Category: Odd Facts
Airships of the Civil War— The Bizarre Story of the Union Army’s Experimental Balloon Corps
“The balloons of the Civil War were a brief but truly forward-looking glimpse of what the future would bring.” By Charles M. Evans IT HAS OFTEN been said that the American Civil War was one…
Shadows of the Past – How a Network of Fugitive Nazis Found New Wars to Fight in the Middle East of the 1950s
“Outwardly, Brunner led a quiet life… In fact, he was a mercenary and arms dealer.” By Danny Orbach IN 1994, an official in the information security department of BND, Germany’s Secret Service, gave an order…
Funny Money — The Amazing History of Wartime Counterfeiting
“For more than 200 years, counterfeiting has been a part of the wartime strategies of a number of countries.” DURING THE 1990s, U.S. national security experts began tracking a new and rather unusual threat. Some individual…
Il Duce’s Blitz — Italy’s Forgotten Role in the Battle of Britain
“Although not a major contributor to the 1940 air campaign against Britain, Italy did volunteer as many as 170 planes to the effort. In fact, more than five per cent of the 2,500 Axis aircraft…
Seven New War Machines the U.S. Planned to Unleash On Japan in 1946
“The arsenal included larger tanks, more powerful artillery, faster fighter planes and new bombers.” AMERICA’S ANTICIPATED INVASION of Japan ultimately proved unnecessary – the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made sure of that. Yet all throughout…
Storm Warnings – Five Writers Who Predicted WW1 With Uncanny Accuracy
“Five grim visionaries and their remarkable predictions about the coming war.” FEW COULD HAVE ANTICIPATED the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the subsequent crisis that triggered the First World War. Yet for years leading…
