World War II
The Theft Of The Hesse Crown Jewels
July 29, 2021
Recovery of jewels stolen from Kronberg Castle, Germany by Chicago police on June 12, 1946. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images) In 1944, Prince Wolfgang of th...
Hirohito: Japan's Emperor During World War II (Who Almo...
May 6, 2021
Emperor Hirohito in dress uniform, 1935. (Unknown author/Wikimedia Commons) Whether you know him as Michinomiya Hirohito or Emperor Shōwa, he was the longest-...
Kamikazes: What Were They? Who Were They And How Did Th...
April 12, 2021
Japanese kamikaze putting on his forehead bandeau with rising sun, Pacific war, 1944–1945 colorized document. (Apic/Getty Images) By fall 1944, the Pacific th...
History Of Nutella: How World War II's Chocolate Shorta...
March 14, 2021
Nutella celebrated the 50th anniversary in 2015, but its roots extend back to World War II. (Jonas Güttler/picture alliance via Getty Images) Who doesn't love...
Nazi Gold, The Truth Behind The Mystery: Where Is It No...
March 4, 2021
The legend of Nazi gold is a favorite topic among conspiracy theorists and History Channel talking heads. Basically, the story goes that the Nazis accumulate...
Monuments Men: The Story Of How FDR Stole 20% Of Europe...
March 3, 2021
World War II, Hitler and Joseph Goebbels looking at works of art stolen from the Italians. (Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Do you remember t...
The Wannsee Conference: Where The Holocaust Was Planned...
January 20, 2021
The villa Am Großen Wannsee 56–58, where the Wannsee Conference was held, is now a memorial and museum. (A.Savin/Wikimedia Commons) When the Nazis gathered to...
London Blitz: Photos From When Germany Attacked London
December 7, 2020
Londoners hiding out in the Underground during the Blitz. (Jim Dyson/Getty Images) For more than eight months of World War II, London was the target of relentless...
"Dr. Satan"/Dr. Marcel Petiot: The Serial Killer Real-L...
November 30, 2020
Few people embodied the duality of man quite like Dr. Marcel Petiot, the French doctor who spent World War II robbing and murdering Jewish people under the a...
Hermann Goering: Things You Didn't Know About One Of Hi...
October 15, 2020
Hitler with Göring on balcony of the Chancellery, Berlin, March 16, 1938. (Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-2004-1202-504/CC-BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons) As a leader of...
The Battle Of Berlin: What Happened And How Hitler Was ...
October 3, 2020
(Mil.ru/Wikimedia Commons) As brutal and gruesome as World War II was, the most vicious of the fighting was saved for its final days. In the Battle of Berlin,...
Stalingrad: 600 Luftwaffe Planes Bomb Civilians In WWII...
August 23, 2020
There are a myriad important battles littered throughout World War II, but Stalingrad stands above them as one of the most bloody and strategically important...
Herschel Grynszpan: The Man Who Got Revenge On The Nazi...
August 9, 2020
When it comes to one single act affecting the entire world for generations to come, people often cite the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the biza...
A Treasure Trove Of Nazi Artifacts Recently Discovered ...
July 31, 2020
World War II ended in 1945, but the Nazi story didn't end there. With the German defeat inevitable, many top-ranking Nazi officials fled Europe and hid in th...
Anton Loibl, Hitler's Chauffeur, Invented Bicycle Refle...
May 29, 2020
Many riders don't give a second thought to the reflectors on their bicycles, but that's only because they don't have to. Unlike accessories like headlights, ...
The Hitler Diaries Hoax: How Germans Faked Something Ev...
May 9, 2020
On April 25, 1983, Stern magazine, Germany’s version of Life, announced to the world that they'd come into possession of Adolf Hitler's diaries. It was an as...
1944: World War II Rationing Of Most Meat Grades Offici...
May 3, 2020
During the onslaught of World War II, Americans at home tightened their belts and sacrificed many of their favorite meals when they were asked to ration much...
The 1940 Olympics Were Canceled Because Of World War II
May 2, 2020
(Wada Sanzō/Wikimedia Commons) The 1940 Olympic Games were supposed to be a coming-out party of sorts for Japan. Initially scheduled to take place from September...
Hitler's Last Day: Everything We Know About His Bunker ...
April 30, 2020
Hitler's bunker just before demolition in July 1947. (Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-V04744 / CC-BY-SA 3.0) On this day in 1945, a shot rang out in a Berlin bunker th...
Operation Flash: When Three Plots To Kill Hitler Failed...
