A Brief History On April 20, 1657, a fleet of 23 British Royal Navy warships sailed boldly into the defended harbor at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, to attack a Spanish treasure fleet anchored there. Braving fire from the anchored ships and the shore batteries, the British fleet sank 12 of the Spanish ships and captured the other 5, suffering only serious damage to one of their own ships. Digging Deeper The Spanish suffered 300 men killed, while the British lost 48 killed and 120 wounded. While England of course had warships for many, many years, the Royal Navy…
Browsing: Military
Read More
A Brief History On April 19, 1989, one of those naval oops moments we keep writing about occurred, and this particular one had catastrophic consequences for the history of the battleship. The Iowa class battleships (Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and New Jersey) produced by the US during World War II were the epitome of the type, combining the most effective combination of firepower, armor protection, speed and endurance of any of the ships of their kind. Digging Deeper The Iowa, lead ship of the greatest class of battleship ever produced, suffered an enormous explosion in the Number 2 turret when the…
A Brief History On April 18, 1996, the village of Qana in Southern Lebanon was shelled by artillery fire from the Israeli Defense Force, the official Israeli military organization. Unfortunately, Qana was the location of a United Nations compound manned by members of the Fijian United Nations Interim Force and had been providing haven to about 800 Lebanese civilian refugees. The attack left 4 of the Fijian soldiers wounded and killed 106 of the Lebanese civilians, injuring another 116 civilians. The bombardment was part of an Israeli offensive operation from April 11-April 27, 1996, known as Operation Grapes of Wrath,…
A Brief History On April 13, 1861, the US Army installation known as Fort Sumter located at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, surrendered to the rebellious forces of the fledgling Confederate States of America after a bombardment. The next day, the fort was surrendered to the Confederates with no men killed on either side. While the armed forces of the United States have been overwhelmingly successful over the course of many wars and conflicts, there have been those inevitable times with failure has resulted in the humiliating surrender of American military personnel and/or installations or ships. Today we address some of…
A Brief History On April 12, 1012, Jaromir, Duke of Bohemia, was deposed by the Duke Oldřich of Bohemia. Of course, merely deposing a royal leader is not good enough, so the Duke Oldřich also had Jaromir blinded before the unlucky now former Duke was forced to flee to Poland. But it gets worse! Digging Deeper Oldřich was the brother of Jaromir, and both of them had been exiled by their other brother, Duke Boleslaus III in 1002. It seems Jaromir had rebelled against Boleslaus III, and the irritated Duke had Jaromir castrated (his own brother!) before banishing both brothers…