31 MARCH-1 APRIL 1944 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADMIRAL KOGA With the death of ADM Isoruku Yamamoto on 18 April 1943 command of the Imperial Japanese Combined Fleet passed to ADM Mineichi Koga. In February 1944 Koga was forced by American air Read More
23-27 MARCH 1986 OPERATION “PRAIRIE FIRE” After Muslim strongman COL Muammar al-Kadhafi overthrew the monarchy in Libya in 1969, he began agitating against two perceived enemies, the US and Israel. He defiantly and arbitrarily extended his territorial claims to include all Read More
20 MARCH 1945 LAST TRANSMISSION FROM KETE The fleet submarine KETE (SS-369) was launched 9 April 1944, one of the prolific Balao-class submarines that proved so successful in WWII. Like most, she was named for a fish, in this case a Read More
11 MARCH 1948 KEY WEST CONFERENCE The years following the end of WWII were tumultuous for the US military. The atomic bomb that ended that war fundamentally changed strategic thinking. Why bother with conventional forces when the answer to world conflict Read More
6 MARCH 1823 DEATH OF LT COCKE Piracy was rampant in the Caribbean of the early 19th century. Independence movements in several Spanish New World colonies created the problem, as these new nations often sanctioned privateering against their former Spanish overlords. Read More
28 FEBRUARY 1849 THE FIRST FORTY-NINERS In the frosty chill of the morning of 24 January 1848, a millwright named James T. Marshall walked the length of a newly dug millrace off the American River in the foothills of California’s Sierra Read More
25 FEBRUARY 1863 THE PETERHOF AFFAIR The Union Navy’s blockade of the Confederacy during the Civil War yielded quite a few captures. In disposing of these ships and their cargoes, there emerged a controversy over what to do with the mail Read More
19 FEBRUARY 1945 THE FIGHTING FIELD MUSICIAN Darrell Samuel Cole could see the war clouds on the horizon in the Fall of 1941. Wanting to be ready to fight himself, on 25 August 1941 he enlisted in the United States Marine Read More
12 FEBRUARY 1947 THE KGW-1 “LOON” German technology of WWII was envied by the Allies. In the final months of the war, captured German systems began making their way to the US. One such innovation was the V-1 “buzz bomb,” a Read More