CRAWLING THROUGH THE DECAYED NUCLEAR MISSILE BASES OF THE USSR Editor’s note: In December 2015, two Army intelligence officers set out on a trip to explore the mysterious remnants of the Soviet Union in the Baltic States. In the first of this two part series, they showed War on the Rocks readers what they saw…
Category: Historical Study
Military History: The Amazing Legacy of Military Aviation Legend Chuck Meyers
Chuck Myers Was a ‘Fighter Mafia’ Legend He helped pioneer nimble air-superiority fighters, the A-10 Warthog and played a pivotol role in bringing back the battleship Charles E. “Chuck” Myers, a valued and colorful member of the military reform movement and “Fighter Mafia” co-conspirator, died on May 9 at the age of 91. He devoted…
World War II History: The Battle of Metz 1944
For those, like this writer, who esteem the arts of modern fortification, Metz is the Florence of military architecture. I greet the spring each year in Metz. This imposing city combines the dazzling, art modern architecture of the France’s Maginot Line with the pre-World War I older forts of the great builder, Serré de Rivières….
Obscure History: The Supreme Court Justice Who Shot a Senator
If, like me, you are dispirited by our national political climate, you may occasionally entertain the sense that you are witness to an era of unprecedented moral debasement. Creeping oligarchy, the re-emergence of an atavistic paleo-conservatism, the slow death-wheeze of the fourth estate, the rise of a relentlessly cheery techno-utopian Gatsby class—we’ve got a lot…
Guerilla Warfare History: Pictorial History of the IRA and “The Troubles”
From 1968 to 1998, Northern Ireland was the battleground of a guerrilla war known as The Troubles. On one side was the Protestant majority called the Unionists, who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. On the other side were the Nationalists, a Catholic minority who sought to become part of the…
Ancient History: 10 Recent Discoveries
Not very long ago, the common consensus was that “civilization” developed slowly in Europe. Outside of the Mediterranean civilizations of Greece and Italy, ancient Europe was a backwater full of barbaric tribesmen who mostly lived in hut-like dwellings. Most laymen and many historians would say that compared to Sumer, Babylon, China, Egypt, and the Indus…
Modern Texas History: The Worst Industrial Disaster in U.S. History
The deadliest industrial disaster in U.S. history occurred on April 16, 1947, in Texas City, Texas. When the French ship SS Grandcamp exploded, a thousand buildings were destroyed and hundreds of people were killed. Among the dead were half the firefighters in the Texas City Fire Department. All of their firefighting equipment was destroyed, too,…
History of the Middle Ages: King John, The Worst Monarch in English History?
I would be amiss not to mention the excellent Sword-play movie set during this very time period, Ironclad, with Paul Giamatti playing the role of King John. -SF When it comes to Kings (and Queens) of England, there is strong competition as to who can claim the title of being the worst in the nation’s…
Holocaust History: The Salvadoran Savior of 25K Jews During WW2
At least 25,000 were rescued from Nazi hands by diplomat Jose Arturo Castellanos’s false citizenship papers RIO DE JANEIRO — An army colonel and diplomat from El Salvador who helped save tens of thousands of Jews from Nazi persecution during World War II by providing them with false Salvadoran identity papers was honored in…
World War II History: Los Angeles Examiner Publishes a Map in 1937 Predicting How Japan Could Attack America
On November 7, 1937, the Los Angeles Examiner published a prescient map predicting how Imperial Japan could attack the US during World War II. Created by Howard A. Burke, the map imagined a Japanese attack on the US that closely predicted the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor four years later on December 7, 1941. Burke…