Browsing: Military

A Brief History On August 2, 1798, during the French Revolutionary Wars, the French fleet supporting then General Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt was defeated soundly by the British at the Battle of the Nile.  As would often continue during Napoleon’s stellar military career, the French Navy was perhaps the weakest link of Napoleon’s military might. Digging Deeper Napoleon Bonaparte was one of, if not THE, greatest military genius of all time, and in fact has had more written about him than any other mortal man in history!  The exception is Jesus Christ, arguably not considered a mortal man.  (Note:…

A Brief History On July 20, 1304, the forces of King Edward I of England successfully took Stirling Castle during the First War of Scottish Independence.  Although the Scots would ultimately maintain their independence, key to the English victory was the intimidating-sounding “Warwolf,” allegedly the largest trebuchet ever made.  This mighty siege engine catapulted rocks or other projectiles up to 300 pounds and was capable of battering down the walls of any castle.   We used this event to precipitate our article in 2015, “Weapons with Cool Names!”  We discussed the “importance” of giving your weapons and weapon systems cool names…

A Brief History On July 19, 1588, during the Anglo-Spanish War’s Battle of Gravelines, the ultimately doomed Spanish Armada was sighted in the English Channel.  The next couple of weeks were among the most harrowing in English and Spanish history.  Indeed, human history is full of exciting and often tragic events. The turning points in world history is an exciting topic for a discussion, but it might take us too long to discuss all of them. So, some of the most prominent events include: Early humans discovering and using fire; The fall of the Roman Empire; The period of the…

A Brief History On August 6, 1945, near end of World War II, a modified Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber dropped a uranium gun-type (“Little Boy”) bomb on Hiroshima.  Three days later, on August 9, a plutonium implosion (“Fat Man”) bomb was dropped by another B-29 on Nagasaki. The bombs immediately devastated their targets and, over the next two to four months, the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000–146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 people in Nagasaki.  World War II was one of the most deadly wars in history.  Over 15,000,000 people were killed in combat. 25,000,000 more…

A Brief History On July 9, 1962, the United States Defense Atomic Support Agency and Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) launched a rocket from a remote Pacific Ocean island called Johnston Island (or Johnston Atoll), a rocket carrying a thermonuclear bomb (aka, Hydrogen Bomb) into space.  The Thor rocket carried a W49 thermonuclear warhead, a 1.4 megaton yield device, that was detonated 250 miles above the Earth, about 900 miles West-Southwest of the Hawaiian Islands.  The blast took place about 11 pm local time in Hawaii. Digging Deeper This particular nuclear test in space was called Starfish Prime, an operation within…