U.S. Navy Lt. Edward Lin, a native of Taiwan, speaks about his path to US citizenship at a naturalization ceremony in Honolulu, Hawaii, in this US Navy handout photo taken December 3, 2008. Lin, a US Navy officer with access to sensitive US intelligence, faces espionage charges over accusations he passed state secrets, possibly…
Category: Military History
World War Two Books Worth A Damn: Church of Spies
“There’s a man who leads a life of danger To everyone he meets he stays a stranger With every move he makes another chance he takes Odds are he won’t live to see tomorrow Secret agent man, secret agent man” So said Johnny Rivers in the theme to the ’60s show Secret Agent. Mark Riebling…
American History: The Plains of Abraham and American Independence
“The French presence in Canada stood between the American colonies and any thought of independence. ” BEST KNOWN AS a clash between French and British armies, the Plains of Abraham was also an American battle. One in every three soldiers in the British army at Quebec had been recruited in the American colonies. Hundreds more Americans…
Brush-Up On Your History: Top 10 Forgotten Foreign Attacks on United States Territories
Citizens of the United States take pride in the fact that—other than events like 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the War of 1812—their country has remained relatively unscathed by wars that have ravaged the rest of the planet. However, the United States is not as invincible as it believes, and it has actually come under attack…
Know Your Weapons: The Walther P-38, Germany’s Most Popular Wartime Pistol
In 1929, German gun-maker Waffenfabrik Walther began developing a new nine-millimeter pistol for military use. The development violated the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, so Walther kept it secret. Early Walther attempts focused on scaling up its “PP” line of pistols to chamber the larger nine-mil round. This pistol, the Militarpistole, wasn’t…
Obscure World War Two History: Faking Sick Sometimes Saves Lives
How a Fake Typhus Epidemic Saved a Polish City From the Nazis During World War II, a man went to the doctor in Rozwadów, Poland with a unique complaint. He was one of thousands of Poles forced by the Nazi occupiers to work in German labor camps. The man had been granted a 14-day leave…
Profiles in Courage: True Heroism Summed Up in a Snapshot
On November 10, 1943, when Lt. Walter L. Chewning Jr., the catapult officer of the USS Enterprise, saw a 9,000-pound F6F Hellcat crash-land on the flight deck and erupt in a ball of flames as it barreled toward the gun gallery, he did not run away. Instead, Chewning deliberately ran toward the wreck, stepped on the burning external…
Military Weapons From the Past: Japanese 7.65mm Hamada Pistol
The Hamada was one of very few Japanese military weapons made by a private commercial firm. Designed and introduced in 1940, the basic Type Hamada pistol was a blowback .32ACP handgun similar in style to the Browning model 1910. About 5000 of them were manufactured during WWII, although most of these were sent to China….
Cold War Files: What If Japan Had Built an Atomic Bomb?
During the Cold War, the United States supported selective nuclear proliferation as a means of deterring a Soviet invasion of Europe. The Russians might not believe that the United States would trade Berlin for New York, but they might find a British or French threat more credible. Washington did not pursue the same strategy in…
Military History: The 30 Years War
Thirty Years By John Farnam Protestant King Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, the “Lion of the North,” the “Snow King,” led a lean, efficient, and highly-mobile army that was able to move faster and hit harder than any thrown against it. He was ahead of his time and nearly unbeatable. His greatest fear was territorial encroachment…