings of 1944 by using Cunning Deception Tactics

Finland, along with Poland, was entangled in WWII from the very beginning. In November 1939, the USSR invaded the Scandinavian country and, in 1940, despite…