Browsing: Military

A Brief History On October 30, 1806, 5,300 Prussian soldiers defending the city of Stettin surrendered to only 800 French soldiers commanded by General Lassalle, falling for the ruse that the French force was much larger.  We previously used this example of wartime trickery as the start of our article, “Fooled You! Battles Won by Trickery.”  Today we continue to explore the use of ruses, false information, decoys, fakes and general trickery in the conduct of warfare.  Here are some more such incidents, and like our previous article, concerning World War II (with other tricky battles from other wars to…

A Brief History On October 29, 1877, former Confederate States of America Army General Nathan Bedford Forrest died, but despite being an early member of the infamous racist organization, the Ku Klux Klan and serving as the first Grand Wizard of the notorious hate group, he had changed his tune, denying involvement with the Klan and denouncing the racism and violence associated with the KKK! Digging Deeper If you believe Nathan Bedford Forrest is something of a folk hero to White Supremacists, and conversely a hated and despised person by those seeking racial equality, you would be right!  Forrest’s contribution…

A Brief History From October 2, 1941 to January 7, 1942, the Battle of Moscow was fought on the Eastern Front of World War II (WWII).  The Battle for Moscow is known as the one in which Hitler’s military forces were stopped. This German defeat was an important event, given that the same military was able to advance through all of Europe with little to no resistance from the other countries. Therefore, the Russian leaders at the time, with their decisions, were able to change the course of the war for the good guys. Even if Hitler’s army seemed to…

A Brief History On October 12, 1654, the Dutch city of Delft was the scene of a spectacular tragedy when a large gunpowder storehouse exploded, destroying much of the city and killing over 100 people.  Another 1000+ people were injured.  The incident is remembered as “The Delft Explosion” or “The Delft Thunderclap,” and was certainly not a unique accident concerning gunpowder. Digging Deeper The Delft Explosion was precipitated by the caretaker of the gunpowder magazine (the term used for a powder storehouse), Cornelis Soetens, went to test a sample of the gunpowder.  Exactly what the ill fated man did is…

A Brief History On October 11, 1910, with aviation still in its infancy, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt took a flight in a Wright Brothers airplane piloted by Archibald Hoxsey, a former auto mechanic from Illinois.  The flight, which took place near St. Louis, Missouri, was the first time an American President had ever flown in an airplane, starting a long tradition of US Presidents flying to vacations, international meetings, campaign events, and whatever other reason the Executive needs to travel. Digging Deeper Oddly enough, Roosevelt’s flight was not the first ever by a national head of state, as the Tsar…