In 1929, German gun-maker Waffenfabrik Walther began developing a new nine-millimeter pistol for military use. The development violated the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, so Walther kept it secret. Early Walther attempts focused on scaling up its “PP” line of pistols to chamber the larger nine-mil round. This pistol, the Militarpistole, wasn’t…
This Norwegian Mercenary Instagrams His War on ISIS
A veteran of the war in Afghanistan is using social media to document and fund his one-man fight against ISIS. A millennial soldier of fortune who goes by the name ‘Mike’ is waging an independently funded war against the Islamic State. While his real identity remains anonymous, the Norwegian fighter came to Norway as an…
Profiles in Courage: Two Veterans Embark on Mission to be the First Amputees To Climb Mount Everest
These two awesome Spartans make me proud to be a Veteran. They are proving to all of us, disabled or not, that the LIMITS we choose to put on ourselves are of our own making and are MENTAL, NOT PHYSICAL. -SF Two veterans who lost limbs in the Global War on Terror set off to…
Espionage Files: Turkey Arrest Senior Official For Selling Weapon Plans to U.S. Firm
A senior official of Turkey’s state-run weapons manufacturer has been arrested on espionage charges, after he was caught selling weapons blueprints to the employee of an arms firm based in the United States. The official was named by Turkish authorities as Mustafa Tanriverdi, the general manager of one of Turkey’s largest weapons production facilities, located…
Obscure World War Two History: Faking Sick Sometimes Saves Lives
How a Fake Typhus Epidemic Saved a Polish City From the Nazis During World War II, a man went to the doctor in Rozwadów, Poland with a unique complaint. He was one of thousands of Poles forced by the Nazi occupiers to work in German labor camps. The man had been granted a 14-day leave…
Modern Crime: China Suppliers Flood U.S. with Dangerous Opiates
China at this very moment is waging war on the United States on several fronts without ever deploying a military unit. This is the essence of Fourth Generation Warfare folks. Weaken your enemy from the inside.-SF The dozen packages were shipped from China to mail centers and residences in Southern California. One box was…
Gear Locker: Understanding Lumens in a Tactical/Fighting Flashlight
All you ‘gear geeks’ gather around, This is the best article yet in understanding the in’s, out’s and in-between’s of a tactical fighting flashlight. -SF In a previous post about lights I explained that lumens themselves weren’t the end-all-be-all of a flashlight or weapon-mounted light (WML). Well, they still aren’t, but maybe not for the…
Brush-Up On Your History: The Real Story Behind Nagorno-Karabakh
Last Thursday US Secretary of State John Kerry and Vice President Joe Biden met separately with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian while the South Caucasus adversaries attended a 50-nation nuclear summit in Washington boycotted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. But no sooner did Kerry pronounce “an ultimate resolution” to the ongoing…
Profiles in Courage: True Heroism Summed Up in a Snapshot
On November 10, 1943, when Lt. Walter L. Chewning Jr., the catapult officer of the USS Enterprise, saw a 9,000-pound F6F Hellcat crash-land on the flight deck and erupt in a ball of flames as it barreled toward the gun gallery, he did not run away. Instead, Chewning deliberately ran toward the wreck, stepped on the burning external…
Military Weapons From the Past: Japanese 7.65mm Hamada Pistol
The Hamada was one of very few Japanese military weapons made by a private commercial firm. Designed and introduced in 1940, the basic Type Hamada pistol was a blowback .32ACP handgun similar in style to the Browning model 1910. About 5000 of them were manufactured during WWII, although most of these were sent to China….