WWII History - December 2013

Features

Heavy Losses Anticipated
A gunner aboard a U.S. B-29 bomber lived through harrowing times during missions against the Japanese.
By Robert F. Dorr & Douglas L. Carter

Daredevil Tankers Turn the Tide
Against long odds, the American 740th Tank Battalion stymied Kampfgruppe Peiper, the German spearhead at Stoumont during the Battle of the Bulge.
By Patrick J. Chaisson

Lightning Strike in the Philippines
General Masaharu Homma employed air and ground assets in an unexpectedly rapid conquest of the Bataan Peninsula in the spring of 1942.
By Donald J. Young

Sport During Wartime
Even during the darkest days of the war, the morale-lifting business of sport went on in the United States, Britain, Germany, and elsewhere.
By Flint Whitlock

From Pearl Harbor to Bikini
The seaplane tender USS Curtiss survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor with young Ensign Gene Verge in command.
By Glenn Barnett

First Hell in the Pacific
Unlike their comrades who invaded Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942, United States Marines landing on Tulagi met fierce resistance. It was a harbinger of the bloody island fighting that marked combat in the Pacific during World War II.
By Arnold Blumberg

Columns

Profiles
General George C. Marshall shaped the wartime U.S. Army and advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt throughout World War II.

Ordnance
The invention of an American businessman changed the conduct of amphibious warfare during World War II.

Insight
The Nazi regime kidnapped hundreds of Polish children to raise them as sons and daughters of the Third Reich.

Top Secret
General Joseph Stilwell’s suppression of intelligence reports at Myitkyina led to controversial tactical decisions and strategic outcomes.

Simulation Gaming
Gaijin’s War Thunder is poised to challenge World of Warplanes in online combat. 

Books
The Battle of Nomonhan may have influenced the invasion of Poland.