Friends of the National WWII Memorial Blog

I first came across the name, Ernie Pyle, a quarter century ago when researching a biography of the legendary Robert Capa. They were friends and colleagues – the most celebrated American reporter of WWII, whose columns were read by millions of Americans, and the dashing, extraordinarily brave Life photographer. 

We knew she would one day breathe no more, yet still it came as a profound shock to realize that the Queen, the monarch of our entire lives, was not immortal after all.

On June 6, 1944, the Allies launched Operation Overlord by invading German-occupied France along the coast of Normandy, the largest amphibious invasion in history more popularly known as D-Day.

As Allied forces advanced deeper into German territory, they encountered sites of unspeakable horror and human suffering: the Nazi concentration camps.

Happy Halloween from your Friends at the National World War II Memorial! In the spirit of all things spooky, it feels fitting to take a look at the so-called “Ghost Army” of World War II.

On December 7, 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attacked the U.S. Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, at 12:53 p.m. EST, three scheduled NFL games were underway.

On June 29, 1943, the U.S. Senate passed the first, and thus far only, national childcare program, voting $20,000,000 to provide for public care of children whose mothers were employed for the duration of World War II.

LGBTQA+ Pride started as a protest with the Stonewall Riots in 1969 and many historians posit that the roots of these LGBT activists can be found in the World War II experiences of gays men and lesbians in the American military.