Learn about WWII History

Explore the critical events related to the war and the personal stories of those who lived through that challenging time.

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Operation Cannonshot

Operation Cannonshot was the code name for the Canadian crossing of the IJssel at Gorssel and Wilp on April 12, 1945. Af...

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Liberation of Alsace

Last French province to be free The liberation of the Alsace happened in stages. Logistical difficulties, broken terrain...

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Colmar Pocket

The American and French offensive in mid-November 1944 was a success, resulting in the liberation of most of Alsace. How...

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September '44: The first liberated city in Belgium

For three quarters of a century, or so, two Belgian cities - Mons and Tournai - have been competing for the honour of be...

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Operation Dragoon

The Allied invasion of Southern France The second invasion of France, aimed to speed up the liberation of the country an...

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The crossing of the Rhine: Operation Plunder and Operation Varsity

The final hurdle of the Rhineland Offensive was the Rhine itself. The crossing near Wesel (Operation Plunder) was one of...

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The Battle of Ortona

The Battle of Ortona, fought between 20 and 28 December 1943 by Canadian and German forces was one of the most important...

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Frank Howley

On 1 July 1945, Colonel Frank Howley arrived in Berlin with an advanced detachment of the U.S. Army. His mission was to ...

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James Megellas

James Megellas joined the U.S. army in May 1942 and saw action in Italy, Holland, Belgium and Germany. He took part in s...

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Jean-Baptiste Piron

Jean-Baptiste Piron, born in Belgium in 1896, was a military officer who fled to England during the Second World War. He...

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Adriana Vitali

Adriana Vitali, a 9 year old girl, witnessed the shelling of Littoria (nowadays Latina), by American and British planes ...

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Andrée Collin

Like the other children in La Roche, Andrée Collin was eagerly looking forward to Christmas of 1944. In September the Am...

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Arlette Varin-Baudin

During the Allied invasion of Normandy Arlette Varin, ten years old, lived in the city of Lisieux. On 6 June 1944 she lo...

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Augusta Chiwy

Augusta Chiwy was a Belgian nurse who risked her life treating badly wounded American soldiers in the Battle of the Bulg...

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Bernard Blin

In 1942 Bernard Blin joined the French armistice army. He joined an artillery unit in North-Africa which, after the Alli...

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Chantal Rivière-Nobécourt

As a young girl of 19 years old Chantal Nobécourt volunteered for the Red Cross in Caen in the summer of 1944. When the ...

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Christiaan Lindemans

Christiaan Lindemans was a Dutch resistance member and escape line organizer, who turned a double agent for the German i...

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Cornelius Ryan

Cornelius Ryan is the author of 'The Longest Day: 6 June 1944 - an account of the D-Day invasion'. He wrote his most fam...

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Czesława Sidor Daniłowicz

The 20-year-old Pole Czeslawa Sidor was one of the tens of thousands of women conscripted into forced labour in Berlin. ...

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Danuta Siedzikówna, alias ‘Inka’

The Polish freedom fighter Danuta Siedzikówna (born 1928) enlisted in the Home Army in 1943 in her strive to end the Ger...

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Edouard Gérard

Edouard Gérard managed to reach Britain after the German invasion of his home country of Belgium. He joined the Belgian ...

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Fred Glavan

Fred Glavan left high school in Minnesota to join the elite American airborne forces. It took a long year of rigorous tr...

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Frederick William [Fred] Perfect

During the D-Day invasion of 6 June 1944, journalist Fred Perfect sailed with the Allied troops on HMS Largs. As the Dai...

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Gisela Stange

Gisela Stange experienced the Battle of Berlin up close when she was 16 years old and assigned to the Volkssturm medical...

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