September 15th Eighty-One Years Ago Eighty-one years ago today the fate of Europe—indeed the fate of the world—hung in the balance. The Battle of Britain was raging over southern England. Hitler’s Luftwaffe was raining thousands of bombs down upon London in a...

September 6th Eighty-One Years Ago Eighty-one years ago today the fate of Europe—indeed the fate of the world—hung in the balance. The Battle of Britain was raging over southern England. The Luftwaffe had been unable to defeat the RAF, despite the Luftwaffe’s clear...

The Ship that Wouldn’t Die The SS Ohio was a 14,000 ton tanker built in Chester, Pennsylvania, and launched in 1940. She was requisitioned by the British government in 1942 and armed with 20mm and 40mm anti-aircraft guns. She was commanded by Dudley Mason, a...

The Siege of Malta Operation Pedestal was a relief convoy, escorted by the Royal Navy, bringing supplies to the embattled island of Malta in 1942. Pedestal set sail from Gibraltar on August 9th, 1942, and reached Malta between August 13th and August 15th. Pedestal was...

The Siege of Malta Malta is a small archipelago of islands lying between Sicily and Africa. In 1942, at the height of World War II, it was the only British base in the Mediterranean between Gibraltar and Egypt. Malta was strategically positioned to disrupt the supply...

On July 14th, 1940, Britain faced existential danger. Hitler’s forces had crushed all opposition across continental Europe and now stood poised to invade southern England. July 14th is, of course, the French national holiday, Bastille Day, the day the French people...