Germany
Landings at Bagamoyo
Balloon ship Manica which was present. British troops continued to push south and towards the coast but it was suggested on 12 August 1916 that the Navy seize the port of Bagamoyo, which the British believed would be heavily defended. Then they heard that it had a garrison of only fifty men. So the British Navy went ahead with the…
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Hitler’s Last Struggle
Gatow Airfield 1945 Post-War. Most in Hitler’s inner circle expected the FĂĽhrer to flee Berlin before the Soviets managed to encircle the ruined city. As the Red Army closed in on Berlin, Hitler’s personal pilot Hans Baur, promoted by Hitler on 30 January 1945 to SS-GruppenfĂĽhrer, frantically tried to preserve…
Thirteenth-Century Holy Roman Empire and The Great Interregnum
Battle of Tagliacozzo, 23 August 1268. The Ghibelline Conrad V (Conradin) challenged the Guelph Charles of Anjou for the Sicilian crown. The Ghibellines had seemingly won the battle, before the Guelphs lured them into a trap and chased them from the field. 1250-1254 Conrad IV Civil wars continue in Germany.…
Switzerland WWII – Military Deterrence
WWII Swiss M°18/40 Rifleman. Physical map of Switzerland. Prior to 1940 the Swiss military publicly relied on its well-advertised capacity to muster in arms over 10 percent of the population in well-prepared border positions, to defend its internationally guaranteed neutrality against all comers. But in reality, since the rise of…
Could the Germans have won the Battle of the Atlantic?
The longest campaign of history’s most horrendous war was over. Although convoys and Coastal Command patrols continued for several weeks after VE Day, the danger was past. It had been one of the worst dangers Britain had ever faced with Churchill describing the U-boat menace as his greatest fear. He…
Colonel-General Hermann Hoth
Generaloberst Hermann Hoth (right) jokes with Generaloberst Heinz Guderian a day before Operation Barbarossa. German generals Fedor von Bock, Hermann Hoth, Wolfram von Richthofen, and Walther von HĂĽnsdorff (not in photo), Russia, 8 Jul 1941. (12 April 1885 – 25 January 1971) One of the most underestimated German generals and…
Heinkel He 111
Although the Heinkel He 111 was designed ostensibly as a civil airliner for Lufthansa, its military potential was of a far greater importance. The first prototype of Siegfried and Walter GĂĽnter’s enlarged, twin-engine development of the remarkable He 70 was fitted with a glazed nose when flown at Rostock-Marienehe on…