Category: Odd Facts
Ultra and Overlord — How Allied Intelligence Spelled the Difference Between Victory and Defeat During the Normandy Campaign
“By the spring of 1944, some 5,600 people worked on deciphering, translating, or interpreting messages intercepted by legions of radio operators located throughout Nazi occupied Europe.” By John Prados THE FIRST-GENERATION histories of D-Day and…
Alternate Endings — Five Leading Causes of Death for Soldiers in Napoleon’s Army
“Only about a 30 per cent of all fatalities occurred in combat.” By Dr. Bernard Wilkin IN OUR UPCOMING book, Fighting the British, my co-author and I calculated that approximately 45 per cent of all…
Dinner With Himmler – An American Paratrooper’s Bizarre Encounter With One of the Third Reich’s Top Officials
“Metcalfe turned and immediately recognized one of the officers was indeed Hitler’s own SS chief, Heinrich Himmler in the flesh.” By Marcus A. Nannini EUGENE METCALFE OF the 82nd Airborne’s 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment was…
Kriegsspiel – How a 19th Century Table-Top War Game Changed History
“More than just a war game, Kriegsspiel was an invaluable training tool used to introduce a generation of military officers to the operational art of war.” By Laurence Kay STRATEGY GAMES have a long and…
Getting There Was Half the Battle – The Incredible Maiden Voyage of the USS Monitor
“By evening of the second day, a full-force gale engulfed the little convoy. Monitor, with just two feet of freeboard, was singularly ill-designed to weather an ocean storm.” By Walter Topp ON MARCH 9, 1862,…
The Secret Normandy Campaign — Inside the Allies’ Shadowy Intelligence War Before D-Day
“A four-year effort, it involved round-the-clock work by literally thousands of codebreakers, reconnaissance pilots, commandos and even diplomats and envoys. No detail was overlooked.” By David Abrutat D-DAY IS RIGHTLY seen as one of the…
