Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel
(1735-1806) ruler of the duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel from 1780 to 1806. Marriage alliances linked the Braunschweig princes with PRUSSIA, thereby providing them with a powerful ally and protector. Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand exhibited interests as a young man in the intellectual trends of the ENLIGHTENMENT and in state reform. He studied the writings of the French PHILOSOPHES and traveled to Ferney…
Operation Dynamo RAF Air Cover
The year-long ‘Phoney War’ gave way to the real thing for the pilots of No. 65 Squadron at Hornchurch in May 1940 as the soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force trudged onto the beaches at Dunkirk and awaited evacuation to England. A strange fleet of barges, coasters, ferries, lighters and small private vessels was assembled by the Royal Navy’s Admiral…
Shermans in Italy
A German opinion on the Sherman (Jentz’s Panzer Truppen, Vol. 2, p.150-151): The preferences of the crews for lighter, more…
CALEDONIA
A further 100-gun ship was ordered in 1794 to Sir William Rule’s design, and Caledonia was laid down on the…
Sulla Marches on Rome
Sulla Marches on Rome However, during that year a tribune and former associate of Drusus, Publius Sulpicius Rufus, clashed with…
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Eastern Onslaught
WINTER 1943/44–AUTUMN 1944 By incredible efforts and courageous fighting the German Army managed to slow down the Russian offensive on the central sector of the Eastern Front. Throughout July Army Group Centre was withdrawing steadily through Poland. Its weary soldiers had been forced back towards Kaunas, the Neman River and…
DUNKIRK EVACUATION (MAY 25-JUNE 2, 1940)
Tom Hardy’s character’s experience in the Dunkirk movie most closely resembles that of New Zealand Spitfire pilot Alan Christopher Deere. Dunkirk (2017) History vs. Hollywood When Allied defense against the German FALL GELB operation broke, London organized Operation DYNAMO: a desperate withdrawal of 340,000 British, Commonwealth, and other Allied (120,000…
Siege of Matarikoriko
SKETCH. EXPLANATORY OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF MAORI RIFLE PITS. Note. The interiors of the covered Pits were lined with Fern &c. and used as sleeping places. Food was also cooked in them. J. R. Jobbins. Matarikoriko, one of the pas (forts) comprising the main Maori stronghold on the Waitara River…
Eureka Stockade, Australia, 1854
Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross, watercolour by Charles Doudiet, Art Gallery of Ballarat. Depiction of the Eureka Stockade by Beryl Ireland (1891) The spark that detonated rebellion came in October 1854 with the murder of a digger. The culprit, his mates had good reason to think, was the publican…
Late-War Churchill
The Visit of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill To Caen, Normandy, 1944 Perhaps his greatest contribution to the successful outcome of the war, at this stage, was his insistence on the right timing for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of northwest Europe. This was necessary for the defeat of Germany,…
The outcome of the Battle of Berlin I
Crew of “M for Mother”, a Lancaster bomber from 467 Squadron, preparing to take off on a raid over Berlin. UK0456 Part of a vertical photographic reconniassance aerial taken over Berlin, Germany after heavy night raids by Bomber Command aircraft on 23/24 August, 31 August/1 September and 3/4 September 1943.…
The outcome of the Battle of Berlin II
Art by Piotr Forkasiewicz But there are less gloomy views. Pilot Officer David Oliver was a Lancaster pilot on 12 Squadron and then 626 Squadron. Morale was high throughout the period that I was at Wickenby. An efficiently run station and intelligent leadership, including inspiration from a few whose exploits…
Late-Third Century Praetorian Guard
Aurelianus and the Praetorian guard by AMELIANVS on DeviantArt Gallienus had also been directly challenged since 260 by Marcus Cassianus Latinius Postumus. This flamboyant pretender was governor of Germania Superior and Inferior when he was declared emperor by the Rhine garrisons. The western provinces had been placed under the rule…
The United States Air-power in 1918
In 1918 the United States, still inexperienced in modern warfare, rushed to field an effective air arm for the European war, while struggling to establish an industry to support the new service and the logistics to transport supplies to the front. The optimistic predictions and expectations of 1917 yielded to…
Imperial Japanese Army and Navy – Night fighters
J1N1-Sa Gekko Model 11 Kou Unit: Yokosuka kokutai Serial: Yo-101 Pilot – Juzo Kuramolo; observer – ensign Shiro Kurotori. Yokosuka (Oppama) AB/Kanagawa, Japan. Early May 1945. In the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy there was no alternative to visual recognition, because until early 1944 neither service used any avionics apart…