Military History

The following speech was delivered by RADM Joseph F. Callo, USNR (Ret), to the Society of the War of 1812 in the State of New Jersey and Jamestowne Society at the Nassau Club of Princeton, New Jersey on 29 October 2011. It also appears in the Fall 2011/Winter 2012 issue of “Pull Together.” The bicentennial of the War of 1812 is approaching, and after 200 years it’s time to change how we think about that war. To support that proposal, I’m going to explore what I believe the narrative of that war has been and how we might change it to make it more accurate and more relevant to our own lives and times. http://www.navyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/NH-43575-KN-e…

July 3, 1950: first carrier air strikes of Korean War (DefenseNews, Intercepts blog)

Perhaps something of interest here (I'm not sure if 100% lawful): http://www.libramar.net/

http://www.navyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/CivilWarMonitor-copy-216x300.jpgLast fall we learned about an exciting new publication about the American Civil War. This brand new quarterly magazine is called the Civil War Monitor, and it looks to bridge the gulf between academic and popular history. According to the magazine, it is “devoted to the belief that popular history need not be superficial or sentimental.” It features richly illustrated and originally researched articles written from a variety of angles—military, political, social, and economic—by the country’s leading historians and authors. The first issue was published in September, and is available onl…

From BBC News 1 March 1954: US tests hydrogen bomb in Bikini The US has produced the biggest ever man-made explosion so far in the Pacific archipelago of Bikini, part of the Marshall Islands. It is believed the hydrogen bomb was up to 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. It was so violent that it overwhelmed the measuring instruments, indicating that the bomb was much more powerful than scientists had anticipated. The bomb was the equivalent of 20m tons of TNT. One of the atolls has been totally vaporised, disappearing into a gigantic mushroom cloud that spread at least 100 miles wide and dropping back to the sea…

http://www.navyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/DSC_5315-300x200.jpgNHF Executive Director Captain Charles T. Creekman, USN (Ret), and Tonya Simpson from the Navy Department Library pose with one of the recently acquired Afghan war books The Naval Historical Foundation is pleased to announce the successful acquisition of three vintage 19th century books for the Navy Department Library. If you recall in November, NHF made an appeal, called “Bucks for Books,” to raise funds for the acquisition of these books for the Library. A number of generous donors stepped forward, and over $2200 was raised. Three books (one of which is a two-volume set) were acquired by NHF, and…

Interesting article in Russian post-war torpedoes evolution: http://rusnavy.com/science/weapons/underseaweapon/index.php?print=Y

And saved by some fast and bold orders: http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/18274/the-harrowing-tale-of-the-nuke-laden-russian-typhoon-class-sub-that-almost-sunk-in-1991

http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1934980226&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=navalhistofou-20&ServiceVersion=20070822http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=navalhistofou-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1934980226 By Del Staecker, Cable Publishing, Brule, WI, (2009). Reviewed by Charles H. Bogart The author is the son of Irvin H. Staecker who served on board the Lady Gangster from 1941 to 1945. The Lady Gangster was the crew’s name for USS Fuller (APA 6). The ship’s nickname developed from the fact that many of the ship’s first crew were naval reservists from Chicago, Illinois. Fuller started life in 1919 as …

From Air Force Magazine, March 2012 issue [excerpt]

In Russian, but you can employ on-line translators: http://militaryrussia.ru/blog/topic-465.html

Today is the 63rd anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. Thank you to all those who served the cause of freedom.

From Air Force Magazine, March 2012 issue [excerpt]

Helicopter Museum at Buckeburg, centered on German types: http://www.hubschraubermuseum.de/exponate/

http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1934980226&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=navalhistofou-20&ServiceVersion=20070822http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=navalhistofou-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1934980226 By Del Staecker, Cable Publishing, Brule, WI, (2009). Reviewed by Charles H. Bogart The author is the son of Irvin H. Staecker who served on board the Lady Gangster from 1941 to 1945. The Lady Gangster was the crew’s name for USS Fuller (APA 6). The ship’s nickname developed from the fact that many of the ship’s first crew were naval reservists from Chicago, Illinois. Fuller started life in 1919 as …

How Wonston ex-Navy chief urged Maggie to recapture Falklands Hampshire.net TWENTY-five years ago, Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Henry Leach, was First Sea Lord and head of the Royal Navy. He famously persuaded Margaret Thatcher the Falkland Islands could be re-taken from the Argentines. Sir Henry, now 83, lives in Wonston, near Sutton Scotney, and gathered with veterans and royalty in central London last Sunday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the liberation of the South Atlantic islands 8,000 miles from Britain. He was given a place of honour on a red-carpeted dais with other top brass from the services in 1982, Lady Thatcher and Tony Blair, as the Pr…

Reviewed by Capt. Charles “Herb” Gilliland, USN (Ret.) Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Lafayette! Now keep it up if you’ve heard of Louis Duportail! I thought not. This reviewer knew nothing of Duportail either before reading this book, in which Prof. Norman Desmarais presents strong evidence that such obscurity is undeserved. As the back-cover claims, Duportail was indeed “instrumental in the American cause of independence.” To fight and win the Revolution, George Washington needed more than the colonies could provide: more troops, more weapons, more money, more ships. All these were generously provided by France. But America also needed military engineers, an…

Some footage shot from a Drone as the Ranger heads for Texas to be scrapped: http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a15113/uss-ranger-drone-video/ Buddha

This Saturday (July 1) will be, in addition to Canada Day, the 90th anniversary of the battle of Beaumont Hamel, one of the opening battles of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. It's a big deal, especially for Newfoundlanders and for The Newfoundland Regiment. The "battle" itself was a disaster, and of the 801 young Newfoundland men that left their trenches that morning, only 69 returned to answer the roll call. Some believe it marked the beginning of the end for Newfoundland as an independent colony. I thought this quote was rather poignant: "It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault only failed of success because dead men can adva…

A very interesting site full of rigorous data discovered (or re-discovered??) yesterday, with data and some WWII updated Standard Aircraft Characteristics charts: as example B-17G: http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/B-17/B-17G_Standard_Aircraft_Characteristics.pdf of the site: http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org