On a grey November morning in 1940, a letter waited on a desk at Bentley Priory. Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding opened it without ceremony, in the same quiet manner he had done everything for the past four years. Outside the window, England was still standing. The invasion barges Hitler had massed along the French … Read more
For the Neiger family of Kraków, Poland, the world before 1939 was a tight-knit Jewish community filled with relatives, tradition, and a sense of freedom. Hanka Neiger, who later wrote a book titled "The Red Hat" about her experiences, recalled a childhood surrounded by dozens of cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Her father, Herman Neiger, … Read more
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, sending its armies deep into Soviet territory and leaving behind a vast occupied zone with only weak German authority. Soviet power collapsed, and resistance groups began to gather in the forests. In places like Lokot, near Bryansk, the chaos of occupation created opportunities for men willing … Read more
On the morning of September 1, 1939, two telephones rang within hours of each other. In Berlin, German tanks were already crossing into Poland. In Washington, President Franklin Roosevelt picked up a different kind of weapon: a single sheet of paper with one name on it. He crossed out 33 general officers who outranked the … Read more
When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the attack achieved near-total tactical surprise. Much of the Soviet Air Force was destroyed on the ground, and German units encircled millions of Soviet soldiers. As the German Army advanced deep into Soviet territory, SS and police units followed. The first to arrive were … Read more
On March 15, 1939, six months after the annexation of the Sudetenland, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia in violation of the Munich Agreement. Adolf Hitler arrived in Prague, and on March 16, by a proclamation from Prague Castle, established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Konstantin von Neurath, … Read more
Harold Harefoot is one of the most obscure figures in England’s royal history, a king whose brief reign has been overshadowed by the towering legacy of his father, Cnut the Great, and the enduring fame of those who followed him. He is rarely remembered as a hero in the medieval chronicles. Matthew Paris, writing about … Read more
When Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, the Nazi movement began tightening its grip on the state. Political opponents were arrested, rival parties were destroyed, and thousands of people were sent to prisons or temporary detention centers. Within months, those temporary sites evolved into a permanent system of concentration camps, … Read more
When Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, it marked the end of German democracy. Guided by racist and authoritarian ideas, the Nazis abolished basic freedoms and sought to unite all social classes and regions behind one leader. The Third Reich quickly became a police state where individuals could be arrested … Read more
On December 14, 1941, a brigadier general stepped off a train in Washington after a two-day journey from Texas. He had been summoned by the office of the Army Chief of Staff, with no explanation attached. He had learned by now not to ask for one. Inside a plain office on the second floor of … Read more