Market Garden 65 Years On: Reflections of a Tragedy
Posted by Donster on: 2009-09-18 18:47:40 in category: Military History [ Print ]
By Carlo D’Este @ Armchair General
Recently we celebrated the sixty-fifth anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. To many of us who were alive in 1944 it seems as if it were a short time-hack ago in history.
In this year of anniversaries, September marks the sixty-fifth anniversary of one of the war’s grandest and most frustrating military operations: the greatest airborne operation in history called Operation Market Garden. Sixty-five years on, Market Garden remains one of those moments in history where defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory by a series of events that combined to produce one of the greatest tragedies of the war. Market Garden was a squandered opportunity, if not to end the war in 1944, to certainly have changed its course. If not for human error its success would have eliminated the dreadful and costly Battle of the Bulge during which the US Army sustained the highest casualties of World War II.
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Editorial: The National World War One Museum
Posted by Donster on: 2009-07-21 18:48:04 in category: Military History [ Print ]
The Wargamer's Jim Zabek takes a trip to visit the National World War One Museum in Kansas City.
Author: Jim Zabek
The “War To End All Wars” often seems forgotten in the United States, even more than the Korean War. Most Americans are aware it happened: there has to be a World War One, because we talk about World War Two all the time, right? For many it’s just not an easy conflict to understand:
- Its origins are complicated
- The end of the war is often condemned as simply a pause before continuing the fighting in World War Two
- The “good guys” and “bad guys” are confusing (Japan and Italy were on our side that time)
- The Russians quit the war, almost inexplicably as things were starting to look up
To military historians, however, all you have to say is “Archduke Ferdinand” and zing! We know where the story is headed: trench warfare, the Red Baron, the Treaty of Versailles and all of a sudden it’s Poland and 1939. Most readers of this article can connect those dots in our sleep.
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Historical Article: Eye On Afghanistan
Posted by Donster on: 2009-06-08 17:32:58 in category: Military History [ Print ]
Has the Taliban Insurgency Reached a Tipping Point?
By Wile E. Pathan @ The Wargamer
In the first of a monthly series focusing on the events unfolding in Afghanistan, we take a look at events leading up to this point and possible strategies going forward.
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D-Day, Sixty Five Years Later
Posted by Donster on: 2009-06-04 16:15:55 in category: Military History [ Print ]
Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender’s poem. You are men who in your "lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air signed with your honor.”
– President Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984 speech at the Pointe du Hoc U.S. Army Ranger Monument
Written by Carlo D'Este @ Armchair General
June 6, 2009 will mark the sixty-fifth anniversary of D-Day, when the eyes of the world were focused on a fifty-mile stretch of beach along the Normandy coast. The men and women of that great generation are rapidly passing on at a rate estimated to be somewhere around 1,000 to 1,200 per day. In the not too distant future the day will come when all but a handful remain to remind us of their sacrifice.
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Brothers At War - Interview with Jake Rademacher & Gary Sinise
Posted by Donster on: 2009-05-22 18:28:28 in category: Military History [ Print ]
By Jay Wertz @ Armchair General
Brothers at War is a new feature documentary film in which a civilian follows his two brothers, members of the 82nd Airborne Division, into the combat zones of Iraq. In June 2009 it will be shown in theaters at military bases around the United States and will be available on DVD in July.
Director/producer Jake Rademacher and executive producer Gary Sinise sat down with ArmchairGeneral.com to express their views on how the film may impact the American public’s perception of the war and the U. S. and Iraqi soldiers fighting it.
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Book Review: The Accidental Guerrilla
Posted by Donster on: 2009-05-11 20:40:50 in category: Military History [ Print ]
The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One. Author: David Kilcullen.
Review by Rick Baillergeon @ The Armchair General
There seems to be no shortage of self-proclaimed experts in the areas of counterinsurgency (COIN), guerrilla warfare (GW), Al Qa’ida, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In truth, the preponderance of these experts possess little or no credibility in any of these areas. They provide nothing of value to those exposed willingly or unwillingly to their views. Unfortunately, many of these "pundits" have managed to carve out niches in various forms of media.
There are a select few people who truly speak with influence in the aforementioned subjects. One who has garnered a tremendous reputation is David Kilcullen. In fact, he is considered in several circles to be today’s foremost authority in COIN and GW. That is why, personally, I (and many others) have been anxiously awaiting the release of his first book, The Accidental Guerrilla.
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Book Review: Armored Thunderbolt: The U.S. Army Sherman in World War II
Posted by Donster on: 2009-01-26 17:35:25 in category: Military History [ Print ]
Zaloga's comprehensive knowledge makes this book one of those rare “should not be missed” volumes that come along from time to time.
Review by Doug McLean @ The Wargamer
The M4 Sherman medium tank occupied a special place in the tank forces of the western allies. Remarkable US production allowed this tank to be not only the mainstay of the US Army, but also the British Army and all the commonwealth and Allied forces that fought under the British. The result was that Sherman tanks were a main element of all battles between the western allies and the Germans in the second half of the war – from late 1942 on. This widespread presence on the battlefield ensured the Sherman a prominent place in history. Whether that place should be as a war winner or as a deathtrap, however, has been disputed many times over the years.
