Category: Odd Facts
O Say Can You See – Seven Little-Known Facts About Francis Scott Key and the Star Spangled Banner
By Jeffrey Roth Most critics agree that The Star-Spangled-Banner is difficult to sing. Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to the iconic song after watching the Sept. 13 to 14, 1814 British bombardment of Fort…
Old Soldiers – Meet Some of History’s Most Elderly Warriors
“Warfare isn’t always the sole province of the youthful. In fact, throughout military history, there have been a number of examples of the elderly making battlefield contributions.” IN MARCH 1943, a small team of British…
The Atlantic Wall – 11 Key Facts About the Nazi Defences at Normandy
“Although one of the most impressive engineering feats of modern times, British, American and Canadian troops breached the seemingly impregnable Nazi defences along a 80-mile stretch of French coastline at Normandy in a single day:…
D-Day Wasn’t History’s Only June 6th Battle
Brace yourselves, history fans. With the approach of the 70th anniversary of the 1944 Normandy Invasion this Friday, the media is a-buzz with D-Day backgrounders, retrospectives and first-hand accounts from those who were there. Spoiler alert:…
How Foreign Conscripts Helped Hitler Defend ‘Fortress Europe’ on D-Day
(Originally published in MilitaryHistoryNow.com on June 6, 2012) ONE OF THE ironies of the June, 1944 Normandy campaign is that Third Reich, a regime so deeply obsessed with racial purity, would hold its Atlantic Wall in Europe…
D-Day 1943? – Three Allied Plans to Invade France Long Before Operation Overlord
“How might the course of the war (and history itself) have unfolded differently had these generals had their way? No one can be sure, but here is what the Normandy campaign might have looked like.”…
