Military History

Posted by Christopher Eger

Flight Lieutenant Chris Ball, regularly a RAF Tornado driver, has been on exchange with the US Air Force. This is a long standard practice with officers often being exchanged between the two countries military's for decades. During the first part of WWII when the US was still a neutral, many US Army Air Corps pilots were even given temporary furloughs to travel to Great Britain and join the Eagle Squadron of the RAF flying Spitfires during the Blitz.

Lieutenant Ball however has had an experience with coming into contact with US Air Force regulations due to his facial hair. Ball sports a prominent Handle-Bar mustache that would make Freddie Mercury envious. While the Queens Regulations on moustache length is not the same as the Uncle Sam's, he was given orders to conform. The Lieutenant won is battle and is still flying F-15s in Afghanistan with the USAF.

There's a war on terror going on, let's belay the chicken**** until we get it sorted out.

Posted by Christopher Eger

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is in the same stage oif development that the airplane was in around 1912-1913. The Wright Brothers took their rickety powered kit to the air in 1903 and soon afterward air services were popping up to use the dastardly new device for reconnaissance. In 1911 the Italian air force dropped a couple handheld bombs on the heads of some Ottoman Turks in the Libyan desert. Within the next couple of years you saw the Bulgarians doing the same thing in Thrace to the Turks as well as American mercenary pilots in Mexico dropping the same types of improvised explosives on Villa and the gang. World War one took the gloves off and today armed combat aircraft are fielded by nearly 100 countries.



The UAV took to the air in the 1940s experimentally and became mission capable in the 1960s with the Firebee recon drones in Vietnam. In the late 1990s it was thought possible to arm these robotic aircraft. In 2001 a few Predator UAVs were redubbed from RQ-1 to MQ-1 designations when they were equipped with two Hellfire AGM-114 laser-guided anti-tank missiles. In November 2001 they first launched their missile in anger. Today there are five squadrons of both the unarmed and armed versions of this craft in active service. Moving forward with specially designed weapons now is on the horizon. The Griffin missile is in development by Raytheon is a small 42-inch, 45-pound surface to air missile and the Predator can carry up to six of them.



Its only a matter of time before you see this turn the corner and the pilots of today are the joystick operators of tomorrow.

Posted by Christopher Eger

The Russian Black Sea Fleet, a favorite of the country since the time of the Tsars, may be homeless and forced to move soon. When the Ukraine broke away from the Russian state a few years ago the fleet, based in harbors that now belonged to the new country, the fleet's future was in doubt. Some units went to the Ukraine, others were scrapped, but about 35 remain. Sevastopol, the main Russian naval base in the Black Sea since before the Crimean War, is now part of the Ukraine and they want the Russians 100% gone by 2017.



One thought is that the Russians may take their fleet to Syria and be based in the Mediterranean . The Russians have been in the Med for centuries. Back in the time of old Tsar Nicholas the Russian Navy kept a Squadron in the European great lake Soudha on the Greek island of Crete was the homeport of the Russian gunboat Khrabry and others since the 1890s.



During the Cold War the Soviet navy again expanded around the world, setting up bases in Africa, Vietnam and Syria. In 1971 the base at Tartus was founded on Syria’s coastline and the Soviet Navy’s Mediterranean Squadron was founded to rival the US 6th Fleet. In 1991 with the break-up of the Soviet Union the Squadron was disbanded but the base remained. Today the base's 720th Logistics Support Point of the Russian Navy with its floating drydocks, warehouses, and barracks is the only remaining overseas unit. Russia is currently dredging the port of Tartus and began in 2006 to build another set of docks in the Syrian port of Latakia.

Posted by Christopher Eger

Dr Robert Ballard is a world renowned oceanographer and underwater archeologist. You may have heard his name if you are interested in the wrecks of the Bismarck, PT-109, the USS Yorktown, and others. Most famously he is the guy who found the RMS Titanic in 1985. Basically, between Clive Cussler and Bob Ballard, if it’s been lost at sea they can find it.



