Conflicts & Operations

Milwaukee Braves pitcher Warren Spahn. The winningest left-hander in history with 363 victories, he also earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his service in World War II. Baseball Hall of Fame photo

Warren Spahn, Hall of Fame Pitcher, Was Seasoned by World War II Baseball players in the armed forces

Like fellow Baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams, pitcher Warren Spahn had his career interrupted by World War II. Unlike Williams, who was already famous when he was drafted, Spahn …

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Maj. Gen. George S. Patton says goodbye to his staff officers just prior to his departure for the Tunisian battlefield and command of the U.S. Army's II Corps. General George Patton Museum photo

Turning Things Around: Patton Takes Over II Corps World War II: 70 years

The American debacle at the Battle of Kasserine Pass had brought the simmering command crisis of II Corps to a head. But Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied forces …

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Lance Cpl. Steven Finlayson, a team leader with Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, pauses before returning to Forward Operating Base Geronimo after providing security in Nawa, Afghanistan Nov. 17, 2010. Finlayson and his squad provided security while Afghan National Army Soldiers and U.S. Army personnel gave out supplies as a goodwill gesture during the Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mark Fayloga

Camels at War

Superbly adapted to the desert, the single-humped Arabian camel was domesticated around 4000 B.C. for its meat, milk, and wool, as a beast of burden, and finally as a riding …

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Chetnik leader Dragolub Mihailovic confers with his men, circa 1941-1945. Photo: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum photo courtesy of Muzej Revolucije Naroda i Narodnosti Jugoslavije

Knives at Each Other’s Throats: The Resistance Movements of Mihailović and Tito in Yugoslavia

Operation 25, the invasion of Yugoslavia, part of Adolf Hitler’s strategic blunder added this Balkan nation and Greece to the list of countries conquered by the German Army. After military …

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President Barack Obama presents the Medal of Honor to former Army Staff Sgt. Clinton L. Romesha during a ceremony in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., Feb. 11, 2013. Romesha received the Medal of Honor for his actions during a daylong firefight in Afghanistan in October 2009. U.S. Army photo by Leroy Council

Staff Sgt. Clinton L. Romesha and the Battle of Kamdesh A Medal of Honor Story

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“It was one of the most intense battles in Afghanistan.”

—President Barack Obama, Feb. 11, 2013, of the Battle of Kamdesh

In 2006, the remote and isolated Nuristan Province in …

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A U.S. Army M-3 Grant of the 1st Armored Division moves forward during the Battle of Kasserine Pass. Inferior equipment and poor leadership led to a U.S. defeat, but also resulted in invaluable lessons for the U.S. Army. U.S. Army photo

Command Failure: Lloyd Fredendall and the Battle of Kasserine Pass

“According to Harmon, Fredendall is a physical and moral coward.”

— Maj. Gen. George S. Patton Jr., March 2, 1943 diary entry

Like Maj. Gen. George S. Patton, Maj. Gen. …

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Staff-Sgt.-Chilson-and-family-with-Truman

Llewellyn Chilson: America’s Neglected Warrior

On Dec. 6, 1946, President Harry S Truman pinned seven medals on the chest of Army Sgt. Llewellyn M. “Al” Chilson. Conspicuously absent was the nation’s highest award, the Medal …

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Tiger Tank in Tunisia

Tigers in Tunisia

 

There were never very many Tiger tanks, less than 1,400 total. They were huge (German crews scornfully called them “furniture vans”), high maintenance, a gas-guzzler even by tank standards, …

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Operation Winter Storm

Operation Winter Storm: Manstein’s Effort to Rescue the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad

“Sixth Army must know that I am doing everything to help and to relieve it. I shall issue my orders in good time.”

—Adolf Hitler to Gen. Friedrich Paulus, commander …

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Gen. George C. Marshall

Keeping it Zipped Above and Below the Beltline

The famous World War II poster showing a cargo ship sliding beneath the waves and bracketed by the phrase “LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS” was rightly interpreted as a warning against …

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