History 2024, May

We are celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the Great Victory, everyone has heard the famous battles that decided the outcome of the war. But there were also less significant episodes in our war, without these small details the overall picture of our Victory would not have formed. Some of the events that I would like to tell the reader are ultimately

"Proclamation of Claudius Emperor by Praetorians", artist L. Alma-Tadema If we consider the entire history of mankind, then few military units have ever had such an impact on world history as the Praetorians. Historians call them the first bodyguards in history. But they guarded the most

In this article, dear friends, I would like to reveal the influence of reconnaissance ships (RC) on global world processes that took place in the second half of the twentieth century on our planet. In this article, the reader will be able to see how precarious the world was and how dependent on the human

The story I want to tell is still shrouded in mystery. There are many versions, guesses and assumptions, but the true reasons that gave rise to this conflict are reliably hidden in the depths of the NSA, CIA and Mossad. In my opinion, this story is on a par with such as the incident with the South Korean

First of all, you need to understand the tense situation at sea in that area since 1941. These are incessant provocations from Japanese ships and aircraft, shelling, sinking and detention of merchant ships. Japanese warships behaved insolently in the Sea of Okhotsk and on its coast

Background Germany began to show interest in the Northern Sea Route long before the outbreak of war with the Soviet Union. The Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy ("Kriegsmarine") twice reported to Adolf Hitler about the possibility of establishing a sea link between the Nazi Reich and Japan through

Linear icebreaker "A. Mikoyan "(continued) S.M. Sergeev, commander of the icebreaker "A. Mikoyan" The dark night of November 30 came. The windlass quietly began to work, and the anchor-chain slowly crept into the hawse, the icebreaker began to slowly move forward. As soon as the anchor broke away from the ground, Sergeev gave a "low speed"

By early 1945, the 21st Bomber Command was a formidable force capable of simultaneously flying hundreds of B-29 long-range bombers loaded with tons of high-explosive and incendiary bombs. In the last year of the war, the American command developed the most effective tactics

This is the first publication in a series on Japan's air and missile defense system. Before embarking on a review of the Japanese air defense system during World War II, we will briefly review the actions of American aircraft against objects located on the Japanese islands. Since this topic

The head of the German youth organization "Hitler Youth" Artur Axman talks with volunteers from the "Hitler Youth" - pilots of human-controlled torpedoes. In the foreground is the "Neger". Photo source: waralbum.ru “At a time when knowledgeable people have already realized that Germany is doomed to the war

The topic of naval saboteurs is one of the most interesting in the history of World War II. It, perhaps, can be called little-studied and forgotten: the actions of small combat groups are lost against the backdrop of epoch-making battles of tank armies and breathtaking sea battles. When it comes to combat swimmers, everyone

"The only thing that really scared me during the war was the danger from German submarines." Churchill "World War II" By August 1942, the Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (BdU) decided that four submarines U-68, U-172

A grove under the mountain was burning, And the sunset was blazing with it. There were only three of us out of eighteen guys … The Nazis were already driven from the Belarusian land. The soldiers of the 433rd Infantry Regiment did not sleep for a day, pursuing the enemy. And only when they were exhausted and exhausted, they stopped for a halt. Yes and want not

At the beginning of 1943, the front line in the Don area was moved to the west by 200-250 kilometers. The position of the German troops, trapped in the Stalingrad ring, deteriorated sharply, their fate was a foregone conclusion. Retreating, the enemy desperately resisted, clinging to every skyscraper, settlement. Hastily

Cape Town Harbor in 1937 In the second half of 1942, the high command of the German submarines Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (BdU) acknowledged that the results of victories in the North Atlantic had significantly decreased

Thirty-one tons of mercury In April 1944, a large ocean-going submarine U-859 (type IXD2) sailed from Kiel, carrying a secret cargo (31 tons of mercury in metal flasks) and heading for Penang, occupied by the Japanese. Less than an hour before your destination, after six months and 22,000 miles

There are facts in the history of European wars that people try to keep silent about. This, in particular, the trade in soldiers. It all began in the era of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), when individual rulers in Europe, not having their own army, bought mercenaries. The practice has become ubiquitous. In 1675 the Venetian

Early 1945 In coastal waters of Norway, a British submarine pursued a German sub. Both ships sank to depth and an unusual situation developed. So far, not a single underwater attack by an enemy ship, also at depth, has been successful. American, British and

In the history of the German submarine fleet, there is only one submarine commander (U-852) who was court-martialed for his military crimes during World War II. This is Lieutenant Commander Heinz-Wilhelm Eck. By mid-January 1943, the Anglo-American naval blockade of Germany was

October 1941 It was the fifth month of the war, the enemy occupied the Baltic republics, most of Belarus and Ukraine, and came close to Moscow. The front line stretched from the Barents to the Black Sea. In the Karelian direction, the fascist rushed to Murmansk and Kandalaksha, trying to cut off the Kola

