Badass paratrooper or war criminal? It’s no secret this blog is a big fan of Ronald Spiers of Band of Brothers fame. I did a couple of pieces on him including When Men Were Men and All War Depends Upon It. This article is one of the most in-depth I have come across on…
Category: Military History
Know Your WW2 History: William Slim – A Soldier’s General
Via: Fix Bayonets Here is, perhaps, World War II’s greatest general, and hardly anyone today knows his name. Field Marshal William Slim is best known for commanding Fourteenth Army in Burma during the Second World War (1939-45). In taking command, he inherited a disastrous situation in which, with practical skill and quiet charisma,…
Know Your WW2 Pacific War History: The Battle of Peleliu – A Meat Grinder of the Pacific War
Battle of Peleliu – Revisting a Meat Grinder of the Pacific War This is a long but worthwhile read. The author, Capt. Dale Dye, USMC, Ret. is an astute Marine Corp and Military Historian. He was the military advisor on several series and movies such as Band of Brothers, The Pacific and Platoon. I…
Awakening the Saxon
The Wrath of the Awakened Saxon Rudyard Kipling It was not part of their blood, It came to them very late, With long arrears to make good, When the Saxon began to hate. They were not easily moved, They were icy — willing to wait Till every count should be proved, Ere the Saxon…
Know Your Military Psy-Op History: Operation Wandering Soul
The Ghostly Legacies of America’s War in Vietnam During the Vietnam War, as Viet Cong soldiers tried to sleep in the jungle at night, they sometimes heard an anguished, disembodied voice shrieking at them from the afterlife. The men heard the tormented, grief-stricken cries of a deceased comrade cautioning them against the futility of…
Know Your Obscure Military History: The Ravens
H/T Wynn For Further Study and Reading: The Ravens: The True Story Of A Secret War In Laos, Vietnam
Know You USMC History: Operation Starlite (1965)
H/T Fix Bayonets Locate, Close With, and Destroy There are two reasons for people to clash. First, because some people believe they have no other choice. A second reason is that it suits them. During OPERATION STARLITE, the 1st V.C. Regiment lost 615 men, either as killed in action or detained as…
Know Your Firearms History: The ‘Tiffany Guns’ of the Spanish-American War
The ‘Tiffany Guns’ of the Spanish-American War President Joe Biden has repeatedly suggested when it was first drafted there were restrictions to the Second Amendment. He pressed the point by stating that “you couldn’t own a cannon,” while more recently he’s made the argument that the Second Amendment isn’t absolute in that Americans today…
In Memoriam: Benghazi 9/11/12 – Never Forget
Today marks the 11th anniversary of the unprecedented attack on a U.S. Consulate and CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya that claimed the lives of four Americans– J. Christopher Stevens (U.S. Ambassador), Sean Smith (U.S. Foreign Service Information Officer), Glen “Bub” Doherty (U.S. Navy SEAL / CIA), and Tyrone S. “Rone” Woods (U.S Navy Seal…
Know Your Military History: Jump Boots – the Airborne Trademark
Jump Boots – the Airborne Trademark {If you are a fan of WW2 Military History, Pacific Paratrooper is one of the BEST Blogs around! Subscribe Today!} Distinctive as Airborne itself, so are the dark, glistening jump boots of a paratrooper. Troopers glory in their significance and only they know the secret pride when they…