Modern | War History

Wilhelm Frankl and Fritz Beckhardt: Top German Jewish Fighter Aces of WW1

Wilhelm Frankl Standoff Neuberg, home to the 74th Tactical Fighter Squadron, sits just south of the Danube River, nestled deep within a woodland. Since 1973, the base…

From the Vikings to Vietnam – Five Wars in Which Drugs Fuelled the Fighting

Drugs have a long history as part of war. These days, their main role is a medicinal one, but down the centuries they have often…

Massacre: The Day The SS Wiped Out The Entire French Village Of Oradour-sur-Glane

On December 9, 2014, a German court in Cologne dropped the multiple charges of murder and accessory to murder against an 88-year-old man named Werner…

Medal of Honor – John R. Fox Sacrificed Himself by Deliberately Calling an Artillery Strike on his Own Position

John Robert Fox was an American soldier who was killed in action when he deliberately called artillery fire on his own position after his position…

The French “Red Zone” Is So Dangerous, It Still Is A No-Go Area 100 Years After WWI

The Zone Rouge (Red Zone) is a region near Verdun, France spanning some 460 square miles of mostly virgin forest – at least on the…

The Battle of Ortona – When 2,600 Canadian Men Were Sacrificed for a General’s Pride

In December 1943, a group of largely untested Canadians went up against German forces in the Italian town of Ortona. The result was a bloodbath…

The Surrender of Japan Aboard the USS Missouri

Imperial Japan announced its surrender on August 15, 1945. The surrender was formally signed a few weeks later, on September 2, 1945, halting the hostilities…

The Only American To Fight For Both The U.S. And Russia In WWII

For much of the last 70 years, someone who fought for both America and Russia might bring to mind some Cold War espionage, a double…

He’s Called The Ghost, Has The Same Medal Count As Audie Murphy, And Is Virtually Unknown

By the time a man earns seven Purple Hearts and lives to talk about it, he could either be described as one of the luckiest…

Behind Enemy Lines – The 82nd and 101st Airborne On D-Day

The amphibious landings of D-Day were hours away when the first combat missions by the US Army started in France. The invasion of Normandy began…

After The USS Indianapolis Was Sunk, The Sailors Had To Survive The Worst Shark Attack in History

On July 30th, 1945, a Japanese submarine sank a Portland-class cruiser of the US Navy, resulting in the single greatest casualty rate in American naval…

In 1935, Mussolini Planned To Form A Foreign Legion To Which Even Jews Applied

It is almost completely unknown, but in the wake of the Second Italo-Abyssinian war, Mussolini was quite keen on making his own equivalent of the…