In a picturesque cemetery on a hilltop in Duluth, Minnesota, an unassuming marker, plaque and flag stands sentinel over the grave of the last verified veteran of the War Between the States.

The year of 1942 had been one of Axis victories, but also some defeats. As the fourth Christmas of the Second World War arrived, the world was gripped by uncertainty, as a great turning point approached.

The German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen was the famous companion of the famous battleship Bismarck in 1941, but would go on to serve the Kriegsmarine until the end of the war. Transferred to the US Navy as a war prize, she would end her days at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific after surviving two nuclear explosions.

Even with the entry of the United States and the USSR into the war, the situation looked very grim on Christmas of 1941. The Japanese were smashing the Allies across the new Asia/Pacific Theater, and a dark uncertainty loomed. Despite all of this, the spirit of the holiday prevailed, both at home and abroad.

On the grounds of the Minnesota State Capitol sits a four inch gun from the destroyer USS Ward, which fired the first American shots of the Second World War on December 7, 1941, sinking a Japanese midget submarine at the entrance of Pearl Harbor.

Faced with numerous Japanese victories after the disaster at Pearl Harbor, the US leadership was determined to strike back at the Japanese to prove that the country was not out of the fight yet. The plan that came about was ambitious, involving launching large Army bombers from an aircraft carrier on a one-way trip to bomb Japan itself.

The second Christmas of the War saw Britain in the midst of the Blitz, and the Germans generally content to otherwise reflect on a year of victories. Millions were now suffering under German occupation, and leaders of these countries as well as the soldiers that followed them continued the fight as 1940 came to a close.

In early 1961 two US Air Force B47 Stratojet bombers crashed in the woods of northern Wisconsin just south of the town of Hurley while on training flights. A memorial exists to the six airmen who lost their lives in these tragic events.

German frogmen attempt to destroy the American bridge constructed over the Elbe at Breitenhagen in the closing days of the Second World War.

Originally intended to be the third of the Yamato Class Battleships, the Shinano was the largest aircraft carrier ever built until the US nuclear carriers in the 1960s. She also remains the largest ship ever lost to a submarine in combat.

The USS Housatonic was an Ossipee Class Sloop of the United States Navy that operated during the American Civil War. She is best known for ending her brief and otherwise successful career by becoming the first victim of a submarine attack in history when she was sunk in 1864 by the Confederate sub HL Hunley.

The first Christmas of the Second World War happened amidst the so-called “Phoney War”, and would prove in many ways to be almost a last gasp of peace before the growing storm of war consumed the world.

October 25, 1944

One of the most one sided engagements in naval history occurs as the Japanese Center Force, led by the largest battleship ever built; the Yamato, engages a small force of US destroyers and escort carriers at the beginning of the Philippine Campaign in 1944.