Browsing: Military

A Brief History On August 16, 1812, General William Hull of the U.S. Army surrendered Fort Detroit to an inferior English force.  American forces numbered about 2,100, while the combined English and Native American forces only numbered just over 1,300.  Hull was court-martialed, convicted and sentenced to death.  Luckily President Madison gave him a reprieve.  History is full of military blunders and dunderheads, and here we list 10 (in no particular order) of those unfortunate men who found themselves in a position to prove just what lousy tacticians they were.   Digging Deeper 10.  William Hull, U.S. Army. As described above, Hull…

A Brief History On August 15, 1947, India became an independent country, thereby making George VI of the United Kingdom the last British emperor of India and signaling the end of one of history’s largest empires.  No leader has ever conquered the entire world. Some have conquered whole countries, while others have taken over the greater half of continents. Europe has been one of the most densely populated continents for centuries. The first humans arrived in Europe approximately 1.75 million years ago. Prehistoric Europe consisted of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations that collapsed around 1,200 BC. The majority of early…

A Brief History On August 13, 1918, Opha Mae Johnson became the first of 305 women to enlist in the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, proving that women can do and be just about anything!  Taking over clerical duties in the U.S. while the men went overseas, these first female Marines were unofficially called “Marinettes.”  Although first formed during World War I, the Women’s Reserve was again mobilized during World War II and only became a permanent part of the Marine Corps in 1948.  The first female Lieutenant General (3-star rank) in the U.S. military was a Marine, Carol Mutter. …

A Brief History On August 12, 1944, German Nazi troops finished off a massacre of between 40,000 and 50,000 Poles, many of them Jewish.  The excuse for this massacre was to put down the Warsaw Uprising and to discourage any further resistance to the occupying forces. Digging Deeper After the Germans took over Poland in 1939 (with the Soviets coming in through Poland’s back door, stabbing their neighbor in the back), the conquered Poles were treated like subhuman slaves.  Finally in 1944, partisan forces rose up and fought back against the Nazi overlords in an attempt to kick the Germans…

A Brief History On August 9, 1945, a Boeing B-29 bomber named “Bockscar” dropped the second atomic bomb on Japan, incinerating 39,000 people within seconds.  In the following weeks, thousands more would die from exposure and their injuries, and more would keep dying from radiation-related illnesses for years to come.  The Japanese quickly surrendered after this second nuclear attack, but the question of whether or not this bomb was necessary still haunts Americans to this day. Digging Deeper “Bockscar” was part of a special B-29 unit specially trained for dropping atomic bombs.  The bombers were modified B-29s that had their bomb…