WWII Today in History. On these pages you will find of some of the most important events that shaped World War 2.
The U.S. Army Parachute Test Platoon: Quiet Heroes of a Military Revolution In the grand narrative of American military history, few units have left such a powerful legacy with so little public recognition as the US Army Parachute Test Platoon. Born in 1940 amidst rising global tensions, this elite 50-man unit ignited the spark that would […]
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Jumping on the night of D-Day, the 82nd Airborne had to capture the town of Sainte-Mère-Église. Holding the town, however, would have meant little without also holding the roads to and from it. One such route had a bottleneck: the La Fière Bridge a small stone bridge at La Fière manor, 700 yards to the west
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On the morning of June 6, 1944, as the Allied invasion of Normandy unfolded across beaches and fields, a small unit from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Easy Company, executed one of the most tactically significant assaults of D-Day—the Brécourt Manor assault. This engagement, though often overshadowed by the larger-scale beach landings, became a textbook
Brécourt Manor and the Easy Company Assault: A Textbook Tactical Victory on D-Day Read More »
Where does the name “D-Day” come from, and how D-Days were there?. What is the actual meaning of the D in D-Day?. A popular view in France is that it stands for disembarkation or debarkation, referring to the invading Allied troops disembarking from their landing craft. Another, more romantic, explanation is decision, deliverance or doom.
Other D-Days in WW2 Read More »
James Gavin (1907-1990) was raised adopted from an orphanage in Brooklyn by a struggling coal miner. Inspired by his school readings on the American Civil War, Gavin decided to seek a better future by joining the army. He was 17 when he enlisted as a private, lying about his age as he knew his adoptive
General James Gavin: the Jumping General Read More »
Celebrated British actor David Niven (1910-1983), who played in about a hundred movies including A Matter of Life and Death, Around the World in 80 Days and Separate Tables,was born into a military family. His father served in World War I and died at Gallipoli when David was 5 years old. His maternal grandfather was an officer killed
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A Fortress in the Sky If you’ve ever wondered why the B-17 Flying Fortress earned its legendary reputation for toughness, look no further than the story of the All American. On February 1, 1943, this bomber and its ten-man crew took off from Biskra, Algeria on a mission to strike German supply lines near Tunis.
B-17 Flying Fortress survival story: A Bomber That Shouldn’t Have Made It Home Read More »
The real life Desmond Doss. Desmond Thomas Doss was born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1919. During the Great Depression, he stopped attending school after the ninth grade to help out his family, working in a shipyard when WWII broke out. He could have gotten a deferment due to his employment, but he wanted to serve
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William Clark Gable (1901-1960) was born to a protestant father working as an oil well driller and a catholic mother who died when he was 10 months old. As a young man, he worked at oil fields and as a horse manager until he gradually broke into the world of theater and screen acting. By
Clark Gable – WWII B-17 Aerial Gunner Read More »
Today is the anniversary of the first day of Operation Market Garden (A Bridge Too Far), the ill-fated Allied attempt to cut through the Netherlands to Germany and finish the war by the end of 1944. The operation has always been a contentious topic. Some people say it was doomed from the start due to
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