News

Before we jump into events that happened in history in the month of October during WWII, the Civil War and the Cold War, historian Mark Bielski shares some thoughts. “In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems unfair that He did not also limit his stupidity.” One of Mark's favorite quotes is by Konrad Adenauer, who was the Chancellor of West Germany (leader of the Christian Democrats) and a Catholic from the Rhineland who strongly distrusted the Russians and Communist Party of East Germany. Read on! Read More

This year marks the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne operation of World War II. On 17 September 1944, in broad daylight, the 101st Airborne Division parachuted into Holland in a bold strike in order to seize bridges across rivers and adjacent canals from Belgium to Arnhem. In honor of this hallowed occasion, we would like to share an article that our historian Kevin Hymel wrote on Major Richard “Dick” Winters who led Easy Company in a jump into Holland as part of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s Operation Market Garden. Read More

The significance of the Battle of Raymond greatly outweighs its fame. As part of the Vicksburg Campaign in 1863, the Union victory near this small town, west of Jackson, Mississippi, prompted General Ulysses S. Grant to modify his plans for the capture of Vicksburg and gain control of the Mississippi River. Read More

Our director, Mark Bielski, has just wrapped up a fascinating series on the Cold War on his podcast, History with Mark Bielski. His guests have included John Lindstedt, who was a junior officer serving aboard a nuclear submarine, Reid Senter, a retired U.S. Navy Captain who served in the Mediterranean, and Steve Bourque, who was stationed in western Europe during the Cold War as an enlisted man and later returned as an intelligence officer.  Read More

The first shots of WWII rang out in Gdansk, Poland on September 1st of 1939, the beginning of the greatest war of devastation, death and destruction ever on this planet. Hitler and Nazi Germany had already annexed Austria and marched into Czechoslovakia unopposed. Now they had set their sights on Poland to begin the German dream … Read More

Union General William T. Sherman enacted a grand plan in the summer of 1864. He was to begin a campaign that consisted of a series of battles in northern Georgia. His ultimate goal was to destroy the Army of Tennessee and take the Confederate city of Atlanta. This would also sever supply lines that were vital to the Confederate war effort. While Sherman was not successful in destroying the Confederate army he faced, he did capture Atlanta that September. Other than the military achievement, it had a dual effect. Read More

We are thrilled to share the happy news that two of our guests got engaged while traveling on our 75th Anniversary of D-Day to the Rhine Tour! Shawn Morris used the occasion to ask Amanda Fonferek to marry him on their 9th anniversary of dating. We reached out to Shawn and Amanda to see if they would be willing to share the details with us and they graciously agreed to do so. Today, we share their sweet story with you. Read More

We are excited to announce historian Rick Beyer's upcoming webinar about how you can personally help the unsung heroes of the Ghost Army of WWII be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Fewer than 20 of the soldiers who served in the Ghost Army are left. Now we need you help to honor these unsung heroes by mobilizing. Every voice, including yours, must be heard. But how to go about it? Read More

We're excited to announce that our Historian Kevin Hymel has narrated a video, “101st Airborne - Attack on Carentan,” for WW2TV, a new YouTube Channel which launched on August 1, 2019. This film is based on one of Kevin’s articles that was published on Warfare History Network and explains the taking of Carentan on June 12th 1944 by the 101st Airborne Division, focusing on the role of E/506th PIR. Read More

We recently received a note from Steve Thomas, the son of WWII veteran, Norwood Thomas, about a lovely article that was published about his dad in The Times of London. Norwood was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division. He landed near La Fiere Bridge on D-Day and fought across Europe with the 101st in … Read More