“World War One was not history’s only recorded ‘Great War’.” (Originally published in September, 2013) THIS COMING SUMMER, the world marks a grim milestone – the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of…
Year: 2014
Foreshadows — How Earlier Conflicts Predicted the Horrors of WW1
“Many of the battlefield advances that would become so closely associated with the War to End All Wars were actually foreshadowed in earlier conflicts.” WHEN WAR ERUPTED IN EUROPE in 1914, many…
InfoGraphic – 100 Years of Air Combat
ON AUG. 25, 1914, A RUSSIAN PILOT by the name of Pyotr Nesterov rammed his unarmed Moraine Saulnier Type G aircraft into an Austrian Albatross B. Most likely, Nesterov was trying to damage the enemy…
Dig This — Nine Wartime Tunnels That Can Still Be Visited Today
AS PART OF THE continuing onslaught against militants in Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces are targetting not just enemy guerrillas, but the vast network of tunnels that snake beneath the embattled Mid East…
Famous Last Words – The Dying Utterances of 11 Well-Known Military Commanders
“Whether they’re fact or fiction, last words such as these are the stuff of legend in the annals of military history.” ALFRED GRAF VON SCHLIEFFEN WAS 79 YEARS OLD when he died in 1913. The Prussian-born…
Explaining War Crimes – Why Have So Many Modern Armies Committed Mass Murder?
“There was not a straight line from these crimes to the genocidal acts of Hitler, Mao and Stalin but they demonstrate that these blood-soaked dictators did not paint their pictures of Hell…
Napoleon Misquoted — Ten Famous Things Bonaparte Never Actually Said
By Shannon Selin Napoleon Bonaparte is one of the most quoted people in history, and thus also one of the most misquoted. Here are 10 famous quips falsely attributed to the legendary…
Hard to Swallow – A Brief History of Hardtack and Ship’s Biscuit
“Made using salt, water and wheat flour (which is rich in protein, vitamins and calories), hardtack could provide modest nutrition for a crew at sea or an army in the field for…