World War II ended on September 2, 1945 with the formal surrender of Japan aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. These articles and essays, submitted by noted historians and veterans, bring WW2 into the present almost 60 years after the last shell was fired.

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Lessons From the Bulge

by Paul Connors

December 21 , 2004
Sixty years ago this month, out of the fog and icy mists of one of the coldest Belgian winters on record, the Wehrmacht attacked American forces along its thin defensive line in the Ardennes forest. The day will live on in the memories of the surviving American GIs who were there, as well as the German veterans, who in one final desperate surge sought to push the U.S. Army all the way back to the Atlantic ports.

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A Fighting Perth Remembers

by Stan Scislowski

The night was black as pitch, no moon, no stars, no flash of artillery fire to light the way for the Canadian infantry moving forward to the start-line of their next attack. The night was unusually quiet, as though both armies facing each other in the flatlands of the North Italian plains had gone to bed early. The only sound came from the scuffle of the infantrymen's boots on gravel as they worked their way forward.

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The Battle of Midway - Prelude and Aftermath

by Nitin K. Shankar

During the last 65 years, the United States was attacked twice on December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001 and, in both cases, eventually relied on aircraft carrier power to attack the source of the aggression.

When the 9/11 attack took place, the carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) had just been relieved from service in the Indian Ocean and was heading back to her homeport in Norfolk, Va. On hearing about the attack, the Enterprise, without an order from the chain of command, turned around and headed back to Southwest Asian waters. For the next three weeks, aircraft from Enterprise flew nearly 700 missions launching air attacks against al Qaeda and Taliban military camps in Afghanistan. It was a quick response that showed the reach of American aircraft carrier power.

The American response to the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor was less quick. It was a time when the Navy still considered aircraft carriers to be auxiliary fleet vessels rather then primary naval attack weapons. Within six months of the Pearl Harbor attack, the US Pacific Fleet?s bold initiatives would establish a new strategic role for carriers.

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Memories of D-Day

by Nitin K. Shankar

There was a special brand of individualism which marked the D-Day landings. If the operation succeeded, it was not only due to the high quality of planning and preparation. What saved the day were the individual acts of leadership displayed on the beaches. We will never know what motivated these leaders but they got moving when things got bogged down. What finally counted was that this exceptional victory of minds over matter.

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Barbarossa

by Bevin Alexander

The purpose of military strategy is to diminish the possibility of resistance. It should be the aim of every leader to discover the weaknesses of the enemy, and to pierce his Achilles' Heel. This is how battles and wars are best won.

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Mers-El-Kebir: A Battle Between Friends

by Irwin J. Kappes

In a moment of reflection, and in my ignorance of world affairs at the time, I wondered why the British would have sought the destruction of their ally?s fleet. In the ensuing years I have studied accounts written at the time. They still provide no truly logical explanation illustrating once again that in warfare there is often more emotion than logic. And, as in many historic naval engagements, a series of misunderstandings and lack of communication determined the outcome.

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The Forgotten Bomb - 60 Years Later

by David H. Lippman

That morning, on the island of Tinian, US Army Air Force Maj. Charles Sweeney throttled back on his borrowed B-29 bomber, Bock's Car, with a full load of high-octane fuel, a broken auxiliary transfer fuel pump (blocking off 600 gallons of high-octane fuel), and a second, the world?s second plutonium bomb. The first one had been tested at Alamagordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, proving to scientists and politicians that the millions spent on the Manhattan Project had not been a waste the atomic bomb did work, and a single bomb would not ignite the atmosphere and destroy all life.

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World War Two - A Preamble

by David H. Lippman

On the morning of September 1, 1939, a German battleship named Schleswig-Holstein standing 600 meters off the Polish coastal fort of Westerplatte, opened fire on the fort and began the Second World War. 2,193 days later, on September 2, 1945, the Second World War ended off the coast of Japan, as that nation surrendered on the deck of an American battleship named Missouri.