Category: Wars You Never Knew About
The Sino-Vietnamese Conflict – Inside the Bloody 1979 Border War Between Beijing and Hanoi
“The fighting between the PLA and the Vietnamese lasted less than a month, but was surprisingly intense.” FOR MUCH OF the Cold War, Vietnam was where world powers sent their armies to be defeated. The…
First Blood – History’s Earliest Recorded Military Conflicts
WARFARE IS AS OLD AS CIVILIZATION ITSELF. In fact, experts believe that the first armed conflicts were fought more than 10,000 years ago by prehistoric city-states in present day Syria, Jordan and Iraq. These early contests…
Roll Over and Play Dead – The Ridiculous War of the Stray Dog
So far on this blog, we’ve heard about military standoffs caused by dead pigs, wooden buckets, bird droppings and a destroyed pastry shop. In this latest edition of Wars You Never Heard Of, we’re going…
The Chinchas War – Inside the Little-Known Conflict Between Peru and Spain Over Animal Turds
“The resulting two-year naval conflict would see ships captured, cities bombarded, ports blockaded, economies destroyed, and governments toppled.” WHEN IN 1864, a hotheaded Spanish admiral wanted to punish Peru for a perceived diplomatic insult, he…
Drinking with the Enemy – Opponents Fought by Day and Boozed Together By Night in the Transnistria War
The pages of military history contain a number of examples of soldiers sharing the occasional drink with their foes. For example, at the outbreak of the War of 1812, British officers stationed along the Canadian side…
Beyond the Pail – The Unbelievable War of the Oaken Bucket
“The unlikely dispute was actually part of a wider ongoing feud between two warring factions in northern Italy.” SOME WARS ARE fought for land. Others have been waged over oil. More than a few have…
