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Early on June 25th, 1950, North Korean forces crossed the thirty-eighth parallel in strength, spearheaded by tanks and infantry that quickly shattered many South Korean positions. For American commanders, the attack transformed Korea from a peripheral concern into the central crisis of the moment, testing the policy of containing communist expansion that had taken shape in the early Cold War.
After nearly three brutal months of fighting, American commanders declared the island of Okinawa secure on June 22nd, 1945. The campaign had begun with amphibious landings in April, followed by a grinding advance against deeply dug-in Japanese defenses that relied on cave systems, reverse-slope positions, and determined infantry counterattacks.
A story of a nearly lost beach, scattered initiative, and how small groups clawed back the chance to win a war.
As the twentieth century neared its end, the United States and its NATO allies faced a different kind of crisis in the Balkans. Tensions and violence in Kosovo, including the expulsion and abuse of ethnic Albanian civilians, raised alarms across Europe and North America. Diplomatic efforts failed to produce a settlement, and on March 24th, 1999, NATO launched Operation Allied Force, an air campaign aimed at pressurin
Just over a decade after Desert Storm, United States forces found themselves fighting a very different kind of war in Afghanistan. On March 2nd, 2002, Operation Anaconda began in the Shah-i-Kot Valley and surrounding high ground, as United States and allied troops attempted to encircle and destroy concentrations of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. The plan called for Afghan and coalition units to block escape routes wh
By early 1962, American involvement in Vietnam was still officially described in terms of advisors, but the character of that involvement was already changing. On January 12th, 1962, Operation Chopper saw United States Army helicopters lift South Vietnamese troops into action against insurgent forces near Saigon. The mission may have seemed modest at the time, but it showcased the emerging doctrine of air mobility, u
On the far side of the world, the same date saw the United States First Army launch a long-awaited breakout from the Normandy hedgerows. After weeks of slow, attritional fighting among the bocage lanes, Operation Cobra aimed to shatter German defenses west of Saint-Lô with a massive aerial bombardment followed by concentrated armored and infantry thrusts.
On the night of February 23rd into February 24th, 1991, after weeks of intensive air strikes, coalition ground forces launched the main land offensive of Operation Desert Storm. U.S. Marine divisions attacked into Kuwait from the south, while U.S. Army armored corps and allied units executed a broad “left hook” across the desert into western Iraq to outflank Iraqi forces.
Two years after Midway, the United States Army Air Forces were striking deep into Axis-held Europe, and June brought another innovation. On June 2nd, 1944, heavy bombers based in Britain launched the first “shuttle bombing” mission of what became known as Operation Frantic. Instead of returning to their original airfields, the bombers hit rail yards and other targets in Eastern Europe and then continued on to land at
In the early hours of July 10th, 1943, waves of Allied troops, including the United States Seventh Army and the British Eighth Army, began landing along the southern coast of Sicily in Operation Husky. Rough seas scattered many landing craft and airborne units, turning the opening hours into a confused struggle to get ashore and organize.
Nearly a decade after the attacks of September 11th, American intelligence and special operations forces converged on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, believed to shelter al-Qaeda’s leader. In a carefully rehearsed nighttime raid, United States Navy special operators flew in by helicopter, breached the walls, and fought their way through the building, killing Osama bin Laden and collecting valuable documents and e
As the Vietnam conflict deepened, American leaders turned to the air campaign as a tool of pressure and signal. On March 2nd, 1965, the United States began Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing effort against North Vietnam that was intended to deter aggression, reduce support to Viet Cong forces in the South, and reassure allies of American resolve.
After months of retreat and uncertainty in the Korean War, the Eighth Army under Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway prepared to strike back. On January 25th, 1951, United Nations forces launched Operation Thunderbolt, an offensive aimed at pushing north from positions south of Seoul and testing the strength of Chinese and North Korean units.
The summer of 1943 found the United States Army Air Forces looking for ways to hit the Axis where it hurt most: oil. From airfields in North Africa, more than one hundred heavy bombers took off for a long-range, low-level mission against refineries around Ploesti, Romania, a key supplier of fuel to Germany. Flying at treetop height to evade radar and fighters, the crews encountered dense flak, smoke, and confusion ar
In the second year of the Korean War, United Nations forces under Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway were pushing north in a series of offensives to reclaim ground lost during earlier Communist advances. As part of this effort, planners designed an airborne operation to cut off retreating North Korean and Chinese units and support the drive across the Han River.
By March 1945, Allied armies had reached the last major natural barrier in western Germany, the River Rhine. In coordination with a large river crossing called Operation Plunder, planners organized an ambitious airborne assault code-named Operation Varsity, using British and American paratroopers and glider-borne troops.
Before dawn on Leyte, the world was reduced to shadows, muzzle flashes, and the flat crack of Japanese rifles. Company A of the 382nd Infantry had clawed its way to the edge of the enemy‑held Buri airstrip, then stalled. Out in front, less than a hundred yards away, Japanese soldiers were dug into bomb craters and a drainage ditch, their machine guns perfectly sighted on every patch of open ground. Anyone who tried t
By February 1945, much of Pearl Harbor had returned to the business of war. Battleships and carriers came and went; convoys formed up and headed west toward Iwo Jima and Okinawa. But in a side channel called West Loch, the harbor still hid a graveyard. Months earlier, a chain of explosions had torn through a cluster of tank landing ships loading ammunition for the Pacific campaign.