Browsing: Military

A Brief History On February 20, 1864, the Union and Confederate armies fought the Battle of Olustee, the largest land battle of the American Civil War (1861-1865) in Florida.  Although the tide of the war had turned in favor of the Union by February of 1864, this particular battle was won by the Confederate forces, more or less ending the ground war in Florida. Digging Deeper Union General Truman Seymour had landed near Jacksonville and was supposed to stay put, acting as a blocking force to prevent Confederate food and other supplies from moving through the area.  Encouraged by little…

A Brief History On February 17, 1370, the Teutonic Knights fought a great battle against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a battle known as the Battle of Rudau.  This particular battle was one in the series of wars called “The Northern Crusades,” a war to impose the Christian religion on Pagan people in Northern Europe, especially in the Baltic region.  The “other” Crusades, those in the Middle East as a Christian effort to take and retain control of Jerusalem and “The Holy Lands” against Islamic forces is much better known, and had been discussed on our site at length.  Today,…

A Brief History On February 16, 1804, the U.S. Navy conducted a stunningly audacious raid to deny the enemy the use of an American warship by concocting a ruse that allowed American sailors into the jaws of the enemy harbor to sink a captured American frigate.  The American Navy managed to sink the captured ship and escape under heavy gunfire, a heroic and successful raid marking a high point in the bravery and cunning of the U.S. Navy. Digging Deeper The United States had been having troubles with pirates along the Barbary Coast (modern Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) resulting…

A Brief History On February 14, 2019, yet another of the many Valentine’s Day massacres took place, this time in India, leaving 41 people dead and another 35 people wounded.  The attack was a suicide bombing of an Indian security forces convoy in the disputed region of Kashmir (more exactly, the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, at the village of Lethpora).   (See our other Valentine’s Day related articles.) Digging Deeper The Kashmir region, on the border of India and Pakistan, is a disputed area that the 2 countries have fought over ever since the division of India into sovereign…

A Brief History On February 9, 1941, during World War II, a giant naval artillery shell dropped on the Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa, Italy (usually just called The Genoa Cathedral) failed to explode, sparing the church from destruction.  Fired by the British battleship HMS Malaya, the 15 inch armor piercing projectile was mistakenly fired at the wrong target, and incredibly, the shell remains in place to this day!  Today we take a look at some instances when a bomb or other explosive failed to either detonate at all or detonate without achieving its intended purpose of destruction.  As…