A Brief History On May 11, 2020, CNN and other news agencies reported the Iranian Navy while conducting exercises in the Gulf of Oman accidentally killed 19 of their own sailors and wounded another 15. As we have reported many times in the past, Naval Oops Moments seem to be without any limit, with no navy in the world immune from catastrophic blunders. We have also reported on incidents concerning so called “friendly fire,” when your own people accidentally shoot, blow up or target their own comrades or equipment. Sometimes both of these military mishaps come together and combine into…
Browsing: Society
Read More
A Brief History On May 12, 1942, the German Kriegsmarine submarine, U-507, a Type IXC boat, sank an American tanker, the SS Virginia, with one of its deadly torpedoes while the tanker was in the mouth of the Mississippi River, an affront to the United States bringing deadly danger to shipping right to America’s doorstep. During World War II the submarine fleets of each navy of the major powers played an outsized role in effective naval warfare, and also put the crews of those submarines in more peril than any other naval duty. We have dealt with the subject of…
A Brief History On May 9, 2015, the 70th anniversary of the German surrender in World War II, Russia, led by dictator (President of the Federation of Russia) Vladimir Putin, conducted the most massive military parade in the history of Russia/USSR, the likes of which could never be pulled off in the United States, undoubtedly to the chagrin of President Donald Trump! Digging Deeper After viewing an extravagant military parade in France honoring the anniversary of Bastille Day in 2017, American President Donald Trump developed a severe case of parade envy, and resolved to stage a spectacular military parade in…
A Brief History On May 8, 1945, the French territory of Algeria, a colony incorporated into greater France since 1830, was the scene of one of the great massacres of protesters against colonial rule in European colonial history. The native Algerian, almost exclusively Muslim, population of Algeria had long chafed under French colonial rule, and although most in France now considered Algeria as an integral part of France proper, World War II brought a new wave of national fervor to the Algerians wishing for independence. Digging Deeper During the German occupation of France (1940-1944), the Free French had established a…
A Brief History On May 7, 1763, the Indian versus Colonist conflict known as Pontiac’s War began, so called in a nod to the Native American chief that had put together a confederation of Native people in an attempt to oust British colonists from the Great Lakes region, including Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois. Pontiac must rank among the greatest of American statesmen for his accomplishment of uniting 15 tribes in his war against the British/American colonists. After 3 years of bloody warfare, the war ended in a sort of stalemate, although the Native Americans did win certain concessions from the…