Although ‘stealth’ is a somewhat modern term applied to certain high-end military machines, U-480 was the first operational U-boat to use technology specifically designed to reduce the possibility of underwater detection by sonar. In August 1944, it went on a seemingly unstoppable killing spree, sinking four vessels in the English Channel in under 96-hours, with…
On 2 September 1898, Major-General Horatio Herbert Kitchener fought his most famous action of his military career, the Battle of Omdurman. It was the finale of a long campaign against the Mahdists of Sudan, and the even longer awaited avenging of General Charles Gordon’s killing over a decade earlier. Thousands of fanatical Islamic warriors lay…
On 1 July 1941, during Operation Barbarossa, German troops entered the Latvian capital city of Riga. In their wake followed a unit of the notorious Einsatzgruppen, Himmler’s infamous mobile killing squads tasked with the mass murder of Jews and others in eastern Europe. From the outset, these masters of death sought to enlist the help…
Before the publication of Thomas Keneally’s 1982 historical novel, Schindler’s Ark, and Spielberg’s subsequent 1993 movie, relatively few had heard of the infamous Płaszów concentration camp. Yet despite these high-profile productions, the actual history of the camp, including its murderous SS staff and their thousands of Jewish victims, continues to remain unknown to many. Construction…
Most historians of Third Reich Germany will know the story of the killing of Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat in Paris who died of an assassination attempt in November 1938. His death is said to have provided the pretext for the infamous Kristallnacht, or ‘The Night of Broken Glass’, a violent pogrom against Jews…
Overshadowed by the massacres at Babi Yar near Kiev and Rumbula near Riga, the mass murder of Jews at Kamianets-Podilskyi is less well-known in Holocaust history. Yet, it remains one of the largest single actions carried out by the infamous Einsatzgruppen during their murderous operations in eastern Europe. In just two days, the Nazi killing…
During the 1840s and 1850s, the recently acquired British colony of Hong Kong became a centre for piracy in the South China Seas. Here the Chinese pirates would off-load their booty to shopkeepers and other merchants who would then sell on the stolen goods to their eager European and Chinese customers. The pirates also targeted…
‘We climbed the stairs to the cells where the condemned were waiting. A German officer at the door leading to the corridor flung open the door and we filed past the row of faces and into the execution chamber. The officers stood at attention. Brigadier Paton-Walsh stood with his wristwatch raised. He gave me the…
Few today will not have heard of Auschwitz. A mere mention of its name conjures up horrific images of evil, suffering and death. It is estimated that 1.1 million people were murdered in the camp, around 90% of who were Jews. Others included Poles, Romani and Sinti, Soviet prisoners of war, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and…
Army surgeon, explorer, administrator, author and member of parliament, Sir George Scott Robertson was viewed as a true hero during the late Victorian era. He had extensively travelled through rugged Kafiristan (modern day Nuristan Province in Afghanistan), took part in the military expedition against Hunza–Nagar, and commanded the difficult yet successful defence of Chitral during…