INSTANT ARTICLES | War History

Hellburners – 16th Century Weapons Of Mass Destruction Entire Ships Packed With Gunpowder

Jay Hemmings

When one thinks of weapons of mass destruction, such as incendiary weapons that can raze towns to the ground, or bombs that can level cities…

The Brave Catholic Priest Who Volunteered To Die In A Stranger’s Place

Auschwitz is a name that will live on through history as a dark reminder of the worst evils men are capable of perpetrating. Perhaps the…

Blitzkrieg Was Literally Fueled by Speed Part of an Effort to Make Individuals “superhuman”

The Third Reich, a nation built on drugs. This title reaches all the way up to the upper echelons of the Nazi hierarchy. We all…

Tamerlane Wiped Out Perhaps 17 Million People With Just Fire & Swords

Generally, people who study history don’t like to compare horrors. By engaging in debates about which war was the most costly, which epidemic killed the…

How a Vietnam War Photographer Saved Marines by Jumping on a Grenade, Awarded the Medal of Honor Posthumously

At the National Museum of American History, going through the Medal of Honor segment of The Price for Freedom: Americans at War, you would see…

Pegasus Bridge: Why Did a British Soldier Shell a Maternity Hospital On D-Day?

The scale and complexity of the Allied D-Day landings in World War II was immense, so some shocking events were inevitable. However, the French citizens…

USS Archerfish: Sinking the 72,000-ton Aircraft Carrier Shinano

USS Archerfish (SS-311) was a Balao-class submarine named after a toxotoid fish. The archerfish is an adept predator that shoots a high-pressure stream of water to stun…

Slim Pickens Stated His Profession Was “rodeo”, the Recruiter Heard “radio”, Slim Spent WW2 as a Radio Operator

There are three ways to do things: the right way, the wrong way, and the army way. During World War II, millions of men donned…

Kangaroo Squadron American Courage in the Darkest Days of WW2

Mark Barnes

I am pleased to get my reviewing year off to a blistering start with this superb book from the historian Bruce Gamble. In it, he…

Ulfberht, Mysterious Viking Sword Made With Technology That Didn’t Exist For Another 800 Years

Ruslan Budnik

Ulfberht: unique swords with the inscription +VLFBERHT+ on the blade, dated between the 9th and 11th centuries. In the Viking Age, the privilege of having…

To This Day, The Myth Still Abounds: Why Didn’t The Germans Invade Switzerland?

By the end of 1940, the German Wehrmacht had overrun most of its neighbors — only brave little Switzerland remained free. But why did Adolf…

WW2 Spy Who Pulled Off A Real Life James Bond Mission & Inspired An Iconic Goldfinger Scene

The opening scene to 1964’s Goldfinger, one of the most popular and critically-acclaimed James Bond movies, portrays the famous spy at his deadliest and most…