Something you may not know about Bob is that he got his start and financing for finding the Titanic from the US Navy. Contrary to Clive Cussler’s famous book Raise the Titanic, the US government had no interest in the Titanic but it did have an interest in two other ships: the USS Thresher and the USS Scorpion. They were US Navy nuclear attack submarines that went missing in the 1960s. The subs location was known as both were found by a team led by Naval Research Laboratory scientist named Chester "Buck" Buchanan shortly after they were sunk, however the Navy wanted more information. With the help of the US Navy-owned but Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute-crewed research ship Knorr and her crew the Navy contracted Ballard to take more intensive pictures in a second look on the lost submarines. It was with the ‘change’ left over on the contract that Ballard took the Knorr to the last location if the Titanic and fished around successfully for her.

Posted by Christopher Eger

War trophies are funny. Whenever a soldier bested another on the field of battle they took his weapons, part of his uniform, or some other souvenir. In the great halls of old Europe the walls are adorned with weapons and armor taken from vanquished knights. In Moscow to this day is an artillery park with hundreds of cannons captured by every Russian war lord from Ivan the Terrible to Stalin. There are stories of western settlers coming in contact with Native Americans on the Great Plains in the 19th century who proudly displayed Spanish Marion armor captured hundreds of years before. Most people have a grandfather or great uncle from prior generations who proudly brought back home with him a Luger or samurai sword.





Today British soldiers are coming back from Afghanistan with weapons that have already been trophies. Foolish enough to think the sun never in fact set on the British Empire, the colonial British Army pushed into Afghanistan from India several times in the 19th and 20th centuries with mixed success and often failure. One of these failures was at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880. In this battle nearly a thousand British and Indian soldiers were killed, routed by an Afghan army. These included almost 300 men of the 66th Regiment of Foot, who were armed with the excellent Martini-Henry rifles. These rifles fell into the hands of victorious Afghan warriors. With the Afghan warrior culture full of respect for firearms, these were passed down from generation to generation of men, no doubt seeing service many times in local blood feuds, and during later British and then Soviet occupations. Many of these weapons are being confiscated by British soldiers, once again in Afghanistan- this time in support of the GWOT, and coming back home.

Posted by Christopher Eger

War leaves reminders all over the place. It is hard to walk down a street in any town that had been around for more than a few generations and not tread over the ghosts of past warriors. London has seen conquerors and warriors come and go. From the Romans to the Saxons and the wars of the Roses to the Germans they have all come and left their mark. Sometimes these marks are not found until generations later.



Case in point, a construction crew working on venues for the 2012 Olympic Games came across a remnant of one of these erstwhile want to be conquerors. The remnant in question was a 2200 pound (1000kg) bomb. Royal Army Engineers were called to the scene and identified the weapon belonging to the WWII German Luftwaffe. It was pulled from the River Thames near Three Mills Island in East London near by a dredge. The device, more than five feet long and heavily corroded, was safely disarmed after a day long scare and evacuation of the surrounding area. The relic, a gift from Mr. Hitler sometime during the Blitz, true to German craftsmanship, even started ticking again while being disarmed. No doubt this is because it realized that British soldiers were nearby. London police frequently find Un-exploded Ordinance left over from both world wars, however no bomb of this size has been found in London in more than 30-years according to statements.

Posted by Christopher Eger

On a hot August morning in Samarra, Iraq a four man Reaper Team of the 82nd Airborne's 2-505 Parachute Infantry Regiment's Scout Platoon found themselves in a tight spot. Led by 22yr old Sergeant Josh Morley the team contained 21-yr old Specialist Tracy Willis, 23-yr old Specialist Chris Corriveau and unit armorer 23-year-old Specialist Eric Moser. Detailed to provide an over watch for a search operation below, they secretly climbed an apartment rooftop set up shop. With the search operation coming off without a hitch, the Reaper team went to displace, only to find that insurgents had followed and surrounded them. Armed Al-Qaeda foot solders held the stairwells and streets below them, trapping the team on the roof. Within the first few minutes a bad situation got worse. First Sgt Morley and then Spec. Willis were killed, leaving only Corriveau and Moser in the fight. Bombarded by grenades thrown up the stairwell by unseen hands and taking fire from multiple weapons the two snipers fought on unsupported, with a blown radio and dwindling supplies of ammunition.