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Feature Article: December 1940 - Things Were Much Worse
Posted by Donster on: 2009-01-23 17:30:00 in category: Military History [ Print ]
By Historian Carlo D'Este @ Armchair General
As the end of a very difficult 2008—a year of few highs and mostly lows—drew to a merciful conclusion, I was reminded that during the Second World War December was frequently a pivotal month during which great events—both triumphal and disastrous—seemed to occur. Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 come immediately to mind.
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Claus von Stauffenberg - The Man Who Tried to Kill Hitler
Posted by Donster on: 2008-12-30 17:21:43 in category: Military History [ Print ]
"Enraged by the attempt on his life, Hitler insisted that the very name ‘Stauffenberg’ be wiped from history"
By Nigel Jones @ World War II Magazine
Claus von Stauffenberg’s son recounts the terror and tumult that engulfed the family after his father’s attempt to kill Hitler in 1944.
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Book Review: Dying for Saint-Lo
Posted by Donster on: 2008-12-30 17:10:47 in category: Military History [ Print ]
Reviewed by Phil Driscoll @ Armchair General
This book covers the hedgerow-to-hedgerow battle in front of St-Lo between German and U.S. forces in Normandy during the period of July 7 – 21, 1944. It is broken into day-by-day accounts of each major section of the battlefield, covering the attacks of the US 2nd, 9th, 29th, 30th, and 35th Infantry divisions and the 3rd Armored Division and, on the German side, Panzer Lehr, 3rd Fallschirmjager Division, 352nd and 353rd Infantry divisions. St Lo, located in the Manche department in the heart of the bocage, was essential for the Germans to hold and for the U.S. to take; it would help set the stage for the Allied breakout that would shortly follow. The U.S. forces would suffer over 12,000 losses; the Germans would lose thousands of crack troops including pioneers, paratroopers and SS panzer grenadiers in this battle of attrition known as "Hedgerow Hell".
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Valkyrie - Movie Review
Posted by Donster on: 2008-12-19 16:40:29 in category: Military History [ Print ]
Tom Cruise has failed to kill Hitler. Only in American cinema would this ever be deemed a good thing.
By Brian King @ Armchair General
With the kind of star power attached to Valkyrie, it would not have been surprising to see Tom Cruise swept up in an epic love story which only reluctantly addressed the July 20, 1944, plot to kill Adolph Hitler. Would anyone have been shocked to see the film take liberties with the actual story, using the man from Mission Impossible to literally do the impossible and succeed in his daring plot to kill Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime? Hard experience has taught us that Hollywood is unparalleled in its ability to bungle even the most compelling -and true- stories. But Valkyrie is different.
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Book Review: US Army Long-Range Patrol Scout in Vietnam 1965-71
Posted by Donster on: 2008-12-11 18:11:07 in category: Military History [ Print ]
By Jim Zabek @ The Wargamer
The Vietnam War had many aspects but the role of Long-Range Patrols (LRP) have a mystique all to themselves. These patrols are the stuff of legend: a small squad of men inserted far behind enemy lines. Read up on the history, training, methods, and especially the men.
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Book Review: The Yom Kippur War
Posted by Donster on: 2008-11-28 17:42:15 in category: Military History [ Print ]
By Mike Dorn @ The Wargamer
At its heart the Yom Kippur War is a tale of one of the most famous and intrepid tank battles in history. Discover why Simon Dunstan’s account is the best there is on the subject.
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Book Review - The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War
Posted by Donster on: 2008-04-14 16:37:16 in category: Military History [ Print ]
Reviewed by Mike Dorn @ The Wargamer
Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam delivers a captivating read posthumously in The Coldest Winter. Boasting qualities of both narrative and chronicle, Halberstam recounts many of the major players and battles of the Korean War in a book that will stand as one of his best.
Read The Review Here
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The Brothers Horten and Their Wings
Posted by Admin on: 2007-03-29 14:26:07 in category: Military History [ Print ]
Ahead of their time, the brothers Horten, Wolfram and Reinmar developed what today is known as the Ho 9 flying wing. COMBATSIM.COM's own Jim "Twitch" Tittle reintroduces us to these forward-thinking designers. Was their invention a super plane? Or, did jealous competitors criticize it just to get their own designs approved by the Reich?
Read on: The Brothers Horten and Their Wings
News Source: COMBATSIM.COM
Movie Review: Fire and Ice: The Winter War of Finland and Russia
Posted by Donster on: 2006-03-06 15:11:51 in category: Military History [ Print ]
By Jim Zabek @ The Wargamer
The cold hinterland of Finland was the setting for the 1939-1940 Winter War, a battle that has now been thoroughly examined in this new TV documentary.
