HMS DEVONSHIRE vs. ATLANTIS

                                             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 freighter SS Goldenfels, she Read More

German Raider ATLANTIS

                                             11 NOVEMBER 1940                                       GERMAN RAIDER ATLANTIS Recognizing at the outset of WWII that the Kriegsmarine had not the strength to match the Royal Navy’s warfleet, Hilter’s maritime strategy concentrated on guerre de course, interrupting the flow of merchant ships carrying the Read More

Fatal Accident

                                                   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

Battle of the Bach Dang River

                                           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

USS WOODBURY and the Pastry War

                                             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

The French Problem and Operation “Torch” (cont.)

                                            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

The French Problem and Operation “Torch”

                                              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

Operation “Mincemeat”

                                     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

Dogger Bank Incident

                                               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

The Miraculous Crossing

                               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