World War II
The main campaigns in Europe and the Pacific, and the radar, code breaking, carriers and supply that drove World War II.
- The Battle of Britain: An Air Defense Built on Radar and ControlIn the summer and autumn of 1940, the RAF met the Luftwaffe with a defense network that tied radar stations, observers and operations rooms together. Why the battle was fought, how it unfolded, and how the numbers differ between sources, from public records.
- The Battle of Kursk: Record and Myth of a Huge Tank BattleWhy Germany's Operation Citadel kept slipping in 1943, how the Soviets prepared deep defenses and counterattacks in advance, and what happened from the attack on 5 July to the halt on 13 July and the Soviet counteroffensives in August, traced through U.S. Army histories, the German Historical Museum and journal articles. It also sets side by side the places where memory and record part ways, such as 'the largest tank battle in history' and the loss figures for Prokhorovka.
- The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Largest Naval Battle in HistoryIn October 1944, four separate fights broke out at once in the seas around the Philippines. Public records show how a Japanese decoy plan, a divided American command and a small force off Samar fit together, and in what sense this was the 'largest' naval battle.
- The Battle of Midway: Codebreaking and Four CarriersIn June 1942, American and Japanese carrier forces met in the middle of the Pacific. Public records show what codebreaking revealed, how 4 June unfolded, and why the numbers and the verdicts differ.
- The Battle of Stalingrad: The City That Turned the WarHow a German summer offensive aimed at oil became tied to one city on the Volga, from street fighting over buildings and floors to the November encirclement, the failed air supply and relief attempt, and the surrenders of January 31 and February 2, 1943, traced through US Army, Imperial War Museums and US National Archives records. It also covers the civilians left in the city, numbers that differ by source, and what 'turning point' means.
- The Battle of the Atlantic: The Long Fight Between U-Boats and ConvoysFrom 1939 to 1945, German U-boats hunted the merchant ships crossing the Atlantic, and the Allies answered with escorted convoys. Why this sea route mattered, what changed in May 1943, and how the numbers differ between sources, from public records.
- The Battle of the Bulge: Germany's Last Offensive in the Winter ForestWhy the German surprise attack that opened in the Ardennes forest on December 16, 1944, aimed at Antwerp, and how it played out: the road junctions of St. Vith and Bastogne, the Malmedy massacre, a fight shaped by roads, fuel and weather, the halt short of the Meuse, and the restored line of January 25, 1945, traced through US Army, Imperial War Museums and US National Archives records. It also covers the civilians in the forest towns, numbers that differ by source, and the battle's many names and verdicts.
- The Burma Campaign: A War of Jungle and Air SupplyDriven back to India in 1942, the Allies retook Burma three years later. Public records show how air supply changed a war fought in roadless jungle and mountains, from Imphal and Kohima to the Hump, and why the numbers differ by source.
- The Rise of the Carrier: When Battleships Gave Way at SeaFrom a wooden platform on a cruiser's bow in 1910 to the end of Yamato in 1945, public records from the US Navy's history command, the State Department historian and others trace how the aircraft carrier took the battleship's place at the center of naval power.
- D-Day in Normandy: The Preparation and the Day ItselfOn 6 June 1944, Allied forces crossed the English Channel and landed on the coast of Normandy. Public records trace a plan put off for more than two years, a date chosen by tide and weather, five beaches and the morning on Omaha, and the numbers that differ from source to source.
- The Dunkirk Evacuation: Nine Days, Over 330,000 PeopleFollow Operation Dynamo, the British and French naval effort that carried Allied troops away from the harbor and beaches of Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940. See how the armies were pushed to the coast, how many people were landed each day, how big ships and small boats shared the work at the pier and the beaches, what mines, air attack and shore guns did, who and what was left behind, and why the totals differ, using Ramsay's report, the House of Commons record, the RAF Museum and the French Ministry of the Armed Forces.
- Enigma and Bletchley Park: The People Who Broke the Cipher MachineThe German armed forces believed their Enigma cipher machine could not be broken. Poland, France and Britain broke it in turn. This article follows the machine, the Bletchley Park organization, where the intelligence went and the decades of secrecy, using public records.
