Jay Hemmings

Jay Hemmings is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE

Articles by Jay Hemmings:

Rear Admiral Richard Antrim: Awarded Medal Of Honor For An Act Of Valor Performed In A Prison Camp

War often brings out the very worst in human beings, but it can also bring out the very best. While prisoner of war (POW) camps…

THEO – The Dog Who Received The Animal Equivalent Of The Victoria Cross

For almost as long as human beings have fought wars, they have not been the only participants in battles, even though we generally think of…

Hank Bauer: WW2 Hero Who Went On To Become a 3 Time Yankee All-Star & World Series Champ

A popular phrase refers to “diamonds in the rough,” and few people embody the truth of this sentiment more than Hank Bauer, a legendary baseball…

Medal of Honor: The WW2 Video Game Was Designed by Steven Spielberg

If you mention the name Steven Spielberg and World War II in the same sentence, there’s a ninety-nine percent chance you’re talking about his Oscar-winning…

The Incredible Captain Noel Chavasse: One of the Few Men to be Awarded the Victoria Cross Twice

Being awarded the Victoria Cross – Great Britain’s highest military decoration for acts of extraordinary courage and valor – is rare enough. Being decorated with…

He Was the Last German Soldier to Surrender, Four Months After the End of WW2

Many people know the story of Lieutenant Onoda, the Japanese soldier who only surrendered in 1974. He had survived alone in the jungles of the…

Teenage Hero of the Battle of Jutland & Recipient of the Victoria Cross

In the First World War, the largest naval encounter was the Battle of Jutland, in which the mighty dreadnought warships of the British Grand Fleet…

Sails on Viking Longships – Were They Really Red & White?

It’s a common enough scene from movies and TV shows: a seaside village on the English coast, sometime in the Dark Ages. Peasants, monks and…

He Actually Fought at Pegasus Bridge on D-Day Then Went on to Star in The Movie Longest Day

The realism – or lack thereof – with which war movies depict historical battles is one yardstick by which films in this genre are measured.…

Three Italian PoWs Broke Out of a PoW Camp, Not to Escape But to Climb Mount Kenya For Fun!

When a prisoner of war concocts a plan to escape the prison camp in which he is incarcerated, his greatest is fear is usually being…

Irena Sendler: The Remarkable Polish Woman Who Saved 2500 Children From The Nazis In WWII

In times of war, it is not only soldiers who perform feats of great valor and display incredible courage. Often, non-combatant civilians risk their lives…

Medal Of Honor Recipient: The Soft-Spoken Man Became a Raging Bull

War, for all its horror, violence and loss of life, also serves as one of the most harrowing tests of a man or woman’s true…