[A fitting Tribute to an organization that has been putting the “Bad” in Bad Ass for over 70 Years. Semper Fi! Keep up the Good Work Fellas. -SF] MARSOC Raiders from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan talk about the unit’s legendary past. Marine Raiders, past and present, look back on their legacy in a…
Category: World War II History
Military Weapons from the Past: The DP Machine Gun aka “Stalin’s Phonograph”
Since 1928, the battlefields of the world have seen an oddball Soviet-era weapon that proves the truth of the old saying, “Looks aren’t everything.” Its nickname was once “Stalin’s phonograph” — and the staccato tune it plays is the sound of automatic fire. Used by the Russians to gun down both the Finns and the Nazis,…
Brush-Up on Your History: Unhinged! 10 of History’s “Craziest” Military Commanders
“Consider some of these ‘mad’ commanders from the pages of military history.” GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON ONCE DESCRIBED HIMSELF AS the best “ass-kicker in the United States Army.” It’s a claim that’s not without merit. In just nine short months beginning in July of 1944, the flamboyant four-star led his Third Army half way across…
Espionage Files: Richard Sakakida Spied on the Imperial Japanese Right Under Their Noses
The Nisei war hero endured torture and near-starvation, yet passed valuable intelligence to the U.S. Army It was 1942, not long after the fall of the American stronghold of Corregidor that guarded Manila Bay in The Philippines. U.S. Army Sgt. Richard Sakakida was in the hands of the dreaded Kempeitai, the Imperial Japanese military…
Brush-Up On Your History: 22 Brutal Dictators You Never Heard Of
Representative government has been a luxury that relatively few people have enjoyed throughout human history. And while the vast majority of dictators fall short of Hitler- or Stalin-like levels of cruelty, history is rife with oppressors, war criminals, sadists, sociopaths, and morally complacent individuals who ended up as unelected heads of government — to the tragic detriment…
The Bad-Ass Files: Donald Blackburn, Unconventional Warrior
“With a regiment of nearly 5,000 guerrillas at his back, Blackburn began a campaign that systematically destroyed the Japanese 14th Army within the Cagayan Valley.” THE FIRES ON Bataan burned with a primitive fury on the evening of April 9, 1942, illuminating the white flags of surrender against the nighttime sky. Woefully outnumbered, outgunned, and…
World War II History: Planting Dragon’s Teeth in the Enemy’s Garden, The Jedburghs
The SOE and OSS Operations during World War II have been a fascination of mine since I was a boy. In fact I am currently working on a trilogy of fictional short stories based on their amazing operations. The Jedburghs are an integral part of this history.-SF …
World War Two History: It’s D-Day for Ike’s Memorial!
The battle over plans for a Washington memorial to Dwight Eisenhower drags on, but meanwhile more and more of the Greatest Generation fades away each day. If Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican nominee for president, has anything to say about it, 2016 will be the year in which the funding issues for…
World War Two History: The Guns of Cap Grip Nez
“The Dover Strait became the scene of one of World War Two’s longest-running battles.” (Originally published in MilitaryHistoryNow.com on Nov. 19, 2014) THE NARROW SPAN OF WATER separating Dover, England from the Pas-de-Calais, France has long been one of the most strategically vital locations on the map of Europe. And at no time was that…
World War Two History: Luck or the Jewish Resistance?
This story is confirmed in Elmer Bendiner’s book, ‘The Fall of Fortresses.’ Elmer Bendiner was a navigator in a B-17 during WW II. He tells this story of a World War II bombing run over Kassel, Germany , and the unexpected result of a direct hit on their gas tanks. “Our B-17, the Tondelayo, was…