Seventy years ago, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise aerial attack on Pearl Harbor. The surprise was complete. The attacking planes came in two waves; the first hit its target at 7:53 A.M.; the second at 8:55. By 9:55 it was all over. By 1:00 P.M. the carriers that launched the planes from 274 miles off the coast of Oahu were heading back to Japan.     Behind them they left chaos, 2,403 dead, 1,178 wounded, 188 destroyed planes, 159 damaged planes and a crippled Pacific Fleet that included eight sunk or damaged battleships. In one stroke the Japanese action silenced the debate that had divided Americans ever since the German defeat of France left England alone in the fight against Nazi Germany.     When the attack ended, U.S. forces on the island of Oahu had paid a fearful price. Twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged: the battleships  Arizona, California, Maryland, Nevada,  Oklahoma, Pe... » Click here for the full story.

    This month, seventy years ago, the Wehrmacht’s Army Group Center, under the command of Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, renewed its assault on the Soviet capital. After the stunning successes of the Summer and early Fall, the Axis leadership thought that the Red Army must be on the verge of collapse and that one more good push would surely capture the Soviet capital. And certainly the capture of the Soviet capital by Army Group Center would be quite an accomplishment for its commander.     However, in retrospect, the tide was beginning to turn against the Axis. The Fall rains had turned the roads into rivers of mud. Efforts to move equipment under these conditions significantly increased fuel consumption, thereby further straining the already overstretched German supply system. The supply lines from the Fatherland stretched more than a thousand miles. The new T-34 tanks were beginning to appear on the battlefield in significant numbers and were alm... » Click here for the full story.

    Seventy years ago, songster, Woody Guthrie, asked,     “Have you heard of a ship called the Good Reuben James?     Manned by hard-fighting men, both of honor and fame.       She flew the Stars and Stripes of the land of the free,     but tonight she’s in her grave at the bottom of the sea.       Tell me what were their names, tell me what were their names?     Did you have a friend on The Good Reuben James?     What were their names, tell me, what were their names?     Did you have a friend on The Good Reuben James?”     Chances are that you didn’t have a friend on “The Good Reuben James.” It was a four-funneled Clemson class destroyer, which was commissioned on September 24, 1920. It was 314 feet long, weighed 1190 tons and had a top speed of 35 knots. Its main armament was a ... » Click here for the full story.