Browsing: Military

A Brief History On June 25, 1940, France surrendered to the military might of Germany after being crushed in the Blitzkrieg.  Almost immediately, Adolf Hitler and his gang of thugs began planning their next attack that respected no treaties, no borders, and no decency, the proposed invasion of neutral Switzerland.  The Germans never did invade Switzerland during World War II, as they did not invade several other notable places they certainly considered invading or would have greatly benefited from invading.  Here we list 10 of those places.  Digging Deeper 1.  Switzerland. A neutral country made up of German, French and Italian…

A Brief History On September 7, 1812, The Battle of Borodino was fought as part of the Napoleonic Wars during the French invasion of Russia.  As a result of France’s tactical victory, Emperor Napoleon I the Great (r. 1804-1814, 1815), one of history’s “great captains”, captured Moscow.  In commemoration of Napoleon’s victory, this article lists those particularly illustrious military commanders considered the “great captains” of history.  The notes for each entry are to sources that explicitly refer to the individuals as “great captains”. Digging Deeper Cyrus II of Persia (c. 600 – 530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great and…

A Brief History On June 11, 173, during the Marcomannic Wars (166–180), the Roman army in Moravia was encircled by the Quadi, a Germanic tribe, who had broken the peace treaty of 171.  In a violent thunderstorm, emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180) defeated and subdued them in the so-called “Miracle of the Rain”!  (For more about Rome on this website, see Rome) Digging Deeper Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor in the beginning of the major motion picture Gladiator (2000), is considered the last of Rome’s Five Good Emperors and, arguably, the last emperor of the Pax Romana or “Roman Peace”.  The author…

A Brief History On June 10, 1190, during the Third Crusade, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (r. 1155-1190) drowned in the river Saleph while leading an army to Jerusalem. Digging Deeper Frederick I Barbarossa (known as “red beard”) is generally considered one of Medieval Europe’s greatest emperors.  He had a long reign as not only Holy Roman Emperor but also as King of Italy, King of Germany (which at the time also meant King of the Romans), and King of Burgundy, ruling some of these realms from 1152 until his death in 1190, or nearly forty years! He accomplished much…

A Brief History On June 5, 1829, the British ship, HMS Pickle, a 5 gun schooner, captured an armed slave ship, the Voladora, off the coast of Cuba.  This vessel was not the first British ship named “Pickle,” and in fact, it was the third British Navy ship with that name.  Indeed, there have been 8 Royal Navy ships with that goofy name!  With all the cool and bad ass sounding names you could give a warship, why settle for some goofy name?  Well, there are a bunch of goofy named warships, and here we list 10 of them.  (Our…