Most people familiar with World War II know that Adolf Hitler and many of the top Nazis were World War I veterans. Hitler spent four years in the trenches of the Western Front and was decorated three times for gallantry, including the Prussian Iron Cross First Class. Hermann Göring was a famous World War I … Read more
A 22-year-old Black corporal from the Savannah river docks climbed into the turret of his Sherman tank on a wind-scoured limestone ridge in northeastern France in November 1944 and fired a single round that no officer on that hill had ordered him to fire, correcting a staff major’s calculations in front of a command group … Read more
In the propaganda films of 1944, they were comrade Ivan, the brave Soviet brothers in arms holding the Eastern Front. But as the gap between the Western allies and the Red Army closed in the spring of 1945, the smiling handshakes for the cameras masked a growing sense of horror among the American High Command. … Read more
When the Third Reich collapsed in May 1945, the world watched Nazi leaders face justice at Nuremberg. Their crimes were laid bare before international tribunals. But what happened to the women who stood beside these architects of evil? The wives of Hitler's inner circle had lived lives of unimaginable privilege. They wore stolen jewels, resided … Read more
In Charleston, South Carolina, a quiet morning at a bread shop became the moment that pulled Harlem into a Southern underworld conflict. The woman standing in line was the mother of Bumpy Johnson, the man who controlled the streets of Harlem. Before the morning was over, she would be on the floor, and her son … Read more
The crew behind one of the most influential horror films in American cinema had roughly three weeks, a handful of borrowed vehicles, and a budget that a midsize studio would have spent on a single sequence. The monster was a mask pulled from a costume shop shelf, and autumn leaves scattered across lawns were swept … Read more
Am 27. Dezember 1943, um 5:52 Uhr, stand ein einzelner Tiger-Panzer drei Kilometer westlich von Radomyschl in der Ukraine. Seine linke Laufwerksseite war bis zum Rumpf in einem zugefrorenen Graben versunken. Es herrschten minus 14 Grad Celsius. Frost lag auf den Sichtschlitzen, und weißer Dampf stieg aus dem Auspuff in eine so stille Luft, dass … Read more
John F. Kennedy did not govern the way American presidents are supposed to govern, and a growing body of historical analysis suggests that this single difference may explain why his presidency remains the most debated and least understood in modern American history. Where other presidents absorb the institutions around them, Kennedy repeatedly challenged them. Where … Read more
In the late summer heat of Harlem, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson walked down 125th Street in a charcoal gray Italian-cut suit. He showed no sweat and no hurry. Beside him walked his wife, Mayme, radiant in a pale blue dress, her hair done in an elegant style that commanded respect. They were not just a couple. … Read more
On December 22, 1945, one day after General George S. Patton died in a Heidelberg hospital, Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower stood alone in a room at Patton's headquarters. Before him lay a leather-bound diary. It held three years of war, three years of victories and controversies, and three years of thoughts Patton never intended … Read more