The ten minute firefight ultimately ended with a nearby friendly infantry platoon coming to the sound of combat and the insurgents withdrawing. An after-action review found that the Reaper team had held off a squad to platoon sized group of men and inflicted no less than ten casualties. More importantly they kept both the bodies of their fallen brothers and their own from falling into the insurgent’s hand- preventing a propaganda victory for the insurgents. Morser and Corriveau were promoted to Sergeant and awarded the DSC, the 2nd highest award for valor in the Army. Morley and Willis were posthumously awarded the Silver Star. Read more in Jeff Emanuel's excellent piece.

Posted by Christopher Eger

A Russian pilot, most likely working a as a private military contractor (hip term for Mercenary) to the government of Sudan, lost his life while attacking a rebel column May 10, 2008. The pilot, listed by some sources as a flight instructor for the Sudanese Air Force, was shot down by medium caliber anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) the oldest form of anti-air weapon. Since the inception of the surface to air missile (SAM) in the 1960s it was thought that AAA had taken a back seat to the SAM. However AAA remains a viable alternative and is used as the working mans aircraft killer. Hundreds of modern combat aircraft have been swatted down from Vietnam to Syria to today's Iraq and Afghanistan by these easy to use weapons from another era.

The weapons involved in the Sudan incident were heavy machine guns (12.7mm and higher) on anti-aircraft mounts carried in the back of light civilian pick up trucks. These trucks, called 'technicals' have been a common sight in Africa from the Libyan-Chad conflict in the 1980s, and the epic civil wars in Liberia, Somalia, and elsewhere.

The Russian pilot, who has not been identified by in name apparently attacked a column of some 200 mixed vehicles at low level and paid the price. The fact that the Russian Defense Ministry refuses to even admit that one of its members was lost points to this pilot not being on active duty anymore with the Russian Armed Forces.

"The Russian defense ministry spokesman told Interfax that the pilot “was not in active service” during his time in Sudan.

"There are no fighter jet pilots in the Russian air group in Sudan" he said."

Posted by Christopher Eger

More than 60 million men and woman served on both sides during the Great War (aka the war to end all wars, World War One, etc) from 1914-1918. The war ended 90 years ago and an important milestone was just reached this week.

The last veteran of the Central Powers has left us. The Central powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, This year started with three veterans still alive. By April this number was reduced to just one. That final survivor was 107 year old Franz Künstler. Mr Kunstler served as a 17-year old gunner with the 1st Artillery Regiment of the Kaiser Karl's KuK Army of the Empire of Austro-Hungary. He fought with this unit on the Italian front in 1918. Later serving in World War Two as a courier, he immigrated to Germany where he has worked since 1946 as a museum guide.

He is survived by no less than a dozen British, American, Finnish and Italian veterans- all of whom are also in the 100's.

Künstler never apologized for his part in either war and remained a warrior until the end. The fearless old gunner was last quoted in March when He stated about his thoughts on his impending death

“When I'm 110 the devil can come and get me."

Looks like Mr. Künstler has finally mustered out.

Posted by Christopher Eger

Only four years old when Hitler invaded Poland and barely a year older when his home near Minsk in the former Soviet Union was occupied by the Axis powers, Ilya Galperin found himself in a most unenviable positioned. He was an orphan brought up in the madness that was the eastern front. Being adopted by the pro-Nazi Latvian police (many of whom were credited with some of the worst atrocities committed in the Soviet Union) the boy was renamed "Alex” by the soldiers, uniformed and made an honorary member of the unit.

He wandered across the war zone with the unit and was even forced to partake in Jewish pogroms and war crimes. The fact that he was a Jew and Russian by birth he carefully hid. The young mascot met Hitler, handed out candy bars to Jews being lined up to board trains to death camps, and even lured girls to be gang raped by squads of his soldier-uncles.

By the time the war was over he was just Ten years old.

By age 15 he had fled to Australia and reinvented himself. He kept his secret hidden for more than forty years until telling his family. Now his tragic story has been told in an excellent article by Olga Craig from the Telegraph and in the book - The Mascot: The Extraordinary Story of a Young Jewish Boy and an SS Extermination Squad, by Mark Kurzem, who is the son of one Alex Kurzem, an old Australian carpenter formerly known as Ilya Galperin.