Browsing: Military

A Brief History On September 1, 1939, US Army General George C. Marshall, Jr. was appointed as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army.  Marshall would go on to lead the American military effort through World War II and later be appointed General of the Army, a 5 star rank created so that the United States military would have general officers equivalent to the European Allies’ Field Marshal rank.  (It would not do to have a lesser rank American in charge of Allied Field Marshals.) Digging Deeper George Marshall was a highly competent officer and not one prone…

A Brief History On August 15, 1281, the army and navy forces of the Mongol/Chinese Emperor Kublai Khan were destroyed at the Battle of Kōan, an attempt to invade and conquer Japan.  Aided by a fortuitous weather situation called by the Japanese a “Divine Wind” (or “Kamikaze” in Japanese), the Mongol forces were defeated, and Kublai Khan never did get to conquer Japan.  In fact, the great Khan had previously made an attempt at conquering Japan to add to his vast empire, back in 1271, and that attempt was also failed by a “Divine Wind!”  Genghis Khan and his grandson,…

A Brief History On August 14, 1937, the Japanese invasion of China that started July 7, 1937, at the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, saw the first air to air combat of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War and arguably the first air to air combat of World War II (presuming you consider the start of the war between Japan and China as the start of World War II).  While Japanese aviation and aviators are often given accolades as the best trained and equipped air forces in the Pacific theater early in World War II, this first aerial combat resulted in a resounding…

A Brief History On August 8, 2000, the remains of Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley were raised to the surface 136 years after this pioneering vessel was sunk, probably by itself during the US Civil War.  The Hunley joins the roster of famous or infamous vessels that have been discovered on the sea floor and either raised or with major parts of the vessel recovered.  Today we list 10 of the most famous or interesting such shipwrecks (though 5 of them are from one incident!). Digging Deeper 1. HL Hunley, Confederate Submarine, sunk 1864, recovered 2000. We have previously discussed the…

A Brief History On August 7, 1942, US Marines landed on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands chain, initiating the first US ground offensive of World War II (a subject we previously covered in our article “First U.S. Offensive of World War II Begins on Guadalcanal”).  When those Marines hit the beach, they were equipped with the M1903 Springfield rifle, a classic bolt action rifle that first saw action during World War I.  When the US Army soldiers later landed on the island to reinforce the Marines, the soldiers were equipped with the newer M-1 Garand semi-automatic rifle,…