It's no mystery why images of unremitting violence spring to mind when one hears the deceptively simple term, "D-Day." We've all seen -- in photos, movies, old news reels -- what happened on the beaches of Normandy as the Allies unleashed an historic assault against German defenses on June 6, 1944. But in rare, color photos taken before and after the invasion, LIFE photographer Frank Scherschel captured countless other, lesser-known scenes from the run-up to the onslaught and the heady weeks after: American troops training in small English towns; the French countryside, implausibly lush after the spectral landscape of the beachheads; the reception GIs enjoyed en route to the capital; the liberation of Paris. As presented here, in masterfully restored color, Scherschel's pictures feel at-once profoundly familiar and somehow utterly, vividly new.

World War II was the first major conflict in history in which air power played a central (perhaps even pivotal) role, and on a terrifyingly grand scale. Here, a gallery of rare color photos from the defining military struggle of the 20th century, many taken by LIFE's most celebrated photographers.

By Nate Rawlings

This is the second time in six months I’ve written about military reading lists. In August, we looked at the books then Army Chief of Staff, now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey asked his soldiers and officers to read as part of their professional development. Reading lists are interesting because they’re the books commanders and superiors want their troops to be reading in their free time, which is a precious commodity in the military. Any time spent doing outside reading is less time spent with one’s family, or for single troops, less time speeding to the nearest decent size city to, well, do what people do in their 20s.

In this month’s ARMY magazine, which is published by the Association of the United States Army, company level officers weighed in on the books that had an impact on their effectiveness ...

By Nate Rawlings

This week, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey published his new professional reading list. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like a big story, but it does offer a look into the thinking of the general who will be leading our armed forces in the coming years. Every service has their respective professional development programs, training outside of functional specialties designed to help an officer or non-commissioned officer progress in their career. The services also have accompanying reading lists, where the respective service chiefs and Commandant of the Marine Corps list the books they want their leaders reading on their own time.

Gen. Dempsey’s list is interesting for two big reasons. First, he has been tapped to succeed Adm. Mike Mullen in October as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. It’s a safe bet that the things Dempsey considers important for the Army ...

William T. Bowers, John T. Greenwood, eds. Passing the Test: Combat in Korea, April-June 1951. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2011. 488 pp. $40.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8131-3452-9; ISBN 978-0-8131-3453-6.

Reviewed by Terry Shoptaugh (Minnesota State University Moorhead)
Published on H-War (January, 2012)
Commissioned by Margaret Sankey

Recalling Combat in the Forgotten War

The late Forrest Pogue was one of the earliest U.S. Army combat historians, and helped pioneer the use of oral history techniques by interviewing soldiers in Europe during the Second World War. Serving in the Historical Division of the V Corps, he  gathered narratives in the field as the Americans fought their way across France and Germany. Pogue kept a diary of his experiences. One day in late 1944 he commented in the diary that during his interviews he noticed that the soldiers’ “testimony was especially unreliable when it came to the question of [fire] support ...

Bitter contest between the Japanese and the Americans that marked a turning point in the Pacific war. The struggle on Guadalcanal was protracted, and the period from August 1942 to February 1943 saw some of the most bitter fighting of the war. In all, there were some 50 actions involving warships or aircraft, 7 major naval battles, and 10 land engagements.

Guadalcanal is an island in the Solomon chain northeast of Australia. It lies on a northwest-southeast axis and is 90 miles long and averages 25 miles wide. Guadalcanal’s southern shore is protected by coral reefs, and the only suitable landing beaches are on the north-central shore. Once inland, invading troops faced dense jungle and mountainous terrain, crisscrossed by numerous streams. The Guadalcanal Campaign encompassed not only Guadalcanal, but Savo and Florida Islands as well as the small islands between Florida and Guadalcanal: Tulagi, Tanambogo, and Gavutu.

In January ...

The lack of a harbor compounded U.S. supply problems, as did Japanese aircraft attacks. Allied “coast watchers” on islands provided early warning to U.S. forces of Japanese air and water movements down the so-called Slot of the Solomons. The battle on Guadalcanal became a complex campaign of attrition. The Japanese did not send their main fleet but rather vessels in driblets. American land-based air power controlled the Slot during the day, but the Japanese initially controlled it at night, as was evidenced in the 8 August Battle of Savo Island. Concern over the vulnerability of the U.S. transports led to their early removal on the afternoon of 9 August along with most of the heavy guns, vehicles, construction equipment, and food intended for the Marines ashore. The Japanese sent aircraft from Rabaul, while initially U.S. land-based aircraft flying at long range from the New Hebrides provided ...

This painting by renowned artist John Solie, newly commissioned by the United States Army, is a depiction of the Last Cavalry Charge in United States history under the command of Lieutenant Edwin Price Ramsey for which Lt. Ramsey received the "Silver Star" and "Purple Heart". Col. Ramsey's consult made this newly commissioned work as authentic as possible

By Dave Walker, The Times-Picayune

Thanks to historians and Hollywood, we know about the Tuskegee Airmen and Navajo code talkers. We’re less familiar with the Philippine Scouts, whose World War II story is at least as stirring as the once-unsung efforts of the Airmen and the Native American tactical communicators.

With “Forgotten Soldiers,” a new documentary debuting at 7 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 22) on WYES-TV, filmmaker Donald Plata is attempting to correct the record.

The film made its world premiere Wednesday (Jan. 18) at the National World War II Museum ...

B-24D Liberator.

The British had been pressing for the dispatch of an American air force to the Middle East, and a number of tentative plans had been drawn in Washington. In response to a January request by Sir Charles Portal, British Chief of Air Staff, Task Force CAIRO was set up, on paper: two groups of pursuit for June 1942 commitment. A little later the AAF opposed augmenting the proposed task force by one heavy bombardment group on the ground that any heavy groups would have to come out of commitments to the United Kingdom. But by mid-March-Portal having made another plea-the problem of air reinforcements for Egypt was being approached from a different angle. It was thought that from the American production allotted them the British might furnish American aircraft types at Cairo; the AAF would furnish personnel. Under this plan the AAF hoped that two medium, one light ...

The American Joint Chiefs, who were interested in husbanding their resources for decisive air and amphibious actions in western Europe in 1943, were thus presented with a dilemma. To lose the Middle East meant to lose the southern supply routes to the U.S.S.R. and the main air ferry route to India. India itself would be rendered difficult, if not impossible, to defend, and the life line to China would be correspondingly endangered. Loss of the oil wells in Iraq and Iran would be a most severe blow, tantamount to cessation of Allied air and naval activity in the Indian Ocean. The economic gain to the Axis, although admittedly substantial, would not be so great as the economic and strategic loss to the Allies. And the key to the Middle East was Egypt: the best hostile avenue to the Persian Gulf, the Allied base most convenient for reinforcing ...