WORLD WAR II

12 World War II Diaries You Can Read

Many important diaries kept by political leaders and ordinary people during World War II have been digitized or otherwise preserved.

The German Teens Who Rebelled Against Hitler

Allied forces had a secret ally: German teen gangs that resisted Hitler's messages, sabotaged their military, and embraced American culture.

The Jewish Psychic Who Tricked Hitler

Erik Jan Hanussen hosted extravagant Nazi parties, loaned them money, and consulted with Hitler. Then they found out he was Jewish.

The Resistance Group That Battled Hitler With Words

Heavy artillery wasn't the only weapon people used to fight the Nazi regime during World War II.

A Brand-New National Historic Park Will Remember the Manhattan Project

Seventy years after World War II's end, three project sites where the atomic bombs were made will be preserved for the public.

13 Things You Might Not Know About the Berlin Wall

6. The "Death Strip" was as scary as it sounds.

Yousuf Karsh, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

How Hospitality and Some Tulips Brought Canada and the Netherlands Together

World War II’s Doomed 'Project Pigeon'

The American military had a short-lived plan to turn pigeons into kamikaze pilots.

Unexploded WWII Bomb Discovered in East London

Residents of an East London neighborhood got quite a surprise earlier today when police knocked on the door to say a decades-old bomb had been discovered in the area.

70 Years Later, U.S.S. Indianapolis Vets Recall Surviving Shark-Infested Waters

The worst shark attack in history followed the bombing and sinking of the USS Indianapolis on July 30, 1945.

Super Soakers: When the Dutch Used Floods as Weapons

The German POWs Who Lived, Worked, and Loved in Texas

How German POWs populated small-town America during World War II.

19 Bits of Advice About the French, As Told to American Servicemen in WWII

These are the kinds of things the American military wanted its soldiers to be cognizant of as they worked their way into Nazi-occupied France.

How Da Vinci's The Last Supper Survived a Bomb During WWII

Hoping to protect Leonardo's work against attack, officials had guarded it with sandbags and scaffolding years before. And it worked.

Quinn Dombrowski / Flickr / Creative Commons License

70 Years Ago Today, Kurt Vonnegut Was in Slaughterhouse-Five

"Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

10 Odd Jobs From the World War II Military Classification Guide

While some World War II soldiers were storming the beaches of Normandy, others were busy drafting posters to school soldiers on the dangers of venereal diseases.