Read how the world's only fully restored, combat-veteran PT boat got its flashy paint job, and why.

Road to Berlin brings to life the drama, sacrifices, personal stories, and strategies of America’s campaign to defeat the Axis powers and preserve freedom.

In World War II, the three great Allied powers—Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union—formed a Grand Alliance that was the key to victory. But the alliance partners did not share common political aims, and did not always agree on how the war should be fought.

The United States was not the only leading power on the world stage after the end of World War II; it had a new competitor for this power in the Soviet Union. Tensions between the former allies quickly grew, leading to a new kind of conflict—one heightened with the threat of atomic weapons—that came to dominate global politics for the remainder of the twentieth century.

As fighting came to an end in 1945, people the world over faced for the first time the unprecedented extent of destruction and loss of life caused by World War II. As the costs of victory came into devastating focus, the diplomatic responses, rising global tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, and social disruption that followed in the aftermath of this conflict showed that World War II was truly "the war that changed the world."

Drawn to Combat: Bill Mauldin and the Art of War explores the life and legacy of one of the most important American cartoonists of the 20th century, whose work during World War II captured the realities of life on the front lines. Originally organized by the Pritzker Military Museum & Library.

Spotlight on Pamela and Mark Rubin, Museum Donors

While thousands of their fellow Americans were about to enter into the Battle of the Bulge and likely face capture under harsh circumstances by the war-weary German enemy, others, already POWs, celebrated a lonely Christmas holiday, the last of the war, in camps across  Europe.
 

How the looming Cold War convinced Americans to keep troops in Europe after the war.