Browsing: Military

A Brief History On September 12, 1942, one of the saddest and most regrettable incidents of World War II took place following the sinking of the British ocean liner the RMS Laconia by torpedoes from a German U-boat. Digging Deeper The Laconia was the second British liner to bear that name. The first, in an ominous preview of history repeating itself, was sunk by a U-boat during World War I.  Fitted with 8 x 6 inch guns and 2 x 3 inch guns, the passenger liner was as heavily armed as a light cruiser and thus a legitimate target for U-boats.  On September 12, 1942,…

A Brief History On September 10, 1939, with its torpedoing of its own submarine, the HMS Oxley, the British Royal Navy proved quite early in World War II that there is such as thing as “friendly fire.”  Digging Deeper In the military they play around with the words and say that “there is no such thing as friendly fire,” meaning that no fire is friendly, however, the true definition of “friendly fire” is the unintentional harming of one’s own troops or allied troops, basically one’s “friends.”  Bullets, rockets, bombs and torpedoes will kill your own people just as fast as they will kill the enemy, and sometimes…

A Brief History On September 9, 1739, the Stono Slave Rebellion, the largest slave revolt in pre-revolutionary British America took place in Charleston, South Carolina.  Throughout history, humans have kept other humans as slaves.  Some slaves resisted; some even revolted successfully.  Here 10 incidents when slaves had finally had enough and rose up against their masters are listed.   Digging Deeper 10. Stono Rebellion, British North American Colonies, 1739. In this rebellion, also known as “Cato’s Rebellion” after its leader, an educated slave, African slaves from the Congo, some of whom were former soldiers, attempted to break free and travel to Florida…

A Brief History On September 7, 1942, the Consolidated B-32 Dominator strategic bomber made its first flight.  Only developed as a fallback in case the Boeing B-29 Superfortress was not successful, the B-32 could not hold its own, and only 118 were built.  Over the years, many weapons or weapons systems have proven themselves to be disappointments.  Here 10 of those are listed, in no particular order. (Please also see the similarly-themed History and Headlines articles: “10 Weapons and Weapons Systems that Flopped” and “10 Weapons That Never (Or Barely) Went into Service.”)  Can you think of any weapons that fall into these categories? Digging Deeper 10. Consolidated B-32 Dominator. As mentioned…

A Brief History On September 1, 1983, a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 scrambled to intercept an airplane that had violated Soviet airspace over the Kamchatka Peninsula.  Suspecting the jet liner was actually a U.S. spy plane, the Soviet fighter fired 2 air-to-air missiles, easily shooting down the lumbering commercial airliner that was flying from New York City to Seoul, Korea via Anchorage, Alaska. Digging Deeper Soviet officials at first denied involvement in the shootdown.  Then they claimed the fighter had first called the airliner on the radio before firing warning shots with tracer ammunition.  Years later, when the Soviet Union dissolved, more complete information…