Military History Websites

Women workers install fixtures and assemblies in the tail fuselage section of a B-17F Flying Fortress long range, high altitude heavy bomber. Photo was taken at the Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, CA, October 1942
Women workers install fixtures and assemblies in the tail fuselage section of a B-17F Flying Fortress long range, high altitude heavy bomber. Photo was taken at the Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, CA, October 1942.

Today in WW II: 23 Jul 1940 American Bantam and Willys-Overland submit the only two bids for the Quartermaster Corps light reconnaissance and command cars, the origin of the military jeep.  More ↓
23 Jul 1941 Original World War II contract for jeeps awarded to Willys with Ford added Nov 1941 to increase production.
23 Jul 1945 Submarine USS Barb [SS-220] destroys a Japanese locomotive and supply train at Patience Bay off the coast of Karafuto, Japan, the only known such attack by a submarine.
Visit the Olive-Drab.com World War II Timeline for day-by-day events 1939-1945! See also WW2 Books.

Military History Web Resources

Olive-Drab.com has many sections and pages relating to military history, particularly from an American perespective on World War II and more recent times. For example, the World War II History Pages in the Military History Section.

Another fine source is the archives of the Military Organizations listed in that section of Olive-Drab.com or the Military Unit Histories Page. Many of these web sites contain photos and historical information particular to that organization or unit.

This page is a directory of more web sites that specialize in military history.