March 13, 2020
Throughout World War II, plenty of people tried to assassinate Hitler for obvious reasons. On a single day in March 1943, however, there were at least three diffe...
Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima: The Truth Behind The Icon...
February 23, 2020
On February 23, 1945, one of the most iconic photos ever was taken. Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, which was snapped by Associated Press battlefield reporter ...
A Good List Of Great Americans Who Were Held In Japanes...
February 19, 2020
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 90066, A.K.A. the deeply unconstitutional order to the military to round up ...
White Rose Quiz
February 18, 2020
Throughout their short run during World War II, the White Rose Resistance was a thorn in the side of the Nazi Party. If you've read our article about the group, you'll have no trouble acing this quiz. How ...
The White Rose Resistance: The Anti-Nazi Freedom Fighte...
February 18, 2020
The White Rose Resistance movement was only active from 1942–1943, but in that time, the group of young Germans fought back against the Nazis with their words. Re...
Nuremberg Trials: Sentencing, Trivia, Criminals, And Af...
November 1, 2019
The Nuremberg trials of 1946 were some of the most controversial and difficult legal proceedings of the 20th century. Over the course of five years, 13 trials we...
The Ghost Ships of the National Defense Reserve Fleet
December 10, 2017
After World War II, the US established the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) – a fleet of vessels that serve as a reserve of ships for national defense and nationa...
The Story Behind The Iconic Image of an Abandoned Boy C...
November 16, 2017
Below is Toni Frissell's iconic WW2 photo, one of the most heartbreaking photos to come out of the London Blitz. The boy in the photo did in fact survive the war ...
Mysterious Underground Cave Network Found Beneath Shopp...
October 13, 2017
Many people in Thanet, Kent, England have been shopping in Primark - which first opened in 2011 - with absolutely no idea that a network of secret war tunnels, po...
Photos of Dresden Before and After the WWII Bombing New...
October 4, 2017
The firebombing of Dresden by the American-British troops happened on the 13th and 15th of February 1945, during the last months of the war. 722 heavy bombers bur...
Top Three Remarkable Escapes Across the Berlin Wall Aft...
August 31, 2017
After the Second World War, around 2.5 million East Germans fled to West Germany. This bothered East Germany as they already lost almost a sixth of their populati...
Female Snipers of the 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian F...
August 10, 2017
Russia in World War 2 was facing a threat to their very existence. Early in the war they could not compete with Germany in terms of technology, training, or skill...
The Life of Oskar Schindler After the End of World War ...
August 3, 2017
Oskar Schindler is the German industrialist, spy, Nazi Party member who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his ammunition and...
Holocaust Survivor and Soldier Who Rescued Her Celebrat...
August 1, 2017
During the Second World War John's elite unit liberated Jewish female prisoners, among them his wife-to-be Edith, from a work unit just East from the notorious Au...
The Accidental Detonation of 4,000 Tons of Explosives I...
June 28, 2017
On November 27th, 1944, a seismograph in Switzerland recorded the effects of a massive explosion in far distant England. At first seismologists thought it was an ...
WWII Heroine: The Incredible Bravery of Nancy "The Whit...
June 27, 2017
When Nancy Wake saw a Jewish man being beaten on the streets of Vienna, she vowed to help fight the Nazis. That's how one wealthy Australian woman became the most...
Dragon’s Teeth: Used to Slow Down and Channel Tanks Int...
June 26, 2017
During WWII, opposing troops came up with many ideas on how to slow or disable fast-moving tanks. One of these ideas was to design obstacles to immobilize tanks...
The Shoes on the Danube Bank: One of the Most Moving Ho...
June 23, 2017
Not far from the Hungarian Parliament building sit 60 pairs of old-fashioned shoes, the type people wore in the 1940s. These footwear make up the "Shoes on the Da...
US Air Force Academy Cadets Finally Realized Their Jani...
June 22, 2017
Day after day hundreds cadets of Air Force Academy would pass janitor William Crawford in the hall oblivious to the greatness that was among them. In the mid-197...
Dog of War: This Brave, Stubby-Tailed Pit Bull Was Amer...
June 17, 2017
In 1917, a Pit Bull puppy was roaming the streets of New Haven, Connecticut near an Army training camp at Yale University and it was there that Private J. Robert ...
An Army of 1000 Japanese Soldiers Was Attacked by Croco...
June 12, 2017
In 1942, during WWII, the Japanese Imperial Army captured Ramree Island off the Burma coast, 70 miles south of Akyab, now known as Sittwe. Since Ramree was strate...
