Browsing: Military

A Brief History On April 24, 1184 B.C., at least according to traditionalists, the city of Troy fell to Greek invaders, thus bringing about the end of the epic Trojan War that began some ten years earlier in 1194 B.C. Digging Deeper The story of this war has been repeated and altered many times since whatever actually occurred in history.  A consistent element of the ever-evolving story, however, is that it all began with perhaps the most beautiful woman of her era: Helen of Troy. Before the war began, the beautiful Helen was married to King Menelaus of Sparta, brother…

A Brief History On April 22, 1944, the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II (CBI) was the scene of the first ever use of a helicopter in a combat zone. The United States had deployed the Sikorsky R-4 variants to the theater to assist with the recovery of downed airmen, a role helicopters would become synonymous with. Digging Deeper Recognizing the versatility of the helicopter, the R-4’s in the theater were quickly given other missions such as ferrying vital spare parts to remote locations, rescuing sailors from sunken ships, reconnaissance, and medical evacuation. The R-4 was a two seat piston…

A Brief History On April 21, 1894, Norway accepted the product of their own gun designers, Ole Krag and Erik Jorgensen, as their standard battle rifle. The Krag-Jorgensen had previously been adopted by the US Army in 1892 over protests from American designers. Digging Deeper The Krag-Jorgensen bolt action rifle was first made standard by the Danish Army in 1889, a time when bolt action rifles were beginning to clearly show their superiority over other rifle designs for combat use. Unlike a lever action rifle, the bolt action rifle could easily be operated when in the prone position and cycling…

A Brief History On April 19, 1985, around 200 Federal law enforcement officers began a siege of “The Farm,” a compound of the Covenant, Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), a right wing white supremacist paramilitary survivalist organization.  You may recall that April 19 (1993) is the date of the great fire and mass deaths at the Waco Branch Davidian conclusion of another Federal siege, and that April 19 (1995) is the date of the Oklahoma City Federal Building terrorist bombing.  If this is not enough domestic terror related events for one date, you can recall the April…

A Brief History On April 5, 1943, B-17 Flying Fortress bombers of the American 8th Air Force proved once again that “Friendly fire is not friendly!” On several occasions, we have discussed incidents where one side in an armed conflict accidentally causes casualties to either their own people or the people of an allied nation. In this case, US bombs meant to attack a factory supplying engine parts for German warplanes hit a residential area of Mortsel, Belgium, killing 936 civilians, of which 209 were children under the age of 15. Digging Deeper The US aviators were convinced that daylight…