Rules Of Innovation (10): Don’t Build Your Doctrine On Incorrect Lessons Drawn From Poorly Researched And Designed Exercises That’s the cautionary lesson of the tank destroyer, which was meant to be a relatively inexpensive, light, mobile weapon to counter German tanks. It became one of the most famous failed innovations in U.S. military history. In exercises the…
Category: Military History
Cold War Files: JFK’s Plan to Invade Cuba with Airborne and Marines
Over the weekend I was looking through some handwritten notes in the papers of Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer, placed on-line by the National Defense University. The document is undated and unsigned. The NDU catalog lists it as created by Lemnitzer, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff early in the JFK era, until Kennedy…
World War Two History: Associated Press Willingly Cooperated With the Nazis, New Report Shows
News agency and Third Reich said to have made mutually beneficial deal, with AP providing countless photos for Nazi propaganda; AP denies collaboration The Associated Press news agency willingly cooperated with Nazi Germany, submitting to the regime’s restrictive rulings on the freedom of the press and providing it with images from its photo archives to…
Espionage Files: Decorated SS Commander was a Mossad Assassin
A notorious lieutenant colonel in the Waffen SS, who served in Adolf Hitler’s personal bodyguard unit, worked as a hitman for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad after World War II, it has been revealed. Austrian-born Otto Skorzeny became known as the most ruthless special-forces commander in the Third Reich. Having joined the Austrian branch…
Military Weapons From The Past: The Burton Machine Rifle aka Winchester Model 1917
We don’t know much about Frank Burton’s Winchester-Burton Machine Rifle — a.k.a., the Winchester Model 1917. Little documentation of the rifle survives, but historians believe Burton meant it to be an anti-balloon weapon. During World War I, observation balloons helped armies on both sides of the conflict direct artillery fire and track enemy troop…
Military Weapons From The Past: Swiss SK-46 Semi-Auto Rifle
The SK-46 was one of several post-WWII experimental self-loading rifle designs developed for testing by the Swiss military, or for commercial export. It was manufactured by SIG at Neuhausen in both 7.5mm Swiss and 8mm Mauser. The rifle is gas operated, with a rather complex tilting bolt action. It uses 5- or 6-round detachable box…
Military Weapons From The Past: The British De Lisle Silenced Commando Carbine
British firearms-enthusiast and engineer William Godfray De Lisle designed his De Lisle Silenced Commando Carbine around the action and stock of the Mk. III Lee-Enfield rifle. Chambered in .45 ACP and accepting slightly-modified .45-caliber Colt 1911 pistol magazines rather than the Lee-Enfield’s standard 10-round .303 magazine, the De Lisle boasted an 8.2-inch integral barrel sound-suppressor….
Why Pixelated Camo Patterns Work
Over the last two decades or so, armed forces around the world have abandoned their camouflage patterns in favor of a more pixelated, machine-engineered camo, similar to the blocky graphics in the popular online game “Minecraft.” And while it may seem counterintuitive, the digital-print look of the pixelated camos is actually notably more effective than earlier…
Historical Non-Fiction Book-of-the-Month Review
This is a book review from Michael Kriegers website. I wanted to post it because it contains a TON of good information on the subject. I will be posting my own personal review of this book this summer. -SF The Devils Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA and The Rise of America’s Secret Government Allen Dulles,…
Cold War Files: Tolkachev, The CIA’s Most Valuable Soviet Asset in the 80’s
How a troubled past turned a Soviet military engineer into one of the CIA’s most valuable spies. His family and friends called him Adik. His eyes were the color of ash, under a broad forehead and thick brown hair, with a crook in the bridge of his nose from a boyhood hockey accident. He stood…