More than 14 U.S. Army and Marine divisions never landed on X-Day of Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan to end ...

-The two-stage plan, Operations Olympic and Coronet, would have involved more than twice the forces of the Normandy landings and was expected to be unimaginably costly. -Facing a fanatical defense, ...

In spring 1945, the US island-hopping campaign was drawing closer to the Japanese mainland. US commanders were thinking about an invasion of Japanese itself, and invading Okinawa was seen as a prelude ...

Here’s What You Need to Remember: One of the most controversial decisions in history was President Harry Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Some argue ...

Few units hold the distinction to have fought an enemy of the United States on U.S. soil. The 7th Infantry Division is one of those few. During World War II, the United States experienced something ...

Beach assault, Saipan, June 1944. USGov PD. June 15, 1944 U.S. Marines and Army troops, supported by a massive fleet, invade Saipan in the Mariana Islands of the Central Pacific. June 19, 1944 Japan's ...

Here’s What You Need to Know: The Navy had little long-term strategic role for its battlefleet. In mid-1945 the U.S. Navy (USN) had an unusual, and unexpected, problem. With the naval... Here’s What ...

Most accounts of World War II in the Pacific tend to overlook an important fact: Japan did not sue for peace immediately after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. It took two atomic bombs ...

The atomic bombs that ended World War II killed — by some estimates — more than 200,000 people. In the decades since 1945, there has been a revisionist debate over the decision to drop the bombs. Did ...