The Battle of Shiroyama enrolled in the annals of history as a battle, where the last 500 samurai in the history of Japan heroically fought 30 000 Japan’s goverment soldiers, and died in defense of their fading values and traditions.. Like presented in the film “The Last Samurai”, in the last battle the samurai charged enemies armed with only swords, while the Emperor’s men were equipped with modern weapons, including rifles and artillery.
Not everyone knows that at the beginning of the 15th century the Czechs rebelled against the Roman Catholic Church and founded their own religious movement called Hussitism. The escalation of the conflict led to armed crusades on their lands, but the Hussite armies brutally defeated practically everyone who dared to enter their lands. The effectiveness of their tactics and command was so great that German and Silesian knights were capable of escaping from the battlefield at the very sight of Czech combat wagons.
On August 14, 1945, photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured the scene where an American sailor, happy to announce victory over Japan, stole a kiss from a beautiful nurse in New York’s Times Square. The photograph, dubbed “V-J Day in Times Square,” has become one of the most famous World War II photos and a symbol of the euphoria that swept America that day. It is worth tracing its history and the subsequent fate of the photo’s protagonists.
The Battle of Crécy is one of the first major battles that took place during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. The clash was particularly bloody and ended with huge losses – the French knights charged the English positions as many as sixteen times, while being under constant fire from Edward III’s archers.
The biggest naval battle of the Great Russian-Japanese War, which ended with a total, devastating defeat of the Russian squadron, going towards friendly forces in the Pacific. Tsushima caused Russia to lose its position as a maritime power and the beginning of Japanese domination in East Asia. At the same time, it is one of the most interesting and important sea battles of all time – among other things, because the Russians sailed for 9 months in half of the world only to lose almost all the ships in less than 2 days.
On September 14, 1954, one of the deadliest military exercises in history took place. During the maneuvers codenamed “Snezhok” (Russian: Snowball) the Soviet Union dropped a nuclear bomb on the Totskoye proving ground, and a few hours later, thousands of soldiers were ordered to enter the blast zone. Both military personnel and the surrounding civilian population subsequently became victims of terrible radiation sickness without any chance of help from the communist authorities.