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Distributed computing cracks Enigma code
Posted by Donster on: 2006-02-27 15:35:17 in category: Military History [ Print ]
More than 60 years after the end of World War II, a distributed computing project has managed to crack a previously uncracked message that was encrypted using the Enigma machine.
By Graeme Wearden Special to CNET News.com
The M4 Project began in early January, as an attempt to break three original Enigma messages that were intercepted in 1942 and are thought never to have been broken by the Allied forces.
These messages were encrypted using a four-rotor Enigma. That version was considered by Germany to be completely unbreakable, as it could be set up in any one of 2 by 10,145 ways, each of which would encrypt a plain text message a different way.
Cryptologists at Bletchley Park in the U.K. managed to break Enigma through their development of early computers, led by Alan Turing, and also by using intelligence to cut down the number of possible set-ups.
According to the organizers of M4, their open-source message-breaking application managed to crack one of the three messages early last week.
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Editorial: A Different Theory on the Japanese Surrender
Posted by Donster on: 2006-02-11 16:08:16 in category: Military History [ Print ]
By Brant Guillory, The Wargamer
Was the Japanese surrender in the summer of 1945 a direct result of the atomic bomb, or perhaps a less obvious reason? Brant Guillory reports on an alternative theory as presented by Dr. Tsuyoshi Hasegawa of UC-Santa Barbara.
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Getting Away With Murder
Posted by Twitch on: 2005-08-30 17:21:40 in category: Military History [ Print ]
It began, perhaps, innocently enough at the end of WW I in 1918. The medical bureau of Japanese Army set out to study biological agents that could be used as weapons. Remember, this was at a time when the first war in history had just seen the use of chemical weapons so it was not perceived as some sinister undertaking. Later Japan refused to sign the 1925 Geneva Convention governing wartime bans of biological weapons.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
News Source: In-House
Military History: Invasion Japan
Posted by Admin on: 2005-08-09 13:27:49 in category: Military History [ Print ]
With the 60th anniversary of nuclear warfare upon us I wonder if anyone still thinks that it would have been better for all if we had invaded Japan proper? Many theorize alternate scenarios of paths that should have been taken. After island hopping the Pacific would our momentum have carried us to Tokyo on the ground?
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News Source: COMBATSIM.COM
U.S. Navy Seawolves: Book Review
Posted by Mako on: 2005-08-05 21:42:38 in category: Military History [ Print ]
In January of 1967 the decision is made to stand up a revolutionary Navy squadron trained by the best schools from each branch to be the last line of defense for the special forces teams in the field. Special ops teams knew the call “Seawolf, Seawolf” would bring immediate help in the form of UH-1B gunships manned by the crazy killers of the Seawolves team.
Read the full review here
News Source: In-House
Book Review: War for the Hell of It, by Ed Cobleigh
Posted by Banger on: 2005-06-24 12:46:37 in category: Military History [ Print ]
 Forget The Right Stuff. In War for the Hell of It, Ed Cobleigh pierces that popular image and takes us inside the helmet of a USAF fighter pilot, circa 1969.
This arresting, emotional account of one pilot's personal war is much more than airspeed and avionics, operations and ordnance. This is a book about warriors; the author just happens to fight his war from the cockpit of an F-4 Phantom II fighter-bomber.
Cobleigh's account is unsentimental and unsparing. Yet, for all his hard-won cynicism, Cobleigh refuses to surrender his humanity, or his patriotism.
Read the review
News Source: COMBATSIM.COM
Medal of Honor on D-DAY
Posted by Admin on: 2005-04-19 02:31:46 in category: Military History [ Print ]
Mortars, machine guns, 37 mm anti-tank guns, 75 and 88 mm guns, steel tripod stakes, floating mines, wired mines, buried mines and Teller mines that were just covered by the sea at high tide all took their toll on Lt. Jimmie Monteith's men. In moments the fifty-one men and the Lieutenant were reduced to just twenty-five.
Read more: Medal of Honor on D-Day
News Source: COMBATSIM.COM
Military History: Ambitious Ideas: Japan's Sub Warfare
Posted by Admin on: 2005-03-29 02:26:24 in category: Military History [ Print ]
The 140mm shells wailed into the oil field and began exploding around the storage tanks. The Pacific sun had gone leaving an afterglow to guide the deck gunners. The seventeen rounds did little or no damage but the action would announce that the I-17 had been there. They were the first fire upon America in WW II.
Commander Kozo Nishino’s boat was 4,000 miles from home off Santa Barbara, California when that incident occurred at 5:30 PM on February 25, 1942. I-17 was one 20 Type B-1 subs. 94 officers and men called her home during their missions. They could make 23.5 knots on the surface and 8 knots submerged. So big were the Type B-1s that they each carried a recon seaplane in watertight hangers. She was large at 365.5 feet in length displacing 3,654 tons submerged. Range was 14,000 nautical miles at 14 knots. Seventeen torpedoes were carried for the six forward tubes.
Read more: Ambitious Ideas: Japan's Sub Warfare
News Source: COMBATSIM.COM
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