Category: Units
A Violent Defection – How a Battalion of Ukrainian SS Troops Mutinied and Joined the French Resistance
“A mutiny of the battalion had been arranged through negotiations between four Ukrainian officers and… a taciturn resistance operative.” By Matt Rohde ON THE LAST Sunday of August 1944, the Second World War delivered to…
Operation “China Show” – The Top Secret Mission of Germany’s Zeppelin L 59
“The mission would be a risky one – no airship had ever flown such a distance.” TO DESCRIBE Germany’s Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck as a thorn in the side of the British Empire would be something of…
America’s Citizen Soldiers — A Short History of the Militia in the United States
“The idea of the ‘citizen-soldier’ retained a strong romantic hold over the nation’s leaders. “ By Angry Staff Officer THE IDEA OF a militia – that is a group of armed citizens that enter military…
The Fighting Messmates — The Curious Role of Food in Turkey’s Legendary Janissary Corps
“The corps’ military vocabulary and symbolism drew heavily on that of the kitchen.” By Richard Anderton THOUGH IT WAS Napoleon Bonaparte (or possibly Frederick the Great) who first coined the phrase “an army marches on…
‘Francs-tireurs’ – Meet the French Resistance of the 1870 Franco-Prussian War
“While the exploits of the resistance of World War Two have become the stuff of legend, history often forgets that French guerrillas mounted their own campaign against German occupiers a full 70 years before the…
The Birth of the SAS — How a Paralyzed British Officer Dreamed Up the Elite Commando Unit from a Hospital Bed
“The commandos were intended to be Britain’s storm troops, volunteers selected and trained to carry out destructive raids against Axis targets.” No Allied commando unit in World War Two could match the record of Britain’s Special…
