How An Explosion In Northern New Jersey Put 62,000 People Onto The Front Lines Of World War 1
By October 1918, the 1st World War was winding down. It was clear to most observers that the Western Allies would be victorious. Life in…
A Bridge Too Far: The Amazing Story of the Battle of Arnhem
Richard Attenborough’s masterful film A Bridge Too Far was adapted from Cornelius Ryan’s book of the same name. It throws the audience into the midst…
When An American Submarine Took Out a Japanese Troop Train and Much More in the Pacific in WW2
On the 22nd of January, 1945, 30 Japanese merchant ships sat in Namkwan Harbor, in Southern China. They felt safe in their well-defended home, surrounded…
Tsingtao: A Microcosm of the First World War
When Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, a global war erupted. Both nations had colonial possessions around the world. Those small colonies,…
The 1905 Mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin
In the abortive revolution of 1905, the Russian Black Sea Fleet was a powder keg of discontent. In the war with Japan, the Russian navy had…
Meet Chief Dog Sinbad, The Cheerful and Brave Coast Guard Mascot of WW2
The Coast Guard Cutter Campbell steamed out from New York in the winter of 1937. Like most peacetime cutters, she was patrolling the American coast,…
The Ranger and the Drake: John Paul Jones Brings the American Revolution to Britain
Early in the morning of April 24, 1778 a strange ship lay at anchor just off of Carrickfergus, Ireland. HMS Drake, the nearest English ship…
Robert Smalls, a slave, stole a Confederate ship and earned his freedom
A year after the start of the American Civil War, a slave helped turn the tide of the fighting around Charleston Harbor. He was Robert…
When Soldiers, Sailors, And Civilians Celebrated Victory in Europe with a Riot in Halifax
May 8th, 1945, was greeted with elation, parades, and revelry around the world. On this day, Victory in Europe was officially achieved, and the Second…
A 20th-Century Siege in 1809: The Second Siege of Zaragoza
Many consider bitter house to house fighting to be a 20th-century invention, and a 21st-century norm. But in 1809 one Spanish city, Zaragoza, resisted French…
Against All Odds – When United States Revenue Cutter Eagle Defended Itself For Three Days
On October 11, 1814, the town of Riverhead, on Long Island, erupted with the sound of cannon fire. Iron balls whistled over the cliffs on…
The Tragedy of the Destroyer USS Leopold
Convoy escort during WWII could be both a terrifying or dull affair. Sailors spent hours peering into gray seas, searching for and dreading the prospect…