The Shadows of Hiroshima
June 9, 2017
At 8:15 on the morning of August 6, 1945, a person was sitting on a flight of stone stairs of the Sumitomo Bank in Hiroshima, Japan. Seconds later, an atomic bomb detonated 800 feet away, and the ...
Czesława Kwoka, Age 14, Child Victim of Auschwitz, As s...
June 8, 2017
Czesława Kwoka was born in Wólka Złojecka, a small village in Poland, to a Catholic mother. Along with her mother (prisoner number 26946), Czesława Kwoka (priso...
It's Been Over 70 Years, But This Drone Footage of Ausc...
June 7, 2017
"One minute in Auschwitz was like an entire day. A day was like a year. A month, an eternity." ~Roman Kent, Holocaust survivor It's been over 70 years since the d...
WWII Escape Maps Turned Into A Stunning Wedding Dress
June 6, 2017
Artist Sara Jane Murray runs a studio called Home Front Vintage, which specializes in repurposing World War II-era silk maps into wearable, and beautiful, clothing and...
Calling Blighty: Videos Made by 600 Soldiers Found In R...
June 2, 2017
Hundreds of video clips, each lasting around 30 seconds made by 600 soldiers, were found in rusty canisters in the basement of Manchester Town Hall in England in ...
Britain's "Unkillable" Soldier, Adrian Carton de Wiart
May 29, 2017
Lt. General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart served as a British officer in the Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. He survived two plane crashes, was ...
10 Odd Jobs From the World War II Military Classificati...
May 18, 2017
High school history books always made it seem that the Second World War was exclusively won by troops and generals on the frontlines, and of national figureheads...
Trees Eating a WWII Battlefield
May 17, 2017
Decades ago, a battle was fought in Neva Bridgehead in Russia between German and Russian soldiers. Today, the battlefield – untouched for years – has become a strangely beautiful testament ...
31 Photos Taken Just Before History Was Made
May 13, 2017
Tank Man At Tiananmen Square History’s most iconic depiction of resistance was when an unidentified man known as “Tank Man” single-handedly stood down four Chinese tanks among...
The Most Murderous Regimes in the World
April 26, 2017
The 20th century witnessed death and slaughter on an unprecedented scale. It was the century of the Holocaust and two World Wars; of communists, Nazis, fascists and military dictato...
A Japanese Boy Standing at Attention After Bringing His...
April 25, 2017
Joe O’Donnell, the man who took the iconic photo below at Nagasaki, was sent by the U.S. military to chronicle the damage inflicted on Japanese soil by air raids ...
Japanese Kamikaze, Footage from WW2, 1945
April 24, 2017
The story behind the bombers, their training, and first photos of the killer weapons above the Pacific Ocean... Credit: British Pathe
During WWII, Japanese Soldiers Gave Out Grenades So Cit...
April 21, 2017
The battle at Okinawa, Japan was the last major battle of the Second World War. During the struggle, more than 545,000 U.S. troops stormed the archipelago, killin...
14,000 WWII Dog Tags Found Buried in a Field
April 19, 2017
Just two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland and the official beginning of the Second World War, the United Kingdom was one of the first countries to declare war on Germany....
Hollow of 650-Year-Old Tree Used as a Hideout by Two Je...
April 17, 2017
The hollow trunk of this 650-year-old oak tree was used as a hideout by two Jewish brothers during World War II. In Wisniowa, Poland, there is an English oak tre...
While His Brother Was Busy Killing Jews, Albert Göring ...
March 31, 2017
Albert Goring was the export manager of Skoda automotive factory when he fled to Czechoslovakia. He helped many employees under possible death to be free, by for...
An Original “Schindler’s List” Expected to Fetch $2.4m ...
March 16, 2017
Up for sale at an auction is the authentic “Schindler’s lists,” the papers used during the Holocaust by the German industrialist Oskar Schindler to save the...
Secret WWII Message Decoded Decades After the War Ended...
March 13, 2017
In Italy, a group of treasure hunters were scanning an area in Tuscany using metal detectors when they discovered an old bullet. However, they were a bit surprise...
Fearless Women of World War II: Krystyna Skarbek / Chri...
March 8, 2017
Born in Poland, Krystyna Skarbek managed to reach England after her beloved country fell to the Germans during World War II. She volunteered to be a spy, and even...
