22 NOVEMBER 1941 HMS DEVONSHIRE vs. ATLANTIS One of the Royal Navy’s early successes in WWII was the effort against German surface raiders. Indeed, KMS ATLANTIS had accumulated some impressive statistics by November 1941. Converted from the former freighter SS Goldenfels, Read More
15-22 NOVEMBER 1856 ACTION AT THE PEARL RIVER FORTS By the mid-19th century, most western nations had established commercial enterprises in China. China was, at the time, internally fractionated and militarily weak, and England, in particular, exploited this situation to compel Read More
8-16 NOVEMBER 1942 THE FRENCH PROBLEM AND OPERATION “TORCH” (cont.) The landing of 84,000 American troops in French North Africa brought the full rage of Vichy President Marshal Philippe Pétain against President Franklin Roosevelt. “It is with stupor and sadness that Read More
8 NOVEMBER 1942 THE FRENCH PROBLEM AND OPERATION “TORCH” After the fall of France to the wehrmacht in June of 1940, der Fuhrer was content to allow France to be divided. A German puppet government centered in the city of Vichy Read More
100th ANNIVERSARY 5 NOVEMBER 1923 AIRPLANE ON A SUBMARINE Several 20th century navies experimented with the deployment of aircraft from a submarine, but the Japanese are perhaps the best remembered. They successfully operated combat aircraft from their I-class submarines–famously launching Read More
100th ANNIVERSARY 28 OCTOBER 1923 FIRST SUBMARINE RESCUE When the four O-class US Navy submarines O-3 (SS-135), O-5 (SS-137), O-6 (SS-138) and O-8 (SS-140) were vectored to the Atlantic end of the Panama Canal for a routine transit on the Read More
24 OCTOBER-21 NOVEMBER 1962 QUARANTINE OF CUBA On the 14th of October, 1962, a high-flying Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane photographed what appeared to be a missile base under construction at San Cristobal, Cuba. Shortly it was learned that Soviet Il-28 Read More
16-18 OCTOBER 1859 JOHN BROWN’S RAID From the 1830s, the American public became increasingly polarized over the issue of slavery. Violence erupted for the first time in Alton, Illinois, in November 1837, when an angry mob raided the home of Elijah Read More
100th ANNIVERSARY 10 OCTOBER 1923 USS SHENANDOAH COMMISSIONING The need to see beyond the horizon prompted militarists of the American Civil War to experiment with manned observation balloons. From these humble beginnings military lighter-than-air (LTA) technology approached its zenith in Read More
3 OCTOBER 1944 THE TRAGEDY OF SEAWOLF The Sargo-class fleet submarine SEAWOLF (SS-197) was a veteran of the Pacific war by this date, having served nearly continuously since the Pearl Harbor raid. The 71,608 tons of enemy shipping she had sent Read More