Category: Weapons and Technology
The First Air Forces – A Century of Balloons at War
The great, great grand nephew of a U.S. Civil War-era military ballooning pioneer was on hand this week in Buffalo, New York to view a local museum’s working replica of his famous ancestor’s creation. According…
Big Bang Theory – 11 of History’s Heaviest Conventional Bombs
(Originally published Feb 13, 2015) FOR 14-YEAR-OLD Luis Iriondo Aurtenetxea and the other inhabitants of the Basque capital of Guernica, April 27, 1937 should have been just another Monday market day. At 4:30 p.m., most of the…
Little Shots — Meet the Cold War’s Smallest Nukes
“In the event of a shooting war in Europe between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, allied commanders fully expected to use hundreds, even thousands, of the small 50-pound projectiles.” THE SOVIET TSAR Bomba is remembered as the…
Hunters of the Twilight Skies — Meet Five Night Fighters of the Second World War
“The odds were stacked against them and visibility was near zero.” OPERATING in darkness, often alone and relying on fledgling radar technology, night fighter crews could fairly be called the unsung heroes of the Second…
The Renault FT — Meet the Tiny French Tank That Revolutionized Armoured Warfare
“Its compact frame allowed it to maneuver through the rugged, cratered terrain of the Western Front with relative ease, where larger tanks struggled.” FEW inventions have shaped the modern battlefield quite like the tank. And…
The Flying Titans of the Great War — Meet the World’s First Strategic Heavy Bombers
“These pioneering machines broke new ground in aviation, demonstrating the potential for strategic bombing to alter the course of warfare.” THE First World War heralded an era of unprecedented technological innovation, especially in aviation. Amidst…
