Military History

From Air Force Magazine, December 2007 The Air Force was taken by surprise in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nine hours later, it happened again in the Philippines. Full article at the above link.

Old, silent footage from 1930's. Very interesting watching the recoveries, particularly the amphibian float planes coming in to land around minute 6:00, and the "steel beach" for Washington's Birthday.

From Air Force Magazine, June 2012 issue [excerpt]

From Army Times

From Air Force Magazine December 2006 The rescue of F-117 pilot Dale Zelko was a close-run thing. [Read the whole story at the link above].

OK, who hear remembers what happened 20 years ago yesterday? It of course had large impact on military history.

From BBC News "The atomic bomb detonated in the New Mexico desert at 05:29:45 local time on 16 July, 1945, "lit up the entire world". That is how Private Daniel Yearout, one of the few remaining eyewitnesses some 60 years on, recalls the morning the powers of the atom were first unleashed." ... Read the complete article at the link above.

Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, PhD Charles Stephenson is the author of previous works on naval and siege warfare and the history of fortifications, with four volumes in print: The Fortifications of Malta 1530-1945 (Fortress 16, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2004, 2010); The Admiral’s Secret Weapon: Lord Dundonald and the Origins of Chemical Warfare (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006); The Channel Islands 1941-45: Hitler’s Impregnable Fortress (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2014); and – especially relevant to the book under review here – Germany’s Asia-Pacific Empire: Colonialism and Naval Policy, 1885-1914 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2009; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,…

Some interesting updates on the sub here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_confederate_submarine Buddha

Queenfish: A cold war tale By William J. Broad Published: March 18, 2008 International Herald Tribune Atop the globe, the icy surface of the Arctic Ocean has remained relatively peaceful. But its depths have boiled with intrigue, no more so than in the cold war. Although the superpowers planned to turn those depths into an inferno of exploding torpedoes and rising missiles, the brotherhood of submariners — the silent service, both Russian and American — has worked hard over the decades to keep the particulars of those plans hush-hush. Now, a few secrets are spilling through a crack in the wall of silence, revealing some of the science and spying that went i…

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…

Coalition forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) were able to take down Saddam Hussein’s regime in less than three weeks, with comparatively few casualties. The speed and relative ease of that victory raise two important questions: - Why did the majority of Iraqi forces fail to offer significant resistance? - Why did the Iraqi leaders fail to adopt defensive measures that would have made the Coalition invasion more difficult and costly? A Rand Project Air Force (PAF) analysis of information derived from interviews with former senior Iraqi officials shows that the rapid collapse of the Iraqi resistance was due to a combination of factors: - Saddam mad…

From BBC News 11 March 1985: Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader There is a new man in charge at the Kremlin - Mikhail Gorbachev has taken over following the death of Konstantin Chernenko. Chernenko, 73, died yesterday after a long illness - but his death was only announced to the Soviet people this morning. Sombre music preceded the news on radio and television and scheduled programmes were cancelled. The speed of naming of his successor - at 54 the youngest man to take over as general secretary of the Soviet communist party - has taken people by surprise. More here

Hi, The other day I was taking a look for no special reason at my old book "Kiev & Kuznetzov Russian Aircraft Carriers" by Barry Dean published in 1993 by Concord when I notice a strange radar in the bottom picture on page 28, it also appear on page 18 and on page 19 you can see its box plainly. Well for those who don’t have the book the radar (I think its a guidance radar of some sort as it have a small round dish) is in a box between the rear SA-N-3 Shtorm and the AK-276 dual 76mm gun, the box has a lead the opens to starboard and stands on two supports and when opened the radar inside pops up, the radar is only visible in a couple of pictures taken probably…

51 years ago, twelve F-4s, from the 8th TFW, released Paveway “smart” bombs, to finally knock down the Thanh Hóa (Dragon's Jaw) Bridge in N.Vietnam (April 27, 1972). Previously, 871 conventional bombing sorties had only succeeded in scratching the bridge. Air Power

From Defence Talk Protecting North Americans for half a century: NORAD turns 50 Canadian Department of National Defence | Sep 14, 2007 Yesterday marked 50 years since Canada and the United States decided to form a new command responsible for protecting North America and its citizens. Our two nations made the decision to activate the North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) command on September 12, 1958, while a more formal agreement was signed on May 12, 1958. Because the stand-up of NORAD has two dates attached to its formation, military personnel at NORAD Headquarters in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, Colorado plan a year-long celebration between now…

From Defence Talk Sea King Helicopter Celebrates 50th Anniversary of First Flight US Navy | Mar 20, 2009 Share & Bookmark: NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, Patuxent River: The H-3 Sea King helicopter community celebrated the 50th anniversary of the aircraft’s historic first flight March 11. The Sea King is a twin-engine, all-weather, amphibious helicopter used for numerous roles that include anti-submarine warfare, anti-ship warfare, search and rescue, transport, communications, airborne early warning and executive transport. “The Sea King was the Jack of all trades and master of all,” said Capt. James “Walleye” Wallace, Support and Commercial Deriva…

From BBC News 26 March 1979: Israel and Egypt have ended 30 years of war with an historic peace treaty brokered by the United States. The ceremony on the White House lawn in Washington was broadcast live on television. The two leaders sealed the deal with a firm handshake, watched by a smiling President Jimmy Carter. More here

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

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]