Y1806

In a cold, dimly lit concrete bunker beneath the shattered streets of Metz, France, General George S. Patton delivered a psychological blow that would permanently break one of Nazi Germany’s most feared enforcers, SS Major General Anton Dunckern, in a confrontation that military historians now regard as one of the most extraordinary interrogations of World … Read more

The British monarchy was not watching a romance in 1936—it was watching a pattern finally collect its bill, and the House of Windsor has never forgiven Edward VIII for forcing the Crown to choose between its sacred duty and his private desires. New analysis of the abdication crisis reveals that the palace viewed the king’s … Read more

American infantrymen of the 5th Infantry Division crossed the Rhine River at Oppenheim, Germany, in the pre-dawn darkness of March 23, 1945, executing the first planned assault crossing of the war’s most formidable natural barrier more than 24 hours ahead of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s massive Operation Plunder — and without informing Supreme Headquarters in … Read more

ROME — The United States military commission in Rome delivered a verdict that would echo through every officer’s barracks in occupied Europe: Gen. Anton Dostler, commander of the German 75th Army Corps, was guilty of murdering 15 American soldiers in uniform, and he would die before a firing squad. The decision, handed down in October … Read more

LONDON — In the gray pre-dawn hours of mid-January 1945, a government car slipped through blacked-out London streets carrying a man who had crossed the Atlantic not to attend a meeting, but to confront a wound that paper could not heal. General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, had read … Read more