Teenage Hero of the Battle of Jutland & Recipient of the Victoria Cross
In the First World War, the largest naval encounter was the Battle of Jutland, in which the mighty dreadnought warships of the British Grand Fleet…
PPSh-41 – The Most Mass-Produced Submachine Gun of WWII
The Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun was one of the most common weapons of the Second World War. The famous modification of the PPSh with a…
The BBC’s Coded Messages to the French Resistance During World War II
One of the best-known films about the Second World War is The Longest Day (1962), which centers around D-Day. In a number of scenes, members…
The First Bomb Dropped by The Allies on Berlin Didn’t Harm Anyone But Did Hit an Elephant in Berlin Zoo!
More bombs fell on Berlin in the Second World War than on any other German city. Fifty thousand people died, and hundreds of thousands became…
Wilfred Wood: The British Private Who Took Over 300 Prisoners In Just One Battle
Over 100 years ago, British Pvt. Wilfred Wood earned the Victoria Cross for his actions in the First World War. He may have seen action…
He Actually Fought at Pegasus Bridge on D-Day Then Went on to Star in The Movie Longest Day
The realism – or lack thereof – with which war movies depict historical battles is one yardstick by which films in this genre are measured.…
Five Incredible & Inspiring Tales of Bravery from the Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was an intense test of aerial superiority between the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the German Luftwaffe. Following the conquest…
Three Italian PoWs Broke Out of a PoW Camp, Not to Escape But to Climb Mount Kenya For Fun!
When a prisoner of war concocts a plan to escape the prison camp in which he is incarcerated, his greatest is fear is usually being…
A New York Man Was Arrested for Using a Civil War-Era Cannon in a Dispute With His Neighbor – Like One Does
In this heavily populated world, where much of society lives cheek by jowl in large cities, it’s not uncommon to find a neighbor irritating. Indeed,…
The Japanese Thought this Tiny Island was Empty, They were Utterly Wrong
After Nishikaichi, an Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service pilot, crashed his fighter into the tiny Hawaiian island of Ni’ihau in 1941, he may have failed…
Loose Change Nearly Cost Him His Life – But It Wound Up Saving Him
Optatius Buyssens was on a reconnaissance mission near the Belgian town of Lebbeke in September 1914, when the sound of the loose change in his…
The Largely Overlooked Story of How Himmler “Saved” Thousands of Jews
He built the notorious Schutzstaffel (SS) from a battalion of a mere 290 men into a paramilitary group of over a million, established himself as…