I have a really neat document to share today, generously sent to me by a reader named Chris in the United Kingdom. These are the notes from a 1915 course on trench warfare as recorded by his grandfather, one Harold Rayner. Harold was born in 1885 in Surrey, and survived the war to live until 1973…
Category: Military History
Espionage Files: North Korea’s Shadow War, Part I
The Great Leader’s Shadow War In the late 1960s, North Korean president Kim Il-sung sent commandos to infiltrate South Korea In the fall of 1966, things really began to change on the Korean Peninsula. The armistice agreement that had marked the de facto end of the Korean War in 1953 had created a demilitarized…
Cold War Files: The Ghost of Soviet Past
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…
Ancient Warfare: 11 Rome Sacking Facts About the Original Goths
May 22 is World Goth Day, an occasion minted in 2009 when BBC 6 dedicated the day to goth rock. It has since become a happening in clubs across Europe, the Americas, Australia, and South Africa. To celebrate, we’ve compiled 11 facts about the original Goths—and we don’t mean Bauhaus. Here are some things you…
Military Weapons From The Past: The Suppressed M1 Carbine
Much of the history behind the suppressed M1 carbine remains unclear. Great Britain’s Royal Small Arms Factory apparently developed this quiet version of the iconic M1 for the U.S. Office of Strategic Service and the British Special Operations Executive, probably between 1943 and 1945. Based on standard receivers built by General Motors’ Inland Division, the…
Military Weapons From The Past: The P-08 Luger
If there is one handgun that everyone knows on sight, it is the Luger P-08 (aka “Pistole Parabellum“). It definitely has the ergonomics and angled grip everyone wants in a true target pistol, and was the basis for Bill Ruger’s first .22 Auto. Originally designed in 7.65mm or .30 Luger, a bottlenecked cartridge that feeds…
World War I History: Did The Battle of Jutland Really Matter?
I have been breaking my WWII reading order lately with a couple of WWI History Books by Peter Hart which I wanted to tell you about. The First is The Somme: The Darkest Hours on the Western Front. This book is about one of the bloodiest and some would argue, the most senseless battle’s of…
Going to War Without Skin In The Game
It is interesting to note how many pro-intervention, pro- “boots on the ground” neoconservatives have never served in the military. I’m grateful that America treats its veterans better now than it did in decades past. My father was spit on by hippies when he came home from Vietnam. Yet, “thank you for your service” comments…
Military Weapons From The Past: STG-44’s in Africa?
This is a neat follow-up to an event I had strong doubts about being authentic in the first place.-SF A while back, a video made the rounds of a cache of StG-44 rifles being found in (allegedly) Syria – I commented on it here, in fact. It was pretty much without any context, though. Where…
World War Two Movies Worth A Damn: Cross of Iron (1977)
Sam Peckinpah is without a doubt, one of my favorite movie directors (and screenwriters) of all time. If you have not seen it already, I highly urge you to watch the 2004 Documentary “Sam Peckinpah’s West: The Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade.” It is a fitting tribute to a true artist.-SF ‘Cross of Iron’…