The Siege of Samawa II
The gunboat HMS Firefly, one of the ‘Fly Class’ gunboats used against the insurgents. Once more the commanding officer scanned the derailed armoured train and the surrounding desert while he and his fellow officers strained their ears for any sound of firing. However, it now seemed certain that all resistance had ended and, having consulted with his staff, Major Hay…
THE YORKIST TRIUMPH, 1460–1461 Part I
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York Of the many sudden changes of political fortune which mark English history in the fifteenth century, none is more remarkable than the recovery of the Yorkist cause following the débâcle of October 1459. Within a month of Ludford its leaders were proscribed and attainted exiles. Yet by June 1460 they were able to mount a…
ROMAN PATROL BOATS.
Excavations on the site of the Mainz Hilton discovered eleven fast patrol boats of the Roman navy, which must have…
USAF – Korean War
War Begins During May 1950, KMAG reported a military buildup on the northern side of the 38th parallel. At four…
The Chinese Army in Burma, 1942–5
Nationalist survivors of the 1942 fighting in Burma take part in an assault course as part of their training in…
Most Recent
VLASOV MOVEMENT
CATHERINE ANDREYEV The Vlasov Movement (Vlasovskoye Dvizhenie), or Russian Liberation Movement, designates the attempt by Soviet citizens in German hands during World War II to create an anti-Stalinist army, nominally led by Lieutenant-General Andrei Andreyevich Vlasov (1900–1946), to overthrow Stalin. Vlasov gave his name to the movement and died for…
TODT ORGANIZATION
One of the most important specialized organizations of the Third Reich, the Todt Organization (OT), named after its director, Fritz Todt, was used for the construction of military and related sites, especially in occupied Europe. Labor service “volunteers” and private construction firms were first used by the OT in the…
SLAVE LABOURERS AND SABOTAGE
Spontaneous and organized forms of disguised labor struggle must be distinguished from such individual acts of resistance. They required maximum cover, absolute reliability, technical ingenuity, and an orientation beyond the immediate situation. Sabotage was aimed not at husbanding physical energies but at harming the adversary, whether for reasons of personal…
OSTARBEITER (EASTERN WORKERS)
“Ostarbeiter” (eastern workers) were mostly eastern European women brought to Germany for forced labor. They wore an “OST” identification patch (lower center of photograph) Germany, after 1942. Using the most brutal methods, Sauckel had been recruiting civilian Ostarbeiter (Eastern workers) in the Soviet Union. The German term for several million…
Freiwillige SS Reg. Warager
In March 1942 the formation of volunteer battalion began in Belgrad. It was done under the order of the Commander-in-Chief in the Balkans who wanted to recruit Russian volunteers for the landing operation near Novorossiysk. The battalion was formed under the command of Captain M. A. Semenov and was a…
Brigade SS Druzhina
In April 1942 the Fighting Union of Russian Nationalists was formed in the town of Suvalki. It was headed by the former headquarters chief of 229th rifle division V.V.Gil, who took pseudonym Rodionov. The 1st Russian national SS detachment ‘Druzhina’ (militia unit) was formed from the members of ‘БСРН’. The…
Panzerjager Brigade Russland
In February 1945 the striking anti-tank brigade “Russia” was formed from the ROA soldiers and officers. 1,200 persons served in it under the command of Colonel Galkin. The brigade was subordinated to anti-tank division “Vistula” and fought hard on the river Oder. They called it “fire brigade” because it fought…
Von Stumpfeld Division
A Cossack from “Von Stumpfeld” and German pilot on the “Anzuchtstatte” aerodrome. The division was formed in Stalingrad on December 12th, 1942. The ranks of this division were filled with Russian volunteers, many of them deserters, Cossacks, Ukrainian and Russian policemen. The division was largely armed with captured Soviet weaponry,…
CONTROVERSY
Much has been written, with varying degrees of authority, on the RLM (Russian Liberation Movement, RLA (Russian Liberation Army) and General A.A. Vlasov. Andrey Vlasov General Andrey Vlasov General Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov (alternative transliterations of his names appear as Andrei Andreievich and as Vlassov or (in German) Wlassow) (September 14…
History of the Russian Liberation Movement
Chronology 194116 August 1941 – the order of the General Headquarters of the Supreme Command N of 270 1941 from about the inadmissibility of delivery into the captivity, otherwise to destroy those returned by “all means both ground-based, and air, and the family of the returned Red Army men to…