Showing posts with label Militaria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Militaria. Show all posts
Thursday, December 22, 2016

18 December 1916: Battle of Verdun Ends

›
The Battle of Verdun, which had begun on 21 February 1916, at last came to an end on 18 December. The meat-grinder, as it came to be known, ...
Friday, December 16, 2016

From the Protest Rally Against the Hampshire College Flag Policy

›
In response to students' anger and fear in the wake of the presidential election and their protests that the American flag represen...
Sunday, December 4, 2016

2 December 1805: Battle of Austerlitz. Mementos of the killing field.

›
On the first anniversary of the creation of the Empire, Napoleon won "the greatest battle of [his] career" when he defeated the f...
Saturday, December 3, 2016

3 December 1800: Battle of Hohenlinden

›
The Battle of Hohenlinden east of Munich in 1800 was in some sense the predecessor of the later battle of Austerlitz (1805). The great victo...
Thursday, November 17, 2016

Veterans Day in Amherst

›
Veterans Day is one of those quiet but pleasant holidays in Amherst. Attendance at our modest commemoration is small: far lower than on Mem...
Tuesday, November 15, 2016

November 11, 1920: Interment of the British Unknown Soldier

›
The mass slaughter of the Great War prompted contemporaries to find new ways to remember and mourn . The fact that many of the millions of f...
Friday, October 21, 2016

October 21: "Old Ironsides" Celebrates Another Birthday

›
On 21 October 1797, Boston witnessed the launching of the USS Constitution, which remains " the oldest commissioned warship in the worl...
Saturday, June 18, 2016

18 June 1942: Heydrich Assassins Killed in Prague Church

›
Following the assassination of the "Reichsprotektor" of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich , the members of the Czechoslovak ...
Friday, May 27, 2016

May 27, 1942: Czechoslovak Paratroopers Assassinate Reinhard Heydrich in Prague

›
On May 27, 1942, Czechoslovak paratroopers Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík, trained by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), assassin...
Sunday, February 21, 2016

21 February 1916: The Battle of Verdun Begins

›
This month's artifact of the moment: A century ago began one of the fiercest battles of a war that has come to stand for unprecedented...
Friday, February 19, 2016

Save the Fort: a textbook illustration of how historic preservation can link past and present

›
It was a distinctive sight: early nineteenth-century fortifications overlooking the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers on what was once the fr...
Friday, September 11, 2015

Pentagon 9-11 flag

›
Not the least of the many strengths of the National Museum of American History in Washington is that its scale allows it to house and displa...
2 comments:
Monday, August 31, 2015

Artifact of the Moment: "Souvenir de la Libération": France, 1944

›
As the anniversary of the start of World War II draws near, time to squeeze in one more piece on the endgame. Recently, it was Okinawa and H...
Thursday, August 20, 2015

‘This is a good Jap–a dead one" - "The armed forces disapprove strongly of this sort of thing."

›
Lest one conclude, from recent posts, that the emphasis here should be exclusively on Japanese atrocities and fanaticism: on the contr...
2 comments:
Monday, August 17, 2015

Background to Hiroshima and V-J Day: Death and Life on Okinawa, AP Wirephoto

›
Among the first little historical curiosities that I collected as a high school student was a group of World War II Associated Press Wirep...
Sunday, August 16, 2015

Background to Hiroshima and V-J Day: Potsdam Conference, AP Wirephoto

›
Among the first little historical curiosities that I collected as a high school student was a group of World War II Associated Press Wirep...