HMS TerrorOperation Compass is now buried in dusty history books and military archives, slipping into ‘ancient history’ along with the fall of the Roman Empire, Henry VIII’s six wives, the French Revolution, and all that other stuff that happened long ago. Histories...
An E Class DestroyerOn January 21, 1940, 85 years ago this month, the Royal Navy E-Class destroyer HMS Exmouth was sunk in the Moray Firth off the east coast of Scotland by the Kriegsmarine Type II-B submarine U-22. All 175 members of Exmouth’s crew were lost. On...
Once again, the holidays are upon us. Once again, we can hope and pray for a world filled with peace and goodwill. Once again, I am publishing my Christmas blog which recalls Christmas Day in 1914 when the soldiers stopped hilling each other, just for a few hours, and...
We celebrate Thanksgiving this year on November 28th, and this blog is due to be published on the 29th. We celebrate this year in peace in most of the world (although alas far from all of it.) In World War II things were just a little different … let’s look at late...
The war to end all warsIn the United States we observe Veterans Day on November 11th (next Monday as I write this) and Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Why November 11th? World War I ended in Europe on November 11, 1918, with the signing of...
Across the Siegried Line, October 1944 (Cost, approximately 250,000 casualties) In October 1944 the war in Europe is entering its sixth bloody year. Its sixth year! As Courtney Hodges’ 1st US Army grimly fights its way through the notorious Siegfried Line, Nazi...
