The August 1942 landing on Guadalcanal was a colossal improvisation, concocted on the fly to take advantage of a recent dramatic turn in the Pacific war. 
 

A native of Crowley, Louisiana, the bilingual Broussard served as a translator for the 507th Infantry Regiment, giving his life shortly after D-Day.

An Austrian Jew serving in the US military, Irving Becker endured discrimination from both ally and foe during World War II. He ended up a crucial part of one of the most elite Allied forces ever assembled.

While military maneuvers train and test a force’s capabilities, they can also seem like an “alternate history” at times. Consider these fascinating front pages from September 1941, reprinted here courtesy of The Shreveport Times, describing the US Army’s big Louisiana Maneuvers. 

Senior Historian Robert M. Citino, PhD, on Christopher Nolan’s WWII epic: “Nolan is particularly good at weaving together war’s three domains: on land, at sea, and in the air. The air battles, often a weak and confusing bore in war films, are as well-presented as any I’ve ever seen, and the German Stuka attacks, especially, are terrifying. No war film is truly realistic, but Dunkirk is as good as it gets.”