Browsing: Military

A Brief History On February 7, 1863, the waters off New Zealand witnessed the worst maritime disaster in that country’s history when the Royal Navy corvette, HMS Orpheus went aground and sank while trying to enter Manukau Harbour, leaving 189 of the 259 man crew dead.  We have discussed numerous naval and maritime “oops moments” in which blunders have sunk or heavily damaged ships, often with the cost of many lives. Digging Deeper The Orpheus was fitted out as a “full rigged ship,” although she also had a steam engine that powered a single screw drive (propeller).  Classed as a…

A Brief History On February 5, 1918, American US Army soldier Stephen W. Thompson while flying as a machine gunner in a French airplane shot down a German aircraft, the first ever air to air combat victory by an American member of the US Military.  Previous incidents of Americans shooting down enemy airplanes and balloons during World War I came as those Americans were NOT part of the US military, but were fighting as part of a foreign military, such as the volunteers that flew for the Lafayette Escadrille. Digging Deeper In 1917, as the US was about to enter…

A Brief History On February 2, 2020, we celebrate yet another Groundhog Day, a day in which Winter weary people find out if we are in for 6 more weeks of Winter or if we are facing the joy of an early Spring.  As implied by the name of the day, an actual Groundhog is “consulted” for his (or her) “prediction.”  But…. This year the animal rights organization, PETA, is recommending we immediately end this act of animal cruelty (?) and replace our beloved Marmots with (gasp!) animatronic replicas of Groundhogs!  A discussion of why this plan is “stupid” is…

A Brief History On January 27, 1939, one of the great American fighter planes of World War II, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, made its first flight.  Appropriately named, the Lightning was the fastest fighter in the world at that time, being the first to exceed 400 mph in level flight.  Far from an anomaly, the P-38 was not the only important twin engine fighter plane to grace the skies during combat operation in World War II and the Korean War,  Today we look at 10 of the best 2 engine fighter aircraft from the peak of the piston powered era,…

A Brief History Although World War I (1914-1918) was pretty much rudimentary in terms of weapons and weaponry, so to say, you would still expect its deadliest weapon to be a firearm – for example, a sniper rifle or even a pistol; however, a couple of web searches will show you that, among the Gewehr and the Bergmann, you can also find a primitive weapon – namely the German Flechette. It is also known as the Aerial Dart. Believe it or not, the Flechette was one of the deadliest weapons that a nation could use back in 1915-1916. In fact,…