“Louisiana Has Drawn First Blood Today” – The Battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, 1864
War History online proudly presents this Guest Piece from Alan G. Gauthreaux In 1864, factions on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line grew tired of…
VC: With His Plane On Fire, This Pilot Refused To Bail Out Without Taking Down A German Fighter
On a bright sunny morning in August 1940, No. 249 Squadron, Royal Air Force, was patrolling near Southampton, in southern England. There was hardly any…
Harold Ackroyd – A Selfless WWI Medic With More Than 20 Separate VC Recommendations
Life in war is never easy. Watching your fellow soldiers and friends fighting for their lives and suffering serious wounds – physically and mentally – can be…
“The Call To Join” – Veteran Vernon Walther Describes Service Aboard the USS Los Angeles during Korean War
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…
Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld – The German Who Saved “The Pianist” And Is Honored by Israel
Sometimes, things aren’t always so black and white. Take the Nazi officer who ran a concentration camp in Poland. Who would ever have thought that he’d…
Fog Of War – Often, the Allies Couldn’t Tell if Bombing Campaigns Were Working
Destructive bombing raids against Germany were a vital part of World War Two. They let the Allies lash out against the Nazi war machine long…
He Was Awarded the Medal of Honor and then Demoted
It is perhaps a tale that Veterans of the United States Air Force are more familiar with, the story of “Airman Snuffy.” Given a choice…
A Terrible Mistake – Why The USSR Ignored Britain’s Warnings of Impending Invasion
On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the USSR. It was a move that came as a shock to the Soviets, but less so to the…
Two Childhood Friends Helped Found an Elite WW2 Unit Then Died on the Same Day, Hundreds of Miles Apart
Founded in 1940 during the difficult days of the Second World War, the Small Scale Raiding Force was an elite British naval unit. The predecessor…
Four British Intelligence Agents of World War Two and Their Very Different Civilian Lives
In the early stages of WWII, Britain had to hastily improve its capacity to make war. It included recruiting skilled professionals to previously neglected military…
The First Medal of Honor Recipient of WW2 Stood His Ground at Pearl Harbor
It is fitting in a war which would require inexplicable gallantry to win that it would begin with actions worthy of the nation’s highest military…
Hugh Seagrim, Who Fought WW2 from Behind Japanese Lines
In the small Karen village of Mewado, Burma, two men stood smoking cigarettes. The owner of the cigarettes, Captain Inoue, was an officer in the…