In early 1965, villagers across South Vietnam might have watched a curious military formation race through their hamlets. No, not heavily-armed troops shielded inside armored vehicles, but rural militiamen on bicycles. For nearly a year, authorities in Saigon and their American advisers considered adding bicycles to various rural units. Cheap and easy enough for provincial…
Category: Warfare
Examining Terrorist Tactics: Jihad by Migration = Overloading the Immigration System
By Hammerhead Since the great “European Jihad by Migration” began,I started studying the defining characteristics of our enemy. And although some may dismiss these findings, I believe these same types of tactics will and are being used here in the United States. These terrorist know how to use both European and American Immigration and Criminal…
Military History: Hitting the Silk – 15 Airborne Ops Carried Out Since WW2
“The advent of the helicopter made large-scale airborne operations largely obsolete. Yet, a number of armies still conducted parachute landings in the Post War era.” AIRBORNE WARFARE REACHED its zenith in 1945 with Operation Varsity — the largest one-day combat parachute drop in military history. The massive March 24 airlift saw 16,000 British and American paratroopers along…
Examining Terrorist Tactics: The Changing Logic Behind Suicide Bombings
(Note from Hammerhead: It was just announced that yet another ISIS suicide bomber killed 29 people in a Football Stadium in Baghdad). What was once purely a strategic action has become a tactical move meant to help hold territory. In October 2015, two suicide bombers killed more than 100 people outside a railway station in the Turkish capital…
Profiles in Courage: MARSOC Team Endured Hell to Evacuate Wounded
“We faced what seemed the inevitability of death.” While conducting village stability operations in the Upper Gereshk Valley, of Helmand province Afghanistan, a Marine Special Operations Team with 1st Marine Special Operation Battalion came under heavy fire. The initial volley sparked a gunbattle that would rage for a full two days. On the morning of…
World War Two History: The Worst U.S. General of World War II
I was watching Patton with George C. Scott again the other day for about the 400th time and one of the scenes I remember the most was when Fredendall got Relieved by Patton after the disaster at Kasserine Pass in 1943…Even though the Americans were under the command of the British during Kasserine, Fredendall got…
Military History: “Stalingrad on the Yangtze”, The Battle of Shanghai 1937
Today Shanghai is a hub of international trade and culture and one of the world’s great cities. But in 1937, it was a battlefield. Imperial Japanese troops fought the Chinese Nationalist army in the seaside metropolis in one of history’s most terrible battles. Westerners watched from their neighborhoods as two ancient rivals fought a new…
Cold War and Espionage Files: The Last Casualty of the Cold War
Cold War Memories: The Last Casualty In March of ’85 I had a chance to go hang out in Copenhagen for a week with some friends. Buffoonery was the only thing on the agenda and my travel partner and I were masters of it. It had been months since either of us had been…
Military History: Battleground Dublin, Remembering the O’Connell Street Landmarks of 1916
“To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, the Irish building supply company Chadwick’s is offering MilitaryHistoryNow.com this infographic exploring some of the O’Connell Street landmarks that were damaged and destroyed during the battle.” FOR MANY, Dublin’s famous O’Connell Street is considered ‘ground-zero’ for the Easter Rising of 1916. At the start of the five-day insurrection, which ran…
Military History: Spain’s Siren Song
17th Century Spain and The Allure of Idealized History in Grand Strategy Many readers may be familiar with Paul Kennedy’s classic The Rise and Fall of Great Powers. It is often recommended to those who have an interest in grand strategy. However, readers might be less familiar with a collection of essays edited by Kennedy, Grand…