Sillamae was Removed from Soviet Maps during the Cold War and now it’s a Popular Tourist Destination
A town in Estonia was removed from all Soviet maps during the Cold War but is now a popular resort destination on the Baltic coast.…
PT Boats Were Feared During WWII And Their One-Man Turrets Were Particularly Deadly
During WWII the US realized their PT boats had more potential than just simple torpedo dispensers. These rapid machines proved deadly as highly mobile machine…
The CIA Once Built a Giant Claw to Recover a Sunken Soviet Submarine
For the United States during the Cold War, no project was too crazy or too expensive. One of these, known as Project Azorian, cost the…
The CIA Lost Nine Cores of Plutonium in the Himalayas
Of all the things you don’t want to lose, radioactive plutonium cores are near the top of the list. But this is exactly what the…
The USS Enterprise’s ‘Bad Luck’ Saved It From Pearl Harbor And Turned It Into A ‘Ghost’
On December 7 1941 Japan carried out a vicious attack on the United States’ major naval base at Pearl Harbor. The attack was a preemptive…
The Movie ‘The Day After’ Put Ronald Reagan In Damage Control Over Nuclear Weapons
The 1983 television movie The Day After depicts a dark scenario where tensions between the US and the Soviet Union escalate to the point of…
Here’s how the Most Successful Submarine in US Navy History Accidentally Sunk Itself
The USS Tang is the US’ most successful submarine, sinking over 100,000 tons of enemy shipping over five combat patrols during WWII. Her experienced and…
The Bat Bomb Proves The US Military Will Try Anything Once
Of all the weird experimental weapons conceived and tested during WWII, bat bombs were one of the strangest. The project attempted to attach small bombs…
Robert Smalls: The Slave Who Stole A Warship, Escaped The Confederates, And Became A U.S. Congressman
The life of Robert Smalls is an epic underdog story of an illiterate slave from South Carolina who managed to free himself by escaping from…
Unexpected Animals that Served (And Almost Served) In War
Animals have been an important component of war for thousands of years, either to supplement manpower with the movement of supplies and equipment or in…
The Last Time a US Navy Vessel Sunk Another Ship And How It Happened
Currently, the only operational ship in the US Navy to have sunk another vessel is the 220-year-old USS Constitution, a wooden-hulled three-masted heavy frigate that…
Advanced Fighter Jets Still Carry Guns And For A Very Good Reason
Both the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II can carry missiles that are able to strike an enemy aircraft well over 30 miles away with…