MSN | War History

The “Great Impostor” — Fred Demara Pretended To Be A Ship’s Surgeon And Didn’t Lose A Soul

Ferdinand Waldo Demara (left) referred to in the past as the "Great Imposter" is shown with Deputy D.A. Manley Bowler May 8 after he surrendered himself upon learning he had been charged with grand theft auto.

Ferdinand “Fred” Waldo Demara Jr. was a monk, a surgeon, and a lawyer. Well, kind of. He was a very skilled American impostor who was…

The Saint-Chamond: The WWI Tank That’s No Longer Considered A Tank

Saint-Chamond driving down the street + the tank on the battlefield

Tank warfare was introduced during the First World War. The British began development in 1915, and when the war broke out, more countries began to…

The All-Female Civilian Organization That Provided Air Defense For Hawaii

Four WARDs and a male co-worker around a table

The Women’s Air Raid Defense (WARD) was a civilian organization working alongside the U.S. military to protect the Hawaiian Islands from Japanese air attacks during…

The Final Countdown Failed To Find Its Plot But Helped The US Navy Recruit

The Final Countdown Still

The 1980 naval action flick The Final Countdown received only average reviews at best upon its release. On the surface, it looks like a standard…

Meat Is Such A Treat! And The Black Market’s Hottest Commodity In The 1940s

Meat Rationing Featured Image

Americans faced a major toilet-paper shortage with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this was not the first time American’s nearly ran out of…

Rejected Prototype Aircraft That Were Given A Second Act

Grumman F4F Wildcat

Not every aircraft that sounds great on paper actually proves to be great in practice. There are far more proposed aircraft designs than there are…

The B-52 Stratofortress Will Be In Service For A Century

A Field of B-52 Aircraft, Davis Montham Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona

It’s 1952: the P-51 Mustang is still in service, the majority of American homes did not yet have a television, and Elvis Presley was still…

The Sherman Tank – Beast or Bust?

View of a pair of M4 Sherman tanks as they manouver through smoke during a training exercise, July 1942.

The Sherman tank is one of the most well-known tanks involved in WWII, alongside the German Tiger and Soviet T-34. In the decades after the…

Konstanz: The German City That Tricked the Allies Into Thinking It Was Part of Switzerland

View of Konstanz from the water + Rubble strewn across a city

Air raids were a common occurrence during World War II. Cities across Europe were subjected to nighttime bombings aimed at throwing their military forces off…

The Only MoH Awarded For Actions During The Battle Of Midway

The Battle of Midway is regarded as one of the finest and most influential naval victories in history. The battle took place in June 1942…

Teddy Roosevelt Was Denied His Chance To Personally Join The Western Front

exhibit about the 1912 Presidential Election which featured four candidates in which Theodore Roosevelt ran as a Progressive, William Howard Taft as a Republican, Eugene V. Debs as a Socialist, and Woodrow Wilson as a Democrat

It is a well-known fact that the United States entered the First World War in April 1917, but if it had been up to Teddy…

Cats Served As Mascots, Pest Control…Oh, And Gas Detectors

British soldier with a cat in the trenches

In recent years, cats have been subjected to immense online fame. Users can’t get enough of their adorable faces and their “toe beans” — and…