The History of Drugs and War is Long and Sordid to Say the Least In 1834, the British Government could not have sent a worse person with the worst set of instructions to China. The British Parliament chose William Napier, a Scottish lord, to be the Chief Superintendent of Trade in East Asia. Lord Napier…
Category: Military History
World War Two History: Hitler’s Foreign Legions
For those of you that enjoy WW2 Historical Fiction, check out the book ‘The Last Citadel’ by David L. Robbins. It is about a Spanish Tiger Tank Unit that fought for the Nazi’s on the Eastern Front during the famous Battle of Kursk. -SF “Hundreds of thousands of foreign troops flocked to Nazi Germany to…
Military Weapons From The Past: The British Besal Machine Gun
The Besal Was Wartime Great Britain’s Desperate, Last-Ditch Machine Gun Cheap and easy to make, the weapon was for fighting a German invasion In the autumn of 1940, Nazi Germany controlled most of mainland Europe, France had surrendered and the British Army had evacuated the continent — in the process, leaving behind much of its arms and…
Learning From Terrorist Tactics: ISIS’ Sniper Propaganda
For those of you interested in this subject of Guerilla Snipers and how Propaganda in sniping can often be a valuable weapon in and of itself, I would highly recommend the Book Fry the Brain by John West. -SF Snipers stalk the sprawling battlefields of Iraq and Syria. Hiding, quietly waiting and squeezing off long-distance…
Native American History: The Bloodiest War in American History You Most Likely Never Heard About
On a per capita basis, King Phillip’s War was the Bloodiest War in American History. But being that it dealt with the Native American Indian, it has been suppressed over the centuries while other major “White Man” Wars and Conflicts have been pushed into the limelight. We can never forget events like this. That is…
Military Weapons From The Past: The WWI Flammenwerfer
Note how this, like many early flamethrowers, The WWI German Flammenwerfer was a two-man affair. One carried the tanks and the other aimed and fired the projector. Read the Original Article at Forgotten Weapons
Military Defense News: World Map of Camo Patterns
For all you camo junkies out there. Be advised some artistic license was taken with this rendering! -SF A Reddit user uploaded this map of the world onto the network’s “MapPorn” subreddit. The image displays every country covered in the same camo pattern as its armed forces, though the disclaimer in the bottom left notes that…
Military History: The Saga of the Six-Legged Soldiers
The U.S. Army Wanted to Conscript Insects to Fight the Viet-Cong But the six-legged soldiers weren’t terribly reliable! Mao Tse-Tung famously wrote in On Guerrilla Warfare that guerrillas are proverbial fish who have to swim in the water of the people in order to win their struggle against powerful governments. “It is only undisciplined troops who…
On This Day in History: The Chernobyl Disaster
On this day, 30 Years Ago, in 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident to date occurs at the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Kiev in Ukraine. The full toll from this disaster is still being tallied, but experts believe that thousands of people died and as many as 70,000 suffered severe poisoning. In addition, a large…
Military History: Six Astounding 18th Century Rules of War
“Yes, the objective of any general is to defeat the enemy, but that doesn’t mean you should be a boor about it.” Editor’s Introduction THE GENEVA CONVENTION is in the news of late, thanks to Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. The bombastic billionaire-turned-politician has been taking aim at international lawsgoverning the use of military force, characterizing…