Swordfish torpedo-bombers attack battleship ‘Bismarck’ in May 1941. Image copyright — Dennis Andrews Iain Ballantyne’s new book recounts daring air raid In Bismarck: 24 Hours to Doom, historian Iain Ballantyne lays out in an almost cinematic style how the German high-seas raider met her match during a contest of steel versus struts and canvas.... Read more
Confederate reenactors in 2015. Rob Bixby/Flickr photo ‘Mr. Lincoln’s Army’ recounts how orderly ranks fell apart when the bullets began flying by ROBERT BECKHUSEN This article was sponsored by Open Road Media. The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in American history and those who lived through it were beset by... Read more
USS ‘Stark’ as seen from USS ‘Conyngham’ on the morning of May 18, 1987, listing heavily to port. USS ‘Conyngham’ Association photo It wasn’t a Mirage F.1 that hit USS ‘Stark’ by TOM COOPER On May 17, 1987, the U.S. Navy guided-missile frigate USS Stark was on a patrol in the... Read more
The operation remained classified for decades by JOSEPH TREVITHICK On Dec. 24, 1970, an odd airplane touched down at an air base in Thailand. Though it might not have looked like it, this was a top secret U.S. Air Force propaganda plane and the crew had just flown the last... Read more
Be skeptical when Moscow hypes some super-weapon by JOSEPH TREVITHICK A senior Russian officer claimed the Kremlin’s weaponeers are working on a nuclear-armed, orbital bomber that can lob megaton atomic bombs at any city on Earth just an hour or two after launch. Yes, you read that right. But don’t panic.... Read more
Other types overtook this unique gun by MATTHEW MOSS On the April 20th, 1897, now-legendary firearms-designer John Browning received four patents for various pistol designs. These included two recoil-operated systems, a blowback design and — most interestingly — a pistol using a gas-operated toggle action. Browning had developed the gas-operated design a few years earlier in... Read more
Shipyard Specials could cause horrific wounds by MATTHEW MOSS At the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, both the Republicans and Loyalists were desperate for any weapons they could lay their hands on. These weapons ranged from smuggled AR-18s — infamously nicknamed Widowmakers — to crude but ingenious improvised weapons such as the submachine gun... Read more
Above and below — Disney captures ‘Stop That Tank’ taught vehicle-killing skills by MATTHEW MOSS In early 1942, Disney produced an instructional film for the Canadian Army. Its subject — how to properly deploy the Boys Anti-Tank Rifle. This was perhaps unsettling, but hardly unusual. Throughout World War II, Disney created instructional and propaganda films... Read more
Politics killed off the early, compact designs by MATTHEW MOSS By late 1947 the British Army’s Armaments Design Department had designed three principal rifles for the Infantry Personal Weapon program. The new rifles got their official designations in January 1948. They were Stanley Thorpe’s EM-1, the EM-2 designed by Capt. Kazimierz Stefan... Read more
In 2001, a Green Beret got ready for war — with a government credit card by KEVIN KNODELL & BLUE DELLIQUANTI Read more