The Battle of Leuctra: Crushing the Spartans and the Birth of the Echelon Formation
The echelon formation is a solid staple in the modern military and police world. Fighter jets use this diagonal formation to maintain visibility while maximizing…
Scariest Nuclear Bomb Accidents in History
Nuclear bombs, the ultimate weapons of mass destruction. It would stand to reason that a ridiculous amount of safety protocols would exist to prevent an…
Five Facts: The Ancient Wars Between Persia and Greece
The Greeks and the Persians, Leonidas and Xerxes. The wars and their characters have always piqued the interest of historians, and Hollywood has certainly brought…
The Persian Thermopylae: Alexander’s Fight Through the Pass at Persepolis Almost Cost Him His Empire
The Battle of the Persian Gate is not well-known, despite it being almost identical to the Greek stand at Thermopylae, only with reversed sides. A…
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden – Fierce General and Master of Early Gunpowder Tactics
We all know that gunpowder weapons exploded onto the scene in the middle ages and changed warfare forever. But how exactly did they change battles…
AD 732, Battle of Tours: Charles Martel the ‘Hammer’ preserves Western Christianity
Few Empires emerged as quickly as that of the Muslim Caliphates. Bursting out from what is now Saudi Arabia in the mid-7th century, the Islamic…
Badly Wounded On His Right Arm, This Gurkha Fought Off 200 Japanese for 4hrs With Only His Left Hand
Never mess with a Gurkha. Not everyone knows this, but then again, many people don’t know what a Gurkha/Gorkha is. Gurkhas were a branch of…
The Spartans Had Never Surrendered Until The Brutal Battle Which Changed The Course Of The War
It is often said that the Spartan warriors never retreated and never surrendered. They would fight to the death no matter the odds, and were…
From Antiquity to Modern Times, Powerful Formations Have Been Essential To Winning In War
The formation of a unit could be decisive in a battle. In a case where all things were otherwise equal, the commander who knew how…
Legion Vs Phalanx: Two Powerhouse Formations of Ancient Warfare
The organization from Homeric style hero warfare to tightly packed hoplite warfare was world changing. This powerful Hellenic formation allowed the ancient Greeks to hold…
The Battle Of Marignano: The Reason For (Almost) 500 Years Of Swiss Neutrality
In November of 2016, Switzerland will have had a strict policy of neutrality for five centuries. Even during the World Wars, Switzerland was able to…
Albert I, King of Belgium: He Fought in the Trenches During WWI, And His Queen became a Nurse
Belgium didn’t have the best luck during either World War, but they were fortunate enough in WWI to have a King who had absolutely no…