“The mission would be a risky one – no airship had ever flown such a distance.” TO DESCRIBE Germany’s Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck as a thorn in the side of the British Empire is something of an understatement. Beginning in 1914, the dashing 34-year-old Prussian lieutenant-colonel led a rag-tag band of 3,000 regulars and 10,000 colonial troops…
Category: Military History
World War II History: This Japanese Soldier Hid in the Jungle for 30 years after the War was Over!
Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese intelligence officer who hid in the jungle for 30 years thinking this country was still at war. World War II had been over for nearly three decades by the time Hiroo Onoda stopped fighting. An intelligence officer, Onoda was sent to the island of Lubang — a Philippine island south…
The History of the US Army Rangers from 1775 until Now
Just to show I am not biased in my Military History toward the USMC, here is some good reading on the Rangers…:)-SF The US Army Ranger history predates the Revolutionary War. In the mid 1700s, Capt. Benjamin Church and Maj. Robert Rogers both formed Ranger units to fight during the King Phillips War and…
Cold War Files: Forgetting Castro’s Crimes
‘Fighting Over Fidel: The New York Intellectuals and the Cuban Revolution’ Between the Old Left and the New Left, between the radicalism of the 1930s and the radicalism of the 1970s, there comes the curious figure of Fidel Castro. A celebrated revolutionary thinker. The absolute ruler of Cuba—and, for a time, the man believed to…
My Top 3 Ancient History Book Suggestions for January 2016
Being a History Geek and Amateur Historian I wanted to share with you guys a few Ancient History books you might like. Although Ancient History is not really something I read a lot, sometimes my Military History research takes me there.-SF The Ghost of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic…
WW I History: German U-Boat Discovered off English Coast
The wreck of a First World War German submarine, missing in action since 1915, has been discovered at a depth of 30m, 90km off the East Anglian coast. The discovery was made by offshore wind farm developers Scottish Power Renewables (SPR) and Vattenfall, whilst undertaking detailed seabed scanning for the development of wind farm projects…
Israel: Quietly Rising as a Cyber Super-Power in the Middle East
Israel now has more than 300 cybersecurity companies, exports totaling $6 billion, and 20 percent of the world’s private cyber investment dollars. Cybertech 2016 convened this week in Tel Aviv, and I was in the audience for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plenary address, courtesy of the America-Israel Friendship League and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israel has an ambitious…
The World’s 20 Most Impressive Fortresses
Mighty military strongholds from ancient castles to modern innovations. A fortress protects and gives military personnel a safe harbor from the enemy. But not all fortresses were created equal. And they certainly weren’t all created the same. We look over time and distance to find the 20 most impressive fortresses from around the world and…
Cold War Files: The Cuban Army Abroad; Castro’s Foreign Cold Warriors
“Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s, Castro was only too eager to export revolution to the Third World. Often this support even came in the form of combat troops to lend a hand to various Marxist uprisings.” AMERICA WAS STILL REELING from its humiliation in Vietnam in 1976 when hawks within the administration of President Gerald Ford were pushing for the United…
Espionage Files: From Pacifist Sheep Farmer to One of Britains Greatest Secret Agents
Occupied France, 1944. Francis Cammaerts stepped from a train onto the railway station platform in Avignon. Almost immediately, German security forces at a checkpoint became suspicious and asked for his papers. The son of a Belgian poet and English actress, he was everything you would never expect in a secret agent. Cammaerts had been a pacifist and conscientious objector…