Military History
From the Archives: When Paris Went Dark
Another post from the past, in this case 2014, related to the stuff I’m working on today. New stuff soon, I promise. When Nazi troops marched into Paris in June, 1940, the city surrendered without firing a shot.* In When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944 , historian Ronald C.…
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A War by Any Other Name
World War II ended, literally, with a bang. In some ways it began with a whimper. First Germany and then the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939* After Warsaw officially surrendered to Germany on September 28, active hostilities slowed on the Western front. Germany consolidated its hold on Poland. Britain and France built up…
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History on Display: Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield
I recently took a short, (relatively) spontaneous trip home to the Missouri Ozarks. While I was there, my parents and I visited the nearby Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, site of the first major Civil War battle fought west of the Mississippi on August 10, 1861.* Wilson’s Creek became part of the National Park System in…
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