1898: Spanish at Guam Thought the Attacking USS Charleston Fired Salute Shots & Asked For Gunpowder To Return the Gesture
Manning a remote island fort, seemingly without any imminent danger on the horizon, must have made for a fairly comfortable post. That was the situation on…
The Biggest Nuclear Explosions Of Military History
Most of us have seen footage or photographs of the explosions at Nagasaki and Hiroshima: the mushroom cloud, the radius, the devastation. Those, however, were…
In 1866, Cathay Williams Became America’s First Ever Black Female Soldier
Cathay Williams was pressed into service in 1861 by the Union Army in Missouri, enlisted as a man in 1866, and served in the Indian…
True Innovations of the Civil War
You often hear about how the Civil War brought submarines, iron-clad ships, or the telegraph into play, but that’s not exactly true. While they are…
A Massive Operation – Raising A U-Boat To Recover Her Precious Cargo
In 1958, a German submarine was hoisted from the depths of the Kattegat Bay between the North and Baltic Seas off the coast of Sweden.…
Ham & Jam – The Daring Glider Operation To Take Pegasus Bridge
On the night before D-Day, as part of the Allied invasion of Normandy, 181 men of the Glider Infantry of the British 6th Airborne Division…
After The Battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Horatio Nelson Traveled Back To England Pickled in Brandy
A long used euphemism in sailing circles, and in some pubs and bars, refers to slurping liquor from a straw directly from the barrel. The…
Leading by Example: John J. Pershing, Prime Mentor for Future US Army Generals
The United States greatest leaders, including Patton, Truman, and MacArthur, spent the formative years of their military careers under the command of General of the…
The Black Dispatches From the Civil War Spies
The typical Southern officer’s opinion of African Americans was that they were an inferior subhuman race, lacking in intelligence or cunning. Their ignorance and subsequent…
This Reindeer Battalion of WWII Was Braver than Soviets, Tougher Than Tanks
The Petsamo-Kirkenes Offensive in 1944, which led to the expulsion of German forces from the northern regions of Norway, would have been severely hampered had…
A Cameraman’s last picture – Tragedy as an Undetonated Bomb Explodes on the USS Oriskany (Watch)
The USS Oriskany was on its first Korean mission when disaster struck its deck. It was caught on film, as seen in this video. How and…
Terrible Punishments, Desperate Men – Desertion in the American Civil War
It is the American Civil War. You have been walking hundreds – perhaps thousands of miles – in tattered clothes and worn out shoes. You…