Military History -- Web Resources
African-American Warriors site dedicated to African-Americans who fought in all wars. Many biographies and other historical information.
AM General Jeep and HMMWV History. The AM General company manufactures the HMMWV (and civilian Hummer) and also makes and remanufactures 6x6 trucks. Their web site has the history of the company going back to the Willys-Overland Company of WW II jeep fame.
Armistice Day: When the doughboys came marching home. A rememberance, with photos, of the day WW I ended in Detroit. Part of The Detroit News living history project called Rearview Mirror.
An Atlas F ICBM silo has been documented and renovated by Alexander Michael. In 1960 the USAF called the site Boquett 556-5 or Lewis Missile Base, but Michael prefers to call it Bouquet 556.
Australian War Memorial is a complex facility consisting of databases, photo archives, art gallery and records repository. Plus the Memorial Shop with an on-line catalog of items for purchase including books and videos. Easy to use search facilities make this site a most useful resource. Covers from early WW II through Vietnam.
Black Americans in Defense of Our Nation. Web site which covers the long history of African-American service in wars from the Revolutionary War to the present day.
Britannica Online, the web version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, provides a good overview of many topics in military history. For example, their "Normandy" special presentation is an excellent multimedia presentation on the build-up, invasion, and aftermath of D-Day 1944. Thanks to S. Rothman for the suggestion.
British Tank Museum Archive is probably the most extensive resource on armoured warfare to be found anywhere. Also contains an impressive collection of war diaries from the Tank Corps battalions of the First World War through to the many and varied elements of the Royal Armoured Corps in World War Two.
Canadian Museum of Civilization military history collection. Includes clothing, art, vehicles, aircraft.
Cryptologic History and the National Security Agency. The art and science of cryptology has driven the work of NSA since its inception. The Center for Cryptologic History (CCH) is responsible for NSA's Cryptologic History Program, the object of which is to preserve the institutional memory of NSA and to document the role of cryptology in American history.
The Cushing Library at Texas A&M University has an on-line catalog of their collection of militaria and artifacts from the Gulf War and Civil War periods.
EarthStation1.com: The Internet's Original Multimedia Museum ™ World history in digital sounds & pictures, the audio/visual history of the media age. Although there is much other material, the WWII Sound & Image Archive is the "crown jewel" of the website with a gallery of hundreds of pictures of aircraft, hundreds of broadcasts from both sides, pages organized by country, subject and date, and so much more, it's become the foremost WWII media site on the web.
Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment. Department of State document which documents the transition 1945 - 1950 from the WW II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to the post-war CIA and intelligence community in the US. Includes previously highly classified information about wartime and post war intelligence activities of the United States Government drawn from Congressional hearings.
Illuminating the past through personal narratives and other first-hand sources, EyeWitness is presented by Eyewitness to History a digital publisher of educational CD-ROMs. Titles available for WW I, WW II and other military history related topic areas.
Finnish Armoured Vehicles - 1918 Onwards by Janne Kemppi lists over 60 vehicle types with notes on their origin and use.
In Flanders Fields is a Belgian site with extensive WW I resources.
The History Net is a comprehensive portal to web resources on history, including extensive coverage of military history. Well worth a visit.
IndianaMilitary.org has a very large web site for three World War II bases in South-Central Indiana and the Divisions that trained there. Included are the 28th, 30th, 31st, 38th, 83rd, 92nd and 106th Divisions, Camp Atterbury, Wakeman General Hospital, glider pilots, Tuskegee airmen, Italian and German POWs, and many, many more. The history begins with WW II and extends to the present time for those bases.
"Lafayette, We Are Here": The War College Division and American Military Planning for the AEF in World War I. Michael J. McCarthy, Marshall University, May 1991.
The Military History Virtual Library Document Archive has been assembled from many sources and is very comprehensive, covering wars across the globe for the past several centuries.
Missile Complex Virtual Tour. A virtual reality tour of an abandoned underground missile complex. Step by step photo catalog plus diagrams of a US ICBM launch facility.
Alan Parkinson describes his time as a National Serviceman, serving as a Private in the Kings Own Royal Border Regiment in the British Cameroons, West Africa from 1960-62.
Naval Historical Center FAQ Frequently Asked Questions. Of the thousands of questions the center receives during the year, these are the most common topics along with answers.
The Nebraska Ordnance Plant at Meade was active during World War II and during the Korean Conflict. Today a few artifacts remain to document a significant historical event in American History. The Mead Public Library is committed to preserving the history and some artifacts of this era.
Ed Thelen's Nike Missile Web Site. This site presents a great deal of Nike Hercules historical, technical and operational information and provides extensive links to Nike related books, documents, and to other Nike related www sites. This site also provides a photographic tour of Nike site SF-88 (being restored), location information of Nike sites, and a list of Nike People. (Thanks to Bob Klein for this suggestion.)
Ordnance Computers. This historical monograph covers the pioneer efforts and subsequent contributions of the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps in the field of automatic electronic computing systems during the period 1942 through 1961. By Karl Kempf, Historical Officer, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, November 1961
Redstone Arsenal History of the US Army Missile Command and its predecessors who have achieved several significant "firsts" in the history of rocket and guided missile development and space exploration. Multimedia materials, archives, links.
The Scots at War project aims to develop historical information to document the contributions of Scots who should be honoured for their service to their country.
Signal Corps in San Francisco Earthquake. This page from the Museum of the City of San Francisco is the text of an article written in 1906 about the work of the US Army Signal Corps during the aftermath of the Great Earthquake in San Francisco.
The 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy. The first Transcontinental Motor Convoy of 1919, as the expedition was known, consisted of eighty-one motorized Army vehicles which crossed the US from east to west. The convoy set a world record pace for the time, traveling a total continuous distance of 3,251 miles, from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, in 62 days. Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower participated and was thereafter always an advocate of motor transport and later the Interstate Highway System. Eisenhower's full career bio is found at this location.
Trenches on the Web. An Internet history of the Great War: information on the people, places, and events that comprised one of the worst calamities of modern history, World War I.
US Army Equipment of the Individual Soldier, 1910 - 1939. Very detailed text, photos and drawings of clothing, web gear, packs, tents, weapons and accessories.
US Army Center for Military History, A wealth of materials including the full text of every Medal of Honor citation, organizational lineages, guide to all Army museums, Army Nurse Corps history, much more. They also provide this page of links to other web sites of military history, primarily from the US Government.
United States Army Military History Institute, a department of the U.S. Army War College, is the U.S. Army's central repository for historical materials. It has a mission to collect, preserve, and make available to researchers source materials on Military History, especially American military history. This site has searchable databases and archives for all periods of US history, special collections about the Civil War and Army Unit Histories. Links to other resources.
US Navy, Naval Historical Center. Mission: To enhance the Navy's effectiveness by preserving, analyzing and interpreting its hard-earned experience and history for the Navy and the American people. Many text and photo resources concerning the Navy, USMC, and Navy Aviation.
The Victoria Cross is the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. This site indexes every recipient in the history of the award.
Wartime Press provides an historical reference site to a multitude of original books, booklets, magazines, manuals, newspapers and document relating to wartime eras, with particular depth for World War II from American, British and German sources among others.