Process of Christianization and Germanization – The Baltic II
The real impetus towards affixing technical apparatus of crusading – vow, cross, indulgence, and so on – to Christian conquest in the Baltic came when attention shifted from the western Slavs of the southern Baltic to the heathen tribes further east, in Livonia, Estonia, Finland, and Prussia, the theatres of crusading operations that dominated the period from the 1190s. While…
Siege of Saigon (March 1860–February 1861)
Capture of Saigon by Charles Rigault de Genouilly on 17 February 1859, painted by Antoine Morel-Fatio. The 11-month siege of Saigon (today Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam during March 1860–February 1861 by Vietnamese against the French and Spanish occurred during the long French effort to secure control of Indochina. The French established their first regular trading post in Vietnam…
Film: STALINGRAD (1993)
Synopsis Stalingrad is a German war film directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. Starring Thomas Kretschmann as Lt. Hans von Witzland, the…
OPERATION TOPSY Part I
The Italian torpedo boats ”Castore” and ”Montanari” firing upon British MTBs and MLs at Tobruk harbour, part of Force A,…
Merkur
A Junkers Ju 52 3mg4e moving supplies in preparation for Operation Mercury . The most eminent weakness during the preparation…
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Zielfeuergerät 38 Training Machine Gun
Drawing in an US Intelligence Report from January 1945. The barrel of the examined ZfG had rifling with right-hand twist. Certainly it was a reworked old machine gun barrel. A German machine gun for static defense, Zf.Ger.38, c.1944. It was fired by a trip-wire. A bullet-cutter could be fitted to…
Japan Approves Plans to Convert Izumo-Class Into F-35-Carrying Aircraft Carriers
JS Kaga (DDH 184) JS Izumo (DDH-183) Japan’s two largest warships will be converted into aircraft carriers over the next five years. By Franz-Stefan Gady The cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe officially approved on December 18 plans to convert the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s (JMSDF) two largest warships…
STRIKE EAGLE
Eagles of Enduring Freedom An F-15E from the USAF’s 4th Fighter Wing flies over Afghanistan in April 2006. The USAF rotates detachments of F-15Es to Southwest Asia from where they conduct close air support missions for troops on the ground engaged in rooting out insurgent sanctuaries and support networks. Over…
Hohentwiel Fortress
The fortress resisted five Imperial sieges in the Thirty Years’ War, under the command of Konrad Widerholt between 1634 and 1648. The effect was that Württemberg remained Protestant, while most of the surrounding areas returned to catholicism in the Counterreformation. The mountaintop fortress of Hohentweil under attack in October 1641.…
THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION AT THE BATTLE OF CAMERONE, MEXICO, 1863
The last stand of an isolated detachment of the French Foreign Legion in Mexico came to represent the spirit of that illustrious unit. Their self-sacrifice epitomized the sense of duty and honour that superseded all other considerations, including survival, and symbolized the determined ethos of the Legion. The French military…
Modernised T-55 TANK
The Soviet T-54/T-55 tank series is hands-down, all-time most popular tank in history. Perhaps 28,000 examples have been built: and these tanks have served with no less than than 50 armies and quasi-armies throughout Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America. The T-54 was developed immediately after…
Nakajima Ki 84 Hayate ‘Frank’ Part I
Ki-84-I The Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate (Gale) was numerically the most important fighter serving with the Japanese Army Air Force (JAAF) during the last year of the Pacific War, and was probably the best Japanese fighter aircraft to see large-scale operation during this period of the war. The Hayate was fully…
Nakajima Ki 84 Hayate ‘Frank’ Part II
Hayate and Fuel Grade After testing by US air force, the Hayate was owned by a collector. After that, the owner presented it to FUJI HEAVY INDUSTRY which used to be ‘NAKAJIMA AIR PLANE”. At that time, the Hayate was full flying condition. However, one day FUJI H.I. gave up…
Staving Off Aerial Immolation
Japan’s ability to repel an American bombing campaign began with very few prospects in 1942 and sharply declined thereafter. Yet an enduring question is why Tokyo squandered more than two years after the Doolittle Raid, and why so little interservice coordination was attempted once B-29s appeared in homeland skies. The…