Today in military history: ‘Mein Kampf’ is published
On July 18, 1925, the first volume of Adolf Hitler’s infamous autobiography, Mein Kampf (“my struggle”), was published. In the book, Hitler laid out his political agenda, a rambling tirade…
This is how Nazi commandos allegedly rescued the imprisoned Mussolini
The year 1943 was probably the worst one for Benito Mussolini. His ambition to rule over all of North Africa had contributed to a crushing loss, and his catastrophic efforts to…
This teenage soldier survived 6 months in a Nazi POW camp
At just 18 years old, Hjalmar Johansson was given a choice: either serve in the infantry or work as a nose gunner in a B-24 bomber. Johansson decided he would be best in the air and was quickly assigned to a ten-man aerial crew headed off to fight i…
A French village was abandoned and rebuilt so no one would forget a Nazi war crime
In April 1944, an American B-17 Flying Fortress was shot down by flak over occupied France. Its navigator, Raymond J. Murphy landed relatively safely, and with the help of some…
Why this World War II British fighter was painted pink
The part of the day wIth the sun setting or rising in the hours after a bombing raid can be a dangerous time for the enemy who just bombed a…
This is how Hitler launched an assault on Christmas itself
Nazism has always been a cancerous growth that infects everything around it. There was nothing the Socialist National German Workers’ Party wouldn’t do to erase Judaism from the face of…
Listen to a German WWI veteran describe killing on the Western Front
Stephan Westmann was a German physicist who studied and taught at the University of Berlin during the interwar years. When the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany in the…
This army sent scouts to find the mythical city of Shangri La
An earthly paradise, a place of unimaginable beauty, breathtaking community cut off from the rest of the world could best describe the mythical city of Shangri La. As envisioned by…
The 5 fastest conquests of France in military history
The French, despite actually being very good in a war, take a beating as the butt of military history jokes. Most of this is due to the speed of the…
U.S. serviceman helped liberate Nazi concentration camp
For nearly four decades, Al Ungerleider dedicated his life to serving his country. He was an infantry officer who saw active combat in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, rising to the rank of brigadier general.
Ungerleider expe…