Category: Weapons and Technology
Stickin’ It To ‘Em – The Last of the Great Bayonet Charges
“There have been handful of occasions during the Second World War and in the decades that followed in which leaders in various situations would call out the words: ‘Fix bayonets!’” IT WAS D-DAY plus five (June 11, 1944) when Robert…
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…
The Sten — Meet the $10 Submachine Gun That Helped the Allies Win WW2
“Nearly 5 million Stens were manufactured before the end of 1945.” WITH A NAZI invasion of the United Kingdom all but certain in the summer of 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously vowed that Britons would fight the…
The Brief (and Bizarre) History of Flying Aircraft Carriers
“Planners foresaw even more massive airships equipped with top-mounted runway surfaces and cavernous hangars hidden within the hulls. Whole squadrons could be stored inside the airships and moved back and forth to the landing deck…
Back to the Drawing Board — The Stupidest Weapons Ever Invented
IN 1914, machines guns were anything but portable. Weapons like the Maxim, Vickers or Hotchkiss were cumbersome and bulky. And with a weight of about 50 lbs. (not counting ammunition), the weapons needed to…
The Bob Semple Tank – Meet New Zealand’s Strange Home-Grown Armoured Vehicle
“Prototypes of this curious tank were slapped together in the early 1940s amid growing panic in New Zealand over the threat of a Japanese invasion.” THE GERMANS named some of the their most powerful tanks after…
