Continued from Part 1 The Battle of Long Island Combat actions commenced on August 22nd, 1776, when General Howe ordered the invasion of Long Island. Some 15,000 British and Hessian troops successfully landed on the beaches of Long Island and came ashore… [Read more…]
Continued from Part 1 The Battle of Long Island Combat actions commenced on August 22nd, 1776, when General Howe ordered the invasion of Long Island. Some 15,000 British and Hessian troops successfully landed on the beaches of Long Island and came ashore before quickly moving to seize the village of Flatbush (Schecter, 128). General Washington assumed the landing was a … [Read more…]
The battle of New York began in August of 1776 and it was a match of maneuvers and counter-maneuvers between British and Patriot forces under the commands of Gens. George Washington and William Howe. Including the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Long Island, the conflict was actually spread across a large area that is contemporary New York City. Considering the … [Read more…]
Convinced that an insurrection was brewing, British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer ordered that there were to be no public gatherings in Punjab, India. However, many citizens of India didn’t hear that announcement and on April 13, 1919, a peaceful protest congregated in the Jallianwala Bagh gardens. Dyer mobilized his men and marched them to the gardens, blocking off one of … [Read more…]
“How the hell am I going to fill 1,000 sandbags, and how did I get myself into this mess?†I thought. Sometimes life throws curveballs at you and you have to do your best to sit back in the box and hit them the opposite way. In doing so, you can take a bad situation and make the most of it. That’s precisely what I did during my time in Honduras. Back in the day, the … [Read more…]
German citizens in Ahlbach were unpleasantly surprised at 4 AM one day earlier this week as they were awakened by an explosion. Police were called to inspect the crater. Fox News reports: …It “almost certainly†was a 550-pound dud. “With the former railway depot, we were quite a bomb target at the end of the Second World War,†city spokesman Johannes Laubach told the … [Read more…]
The 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) was formed on June 24, 1957, and is 62 years old* this week. The 1st SFG (A) is the SF group tasked with an area of operations within the Asia-Pacific theater, although many of the group’s teams have served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The United States Army Special Operations Command lists the lineage back to the First Special … [Read more…]
Many remember the Fulton extraction system from the James Bond movie, “Thunderball,” starring Sean Connery, but the system was actually developed by the CIA for extracting personnel in austere parts of the world. Named after its creator, Robert Fulton, the system was tested by the CIA’s Special Activities Division in the 1950s. A few years back, I read a book called “Project … [Read more…]
As U.S. Special Forces recently turned 67 years old, it is interesting to take a look back at this public service announcement from the 1960s about the legendary Green Berets. Check out the video to learn more, but you may also enjoy this interview I did with Sergeant Major (Ret.) William Bowles. Sergeant Bowles passed away in 2012, a few months after our interview. JM: What … [Read more…]
One of the more bizarre and successful military deception operations took place on April 30, 1943, during World War II by the British. Operation Mincemeat took place off the Spanish coast and convinced the Germans that the upcoming Allied invasion of Sicily was headed instead for Greece and Sardinia. This caused the Germans to funnel large amounts of men, material, and aircraft … [Read more…]
More and more stories are coming to light about the operatives who worked in the shadows during the Second World War, and many of them were women. By now most people have heard about Virginia Hall, the famous “Limping Lady†of the OSS, and her exploits, as well as many others. One of the more successful operatives was Betty Pack, who was born in the United States, married a … [Read more…]
Arlington National Cemetery is a sprawling 624 acres of prime real estate, directly across the Potomac River from Washington D.C. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the hills overlooking the Capitol and the White House were a perfect spot for artillery. And Arlington, right on the cusp of the Union’s capital, was part of Virginia, which was about to secede from the … [Read more…]
The Atlacatl Immediate Reaction Battalion’s massacre of more than 900 elderly men, women of all ages, and children/infants in December 1981 at El Mozote, El Salvador, is the most heinous mass murder in modern Latin American history. Under the umbrella of Operation Rescate (Rescue)—ordered by the minister of defense, Colonel Jose Guillermo Garcia—the Salvadoran Armed Forces … [Read more…]
