Browsing: Military

A Brief History On January 9, 1941, the premier British bomber of World War II, the Avro Lancaster, made its maiden flight.  “The Lanc,” as it was known, was the main British bomber that carried the war to Germany. Digging Deeper With its enormous bomb bay, the Lancaster was capable of carrying the biggest bomb load and the largest single bomb.  It was the only airplane of the war that could haul “blockbuster” giant bombs of 8,000, 12,000, and 22,000 pounds, while also carrying all the conventional bombs as well as anti-ship mines, incendiaries (fire bombs), and the “dam buster” specialty…

A Brief History On December 30, 1813, during the War of 1812, arson-happy British troops set the small city of Buffalo, New York ablaze as a means of punishing the upstart Americans.  Less than a year later, the British also ignited Washington D.C., the nation’s capital. Digging Deeper In fact, the British threated to burn towns down in an effort to extract ransoms from the townsfolk in exchange for not torching the buildings.  In this case, however, perhaps the British ire was somewhat justified because it was the U.S. that had declared war on Great Britain in the first place.  Of course, there…

A Brief History On June 25, 1940, the day France surrendered to the Nazis, Germany began planning the invasion of Switzerland in Operation Tannenbaum. Digging Deeper Between June and October of 1940, a plan was worked out that called for German divisions to invade Switzerland from the North and for Italian divisions to invade from the South, with both sides annexing the respective German/French and Italian parts.  The operation kept getting delayed, however, and after the Allied invasion at Normandy on D-Day, it was cancelled for good. The Swiss knew the German were planning to invade them.  In fact, in…

A Brief History On December 24, 1914, exactly 100 years ago today, British and German soldiers facing each other across No Man’s Land in the trenches of World War I confounded their superiors by leaving their trenches and walking out to meet and greet their enemies in the spirit of Christmas brotherhood. Digging Deeper Not only did the soldiers shake hands and converse but they even exchanged presents!  When they sang carols together, it just about gave the generals on both sides fits.  In some cases, football games (soccer) were played between opposing forces as well. French troops were a bit less eager…

A Brief History On December 20, 1941, the American Volunteer Group (AVG), better known by its nickname, the Flying Tigers, engaged in its first round of air-to-air combat when its fighters encountered Japanese “Sally” bombers.  Just in case you do not know, the AVG was a group of American flyers under the command of Claire Chennault that flew for China against the Japanese. Digging Deeper As you can tell by the date above, by the time the AVG got into combat, the U.S. was already at war with Japan, which kind of defeated the purpose of using “volunteers” from supposedly uninvolved countries.  A similar…