The motorized units of armoured grenadiers proved their worth in combat, and all of Western Europe was conquered by blitzkrieg tactics. Yet it remains true that the German armed forces were largely dependent on non-motorised means of transport, including bicycles In German propaganda weeklies we do see images of infantrymen riding on trucks, but the…
The first mass-produced and then deployed light machine gun was not built by a Briton, German or American, but by a Danish engineer and captain Vilhelm Herman Oluf Madsen (1844-1917) in 1890. The weapon was then purchased by 34 armies in 13 modifications with cartridges in calibers from 6.5 to 8 mm. The successful weapon…
Crime was a big problem for medieval Vikings – so much so, according to Dr Gardin Wills of the Centre for Scandinavian Studies in Aberdeen, that artists devised a special way of depicting the worst criminals. The historian has examined the earliest descriptions of Vikings in Icelandic literature and found that the authors very accurately…
Nicolae Ceausescu, leader of the Romanian Communist Party, used to tease his foreign colleagues by always taking his food with him. And he loved stewed chicken, but the whole thing, including beak, claw and other parts. Tito, the head of Yugoslavia at the time, avoided solid food on principle and sipped his vegetable juices through…
Four brothers, four turbulent destinies. Although the sons of Franz Karl of Habsburg-Lorraine and Sophie of Bavaria were born into the most respected ruling family in Europe, which destined them for a bright future, their life paths were often winding and erratic. The eldest of the brothers, Franz Joseph, ascended to the Austrian imperial throne…
President Hindenburg initially refused to appoint Hitler as Chancellor and placed von Papen in the post. In the meantime, the escalating situation had almost degenerated into civil war. The crisis of the Republic deepened in the autumn of 1932. After the newly elected parliament was dissolved in September, another election was held in November, the…
How could pre-war Czechoslovakia with such a different robber mythology have endured together? A nation fed up with the Psohlavci knew that Jan Sladký Kozina, a rebel and a character without the fear of hany, did not even rob and yet was innocently „hutracenej“. Babinsky, on the other hand, improved after his arrest and turned…
The picture shows a Volkswagen type 166 Schwimmwagen, known as the Waterman, making its way through the mud of a Ukrainian road. This type was based on the classic KDF 82 Kübelwagen off-road vehicle, the design of which Ferdinand Porsche used to create an amphibious version. The result was the KDF 128, which, although not…
The second airship, which the Italians lost during the war with their Austro-Hungarian rival, was designated „Naval Airship V.1 Class V (Verduzio)“, later also „Citta di Jesi“. On the fateful night of 5 August 1915, her crew attempted to attack the most important port and military base of the Danube monarchy in the northern Adriatic…
On June 25, 1876, a famous battle took place near Little Bighorn between Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry and the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indian tribes. That the 7th Cavalry was routed in battle and its ambitious commander fell with it is a fairly well-known fact. In addition to the regular American…
Members of many European nations volunteered to serve in the Third Reich. But history is written by the victors, and so, unlike those who fought on the side of the Allies, their past is much less recorded in the popular consciousness. The exception is the Walloons, the francophone Belgians whose voluntary wartime involvement is best…
If the Slovaks didn’t have Janosik, they would have had to invent him. The most famous Slovak bandit comes into the world as the youngest of five children. At the age of nineteen, he is recruited into the imperial army. Then he helps the imprisoned bandit Tomas Uhorcik escape. And eventually joins him. Hidden in…
In 1977, a railroad worker from a small town in France named Jean-Marie Loret made the shocking claim that he was the son of Adolf Hitler. And while such a story may sound strange, and while history books claim Hitler died childless, Loret’s claims have a frightening trail of evidence behind them. In addition to…
On Friday, July 3, 1863, a huge battle raged for the third day near the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. At two o’clock in the afternoon, General Longstreet sent three divisions of infantry into the attack to drive the Unionists off Cemetery Ridge and break the enemy front. Of his mission he said, „I have…
During the Battle of Britain, Messerschmitt Bf 109 E „Emil“ fighters were most often engaged with the Hawker Hurricane Mk.I. nicknamed „Hurry“. Which machine emerges victorious from the duel? The Messerschmitt Bf 109E was undoubtedly superior to the Hurricane Mk.I in most respects, which was true both technologically and in a number of important parameters….
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