Blood on the Sand — Seven Little-Known Facts About Britain’s Second Afghan War
THE LIST OF POWERS that have invaded Afghanistan reads like a who’s who of history’s mighty empires. It includes Macedonians, Indians, Mongols, Mughals, Persians, Sikhs, Soviets and most recently the United States and its allies. For…
Operation Moolah — The U.S. Plan to Buy a Top Secret Soviet Fighter
“Obtaining a functioning MiG-15 became something of an obsession for western intelligence. But getting one intact was proving to be difficult.” FOR ALLIED PILOTS IN THE KOREAN WAR, the sudden and unexpected appearance of Soviet-made…
Liberty and Justice – How a Handful of Merchant Ships Struck a Blow for Civil Rights in WW2
By Ron Franklin LIBERTY SHIPS WERE THE cargo carrying workhorses of World War II. While they played an essential role in winning the war, some also helped in America’s ongoing struggle for racial equality. A merchant…
Big Bang Theory – 11 of History’s Heaviest Conventional Bombs
FOR 14-YEAR-OLD Luis Iriondo Aurtenetxea and the other inhabitants of the Basque capital of Guernica, April 27, 1937 should have been just another Monday market day. At 4:30 p.m., most of the city’s 7,000 residents were in…
Ancient Commandos – 11 Elite Forces from Antiquity
“Armies for thousands of years have maintained battalions of highly trained elite troops to perform only the most dangerous and specialized missions.” THE WIDENING ROLE OF SPECIAL FORCES in the war against Islamic State militants in Syria…
The V-1 Flying Bomb – 13 Facts about Germany’s Infamous Cruise Missile
“Londoners christened them ‘buzz bombs’ or ‘doodlebugs.’ But despite the charming nicknames, it was clear that these new inventions were deadly killers.” ONE WEEK AFTER D-DAY, calm had finally returned to the streets of London. In the…
