The Forgotten Front Military history archive
Eleanor Butler Roosevelt receives the Medal of Honor awarded posthumously to her husband, 1944
Case file Utah Beach, Normandy · 1917–1944

“We’ll Start the War from Right Here”

At fifty-six, with a bad heart and arthritis that made him walk with a cane, Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the eldest son of a president, talked his way into the first wave at Utah Beach. When the landing craft came in a mile off course, he made the decision that saved the day. Five weeks later he was dead.

Our brief

We tell the true stories of the soldiers, medics, pilots, spies and civilians whose courage history nearly forgot, one person at a time. Every story is checked against the record, and every source is listed.

Our method and standards →
01

Recover

We look for the people the history books skipped, shortened or got wrong, from every war and every side of the line.

02

Verify

Each story is checked against citations, service records, memoirs and trusted histories. Where accounts disagree, we say so.

03

Remember

Every film and story is free to watch and read, and stays in the archive for good.

Desmond T. Doss
In his own words
“Lord, please help me get one more.”
Desmond Doss, U.S. Army medic His prayer on the Maeda Escarpment · Okinawa · May 1945
▸ Read his story
Index of conflicts

Every war. Every rank. Every civilian.

Browse by conflict and front. Each file is cross-referenced to its sources and a map position.

First World War1914–1918
From the channel

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