Y1806

In May 1945, outside Frankfurt, an American soldier manned a checkpoint that was closed to civilians. He noticed a girl approaching, perhaps 15 years old, thin and exhausted, her dirty clothes hanging loose on her frame. She was carrying a baby. The soldier raised his hand for her to stop. She kept walking, slowly, as … Read more

Wallis Simpson spent two decades being accused of stealing a king. What she finally revealed was far more unsettling: Edward had been looking for someone to carry him away long before she arrived. On a February evening in 1956, the Duchess of Windsor entered a mirrored suite at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York wearing black … Read more

Wallis Simpson spent two decades being accused of stealing a king. What she finally revealed was far more unsettling. Edward had been looking for someone to carry him away long before she arrived. On a February evening in 1956, the Duchess of Windsor entered a mirrored suite at the Waldorf Astoria in New York wearing … Read more

Prince Philip’s objection to Sarah Ferguson was never simply about volume. The royal family had survived loud people before. What troubled him was his belief that she treated the monarchy like a wonderfully furnished house in which nobody had remembered to lock the drinks cabinet. At first, however, he rather liked her. That was the … Read more

In the spring of 1945, inside a bomb-damaged chateau in Western Germany, a captured Wehrmacht general was led into a makeshift American command post. Outside, his country was collapsing. His armies were broken and his supply lines had been reduced to ash. Yet he walked in with his chin raised and his posture rigid, wearing … Read more

In the spring of 1945, inside a bomb-damaged chateau in Western Germany, a captured Wehrmacht general was led into a makeshift American command post. Outside, his country was collapsing. His armies were broken and his supply lines were gone. Yet he walked in with his chin raised and his posture rigid. His uniform was still … Read more

In January 1945, near the German border in Eastern France, General George S. Patton received a three-page intelligence report about a German POW camp that had just been overrun. The language was clinical. The numbers were not. The report described 380 American prisoners. Their average weight at liberation was 94 pounds. A year earlier, at … Read more

In March 1945, a captured Panzer general was brought to Third Army headquarters in Germany. He was tall and rigid, the kind of Wehrmacht officer who still believed Germany could win the war. His uniform was immaculate despite days in captivity, and his Iron Cross was still pinned to his chest. Intelligence officers wanted to … Read more