Category: Military History

After Great Britain was driven from continental Europe in disgrace, it realized that the offensive capabilities it wanted to employ against Germany must be tried elsewhere. Thus, after winning the battle of Britain, it shifted its main weight of forces to fight in the deserts of North Africa. The ensuing struggle eventually caused some cheer […]

The Air Force knows it’s tough to be the littlest brother in the service. The Marines, Army and Navy all get to trace their roots back 238 years and some-odd days, and regularly lord it over their youngest sibling, 66 year and one month-old Air Force. To put things in perspective, if the Marines, Army, […]

The story of Italy’s Decima MAS (Decima Mezzi d’Assalto, or 10th Assault Vehicle Flotilla), is a peculiar tale regarding Axis Special Forces in World War II. On one hand they were the best combat frogmen produced by any nation during the conflict. On the other, the courage and innovation they brought to the history of […]

During WWII, Italian frogmen successfully penetrated the harbor in Alexandria, Egypt riding manned torpedoes and damaging two Royal Navy battleships, HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth, using nothing more than handheld devices called limpet mines. After, an impressed and worried Winston Churchill ordered a similar capability to be developed as soon as possible. Unbeknownst to […]

I stepped up to the podium and adjusted the microphone. It was Saturday, September 21st, 2013. I was at the reunion of Wake Island survivors, possibly their last. The organizers and the small number of survivors knew who I was and why I was there, but the many family members did not. I explained that […]

The Ruhr valley has long served as a primary base of heavy industry for the German nation. In World War II, for example, the region processed millions of tons of raw materials to make the steel used to conquer its neighbors. The area teemed with factories running round the clock, along with a canal and […]

Using side-firing weapons on aircraft can be traced back to 1927, when a concept was demonstrated by fixing a .30 caliber machine gun to the side of a biplane and flying a simple maneuver known as a pylon turn. Named after the air racing term, it involved positioning an aircraft in a gentle bank and […]

Oil is the lifeblood of nations. No substance has ever proven more beneficial to the world when it comes to sustaining day to day livelihoods and moving vast quantities of commerce across the globe. It’s the one thing people, regardless of background, have to agree on if they want to be truthful. Oil is what […]

Few technologies played as vital a role in World War II as radar. From its famous early days as giant girdered masts dotting the eastern coastline of Great Britain, relaying information on inbound German aircraft, to tiny antennae on fighters seeking out bombers in the dead of night, it proved itself among the supreme innovations […]

I am one of two guys who served in 1/101 LRRP, F/58 LRP, and L/75 Ranger, not the only one.

He finished his medic course in July of 1974 and got his wish to be posted back to the RLI. He was posted in an operational area around Mt. Darwin, dealing with injuries sustained by the troops in the field. He found it to be a comfortable place where he could write and get stamps, […]

In September of 1972, he found himself at a crossroads and began to express his disappointment on issues agreed upon by British Delegates and Ian Smith. He was bother by unimpeded progress of Black Majority rule, stationing of foreign troops, an increase of parliamentary seats by nationalists, and coupling the Rhodesian dollar to the Pound. […]