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In the winter of 1776, the Continental Army still clung to a shaky foothold around Boston, and many colonists remained uncertain whether they wanted a full break with Britain. The publication of Thomas Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense” on January 10th, 1776 poured fuel on the growing fire for independence. Written in direct, forceful language, it argued that a small island should not rule a vast continent and that mona
A story of a shrinking beachhead, exhausted troops, and how their stand kept South Korea from collapsing in 1950.
In the middle years of the Vietnam War, American leaders sought ways to weaken the enemy’s ability to move troops and supplies down long, fragile lines of communication. On June 29th, 1966, U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft carried out major attacks on petroleum storage facilities near Hanoi and Haiphong, striking targets that had previously been off-limits or only lightly hit.
The first year of the Korean War saw dramatic swings, from the near collapse of South Korean defenses to daring landings and then to sudden counterattacks by Chinese forces. By early 1951, United Nations units, including large American formations, had regrouped under new leadership and planned an offensive to regain the initiative.
When Congress passed legislation on July 11th, 1798 to create a Marine Corps under the Department of the Navy, it gave the new republic a permanent naval infantry force. The Continental Marines of the Revolution had been disbanded after the war, but the growing threat of conflict at sea with European powers pushed leaders to rebuild that capability.
In June 1918, United States Marines and soldiers of the American Expeditionary Forces were committed to stopping a German drive toward Paris near a patch of forest called Belleau Wood. On June 11th, 1918, Marine units launched renewed assaults into the dense, shell-torn woods after earlier attacks had been thrown back with heavy losses.
A 22-year-old heavy machine gunner who held back a German attack in the Battle of the Bulge
Just days after the call for volunteers, a respected career officer faced his own decision. On April 20th, 1861, Colonel Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army rather than take command against his native Virginia. Lee had served for decades in the regular army, distinguishing himself as an engineer and commander during the war with Mexico. In the tense weeks after Fort Sumter, senior leaders
A story of block-by-block urban fighting and the hard decision to take back a city at any cost.
In the middle of the Sicily campaign of the Second World War, Lieutenant General George S. Patton’s Seventh United States Army drove into Palermo and seized one of the island’s most important ports. The advance came after a rapid push along Sicily’s northern coast, with American armored and infantry columns racing over mountain roads and through towns battered by previous fighting.
The hill had a simple name on the map—Zebra Hill—but nothing about it was simple up close. Ahead of the assault troops the ground rose in a broken, rocky slope, pocked with shell holes and scraps of shattered brush. Hidden in that terrain were Japanese pillboxes and trenches positioned to command every approach. As the American infantrymen pushed forward, the hillside erupted with machine-gun bursts and grenades, tur
As the Pacific war neared its climax, the Battle of Okinawa became one of the bloodiest and most complex operations ever undertaken by American forces. By late May of 1945, United States Army and Marine units had fought their way against layered Japanese defenses centered on the Shuri Line, a fortified belt anchored by Shuri Castle. On May 29th, 1945, Japanese commanders began abandoning this vital position under rel
As fighting raged around Okinawa, one of the largest battleships ever built, the Japanese Yamato, steamed south on what was essentially a one-way mission. The plan called for Yamato and a small escort force to reach Okinawa, beach the ship, and fight as a coastal battery in a desperate attempt to blunt the American invasion. United States Navy carrier task forces detected the sortie and launched waves of aircraft tha
A story of a precision raid, a missing prize, and how a failed rescue still reshaped a distant war.
While history often remembers the April surrender at Appomattox Court House as the Civil War’s end, organized Confederate resistance lingered west of the Mississippi River. On May 26th, 1865, officials representing General Edmund Kirby Smith’s Trans-Mississippi Department agreed to terms that effectively surrendered the last large Confederate field command.
The first significant ground clash between United States and North Korean forces occurred at Osan on July 5th, 1950, when a small blocking force known as Task Force Smith took up positions south of Seoul. Comprised mainly of infantry from the 21st Infantry Regiment, supported by limited artillery and outdated anti-tank weapons, the force was ordered to delay the North Korean advance.
On January 30th, 1968, during the lunar new year holiday known as Tet, communist forces launched coordinated attacks across South Vietnam. Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnamese Army units struck provincial capitals, district towns, and military bases, often achieving tactical surprise. In the days that followed, the world saw images of fighting near the United States Embassy in Saigon and fierce clashes around Kh
It is the early hours of 10 March 1945 on Luzon in the Philippine Islands. The jungle around the Villa Verde Trail is black and close, broken only by a thin ridge that juts out from a larger hill. On that ridge, just ahead of the main American perimeter, three foxholes scrape a shallow line in the earth. In one of them lies Private First Class Thomas Eugene “Gene” Atkins of Company A, 127th Infantry. His job is simpl