Everyone at the American Heritage Museum wishes all of you a very happy and healthy holidays! Please come visit! We will be hosting the Battle of the Bulge Experience Weekend on December 28th & 29th and will be open Monday and Tuesday, December 30th & 31st.
As you come to experience what it was like to be an American surrounded in the cold of the Battle of Bulge (12/28 & 12/29), join the American Heritage museum on Saturday December 28th to learn about a similar battle 6 years later in the Korean War. Here the U.S. 1st Marine Division found themselves surrounded in a desperate fight in the extreme cold, outnumbered 5:1 against Chinese forces in the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. Like the Battle of the Bulge, the Chosin Reservoir is regarded as one of the most intense battles in American History, yet most Americans know little of this great battle of Korea, “The Forgotten War.” On December 28th at 1:00pm the museum will host a speaker series event about the Chosin Reservoir: “All Roads Lead to Hagaru” a special interactive discussion analyzing the crucial leadership decisions in the Chosin Reservoir that would decide whether or not the 1st Marine Division would escape the Chinese trap. More information see: www.americanheritagemuseum.org/event/speaker-series-korea-all-roads-lead-to-hagaru/
Check out the latest video from SpruesNBrews Scale Modeling in partnership with the American Heritage Museum featuring our M18 Hellcat!
Up Close & Personal with the M18 Hellcat | 360° WWII Tank Destroyer Tour
www.youtube.com
Welcome to *Up Close & Personal* - a new series where we'll be exploring some of the most iconic military vehicles of WWII and beyond as you've never seen th...
Don't miss our great talk on How To Research WWII Veterans - Friday, December 13th, 1pm to 2:30pm. No reservations needed. For more information see:
Speaker Series: How To Research WWII Veterans - The American Heritage Museum
www.americanheritagemuseum.org
Autumn Hendrickson, who has spent the last four and a half years working on a project to tell the stories of the men and women from Reading & North Reading, Massachusetts that served in World War II, ...North Africa
M3 Lee – USA | TANK
Matilda MK.II – UK | TANK
Sd.Kfz 10 1-Ton – GER | PERSONNEL CARRIER/PRIME MOVER
Leichter Panzerspähwagen SdKfz 222 – GER | SCOUT ARMORED CAR
BMW R75 & Sidecar – GER | MOTORCYCLE & SIDE CAR
7.5 cm Pak 40 – GER | ANTI-TANK GUN
The North African Campaign of the Second World War started June 10th, 1940, when Fascist Italy declared war on Britain and France. It lasted until May 13th, 1943, when the last Axis troops in Africa surrendered in Tunisia, including the defeated Afrika Korps sent by Hitler to prop up his faltering Italian ally.
The United States officially entered the war against Germany on December 11, 1941. Struggling against Japan while arming and training its brand new mass armies in haste, the United States began direct military assistance to Allied forces in North Africa on May 11th, 1942. Canada provided a small contingent of 348 officers and enlisted. Australians, Indians, and South Africans also fought under British command in Egypt and Libya, where Britain’s 8th Army and the ‘Desert Rats’ were led by General Montgomery. Meanwhile, Free French forces struck out for North Africa from deep inside West Africa, as the Allies sought to drive the Axis out of Africa as a preliminary to the invasion of Italy and Germany.
The training, build-up, and transport of green American forces took time. While tanks and troops were supplied to the British, large numbers of American troops did not arrive in North Africa to join in the Allied effort until the start of Operation Torch in November, 1942. With some American material assistance, including tanks and aircraft and intelligence assets, British and Commonwealth forces fought the Axis in campaigns in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert Campaign). Anglo-American landings in Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch), as well as Tunisia (Tunisia Campaign) book-ended a coordinated Allied strategy of driving and squeezing the last Axis armies in North Africa from east and west, until their total defeat and surrender in Tunisia May 1943.
The battle for North Africa was primarily a struggle for control of the Suez Canal and access to oil from the Middle East and raw materials from Asia, but also an effort to drive Italy out of the war as a prelude to invasion of southern Europe and a planned bombing campaign against Germany. It was the place German and American armies first faced off against each other. After early and terrible losses to the Germans, soldiers from America joined the ongoing Allied effort in North Africa and helped turn the tide of war decisively against the Axis. Next would come landings in Sicily and southern Italy. Based in a secured North Africa, bombers and invading armies would next bring the war home to the heartlands of the fascist nations themselves.
