Military History

During his unprecedented twelve years in office, Franklin D. Roosevelt faced national and international problems whose severity had not been seen since the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. It's a testament to his skill as a leader and a politician that he could successfully guide the nation through these troubling times.

This wartime airline, operated by U.S. Army Air Force, had its origin in a 1931 attempt to distribute supplies by air within the United States. The following year, the Air Corps established a provisional air transport group with one squadron at each of four major supply depots. This arrangement became permanent in 1937 and was undergoing tremend...

In 1940, both the British and the Germans began using aircraft and motor vessels to rescue airmen shot down offshore. The Luftwaffe used some older float planes for rescue work. After each engagement in the Battle of Britain, the Royal Air Force Fighter Command sent Westland Lysander liaison planes with fighter escort to drop rubber rafts to air...

A native of Alameda, California, James Harold Doolittle was educated at Los Angeles Junior College and at the University of California. He joined the Army Reserve Corps in October 1917, after the United States entered World War I and was assigned to the Signal Corps in which he served as a flight instructor through 1919. The following year, Dool...

Karl Dönitz was born in Grünau. He joined the German navy on the 1st of April in 1910 and served on U-boats during World War I. This experience persuaded Dönitz that submarines would play an increasingly important role in naval strategy. With the conclusion of World War I, Dönitz remained in the Reichsmarine, the small navy Germany was permitted...

The son of an intensely nationalistic family, Charles de Gaulle, was educated at the Military Academy of Saint-Cyr and joined an infantry regiment (under Col. Philippe Petain) as a second lieutenant in 1913. He impressed Petain and others with his intelligence, initiative and once World War I erupted, with his courage as well. He fought at the d...

Moshe Dayan was born in the first kibbutz collective agricultural settlement established by Zionists in Palestine. As a teenager he joined the Haganah, an underground army working toward establishing a nation independent from British rule. The kibbutz was vulnerable to Arab attack and therefore the Haganah also served as a perimeter patrol.

Cunningham joined the Royal Navy in 1898 and saw a wide variety of service prior to World War I when he was skipper of the destroyer Scorpion during the Dardanelles campaign (February 19 to November 23 of 1915). He showed great skill and initiative in the raid on the German U-boat base at Zeebrugge on April 23, 1918.