Browsing: Military

A Brief History On May 5, 1802, two of Napoleon’s generals entered into a pistol duel to the death over perceived insults between them. Digging Deeper Back in early 1801, the French soldiers that had remained in Egypt after Napoleon’s failed expedition there were trying their best to prevent an English army from pushing them out of the country.  The French commander-in-chief, General Menou, had only gotten the job after the previous commander General Kléber had been stabbed to death by a religious fanatic.  More of an administrator and less of a battlefield commander, Menou was in over his head.…

A Brief History On May 4, 1970, the M-1 Garand rifles of the Ohio National Guard were used in combat; against college kids! Digging Deeper With the United States torn by the War in Vietnam, protests at college campuses became common. President Nixon had promised to end the War in Vietnam when running for election in 1968, and by 1970 he had sent US forces into Cambodia to eliminate sanctuary for communist Vietnamese forces and disrupt communist supply lines. Many in the US saw this broken promise as an escalation of the unpopular war. Additional fuel for the anti-war fire…

A Brief History On May 3, 1945, five squadrons of Hawker Typhoon fighter aircraft attacked three ships in Lubeck Bay, Northern Germany and sunk all three.  The ships were prisoner ships carrying thousands of inmates from concentration camps. Digging Deeper The ocean liners Cap Arcona and Deutschland and a smaller companion ship, Thielbeck attempted to leave Lubeck. The destination for the 3 ships is a contended point, with some claiming the ships were headed for Sweden, while other claim they were to be sunk after the crews and SS guards got off the ships. Either way, several other passenger carrying…

A Brief History On May 2, 1863, the Confederate States of America lost their best or second best general, because they shot him! Digging Deeper The not so United States engaged in a titanic Civil War between the Federal Government (Union) and the secessionist Confederate (Southern) states. At the battle of Chancellorsville General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was reentering his own lines when pickets (sentries) mistook him for a “yankee” and shot him in the arm. Jackson’s arm had to be amputated, and as so often in those days, pneumonia set in and Jackson died 8 days later, robbing Robert E.…

A Brief History On May 1, 1960, CIA employee Gary Powers was flying a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet Union when his high flying top secret U-2 spyplane was shot down by an SA-2 surface to air missile. Digging Deeper In the days before satellite imagery the only way for the US to know what the Soviets were up to was by flying U-2’s over their country. The Lockheed U-2 was designed by legendary airplane designer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson. Johnson had designed the World War II fighter, the P-38 Lightning and later designed America’s first practical jet fighter, the Lockheed…