Category Archives: Military History

From Coal-Fired Battleships to Algorithmic Warfare: The Enduring Demands of Surface Command

A postcard with a photo of the USS Louisiana (BB-19) leading President Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet as it approaches San Diego. The fleet’s 1907 to 1909 circumnavigation of the globe tested the adaptability of the officers who commanded the ships. Today’s officers face a similar inflection point. From Coal-Fired Battleships to Algorithmic Warfare: TheContinue reading “From Coal-Fired Battleships to Algorithmic Warfare: The Enduring Demands of Surface Command”

Armored cruiser Georgios Averof in dry dock for restoration and repairs, Elefsis, Greece, May 2017

Georgios Averof (Greek: Θ/Κ Γεώργιος Αβέρωφ) is a modified Pisa-class armoured cruiser built in Italy for the Royal Hellenic Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The ship served as the Greek flagship during most of the first half of the century. Although popularly known in Greece as a battleship (θωρηκτό), she is in fact an armored cruiser (θωρακισμένο καταδρομικό), the only ship ofContinue reading “Armored cruiser Georgios Averof in dry dock for restoration and repairs, Elefsis, Greece, May 2017”

Naval History – The dusty cardboard box of Kaiser Karl

laststandonzombieisland by laststandonzombieisland The Habsburgs by the 1860s had at least five assorted life guard units in their Household Division, with probably the most elite of them– on regular watch anyway– being the Imperial-Royal Trabant Lifeguards (k.k. Trabantenleibgarde). Composed of long-serving Army officers and career NCOs, the half-company-sized Trabantenleibgarde was responsible for mounting the interior guard at theContinue reading “Naval History – The dusty cardboard box of Kaiser Karl”

Hell Ships: A Disastrous Sinking That Killed 828 British Prisoners of War

The Lisbon Maru was transporting the men to mainland Japan in 1942.James Wharton8th October 2021 at 1:01pm Within a year of entering the Second World War, in 1942, Japan began moving captured prisoners of war to the mainland to be put to work as slave labour. The POWs were Allied military personnel who had beenContinue reading “Hell Ships: A Disastrous Sinking That Killed 828 British Prisoners of War”