2 APRIL 1944 FATAL ACCIDENT The Caroline Island lagoon of Chuuk (formerly Truk), ringed by a 40-mile-wide coral reef, was a key forward naval base for the Japanese in WWII. With the Allied advance across the Pacific, Truk became the target Read More
LATE WINTER, 938 AD BATTLE OF THE BACH DANG RIVER In 111 BC the powerful Han dynasty of southern China invaded and conquered the region to their south then called Nam Viet (now northern Vietnam). Hungry for the fertile farmland of Read More
29 NOVEMBER 1838 USS WOODBURY AND THE PASTRY WAR The Mexican Federalist War of 1835-41 pitted the aristocratic Centralist Mexican rulers against the federalist peasantry of the provinces. Foreign businessmen in Mexico who suffered collateral damages from Centralist Mexican Army operations Read More
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
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
TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY 30 APRIL 1943 OPERATION “MINCEMEAT” When the American 7th and British 8th Armies landed on southern Sicily 10 July 1943 they found lighter than anticipated resistance. It seems the Germans had concentrated their defenses on the Read More
21 OCTOBER 1904 DOGGER BANK INCIDENT In 1904, frictions between Japan and Russia erupted into war when the Japanese attacked and destroyed the Russian Navy’s 1st Pacific Squadron at its base in Port Arthur (modern China). Tsar Nicholas II reacted by Read More
TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY 27-28 SEPTEMBER 1066 THE MIRACULOUS CROSSING For the first week of January in the year 1066, King Edward the Confessor of England agonized on his death bed. A sudden apoplexy (cerebral hemorrhage) caused lapses in and Read More
22-25 JULY 1797 NELSON’S ARM The Treaty of Lldefonso on 19 August 1796 allied Spain with France in Napoleon’s war against England. Now the combined French/Spanish navies of 38 ships-of-the-line threatened England’s Royal Navy’s control of the seas. A February 1797 Read More