1898: Spanish at Guam Thought the Attacking USS Charleston Fired Salute Shots & Asked For Gunpowder To Return the Gesture
Manning a remote island fort, seemingly without any imminent danger on the horizon, must have made for a fairly comfortable post. That was the situation on…
Napoleon Inflicts The Greatest Defeat in Prussian Military History
The twin battles of Jena-Auerstadt proved a major turning point for not only the Napoleonic wars, but also for 19th century Europe as a whole.…
The Glorious First of June Broke One Of The Rules By Which We Understand Battles
The Glorious First of June broke one of the rules by which we understand battles – that there can be only one winner. After the…
Medal of Honor: The Man War Couldn’t Kill, Jumps On Two Grenades, Falls Out of An Airplane. Survives
For many young people, the outbreak of the greatest War this planet had ever seen would come just a little too early for them to…
The Defining Features of Incan Warfare
In the early 16th century, the Incas were one of the most powerful nations in the Americas. The greatest military force for thousands of miles,…
The Deadly Defiant, A Game-Changing British Warplane in WW2
The 1930s were an age of aeronautical experimentation. All around the world air forces were trying new and fascinating designs, searching for the perfect combination…
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,…
Starving Their Own Men: Britain’s Epic Supply Failure in the Crimea
The very least a soldier expects when sent on a campaign is to be fed, clothed and given the necessary equipment to carry out their…
Drunkenness, Disorder and the Plague: The Cadiz Fiasco Of The Royal Navy
The English navy has a reputation as a force to be reckoned with from the 16th century onwards. But in the early 17th century it…
An Italian Civil War in Spain: Guadalajara, 1937
Proxy wars have been an ugly feature of military history since ancient times, powerful nations turning others into battlegrounds without risking themselves in full-scale warfare.…
Battle of Omdurman – When The British With 11,000 Soldiers Took On 60,000 Natives in Sudan, Losing 47 Killed
All through the darkness of the night, a British infantryman waits nervously by the banks of the Nile. The Mahdists, infamously bloodthirsty savages, are just…
Victory For The Scottish Rebels At Bannockburn – Mud, Blood, And Sabotage
Fought on 23-24 June 1314, the Battle of Bannockburn is one of the most celebrated incidents in Scottish history. Having been conquered by the English…