Operation Tracer: The Secret British Military Operation for Gibraltar
Of all the secret operations of the Second World War, none were less appealing than Operation Tracer, which involved spies being buried alive (literally). This…
Odette Sansom: The SOE Agent Who Became the First Woman to Receive the George Cross
In 1942, a young Odette Sansom responded to a call from the British Admiralty, asking for individuals to send postcards or family photographs from the…
Nuclear Weapons Were Almost Deployed During the Korean War
The end of the Second World War ended with a literal bang for the Americans when they forced the Japanese surrender by dropping atomic bombs…
How Norwegian Commandos Sabotaged Germany’s Atomic Bomb Research
As the Second World War dragged on, both the Allied and Axis powers invested heavily in research that would create the first atomic weapons. The…
A Lone KV-1 Tank Held Off German Advances During the Battle of Raseiniai
On June 22, 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the World War II invasion of the Soviet Union. Despite signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in 1939,…
Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Body and a False Identity Helped the Allied Invasion of Sicily
In the years since the Second World War, many documents have been released, detailing the covert operations undertaken by the UK’s Special Operations Executive (SOE),…
Why Did the German Cruiser Deutschland Change Her Name During WWII?
Many ships have had their names changed or passed on to another. For example, the US Navy has had eight different vessels called Enterprise, with…
The M1 Garand was ‘The Greatest Battle Implement Ever Devised’
Of the many guns to see combat during the Second World War, the M1 Garand was the first standard issue autoloading rifle used by the…
Richard ‘The Giant Killer’ Flaherty was the Shortest Green Beret to Fight in Vietnam
The US Army Special Forces, commonly referred to as the Green Berets, are one of the country’s most elite fighting forces. They’re known for their…
The Type 4 Grenade was a Last Ditch Effort By the Japanese
As the Second World War drew to a close, the Japanese were in a difficult position. By 1944-45, most of their industrial buildings had been…
Horizontal Collaboration: How Traitors Were Dealt With Following the Liberation of France
When France was liberated in 1944, foreign press agencies were there to document the aftermath. Among the photos taken were of thousands of French women…
Panjandrum: Britain’s Failed WWII-Era Rocket-Propelled Explosive
By 1943, the Germans had heavily fortified the European coast against an Allied invasion. This defense system, known as the Atlantic Wall, spanned along the…