It must be an automatic rifle, Robert Jordan thought. “How much does it weigh?” he asked. “One man can carry it, but it is heavy. It has three legs that fold. We got it in the last serious raid. The one before the wine.” “How many rounds have you for it?” “An infinity,” the gypsy…
Category: World War One
Bad-Ass Files: Alvin C. York, All-American Bad-Ass
This guy holds a special place in my heart. When I was a kid,growing up in the eighties, I watched the 1941 black-and-white epic, “Sgt. York” with Gary Cooper with my Dad. I always remember the part where York uses a turkey mouth call to get as a group of German soldiers hiding in a fox…
World War I History: Germany’s Last Act of Defiance
“The commander of the 70 impounded ships had his men destroy the vessels rather than see them awarded to the victors.” ALTHOUGH THE GUNS of the First World War fell silent on Nov. 11, 1918, it was not until the signing of the Treaty of Versailles more than seven months later that conflictofficially ended. Yet mere days before the inking of…
Military Weapons from the Past: WW1 German Gewehr 98 Sniper
a Very Unique and RARE Weapon from the Great War. What is amazing to me is the scope actually had a BDC dial on it! This is early 20th Century Equipment and snipers had the ability to “dial in”!? Wow.
Military History: The Lost Doughboys of World War I
The Hunt Continues for American MIAs from WW1 “Organizers hope that Doughboy MIA will help raise awareness of the sacrifices made a century ago by U.S. soldiers, sailors and marines during during the so called War to End All Wars.” AS MANY AS 4 million American military personnel served in the First World War. More than 110,000 of…
Brush-Up on Your History: America’s Secret War Plan to Invade Canada
The end of a war only rarely settles the central questions that started the conflict. Indeed, many wars do not “end” in the traditional sense. World War II, for example, stretched on for years in parts of Eastern Europe and the Asia-Pacific. Even as the guns fell silent along the Western Front in 1918, the…
World War I History: Verdun 100 Years Later, “The Slaughterhouse of the World”
The Battle of Verdun started 100 years ago this February, and lasted through the year, finishing in December 1916. At 7:15 a.m. on February 21, the 1,200 guns of the German Fifth Army began a bombardment to signal the beginning of the Battle of Verdun. “Every new explosion is a new attack, a new fatigue,…
1914: Yet Another Cautionary Tale
For several years now many states and organizations in the Middle East and elsewhere have become involved in the situation in Syria. Though there are many players and overlapping interests, there is little evidence that they have established a common goal or common objectives, nor that common practical plans have been made to achieve them….
World War I History: Six Facts About the Forgotten battle that Ended the Great War
“Conventional wisdom holds that World War One ended in the west with the collapse of the Hindenburg Line; in reality it was a comparatively small clash in one of the war’s forgotten fronts that precipitated the downfall of the Central Powers.” WHEN GERMANY signed the Armistice on Nov. 11, 1918, the Central Powers were still in a…
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…