The Polish Pilot Credited With The First Aerial Kills Of WWII
Wladyslaw Gnyś is not a well-known name from WWII, but it should be. The brave Polish pilot was the first person to shoot down two…
The Beginning Of The End For The Teutonic Knights, Grunwald 1410
For more than two hundred years the might of the Order of Teutonic Knights had been steadily growing. It was forged in 1190, in the…
Normandy Invasion Beaches From a Different Angle
Ten years or so ago I was lucky enough to fly along the invasion beaches at 800′ in a C-47. If you ever get the…
The Element of Surprise – Totally Effective Surprise Attacks in Military History
Surprise attacks and ambushes can turn the tide of war. More often than not, the side that has the larger base of industry or manpower…
Tackling a Suicide Bomber Captain Florent Groberg Saved Lives and Was Awarded the Medal of Honor
Soldiers in war are repeatedly faced with complex decision making under stressful and ambiguous circumstances – with life and death hanging in the balance. The…
The Commanders Whose Incompetence Nearly Lost Britain the Second Boer War
“The Boers are not like the Sudanese, who stood up to a fair fight. They are always running away on their little ponies.” – General…
Influential Generals Of Military History Who Were Actually Mad
A shocking number of military leaders have suffered from mental health issues, even as they held the lives of the men they led in their…
When The French Army Invaded Germany in 1939 To Support Poland, All Did Not Go As Planned
Germany was not the first country to go on the offensive on the western front of World War Two. That first attack came from France,…
When Cavalry Captured A Fleet Trapped In Ice – A Unique Event In Military History
Fifty miles north of Amsterdam in the depths of the freezing winter of 1795, a fleet lay at anchor. It sat upon the Zuiderzee, a…
Rommel’s Last Battle in North-Africa – Costly Failure At Medenine
The hot Tunisian sun beat down on the steel of tanks and armoured personnel carriers, planes strafed the artillery positions and the tracks of tanks…
Constantinople: Holding The Walls At All Costs
At dawn, the leaders of the defense gazed out west from the walls of Constantinople. The two Byzantine commanders, Bonus and Sergius, did not speak…
Cornfield “Bomber” – The F-106 Delta Dart that Landed Itself After Pilot Ejected
The Convair F-106 Delta Dart is a delta wing interceptor aircraft, not a medium range bomber. Yet when a unique event involving this airplane occurred…