The Story of the Death Railway
March 2, 2017
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched their surprise assault on Pearl Harbor. On the same day, they also attacked Dutch and British positions in South East Asia. About 14...
5 Famous Snipers of World War II
March 1, 2017
During the decade leading to World War Two, the U.S.S.R. was the only nation that trained sniper units rigidly. Although other nations trained them too, it was not to the same degree. As a...
The Story of the Dog Who Became a Prisoner of War Durin...
February 26, 2017
In 1936, the British gunboat HMS Gnat's crew bought an English Pointer puppy named Judy that came from a kennel in Shanghai, China. She was supposed to serve both...
Tanks Vs. Bridges (13 Pics)
February 22, 2017
Take a look at this compilation of photos of tanks that proved too heavy for some of the bridges they were driving on. Almost all of these fascinating images were captured during World War II....
Harrowing Photos Showing The Reality of The Death Camps...
February 8, 2017
In the spring of 1945, photos and witness accounts from the liberation of camps like Bergen-Belsen provided the disbelieving world outside of Europe its first gli...
Virginia Hall: One of The Greatest Spies in American Hi...
February 7, 2017
Despite the fact that her country — the United States — had yet to enter the war. Despite the fact that women weren't generally considered spy material by the pre...
The US Dropped Warning Leaflets Before They Bombed Japa...
February 6, 2017
The Axis Power was responsible for the Holocaust, the Allies, the bombing of Japan. Who really lost the war?
Military Slang Words and Phrases Used by American Soldi...
February 6, 2017
Starting as early as 1941, correspondents began reporting and discussing military slang in the pages of American Speech, the journal of the American Dialect Socie...
The Nurse Who Saved Children From Nazis By Hiding Them ...
January 27, 2017
Born on February 15, 1910 in Warsaw, Poland; Irena Sendler, persevered to study medicine. She devoted her life to the service of others, whatever the cost may be....
Evacuation of the Sick and Wounded, WWII
January 5, 2017
Every battlefield troop maintains a fraction of personnel who are well-trained and proficient in conducting first aid. In a unit that is as large as an Infantry battalion, there is...
Faces of War: Men With Broken Faces and The Tin Nose Sh...
January 4, 2017
Located inside the 3rd London General Hospital, its properly known as the "Masks for Facial Disfigurement Department" but wounded tommies humorously called it "Th...
Vintage Photos of Émilie Marie Bouchau and Her 16-Inch ...
January 3, 2017
Émilie Marie Bouchau, also known as Polaire, was an Algerian lady known for her tiny, corsetted waist, the circumference of which is no greater than 16 inches (a...
Colorized Photos of Soviet Female Snipers in the 1940s,...
January 3, 2017
This is a collection of colorized pictures showing the incredible Soviet female snipers in the Second World War. H/T Za Rodinu
Hiroshima and Nagasaki 70 Years After the Atomic Bombin...
January 1, 2017
When the US dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, it killed about 140,000 people out of the 350,000 who lived in the city. That was the first nu...
Bonsai Tree Planted In 1625 Has Survived Hiroshima Bomb...
December 29, 2016
Planted in 1625, this bonsai tree is currently 391-years-old and has survived the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. The tree belonged to the Yamaki family, who in...
The 10,000-Bedroom Hotel That Was Never Used
December 19, 2016
Hotel Prora is a massive building complex built between 1936 and 1939 by the Nazis as part of their "Strength through Joy" programme. The complex stretches over three miles alo...
A Time Capsule Lies Under the City of Naples, Italy
December 16, 2016
Lost for decades beneath the streets of Naples, Italy, the Galleria Borbonica is a time capsule of the city's history. The system of tunnels and caverns, stretching fro...
Vintage Snapshots: World War II Soldiers Showering or B...
December 15, 2016
Between battles soldiers were able to bathe in makeshift showers and in rivers, lakes and streams. These personal snapshots of World War II soldiers bathing and s...
Family Unknowingly Played with a World War II Sea Mine ...
December 8, 2016
Kelly Gravell and her family went to the beach and saw what they thought was an old, barnacle encrusted buoy that had washed up on the shore near Burry Port in Wa...
World War II Story: This Man Dropped Candies Instead of...
December 6, 2016
As the Second World War approached its end, the Soviet army sieged Berlin until the city, and eventually all German forces, surrendered. The people of Berlin were...
Today’s Paris Through Photos from 1944
November 28, 2016
French photographer Julien Knez wanted to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the liberation of Paris in August 1944 with a series of photographs. Thus, he integrated photographs of ...
