This Day in History on Military - History and Headlines

5 Blunders that put Important Technology into Enemy Hands

By Major Dan on June 24, 2019 June 23, Military, Uncategorized

A Brief History On June 23, 1942, Oberleutnant Armin Faber of the German Luftwaffe made an historic blunder when he landed his state of the art Focke-Wulf 190 fighter plane at an Welsh airfield at RAF Pembrey, handing the British Germany’s latest and best fighter aircraft complete and in flyable condition. Faber apparently mistook the Bristol Channel for the English Channel which caused his navigational error. So eager were the British to capture an example of the FW-190 they actually considered mounting a commando raid in order to steal one of the high performance fighters. Lucky for the British, Armin…

Who Would Win World War III?

By Jay Chambers on June 21, 2019 Military

A Brief History On June 12, 1999, the next day after the end of the Kosovo War, some 250 Russian peacekeeping troops occupied the Pristina International Airport ahead of the arrival of NATO troops and were to secure the arrival of reinforcements over the air. American NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Wesley Clark ordered the use of force against the Russians. Mike Jackson, a British Army general who contacted the Russians during the incident, refused to enforce Clark’s orders, famously telling him, “I’m not going to start the Third World War for you.” World War III is an unlikely…

June 13, 1944: Tiger Tank Proves Too Much for British Armour

By Major Dan on June 13, 2019 June 13, Military

A Brief History On June 13, 1944, during the Battle of Villers-Bocage, German tank ace Obersturmführer Michael Wittmann proved what could be accomplished by proper use of a superior weapon system when he directed his Tiger I tank against British armor (armour for you Brits), destroying an amazing 2 anti-tank guns, 15 armored personnel carriers, and 14 tanks! Only a week after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, the battle was an attempt by the British to break out of the Normandy beachhead and advance on the city of Caen. Digging Deeper A member of the dreaded SS (Schutzstaffel), Wittmann…

What is Martial Law?

By Major Dan on June 12, 2019 Crime, June 12, Military, Politics

A Brief History On June 12, 1775, British General Thomas Gage declared martial law in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Gage offered amnesty and a pardon to all rebels that would lay down their arms, except Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were deemed traitors that would be hanged if captured. The American Revolution had already had a de facto beginning by this point, with the Boston Massacre (1770), the burning of the Gaspee in Rhode Island (a British customs schooner, 1772), the Boston Tea Party (1773), and the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Fearing an outright…

The Forgotten Terrorist Organization, the OAS

By Major Dan on June 7, 2019 Crime, June 7, Military, Politics

A Brief History On June 7, 1962, a right wing French Nationalist terror group, the Organisation Armée Secrète, usually referred to as the OAS, set fire to and burned the library at the University of Algiers in Algeria, destroying half a million books. Calling themselves “counter-terrorists”, “self-defense groups” or simply “the resistance,” the aim of these French nationalists was to prevent the independence of Algeria, forcing the country to remain part of France. Usually we think of terrorist groups as rebels or an independence movement, but in this case the group was trying to keep “France” as they saw it…