Bombing of USS Cole in Aden Harbor
At the dawn of a new century, American forces operating far from home faced a different kind of threat.
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Bonus Army dispersed in Washington
In the depths of the Great Depression, military service and economic hardship collided on the streets of the nation’s capital. World War I veterans had marched on Washington to demand early payment of bonuses promised for their wartime service, setting up sprawling camps along the Anacostia River and near the Capitol. As the standoff dragged on and tensions rose, the government ordered the camps cleared.
Breakout battles around Hagaru-ri, Chosin
On December 1st, 1950, in the mountains of North Korea near the Chosin Reservoir, United States Marines and attached soldiers were fighting a different kind of battle for survival.
British Evacuation of New York City
On this late autumn day, the last British troops finally departed New York City, ending seven years of occupation of the largest port in North America.
British landings at Kip's Bay, Manhattan
On a gray September morning, British warships and transports massed off the east side of Manhattan and began pounding the American positions at Kip's Bay.
Burning of Washington
Two years later, during the same war, British forces marched on Washington after defeating American troops at the Battle of Bladensburg. Poorly coordinated regulars and militia units could not stop the advance, and the road to the capital lay open. British troops entered the city and set fire to key government buildings, including the Capitol and the President’s Mansion, while many civilians fled or watched helplessl
Capture of Baghdad International Airport
During the opening weeks of the Iraq War, United States Army armored units pushed toward Baghdad in a series of rapid thrusts designed to shock and disorganize Iraqi defenses. One of the most important objectives was Baghdad International Airport, whose capture would provide a major logistical hub and symbolic foothold on the edge of the capital.
Capture of Cherbourg
In the wake of the D-Day landings, Allied planners understood that securing a major port was essential if the Normandy foothold were to become a sustained campaign across France. That task fell largely to the United States VII Corps, which fought its way up the Cotentin Peninsula against German units determined to hold Cherbourg’s fortifications and coastal guns as long as possible.
Capture of Fort Fisher
Off the North Carolina coast, the earthworks of Fort Fisher guarded the entrance to the Cape Fear River and the vital port of Wilmington, the last major Confederate gateway on the Atlantic. After an earlier Union attempt failed, a massive second expedition began on January 13th, 1865, with warships pounding the defenses while soldiers under Major General Alfred Terry prepared to storm the works.
Capture of Fort George
During the War of 1812, the Niagara frontier became a key line where American and British forces tested each other’s strength. On May 27th, 1813, United States troops supported by naval gunfire came ashore near Fort George in Upper Canada and pushed inland under heavy resistance. The combined land and naval operation forced the British garrison to abandon the fort, giving American forces control of an important posit
Capture of Fort Sackville at Vincennes
In the dead of winter during the Revolutionary War, Virginia officer George Rogers Clark led a small force of frontiersmen and French militia through flooded Illinois country to strike the British post at Vincennes, in what is now Indiana. After a grueling march through icy water and mud, his men surrounded Fort Sackville and convinced the British commander, Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, that he faced a much la
Capture of Fort Ticonderoga
In the early weeks of the Revolutionary War, a small American force moved quietly across Lake Champlain toward the poorly defended British post at Fort Ticonderoga. Led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, the raiders surprised the garrison at dawn and demanded its surrender, capturing the fort and its store of artillery with barely a shot fired. Those heavy guns did not simply sit in the stone walls they had just tak
Capture of “Hamburger Hill” in Vietnam
More than a century after the Civil War, United States troops were again fighting over steep slopes, this time in the A Shau Valley of Vietnam. From May 10th through May 20th, 1969, airborne infantry and supporting units battled to seize Hill 937, a thickly forested height that soldiers nicknamed “Hamburger Hill” because of the grinding nature of the combat.
Capture of Manila
Just one day after the armistice protocol, on August 13th, 1898, American forces executed a planned assault that led to the capture of Manila in the Philippines. Communications delays meant that officers on the spot did not treat the earlier agreement as the end of hostilities, and the operation proceeded under prearranged signals with Spanish commanders in the city.
Capture of Monte Cassino
On May 18th, 1944, Allied troops finally occupy the shattered ruins of the monastery and town of Cassino in Italy, ending a months-long struggle along the Gustav Line. Earlier attacks in winter and early spring had seen United States and other Allied units bleed heavily against well-prepared German defenses in rough terrain. The controversial bombing of the historic abbey and repeated assaults through mud, rivers, an
Capture of Saint-Lô
In Normandy, weeks after the D-Day landings, American forces found themselves locked in a grinding struggle through hedgerow country that favored the German defenders. The town of Saint-Lô, a key road junction, became a vital objective for United States units trying to break out of the constricted beachhead. After days of intense fighting, artillery barrages, and house-to-house clearing, American troops finally secur
Capture of the Ludendorff Bridge
A story of a shattered defensive line, a race against explosives, and the one intact bridge that cracked open the last barrier into Germany.
Carrier battle off Midway Atoll
While Dutch Harbor burned, the decisive blows of that wider Japanese plan were being struck far to the south. On June 4th, 1942, United States Navy carriers Enterprise, Yorktown, and Hornet launched waves of torpedo planes and dive bombers against a powerful Japanese carrier force near Midway Atoll. Early attacks by torpedo squadrons suffered terrible losses, but they drew enemy fighters and disrupted Japanese flight