"You Can't Win If You Get VD." infections

In 1788, British captain Arthur Phillip entered the bay with a dozen ships and founded the settlement of Sydney Crove on the coast of the newly discovered continent of Australia, which later became Sydney. The development of Australia has begun. But … there were no people willing to go to a distant continent in Britain. Lack of labor

With shotguns and a knife The history of the submarine fleet is full of tragic events that happened on all oceans and seas during World War II. The night storm battle between the American destroyer Borie (DD-215 "Borie") and the German submarine U-405 in the waters stands apart

It was generally accepted practice to appoint from among the lower ranks in all European armies, soldiers who served officers. In mass literature of the early 20th century, this character was depicted satirically. Suffice it to recall the famous "The Adventures of the Gallant Soldier Schweik". The orderly or orderly must

The Saxon diplomat Georg Gelbig, who was on business in St. Petersburg at the court of Catherine II, in 1787, together with the Empress, went on a journey to the distant Crimea. Upon his return, he anonymously wrote an article in the German magazine "Minerva", in which he said that he had seen on the way

In the history of long-range aviation during the Great Patriotic War, two unique cases occurred: falls from different heights of a navigator and a pilot with unopened parachutes, which ended well: both aviators survived. It happened in January and April 1942. Both the navigator and the pilot

The system of punishments for negligence or committed misconduct in the sailing era was very sophisticated. For example, an officer always had a "nine-tailed cat" at hand - a special whip with nine ends, which left non-healing scars on the back. There were quite complex forms of punishment

Calculation of the 82-mm mortar BM-37. Stalingrad. 10/21/1942 Nearly 75 years ago, a unique case occurred on the site of the settlement: the fire of the Soviet 82-mm mortar of the 41st Infantry Regiment of the 84th Infantry Division shot down the German Focke-Wulf aircraft

One piece of evidence is enough to dispel doubts about a man's flight to the moon. Saturn V flew If, in front of tens of thousands of eyewitnesses who gathered on the day of launch on Cape Canaveral, the 2300-ton carrier was able to ascend into the sky, then all the controversy about flags, wrong dust and fake photographs

In October 1947, German rocket scientists were deported to the Soviet Union, who worked comfortably on the Soviet rocket and space program and conducted a number of successful research on missiles (How the Nazi FAU rocket program became the base of the Soviet rocket and space

In accordance with the requirements of the allies to comply with the decisions of the Crimean Conference on the demilitarization of Germany, in April 1946 the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on the transfer of all work on military equipment from Germany to the Soviet Union (How the Nazi missile program of the FAU became the base of the Soviet

The formation of the American missile program under the leadership of the German designer Wernher von Braun is well known. There is very little information about the birth of the Soviet missile program with the participation of another team of German specialists under the leadership of Helmut Grettrup. Nazi rocket

In Soviet times, they tried not to advertise the maintenance and use of German prisoners of war and their allies after the war. Everyone knew that the former soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were used to restore cities destroyed by the war, at Soviet construction sites and factories, but there was no talk about it

March marks one hundred years since the peace treaty between the RSFSR and Poland was concluded, which put an end to the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921. By analogy with the "obscene" Peace of Brest, the Peace of Riga can be called "shameful", since, according to the terms of the peace, the Soviet side was inferior to Poland

Source: Russian Ministry of Defense, mil.ru Stalin's activities in managing the state and its interaction in the foreign policy arena conceal many hidden mechanisms that he used so successfully. One of such mechanisms could be his personal strategic intelligence and counterintelligence, about which

The "great purge" of the higher party and state apparatus, carried out in the 1930s, continued after the war in a substantially curtailed form. Stalin, having made the country a superpower, closely monitored the formation of cadres in all areas - in industry, army, ideology, science and culture. He

The rapid disintegration of the Soviet space that took place in 1991 raised many questions about the strength of the Soviet state and the correctness of its national and state form chosen in December 1922. And it is not so easy Putin in one of his last interviews stated that Lenin

Stalin's political figure still evokes a lot of both positive and negative emotions. Since his activities at the head of the Soviet state contributed to a breakthrough to a superpower, while accompanied by colossal sacrifices. How did this person reach the heights of power and what he

The 1942 military campaign of the year for the Soviet command turned out to be no less catastrophic than the setbacks in 1941. After a successful Soviet counteroffensive in the winter of 1941/42 near Moscow, German troops were driven back to the Rzhev area, but the threat to Moscow still remained. Attempts by the Soviet

For a long time, a version has been promoted in historical literature that Stalin was afraid to go to the front and never was there, and at the suggestion of the "strategist" Khrushchev, the leader allegedly led the troops "on a globe" and was afraid to leave Moscow. In fact, this is not the case: Stalin during the defense of Moscow in 1941