Browsing: Military

A Brief History On February 5, 1933, the crew of the Royal Netherlands Navy ship HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën mutinied while stationed off the coast of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies.  Fed up with harsh working conditions and an announced cut in pay, the crew consisting of both ethnically Dutch and Indonesian sailors seized control of the cruiser sized ship, not relinquishing control until the ship was bombed by Dutch warplanes 6 days later! Digging Deeper The 1930’s was a time of the Great Depression, and Europe was still recovering from the terrible effects of World War I.  Austerity…

A Brief History On January 31, 1918, Britain’s Royal Navy “fought” a battle with itself in the Scottish Firth of Forth near the Isle of May, a series of naval accidents in the dark and the mist that led to the loss of 104 British sailors killed.  A total of 8 Royal Navy submarines and ships were involved in 5 collisions, resulting in the loss of 2 submarines and damage to another 4 submarines and a light cruiser.  Our retelling of tale after tale of Naval “Oops” Moments (we have many articles in addition to the one in this link,…

A Brief History On January 28, 1980, the United States Coast Guard proved that their big brother, the United States Navy, does not have a monopoly on maritime blunders or misfortune.  Sadly, this particular “Naval Oops Moment” came at the cost of almost half the crew of the USCGC Blackthorn, a sea going buoy tender designated WLB-391 when the Coast Guard ship collided with the SS Capricorn, a tanker ship causing the Blackthorn to roll over and sink. Digging Deeper The Blackthorn, an Iris class buoy tender, was born during World War II, commissioned in 1944 as a Great Lakes ice…

A Brief History On January 26, 1856, elements of the United States Marine Corps fought a battle against a most unlikely of opponents, Native American warriors of the tribes in the Washington Territory, a battle with the catchy sounding name, The Battle of Seattle.  Like the vast majority of battles fought by the US Marine Corps, the result was a victory for the Devil Dogs, although this particular battle does not often come to mind when contemplating great USMC victories such as Iwo Jima, Belleau Wood, and Khe Sahn. Digging Deeper The Puget Sound War of 1855-1856 (sometimes called the…

A Brief History On January 24, 1915, the British Royal Navy Grand Fleet fought a sizable naval engagement against elements of the German Imperial High Seas Fleet in the North Sea at an area called Dogger Bank.  With all the attention the Battle of Jutland and the submarine war in the Atlantic get, it may be easy to forget there were other major naval engagements during World War I.  Today we discuss one of those naval battles, a battle won by the British, although like Jutland, a not satisfying victory. Digging Deeper The battle area, Dogger Bank, is a 160…