Browsing: Military

A Brief History On October 18, 1945, the Soviet nuclear program received American atomic bomb (plutonium implosion type) plans from scientist, Klaus Fuchs, a German refugee from the Third Reich.  Fuchs had been passing nuclear secrets to the USSR in Britain prior to his involvement in the US-British-Canadian Manhattan Project. Digging Deeper Born in Germany the son of a Lutheran minister, the Fuchs family had communist leanings and opposed the rise of the Nazi state.  Fuchs went to Britain in 1933 to study physics, and was awarded a PhD and a DSc (doctor of science) degree.  In 1939 at the…

A Brief History On May 12, 1864, as part of the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse (Virginia) Union and Confederate forces fought in the “Bloody Angle” resulting in thousands of casualties on both sides, just part of what was by far the bloodiest and most horrific war in American history.  ( Note: Numbers vary with sources.) Digging Deeper Part of the Overland Campaign, Spotsylvania (spelled Spottsylvania at the time) the battle pitted the Union Army of the Ohio (IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac) against Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.  About 100,000 Union troops faced about 52,000…

A Brief History On May 13, 1862, a black African-American slave, Robert Smalls, serving as a ship’s pilot on the CSS Planter, a Confederate armed steamship, managed to steal the ship and turn it over to US Navy forces outside Charleston, South Carolina.  It seems the 3 white officers had decided to take shore leave overnight, leaving Smalls and several other slaves on the ship. Digging Deeper Smalls masterminded the escape of the ship with himself in disguise wearing the Captain’s uniform and straw hat.  Not only did Smalls successfully present the ship to the Union Navy, but he also…

A Brief History On June 24, 1779, the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War began at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea at the British Fortress of Gibraltar.  Spanish and French forces greatly outnumbered the British forces, in men, guns, and ships, and yet after almost 4 years of siege the British had held firm and Gibraltar is known as a metaphor for an impenetrable fortress.  Spain and France had attempted to take advantage of British preoccupation with its war in America to gang up on their old foe, and had gone to war in a back handed support…

A Brief History On October 14, 1939, German submarine U-47 captained by Gunther Prien stealthily crept into the Royal Navy’s main anchorage at Scapa Flow and sank the British battleship HMS Royal Oak, an audacious and remarkable feat of skill and daring.  Military men and women have performed heroically quite often, but not as often with a truly amazing degree of skill and daring.  Here we list 10 of those feats of military success that most captivate us.  What military feats impress you? Digging Deeper 10. Sinking of Royal Oak, 1939. Piloting his sub into the British Navy’s back yard…