How the Condor Legion signaled a new phase of warfare in WWII prologue
On June 6, 1936, 15,000 men of the Condor Legion stood at attention on the Lustgarten in central Berlin. Waiting in silence, the eyes of the soldiers and airmen remained…
How the aerial bombing of Guernica changed the landscape of warfare forever
The now infamous Guernica raid is one of the earliest aerial bombings to garner worldwide attention and is widely considered a war crime. On June 6, 1936, 15,000 men of the…
That time a now-famous cadet fought in battle and went back for sophomore year
He was one of the top officers in World War II, an expert in submarine and aviation combat, and a veteran of three wars. And Ernest J. King got his start by lobbying for a ship assignment during the Spanish-American War while the rest of his freshme…
Why Spain didn’t join either side of World War II
Everyone expects Switzerland to stay neutral during a war, even a global conflict like World War II. No one would have expected Afghanistan to pick a side. One country in…
This is how the English defeated the invincible Spanish Armada
King Phillip II of Spain desired to conquer the English in the late 1580s. Like any ruler with a lust for conquest, he dispatched an armada to retrieve his troops from…
A Spanish woman single-handedly defeated an enemy army with a flagpole
Most people know of Spain’s disastrous effort to invade England with a massive fleet of ships that quickly ended up at the bottom of the English Channel, but that’s not…
How Teddy Roosevelt’s gun was as awesome as he was
In April 1990, the FBI was called to Teddy Roosevelt’s house. No one would dare steal from TR while he was alive, but since he had been dead for 70-plus years and his house was long ago turned into a museum, the thief was able to rob the place and …
This Medal of Honor recipient made a life out of fighting fascists
Being born to missionaries in the early 20th Century didn’t change Edward Allen Carter’s mission in life, once he knew what it was. Even though the American-born Carter spent his early years in India, it was in China that he first got a taste of t…
What to do when your ship pulls in to Rota, Spain
Naval Station Rota, Spain (NAVSTA Rota) is a beautiful Navy base located in Southern Spain. Called “the Gateway to the Mediterranean,” the port sits on the Atlantic Coast, but is only a few hours from Gibraltar, Mallorca, and other Mediterranean …
A major ISIS figure whom everyone thought was killed in Syria turned out to be living in a seaside town in Spain
The arrest in Spain of an infamous member of Islamic State from London who authorities thought had been killed in Syria has sparked fears among security officials that more foreign fighters survived the fall of ISIS-controlled territory than previou…