Organizers of the 1936 Berlin Summer Games envisioned bringing together a war-torn world in peaceful athletic competition. That happened, but already the winds of war were…
In May 1942, the U.S. and Japanese navies engaged in a confusing and bloody battle in which nearly everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Though it ended in a draw, it set…
MagellanTV is proud to present a new six-part documentary on the U.S. Civil War, Battlefield America. To mark that event, writer Kevin J. Martin interviewed its historian, Garry…
By the spring of 1864, the Union’s momentum following the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg had dissipated. A new strategy was needed, and President Lincoln tapped Gen. Ulysses S.…
Armistice Day – now Veterans Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in the British Commonwealth – began as a solemn commemoration of the end of WWI, but now honors all who have…
Literally tens of millions of people died during World War I. Three incredibly lethal machines made their debut in the conflict, directly contributing to the appalling number of…
As the Battle of Britain commenced, the German Luftwaffe had clear advantages in numbers of aircraft, not to mention momentum after the fall of France. But, thanks to two…
WWII was a technologically advanced conflict, and recruits became unknowing test subjects in an effort to use amphetamines to create “super soldiers” on both sides of the…
Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was one of the most ambitious and brutal military campaigns in history. It was also a strategic blunder, and the Battle of Moscow…
To protect U.S. interests and project power during World War II, the Navy relied on four huge battleships to engage enemy fleets, support amphibious landings, and even transport…
Who were the Knights Templar? Were they a secretive sect that amassed untold fortunes and harbored a desire to control the world? Or were they something else entirely? Take a dive…
Operation Pied Piper during World War II saw millions of people evacuated from Great Britain’s largest cities. The youngest generation to live through the war had their childhoods…
WWII gave rise to military tactics that targeted psychological weaknesses in the enemy. It redefined what constituted a battlefield. At the expense of civilians and civility,…
World War I shook mankind to its core as nations mobilized for a war unlike any other. A new age of carnage came about by technological advancements, but the causes of WWI…
Humans have waged wars for millennia, but is war ever justifiable? Just war theorists offer principles that explain when war is justified and how war should be conducted.
Feared for over two centuries, the Vikings have been misunderstood ever since. But modern archeology has revealed the extent of their reach across medieval Europe. Their…
In retrospect, the American Civil War was inevitable. The conflict’s fundamental issue was human rights, and the basic cause was freedom. But these principles were made real by…
One lesson of History is that hubris and military aggression are inevitably followed by defeat. Overestimating one's own power while underestimating the strength of an adversary…
The U-505 was taken on the high seas by a U.S. Navy task force through planning, valorous action, and a lot of luck. Slated for demolition after the war, it was saved again by a…
The Nazis revered so-called “Aryan” motherhood. During the Nazi era, the ability of “racially valuable” women to give birth was a prime goal. Even so, low birth rates pushed the…
Buried treasure, sword fights, and eyepatches – it’s easy to be enthralled by tales of pirates in books and film. But even without the fluff and fantasy of Hollywood’s version,…
WWII reporters Ernie Pyle and A.J. “Joe” Liebling focused on the everyday details of U.S. troops on the march and under fire. They wrote honestly of their own fears and of the…
Everyone knows about Amelia Earhart, but can you name another notable female pilot? Some of the great pioneers of aviation were women, and the story of a group of women who were…
The Nazi building program, mostly unrealized, reveals the depth of Hitler’s madness. Rebuilding Berlin and planning enormous structures to glorify the German ruler’s ego wrought…
The Imitation Game portrays Alan Turing as the sole genius behind the breaking of the German Enigma code. The truth is that Enigma was cracked earlier by Polish mathematicians…
The Cannes Film Festival’s origin contains the makings of a great wartime thriller: a freedom-loving faction squares off against threats from Nazis and fascists. Is all lost?…
Meet Lady Death – the Ukrainian sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who shot down as many gender barriers as she did enemies. Rising to fame in WWII, the deadly sniper played a key role…
The Cathars were anti-materialistic Christians in 12th-century southern France. In the eyes of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, they had to be eliminated by any means…
Out of 600,000 works of art stolen or looted by the Nazis during WWII, more than 100,000 are still unaccounted for. Nazi collaborators, even in Allied countries, helped the Nazis…
With the collapse of the Iran Nuclear Deal, will Iran proceed with its nuclear weapons program? If so, is there a way to block it without sparking an all-out war – a conflict…
The Hellenistic period (323 to 30 BCE) following Alexander the Great saw the decline of Greece and the rise of Rome to imperial dominance. The “pyrrhic victories” of Pyrrhus of…
Paratroopers played a critical role in the eventual success of the 3-month-long battle that began on June 6, 1944 – marked in history as D-Day – 75 years ago. But who were they?…
D-Day was a pivotal moment in world history – but it almost didn’t succeed. From sudden changes in the weather, to crucial lessons from a deadly rehearsal in England, here’s how…
It’s a dangerous world for war correspondents, and getting riskier by the day. Reporter Lara Logan was brutally attacked in a 2011 Egypt demonstration yet survived. She is but one…
D-Day, June 6, 1944, was the culmination of intensive planning and the use of new inventions for the war. From dummy paratroopers to an entire floating harbor, these advances in…
The Middle East was an active theater of conflict during WWI. Following the war it was treated as spoils of war by the West, despite promises made for Arab self-determination.…
During the Cold War, accidents and other incidents involving nuclear weapons were more common than many people know, but the bombs didn’t go off. How close have we come to…
Has anything important changed since Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un first met? Kim still has his nukes, and the U.S. wants him to give them up. World War III is not the solution.…
“Propaganda” and “war” generally go hand in hand. After World War I, however, propaganda became a marketing tool no longer reserved for posters of the enemy and national spirit.…
With China ascendant, the era of the United States as the world’s lone superpower may be ending. Where is a flashpoint that could draw the two nations into a military conflict…
The world wars of the 20th century were fought by soldiers, sailors, and airmen in clashes of steel across defined geographical battlefields. World War III, however, could well…
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