The public mostly remembers the North American P-51 Mustang as the fighter plane that protected Allied bombers over Germany and Japan during World War II. Overshadowed by newer jet fighters by the time war broke out in Korea in 1950, the re-designated F-51’s relative technological backwardness became a qualified blessing for close air support…
Category: Historical Study
Cold War Files: The Soviet’s Secret Moon Base That Never Was
The earliest plans for the Soviet outpost on the Moon sported a soil-drilling habitat and rocket-fuel-burning internal combustion engine. A quarter-century after the Soviet space program dropped its thick veil of secrecy, many fascinating details about the enormous scope of the USSR’s space ambitions are still trickling in. The latest treasure trove of information quietly…
World War Two History: The Guns of Cap Grip Nez
“The Dover Strait became the scene of one of World War Two’s longest-running battles.” (Originally published in MilitaryHistoryNow.com on Nov. 19, 2014) THE NARROW SPAN OF WATER separating Dover, England from the Pas-de-Calais, France has long been one of the most strategically vital locations on the map of Europe. And at no time was that…
Know Your Constitutional History: The 1791 Jefferson/Hamilton Debate on National Bank
This February is the 225th anniversary of Alexander Hamilton’s and Thomas Jefferson’s famous 1791 debate—carried on in President George Washington’s cabinet—over the constitutionality of Hamilton’s proposed Bank of the United States. It might seem strange to call such an anniversary to mind. After all, we usually celebrate our great moments of national agreement (like the…
Interesting History: The Top 10 Worst Execution Methods of All Time
Whether involving rats, spikes, or boiling oil, the worst execution methods ever invented prove that humans have mastered the art of torture and death. If the last few thousand years of human history have shown us to be good at one thing, it’s the art of inflicting painful, humiliating death on one another. Whether using…
The Bad Ass Files: Russian Soldier Jacob Pavlov
“Pavlov’s small group of men, defending one house, killed more enemy soldiers than the Germans lost in taking Paris.” – Lt. Gen. Vasily Chuikov The Battle of Stalingrad is the single bloodiest battle in human history. Over the course of sixth months of non-stop, ultra over-the-top-in-a-bad-way combat, this unfathomably-violent blood fiesta ended the lives of…
Netflix Pix for January 2016
The movies in this Pix are not only set during World War Two, but also deal in a subject that I have been interested in for quite a while: Intelligence Operations regarding the OSS and SOE. The Heavy Water War As many of you know I am a HUGE fan of World War…
Espionage Files: The CIA’s Phoenix Program in Vietnam and the “War on Terror”
The Phoenix Program in Vietnam in many ways provides a blue print for our own times. Assassinations and torture are the essence of the war on terror. As are death squads and false flag terror attacks. As are mass surveillance of the populace. Thanks to the work of Douglas Valentine in his classic book “The Phoenix…
World War II History: The Antonescu Paradox
Hitler’s Romanian ally led an utterly barbaric regime — that while often protecting Jews inside Romania’s borders, murdered them indiscriminately just outside those borders. The Jewish cemetery of Jassy, in northeastern Romania, occupies one of the highest spots in the city. It is quite literally vast, crowded with graves for hundreds of yards in different…
Military History: Junior Generalissimos – 9 of History’s Youngest Commanders
“While a 30-something three-star is certainly a rarity in the annals of military history, a number of other legendary leaders assumed the mantle of command at far younger ages. Consider these.” IT’S BEEN SAID THAT WAR IS A YOUNG MAN’S GAME. Need proof? Look no further than James M. Gavin. James Gavin, pictured here before…