Panamax: How the Panama Canal Has Impacted Naval Ship Design
Roughly 14,000 ships pass through the Panama Canal annually, but more than half can barely squeeze through the over 100-year-old locks, which are only 110…
Seven Reasons Why the Italian Forces Performed So Poorly During World War II
When it comes to the Second World War, France is often made the butt of the joke for its surrender to Germany in 1940. However,…
Battles of the Isonzo: Two Years, Over One Million Casualties
Many of the bloodiest battles in World War I occurred along the Western Front. There was, however, another lesser-known combat theater that was as equally…
Nuclear Weapons Were Almost Deployed During the Korean War
The end of the Second World War ended with a literal bang for the Americans when they forced the Japanese surrender by dropping atomic bombs…
How Norwegian Commandos Sabotaged Germany’s Atomic Bomb Research
As the Second World War dragged on, both the Allied and Axis powers invested heavily in research that would create the first atomic weapons. The…
Why Did the German Cruiser Deutschland Change Her Name During WWII?
Many ships have had their names changed or passed on to another. For example, the US Navy has had eight different vessels called Enterprise, with…
Spetsnaz: How Russia’s Special Forces Became So Deadly
Russia’s Spetsnaz forces were shaped by the Cold War to be stealthy, efficient and, above all, lethal. Geared toward “political warfare,” the group has been…
A British Challenger 1 Set the Record for the Longest Tank-on-Tank Kill in 1991
The FV4030/4 Challenger 1 tank had a rocky start. It wasn’t very reliable and had a poor rate of fire. As such, a lot of…
Did the US Try to Give France Nuclear Weapons to Use in Vietnam?
Vietnam has been a desirable target for many of the world’s most powerful countries since the French conquest in 1858. China, Japan and the United…
The Doolittle Bombers Traded Their Tail Guns for Broomsticks
On April 18, 1942, the United States responded to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor by doing something that had never been done before: launching bombers…
The US Military Used Tourist Maps to Prepare for the Invasion of Grenada
When the US military invaded Grenada in 1983, troops were grossly unprepared. Knowing little about the country, officials had to get inventive in order to…
The Rats of Tobruk: How A German Insult Was Reclaimed as a Proud Nickname
At the beginning of the Second World War, Libya was still an Italian colony. As the only deep port in the eastern part of the…