Category: Odd Facts
Meet Wilmer McLean – One of the Civil War’s First and Last Victims
“The war exacted a heavy toll on McLean’s business.” WILMER MCLEAN WAS was too old to fight in the American Civil War. But that didn’t stop the 47-year-old Virginia farmer and merchant from finding himself…
The Battle of Nauru – Nazi Germany’s Forgotten Foray into the Pacific
“German warships would carry to the fight against the Allies to the very shores of Nauru. The ensuing battle would represent the only Nazi military action of World War Two to take place in the…
Cold Wars – Just How Freezing Was It On History’s Most Bone-Chilling Battlefields?
“Sub-zero temperatures, driving snow and winter storms didn’t stop some of history’s armies from soldiering on.” (Originally publishing on Jan. 10, 2014) THIS PAST WEEK, much of North America was in the grip of a…
Barbed Wire War – How One Farmer’s Innovation Changed The Battlefield
“One expert estimated that by 1918, at least a million miles of the stuff had been strung throughout Flanders alone – enough to circle the earth 40 times.” PERHAPS NOTHING IS MORE emblematic of warfare…
Unsinkable! – Meet Military History’s Luckiest Mariners
“By 8 a.m., the warship had turtled and Wykeham-Musgrave was in the drink yet again – his third plunge in fewer than 90 minutes.” Wenman Wykeham-Musgrave, a midshipman aboard HMS Aboukir at the outbreak of…
Technicolor Revolutionaries – The Red, White, Blue and Green Armies of the Russian Civil War
Most remember the Russian Civil War as a fight between the Bolsheviks or Red Army and the anti-communist White Russian forces. While it’s true that these two opposing factions represented the largest and most powerful…
