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…
‘Unhistory’ — The Cold War Dogfight That Officially Never Happened
“It seemed as if the fliers involved might be firing the first shots in a whole new conflict — World War Three.” THE COLD WAR wasn’t always that cold. In fact, on a few occasions it…
Battles in Miniature — A Brief History of War Gaming
BY THE END of the Cold War, American military planners had contingencies and plans for just about every conceivable crisis – Latin American counterinsurgencies, confrontations on the Korean Peninsula, a full out Warsaw Pact…
Black in Grey — Did Some African Americans Really Fight For the Confederacy? Historians Say No
“Some say it was a statistically insignificant handful, others maintain that it must have been ‘thousands.’“ BY THE END of the U.S. Civil War, there were approximately 180,000 African Americans fighting for the Union. This…
Allied Headhunters — Research Explains Origins of Wartime Trophy Taking
“The civilian public was shocked to learn that GIs, sailors and marines fighting the Japanese were collecting and trading the ears, teeth and heads of enemy dead.” IN THE spring of 1944, Life magazine ran…
The Mouse that Roared – Inside a Forgettable 100-Year Conflict Between France and a Tiny Village in Spain
“Nothing much came of the conflict. It’s unclear if the government of France knew or even cared that the people of the remote Andalusian town were up in arms.” WHEN Spain’s King Alfonso XII travelled…
