Browsing: Military

A Brief History On March 22, 1943, a battalion of military police fighting for Germany was attacked by Byelorussian partisans near the village of Khatyn. Digging Deeper The Nazi 118th Battalion was commanded by a German officer, but mostly manned by Ukrainians that hated the Soviet regime, criminals, and Soviet prisoners of war and deserters willing to oppose the Soviet Union. Suffering 4 men dead from the attack by partisans, including their commander, the enraged battalion went through the village of Khatyn and forced all the population into a barn. The Nazis, having committed similar atrocities throughout Belarus and other…

A Brief History This weekend, two epic films set during Greco-Roman history vie for box office dominance: 300: Rise of an Empire (total worldwide gross as of March 10, 2014: $132,850,000) set during the Greco-Persian Wars and Pompeii (total worldwide gross as of March 10, 2014: $78,168,000) set during the height of the Roman Empire, but how accurate are they historically speaking? Digging Deeper: 300: Rise of an Empire Quite a bit of well put together articles have addressed the factual accuracy and inaccuracy of 300 (see for example here and here), but less has been written about the prequel/sidequel/sequel…

Dear readers, in March of 2014, we posted an article about Colt’s revolver, but what are some more famous pistols in history?  Read on to find out the top ten!  The order is not important, but their fame and renown is.  Television, movies, books and popularity use all factor into fame and notoriety with pistols.  What pistols and revolvers would come to your mind as famous?  (Or infamous, as the case may be?) 10. Smith & Wesson J-Frame (.38 S&W Special) The snub nosed .38 all the detectives used to carry in the movies from the 1940’s to the 1980’s…

A Brief History In another article, we featured an interesting fact of Adolf Hitler (Adolf Hitler only became a naturalized German citizen on February 25, 1932.)  Here we list 10 more little-known facts about one of history’s most evil men! Digging Deeper 10. Hitler was a vegetarian and frequently had gas!  Irritable bowel syndrome, syphilis and heart problems may also have ailed him. 9. Hitler had been a corporal during World War I, was decorated for bravery and wounded by poison gas.  (No connection to the above!) 8. Hitler’s father was illegitimate, originally given the last name of Schicklgruber and later changing it to Hitler (or Hiedler,…

A Brief History On February 13, 1945, bombers from the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the American Air Force (USAAF) struck the eastern German city of Dresden, a city so beautiful it was once known as the “Florence on the Elbe,” incinerating tens of thousands of people. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the Allies decisively beating the military forces of Nazi Germany on all fronts, including in the air. The British were particularly bitter about the destruction and death caused to British cities and civilians at the hands of Germany’s Luftwaffe (air force) early in the war and then again…