One of the most beloved and hated weapons of World War II was the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). Another of John Browning’s classic designs, it was literally the first Squad Automatic Weapon. Though it lives on in weapon lore, like we said earlier, it had its detractors. World War II Marine William Manchester wrote in…
Category: Military History
Modern War: Drone Choppers Help Hunt Top-Tier Terrorist in Africa
On Jan. 14, 2014, USS Elrod left her home port in Norfolk, Virginia for what, to outsiders, might have seemed like a routine six-month trip to the Mediterranean. Carrying a detachment of four MQ-8B Fire Scout drone helicopters, the nearly 30-year-old frigate would visit various ports and train with America’s allies, according to an official…
World War II History: The Anniversary Of The Great Patriotic War: June 22, 1941
For all you Fellow WW2 Historians out there understand this video was put out by RT, Russia Today, which is the Propaganda Machine of the Russian Federation. Now I am not disputing the facts of the video but I do take issue with it’s arrogance. Although the Soviet Union did suffer during WW2, if it…
Surveillance State: The U.S. Governments New Spy Sattelite
The second week of June 2016, the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office launched NROL-37, carrying its latest spy satellite into geosynchronous orbit via a Delta IV-Heavy rocket. But it only took amateur space enthusiasts a few days to locate the mysterious new craft in the skies near Malaysia, over the Strait of Malacca. While the contents and…
World War II History: Barbarossa And It’s Lesson For The Living
75 years ago this morning at 0315 Central European Time, the valiant and ruthless German race was thrust into a war of annihilation against the Soviet empire, in what became the dominant theatre in the largest-scale conflict in world history, World War II. Named after Frederick I, the red-bearded King of Germany and Holy Roman…
Profiles in Courage: Hershel “Woody” Williams Explains the Qualities of a Good Marine
Medal of Honor recipient Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams discusses the Battle of Iwo Jima’s impact on his life and the sacrifice of his fellow Marines. To Hershel “Woody” Williams, the Medal of Honor he wears around his neck does not belong to him. It’s not because he isn’t worthy of it, he undoubtedly is. For Williams,…
Crusader Corner: 7 Myths of the Crusades
Spearheaded by the likes of Obama. Editor’s note: The following book review of Seven Myths of the Crusades by Alfred J. Andrea and Andrew Holt, eds., first appeared in the Summer 2016 issue of the Middle East Quarterly and was written by Raymond Ibrahim, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. As the editors make…
Cold War Files: 10 Sinister Groups Behind the Cold War’s Craziest Conspiracy
In 1972, a fascist named Vincenzo Vinciguerra detonated a car bomb in the Italian town of Peteano. As Vinciguerra had planned, the attack was initially blamed on left-wing extremists. Years later, Vinciguerra explained his motives: “Our movement is pledged to target . . . ordinary people, to create conditions of anarchy. The resulting state of fear will mobilize public…
Know Your Weapons: The “Toophan”; The Iranian TOW Missile Knockoff
The CIA program to supply Arab rebels in Syria has made TOW anti-tank guided missiles a nearly ubiquitous sight in media coming from the conflict. But the United States might not be the only country waging a covert war with TOW (or TOW-like) missiles in the Middle East. Iranian reverse-engineered TOW anti-tank guided missiles, dubbed…
World War II History: These Men Were French Heroes Until They Were’nt
In a book about the French Revolution he was ghostwriting during the 1920s, Charles de Gaulle opined that some of the country’s generals had been stripped “of prestige, often of life, sometimes of honor.” As described in Julian Jackson’s De Gaulle, Marshal Philippe Pétain — the champion of Verdun — suggested the young captain move…