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…
Sheridan’s Scorched Earth Campaign — The Union Army’s Forgotten War Crime
“Civilians were intentionally targeted and brutalized, particularly in the final year of the conflict.” By James Bovard GEORGE ORWELL WROTE in 1945 that “the nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side,…
The Many Faces of Napoleon Bonaparte — What did the French Emperor Actually Look Like?
By Shannon Selin WHAT DID NAPOLEON LOOK LIKE? A silly question, you might think. After all, Bonaparte is one of the most painted and sculpted persons in history. When artist Matt Dawson was designing the cover of my…
