Military History

From Air Force Magazine, April 2011 issue Link to article (PDF)

Yesterday, we had a 101-st anniversary of Dreadnought hoax - a practical joke by a Bloomsbury Group, beautifly portrayed by Robert K. MAssie in "Dreadnought" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadnought_hoax

From Army Times

I've just finished watching The Sinking of the Laconia, a dramatisation of the events surrounding the sinking of a cruise liner turned troop transport by a German U-Boat in 1942. I don't know if you've heard the story, but it's described here. An interesting lesser known story from the Second World War. The dramatisation was very good with excellent production values, but honestly was about ten minutes too long.

From Wall Street Journal Richard "Dick" Winters, the Easy Company commander whose World War II exploits were chronicled in the book and TV miniseries "Band of Brothers," died last week in central Pennsylvania at age 92. [excerpt]

Don't miss it ! Some hours of in-deep and good reading. Very well researched, detailed and illustrated web site, browse about the ship and about the Talos missile: http://www.okieboat.com/ http://www.okieboat.com/Talos%20history.html The author, Phillip R. Hays PhD LT USNR-R, was a Nuclear/Special Weapons Officer on the USS Oklahoma City (CLG-5) from January, 1970, to April, 1972, as related in http://www.okieboat.com/Talos%20antiradiation%20shot.html

Researching about old Soviet stuff, I've finded this extraordinary web site about the 16VA in East Germany. It's narrated about the personal viewpoint of a ex-Belgium Army soldier, detached in a Hawk SAM battery. The webmaster has do a lot of personal research, but I see he has not many connections with other people with the some interest, and also the site is something chaotic (some internal links are not working or nonexistent, and the size of the pages don't adjust very well the screen), but full of very interesting data and links, researches and personal opinions, as to evaluate the feasability of the Soviets destroying the Hawk SAM sites with tactical nukes launched…

I was looking for some info randomly on Op Dingo in Rhodesia and camed across this, quite a good and lengthy writing on helicopter warfare in Rhodesia. I found it interesting. http://www.jrtwood.com/article_fireforce.asp

Seeing as I consider this the greatest collection of knowledgable people on the subject of naval/naval air information on the internets.... Does anyone know of a good book or study on the Falklands? specifically im interested in the naval/air perspective rather than the land. Also if you know of any other good British military naval/air history studies it would be appreciated!

From the July 2010 issue of Air Force Magazine Take it down! The Wild Weasels in Vietnam (PDF format)

Looking for data for the warplanes of the 50to65 DB, I've finded these two pages: A very impressive site about the Blackburn Buccaneer: http://www.blackburn-buccaneer.co.uk/0_Contents.html And in a site for years knowned to me, only today casually I've finded on it a very detailed composition of post-war UK carriers Air Wings: http://www.btinternet.com/~a.c.walton/navy/rn-cv3.html

This one certainly seems to fall under the heading of "Someone should be taken out and shot": http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,601522,00.html

After the Summer, I continue researching about 1950s fighting planes. Today I've finded a curious information about the forward deployment of 4xCF-100 Canuck of the Belgian Air Force, with the support of 2xC-119 Flying Boxcar, to the Belgian Congo, after the Leopoldville Riots and a year before his independence and the subsequent Katanga Secession War. It was named Operation Simba. As force deployment was small (and the CF-100 was a all-weather interceptor, similar to the F-89 Scorpion, without specific air-to-ground weapons), but was impressive because his long range and the small size and facilities of the Belgian Air Force (We can remember also other daring operations…

I've been taking a Harpoon hiatus to work on transferring photos and slides of ships I've visited into JPEGs. I thought I'd share them as I go along, so every week I plan to post a new set. This week, USS Hornet at Almeda CA. Feel free to post comments or correction directly onto the site. This should be the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?unam...&feat=email Larry Gertner wombat1417

So I was just reading about the Iranian navy and was wondering if anybody knew how the Iranians got their Kilos to Iran? I know they could have gotten them to the Caspian Sea by river but then how to Bander Abbas? Any knowledge would be appreciated. Thanks, David

Five full episodes, starting with: Darkness Falls

CV32: Hard to believe in some ways that UAVs are old enough to constitute "military history", but there it is. Air Force UAVs: The Secret History This comes by way of Bill Sweetman at Aviation Week's Ares Blog, who offers this synopsis: Tales from the Crypt: Secret UAVs Tales From The Crypt - Secret UAVs Posted by Bill Sweetman at 7/19/2010 1:07 AM CDT Click-of-the-month-club selection at Ares is Tom Ehrhard's report on the history of UAVs in the US Air Force, just published by the Mitchell Institute. It is based on Ehrhard's unpublished 1000-plus-page thesis on the subject, and sheds new light on many programs - some of which were, at the time, close…

From CBC News U-boat captain’s daughter visits St. John’s 29 men died when Marita Collings's father sank two ships near Bell Island Last Updated: Thursday, July 8, 2010 | 9:42 PM NT The daughter of a Nazi U-boat captain who sank ships near St. John's during the Second World War struggled with mixed emotions on a pilgrimage to Newfoundland this week to make peace with her father's past. Marita Collings says the difficult trip brought her closer to her late father, Rolf Ruggeberg. "I have felt very close to my father these past few days," she said. "I think in many ways he would've been proud that I brought up the courage to come over here and do these thi…

With harpoon getting quite good for WW2 type actions (and a few good databases available for download) I often play in this era but wonder what were typical compositions of air groups attacking surface targets, shipping and land based Any one got info handy?

From Air Force Magazine, June 2010 In 1966, Israel got its hands on a MiG-21, with major benefits for itself and the US Air Force. Click the link for more ...