A Brief History On November 4, 1962, 69,000 feet above Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean a nuclear armed Nike Hercules anti-aircraft missile was detonated in the last atmospheric nuclear test by the United States. These nuclear warhead tipped missiles used to be deployed across the US, just waiting to blast the expected hordes of Soviet bombers from the sky as they swarmed over US targets. Digging Deeper If you were born after the Baby Boom, you probably do not remember major cities having anti-aircraft missile sites. Our local site was in Parma, Ohio (suburban Cleveland), and became a city…
Browsing: Military
Read More
A Brief History On November 1, 1911, the first known dropping of a bomb from an airplane in combat took place, ushering in one more way for human beings to kill each other. This first incident was merely an Italian pilot dropping 2 hand grenades from his rudimentary airplane on a Turkish position in Libya, but soon airplanes made specifically for bombing and dropping bombs specifically made for use by airplanes would darken the skies above battlefields and cities alike. Digging Deeper The first bomber airplane was adapted for bombing not by one of the world’s great powers, but by…
A Brief History On October 29, 1918, a disheartened and disgusted German Navy had enough of the slaughter, mismanagement, and bungling of World War I and mutinied when ordered to sail out for one last ‘glorious’ mission that amounted to a suicide mission when the war was already lost. Digging Deeper The German High Seas Fleet had basically been bottled up in port after the enormous naval Battle of Jutland, in which an outnumbered Imperial German fleet acquitted itself quite well. Despite many pleas by the Navy for other chances to contribute to the war effort, German leadership kept them…
A Brief History On October 27, 1914, the virtually brand new British Super-Dreadnaught battleship, HMS Audacious, hit a mine off the North coast of Ireland and sunk without ever being used in combat. Of course, the British government did not tell the truth to the British people, a disturbing trend followed by governments all over the world throughout history. Digging Deeper Audacious was commissioned in August of 1913, a state of the art King George V class battleship, 598 feet long and displacing 23,400 metric (long) tons. Armed with a main battery of 10 X 13.5 inch guns in 5…
A Brief History On October 25, 1415, the Battle of Agincourt was fought between the English personally led by King Henry V and the French, led by representatives of King Charles VI, resulting in a history changing victory by the English over the greater numbers of the French. Digging Deeper The English army was manned by a preponderance of bowmen armed with the famed English longbow. A weapon much more powerful than the hunting bows of today, the longbow required a strong man trained over a long period of time to employ it properly. Designed for mass volleys rather than…