World War 2 | War History

P.1000 Ratte – Paper Tiger or Nazi Super Tank

As the beginning of the war swept over Europe, with lightening speed, Hitler felt invincible, at least for the first two years of the war.…

After Pearl Harbor, A Japanese Pilot Crash-Landed On A Hawaiian Island And Tried to Occupy It

In 1941, a lone Japanese pilot tried to capture the Hawaiian island of Ni’ihau. The natives responded by holding a luau for him. Though part…

The Long Lost Dog Tag Of PFC Harlan L. Herrscher

By Peter Van Pelt of Belgium, This story is a follow-up to the article on the dog tags of Frank H. Norton Jr. In February 2016…

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: five reasons why President Truman made the right decision

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was apocalyptically awful. 70 years ago today, an estimated 90,000 people were immediately killed when Little Boy detonated 1,950ft…

Tommy Prince Was So Quiet, Sometimes Instead Of Killing Germans He Would Steal Their Shoes

Tommy Prince was born on October 15th, 1915, in Scanterbury Manitoba Canada in a family of eleven siblings. He left school at an early age…

10 Things The Russians Did Right During Operation Barbarossa

In June 1941, Operation Barbarossa began, setting off a bloodbath that was supposed to bring the Soviet Union to its knees. Yet when Adolf Hitler…

American Propaganda Posters in World War II

Wartime relations can cause a country to get down – as we saw in the United States during Vietnam – to a point where a…

The Luftwaffe’s Trial Run – 1937 Bombing of Guernica

The Bombing of Guernica was one of the first aerial raids on defenseless civilians ever to happen. It occurred on April 26th, 1937, in the thick…

Roland Freisler – Hitler’s Screaming Nazi Judge

Nazi Germany perverted every democratic institution that was supposed to uphold the rule of law and ensure the people of Europe’s most powerful nation were…

“A Different Breed” – PT Boat Veteran Served in Europe and the Pacific during World War II

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…

Faces of Evil: Female Concentration Camp Guards

Up until 1942, guards at concentrations camps within Adolf Hitler’s Empire were primarily male. That all changed in 1942 when the first female guards were appointed…

The Battle of Crete Was The Reason Hitler Abandoned Parachute Assaults For Good

Crete might be an idyllic tourist island now, but during a 12-day period in May 1941 a mixed force of British, Australian, New Zealand and…