Machinery & Gear | War History

Battlecruisers: A Flawed Naval Experiment of WWI

WWI was a time of change in naval warfare. Heavy dreadnoughts were replacing older, more vulnerable ships. Submarines made their first serious appearance in combat.…

When The Germans Desperately Needed To Counter The T-34, This Was Their Design

The Panther was not as thickly armoured, nor as heavily armed, as tanks such as the Tiger but was probably a much more balanced design.…

The Fateful Last Mission Of Jack Rittichier, Coast Guard Rescue Pilot In Vietnam

The United States Coast Guard is world-renowned for its excellence in helicopter rescue operations. Few people realize how effective this was used during the Vietnam…

Saddam’s Secret Super Gun – Project Babylon

Project Babylon was an Iraqi code name for the construction of a supergun, commissioned by Sadam Hussein in 1988. The engineer in charge of the…

Two Amazing Stories From USCGC Escanaba – Heroism And Heartbreak In The North Atlantic, 1943

The Rescue of the Dorchester USCGC Escanaba was steaming along calmly on February 2, 1943. She was part of a six-ship convoy; three escorts, and…

The Many Types Of Ships Used In The Napoleonic Wars

It is a common misconception that the Navies of the Napoleonic Wars used only massive ships, crewed by hundreds of men, which would slowly close and…

The Early Days Of Drones – Unmanned Aircraft From WWI & WWII

Unmanned aerial vehicles, popularly known as drones, are most often associated with airstrikes in modern warfare, but their history goes much further back than that.…

Reinhard Heydrich’s Mercedes – Found In A Garage, Carefully Restored, Then Sold at Auction

On June 26th, the Danish Auction Company, Campen Auctioneer, auctioned off what may very well be the car that Reinhard Heydrich owned and suffered fatal wounds…

When The Nuclear Submarine USS San Francisco Crashed Into An Undersea Mountain

Launched in 1979, the USS San Francisco is the third American ship, boat or submarine to carry a title featuring San Francisco in the name.  In…

Kaiten: The Japanese Suicide Submarines in WWII

During the last months of World War II, as the Japanese were becoming desperate, they turned to a new kind of weapon. While it incorporated…

The Tragedy Of The Russian Submarine “Kursk” – A Naval Disaster For Russia In The Year 2000

The Kursk submarine disaster was the largest naval tragedy ever to happen in the Russian Federation during peacetime.  The country had been experiencing a lot of…

Undersea Stealth: The First Submarines To Ever Sink Ships – In The American Civil War

The submarines of the United States Civil War were not the first to appear on the sea. The successful use of submersibles dates to Alexander…