All Articles

The full archive. Every era. Every entry.

All WWI WWII Korean War Vietnam Cold War Modern

4 Entries

Operation Anthropoid: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and Its Terrible Price

In May 1942, two SOE-trained paratroopers ambushed the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia in broad daylight in Prague. Reinhard Heydrich died eight days later. What followed was one of the most brutal reprisals of the entire war.

US Navy SEALs conducting a combat operation

Intelligence & Special Ops

SEAL Team Six: From Mogadishu to Abbottabad

Naval Special Warfare Development Group—known publicly as SEAL Team Six—is the most elite tier of American special operations. Its operational history traces the evolution of counterterrorism from Cold War hostage rescue to the targeted killing campaign of the post-9/11 era.

Major General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, Director of the OSS

Intelligence & Special Ops

The OSS: America's First Intelligence Agency and the Template for Modern Espionage

The Office of Strategic Services, founded in 1942, was America's first centralized intelligence agency. In three years of operation it developed the doctrines, methods, and institutional culture that would define American intelligence for the rest of the century.

Ewen Montagu, architect of Operation Mincemeat

Intelligence & Special Ops

Operation Mincemeat: The Corpse That Fooled Hitler

In April 1943, British intelligence dressed a dead man as a Royal Marine officer, equipped him with false invasion plans, and floated him off the coast of Spain. The Germans believed every word. The deception helped save thousands of Allied lives at Sicily.