The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, a noted British veterinary charity, has awarded its Dickin Medal for gallantry—the “animals’ Victoria Cross”—to Kuno, a Belgian Malinois that in 2019 charged through gunfire to aid pinned-down British special

Over the next two years Germany will provide $662 million in aid to some 240,000 holocaust survivors suffering hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The recipients, who were children during World War II, reside primarily in Israel, North America, th

Can you match each of the following commanders to the invaders he drove from his home territory? 1. Holy Roman Emperor Otto I2. Ferdinand II of Aragon3. Themistocles4. Menelik II5. Alexander Nevsky6. Charlemagne7. Zhu Yuanzhang8. Dmitry Donskoy of Mo

During a late-1950s test flight a soldier simulates firing his M1 carbine while perched atop a prototype of Hiller Aircraft’s VZ-1 Pawnee one-man flying platform. Powered by ducted fans, the machine was supposed to steer via kinesthetic control—the p

By the end of World War II Ursula Burton was living an unassuming life in England’s rural Cotswolds—or so everyone thought. The married mother of three was actually Ursula Kuczynski, a colonel in the Soviet military and one of the most significant sp

Norman Cyril Jackson Royal Air Force Victoria Cross Germany  April 26–27, 1944 Twenty-five-year-old RAF flight engineer Sgt. Norman Jackson had just completed his required 30-mission first tour in April 1944 when he agreed to fly one more mission in

On Nov. 2, 1944, the U.S. 28th Infantry Division moved to capture the town of Schmidt, which controlled many key roads through Germany’s Hürtgen Forest. The hilly and impenetrably wooded Hürtgenwald was the last major physical barrier before the wide

Entering combat late in 1942, the M4 Sherman provided the U.S. Army with a solid, reliable medium tank. By 1943, however, it was clearly outgunned by the German Panther’s high-velocity 75 mm cannon and the Tiger’s fearsome 88 mm gun. The British modi

The Franks gasped and strained as they rolled the massive log battering ram up against the main gate at Avignon. From the battlements above Muslim garrison troops rained heavy stones and torches down on the attackers, yet the siege engine’s thick, pe

The only thing Dutch about Raymond Paul Pierre Westerling was his blood. Born on Aug. 31, 1919, in the ancient city of Istanbul, where several generations of Westerling men had made their living as antique dealers, young Raymond showed signs of the a

At the turn of the 20th century the Dutch East Indies (as Indonesia was known) remained a colonial outpost whose administrators grew wealthy trading in such goods as spices, coffee, sugar and other commodities. Amsterdam showed its appreciation by in

[Re: “Museum of the Pacific War Upgrades Nimitz Gallery,” News, by Brendan Manley, July 2020:] The following statement is made about Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz: “… and presided over Japan’s formal surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tok

Perhaps the most important lesson learned from the illstarred 1915 Allied landings on Turkey’s Gallipoli peninsula during World War I was the importance of both gathering intelligence on an objective and clearing mines and other obstacles from the be

In October 2020 President Donald J. Trump approved the Congressional Gold Medal for the U.S. Army’s 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional)—the storied World War II jungle fighters better known as “Merrill’s Marauders.” Time correspondent James Shepley b

There were far safer assignments during World War II than hiding amid tropical rainforests on Japanese-occupied islands to spy on the enemy and radio information to Allied intelligence. Capture was an all-too-real possibility and would spell certain

In September 2020 President Trump awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross to seven guardsmen from two California Army National Guard aircrews that repeatedly flew into the midst of a Sierra National Forest wildfire to rescue hundreds of trapped camper

Sometimes referred to as the “Forgotten War,” the War of 1812 officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent by delegates of the United States and Britain in Belgium on Christmas Eve 1814. News traveled slowly in the Age of Sail, however. T

Norwegian state-run power grid operator Statnett has confirmed discovery of the wreck of the World War II German cruiser Karlsruhe, sunk in battle off Kristiansand on April 9, 1940. Resting at 1,600 feet in the Skagerrak strait, the 571-foot warship

After a month’s march through sand amid the ruins and palm trees lining the Nubian Nile an invading Egyptian army of cutthroats and mercenaries drawn from across the Ottoman empire encountered its first real resistance at the town of Kurti on Nov. 4,

Pershing’s Lieutenants: American Military Leadership in World War I, edited by David T. Zabecki and Douglas V. Mastriano, Osprey Publishing, New York, 2020, $35 The Army with which the United States entered World War I was not the U.S. Army of today,

Public outcry is brewing, particularly among French veterans of World War II, over a proposed Normandy attraction called Homage to the Heroes, slated to open in 2024 in time for the 80th anniversary of the June 6, 1944, Allied invasion. Opponents con

The Senate has unanimously passed a bill co-sponsored by Senators Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), both veterans, to award the Congressional Gold Medal to U.S. Army Rangers who served in World War II. Precursors to the modern-day Ran

Europe had been wracked by scores of succession crises by the 1135 outbreak of the Anarchy, an English civil war prompted by the death of Henry I, who left no direct male heir. He had designated daughter Matilda as his successor, but his nephew Steph

Brigadier General John T. Thompson was the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, the iconic “Tommy gun” of so many gangster movies. Even people who are not historians, history buffs or gun enthusiasts give the Thompson recognition only a select fe