- The Fall of France, 1940: Armor Through the ArdennesHow a Western Front that had seen almost no fighting since the declarations of war in September 1939 gave way after 10 May 1940: Manstein's plan and the Ardennes, the Meuse crossing at Sedan, Arras and the halt order, the Dunkirk evacuation, and the armistice at Compiègne on 22 June, traced through German, British and French official and museum records, with differing numbers and explanations set side by side.
- The Guadalcanal Campaign: Six Months Over One AirfieldIn August 1942, U.S. Marines landed on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. What happened on land, at sea and in the air over one half-built airfield for six months, from public records.
- Iwo Jima and Okinawa: The Last Islands Before JapanIn 1945 US forces landed on two islands in front of Japan's home islands: Iwo Jima and Okinawa. This piece uses public records to show why those islands, how the fighting went, what the islanders lived through, and why the numbers and judgments differ.
- The Korean Liberation Army: The Provisional Government's ForceA look at the Korean Liberation Army, the army that the Korean Provisional Government founded in Chongqing, China, in 1940, using the New History of Korea published by the National Institute of Korean History and entries from the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. It covers where the soldiers came from, China's Nine Rules, the India–Burma front and the OSS Eagle Project, the homeland operation that stopped just before launch, and the army's return home and disbanding after liberation.
- The Manhattan Project, Hiroshima and NagasakiHow a US atomic bomb program that began with one letter reached two Japanese cities in August 1945, and why public records still differ on the decision and on the number of dead.
- North Africa and El Alamein: A Desert War of SupplyFollow the North African campaign from December 1940 to May 1943, as armies moved back and forth along the coast road of Libya and Egypt. See how the Axis sea crossing, Britain's long voyage around Africa, fuel, water and the distance to the nearest port shaped each offensive, then follow the Battle of El Alamein, the pursuit, Operation Torch and the surrender in Tunisia, using the Wavell and Alexander despatches, Hansard, Australian government sources and Ohio State University's Origins.
- Operation Barbarossa: Germany's Invasion of the Soviet UnionOn 22 June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, its partner in a non-aggression pact signed less than two years earlier. Public records trace the three army groups, the huge encirclements, the winter counterattack before Moscow, the supply problems of tanks, horses and rails, and the killings and prisoners behind the front.
- Pearl Harbor: The Start of the Pacific WarOn the morning of 7 December 1941, planes from six Japanese carriers struck the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Why it happened, how the two hours unfolded, and what was destroyed and what was left, from public records.
- The Road to World War II: Aggression and Appeasement in the 1930sFrom Manchuria in 1931 to Poland in 1939: how the acts of aggression unfolded, why Britain and France chose concessions, and how appeasement is judged, traced through public records.
- The Strategic Bombing Debate: Did Bombing Cities End the War?In World War II, Allied strategic bombing moved from aiming at factories to aiming at whole cities. Hamburg, Dresden and Tokyo, the first verdict of the US Strategic Bombing Survey, and the later arguments over results and morality, side by side from public records.
- The V-1 and V-2: Where Cruise and Ballistic Missiles BeganIn the summer of 1944 a winged jet bomb, the V-1, appeared over London; that autumn came the V-2, a rocket that arrived before its own sound. How the two weapons came about and were used, what happened to the people forced to build them underground, and what they left behind, from public records.
- World War II Logistics: The Red Ball Express and SupplyAfter the 1944 breakout from Normandy, the advance outran its supplies, and the US Army set up one-way truck routes marked with red balls. This article follows why the railways and ports could not carry the load, how the Red Ball Express ran day and night for 82 days, the African American soldiers who made up about three-quarters of its drivers, and the numbers that differ by source, using the US Congressional Record, the US Army, the Defense Department and The National WWII Museum.
- The Cavity Magnetron and World War II RadarHow did radar move from masts over 100 m tall onto ships and aircraft? A look, through public records, at how one vacuum tube made from a drilled copper block changed World War II radar.
- World War II Tanks: How the T-34, Sherman and Tiger DifferedThe Soviet T-34, the American M4 Sherman and the German Tiger I came out of the same war but from very different ideas. Museum records show how each was built, how they differed, and how production figures and reputations vary between sources.