Hobart and His Funnies: A Most “Difficult” General
Among the many items on Gen. Sir Alan Brooke’s agenda upon assuming his duties as Chief of the Imperial General …
World War II
The Death of Jean Moulin: The French Resistance Gets Its Greatest Martyr
When Jean Moulin offered his services to Gen. Charles de Gaulle in October 1941, the leader of the Free French …
The Surrender of Italy: The Allies’ Bungled Opportunity
Gen. George S. Patton called it “the unforgiving minute”– that moment in combat when opportunity for success at little or …
Operation Gomorrah
On the evening of Saturday, July 24, 1943, members of the German military mingled with civilians and prepared to enjoy …
The Smatchet: Fairbairn’s Other Fighting Knife
The Special Training Centre at Inverailort House near the remote hamlet of Lochailort on Scotland’s western coast is justly famous …
The Air-Sea Battle Concept: Antecedents
As noted in the previous post, the Air-Sea Battle Concept had antecedents in the Air-Land Battle Doctrine. Given that the …
Operation Husky: British Gen. Sir Harold Alexander and the Great Boundary Line Dispute
In his July 13, 1943 diary entry, written during Operation Husky, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., commander of the …
Book Review – The Race for Hitler’s X-Planes: Britain’s 1945 Mission To Capture Secret Luftwaffe Technology
By the time World War II ended in Europe, the Third Reich had introduced into warfare jet- and rocket-propelled combat …
The Home Front in 1943: Strikes, Stress, and Scandals
In contrast to the improving military fortunes of the Allies on battlefields around the world, in 1943 the American home …
Escort Carriers and Close Air Support
Escort carriers, nicknamed “baby flattops” and “jeep carriers,” were slow, thin-skinned, small, and cramped. Their crews, in a sarcastic reference …