At the end of the day, the veterans of the 26th Infantry still held their ground and looked out on a battlefield strewn with destroyed German armor and scores of enemy dead.

The Battle of the Bulge was the US Army's greatest struggle to deny Adolf Hitler's last chance for victory.

The real crusher to the German offensive plans in the Ardennes occurred 46 miles north east of Bastogne, in a small area consisting of a copse of small villages and a piece of high ground called Elsenborn Ridge.

A hot meal and packages from home provided solace for millions of servicemen abroad during WWII.

The Easy Company veteran “was the strongest man I’ve ever met,” says the actor who portrayed him in HBO’s Band of Brothers.

Americans like to think of World War II as a “great crusade,” but if it was, the country certainly didn’t seem all that fervent about rushing into it. Think of it: by the usual reckoning, World War II lasted six years, from the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, to Japan’s surrender on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. US participation spanned less than four years of that total, a little over half the war. Of seven campaigning seasons, the United States missed the first three and was active only in the final four.

In 1942 the 24th General Hospital was created by doctors from Tulane University and nurses from New Orleans. Serving in the Mediterranean theater, they were known as the “Tulane Unit.”

After the US strategic victories at the Battles of the Coral Sea (May 7–8, 1942) and Midway (June 4–7, 1942), the Japanese Imperial Navy was no longer capable of major offensive campaigns, which permitted the Allies to start their own offensive in the Pacific.