Before the recently described Battle of Trafalgar, where the British fleet defeated the French invasion fleet, an equally important naval battle took place between the same nations. This was the Battle of Aboukir Bay (also known as the Battle of the Nile), where Napoleon’s fleet, tasked with protecting his expedition to Egypt, was utterly crushed by the ships of the Royal Navy under the command of the brilliant Horatio Nelson.
Under the cryptonym “Wikinger” stands the unsuccessful action of the German navy against British fishermen, during which 2 destroyers were lost and 590 sailors were killed without any contact with the enemy. The following story has really happened, and this is probably the most discrediting defeat of Kriegsmarine during World War II.
The Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B “Königstiger”, known as the Tiger II, was the largest, heaviest, and arguably the most powerful tank used in combat during World War II.
The American defeat inflicted by the Japanese fleet on Pearl Harbor is considered one of the biggest military catastrophes in the history of the USA. In fact, the losses of the Pacific Fleet were not as severe as usually thought, and Japan made a number of mistakes during the attack, which did not have the desired effect. Below there is an explanation of why the Pearl Harbor attack did not violate the foundations of the American war machine, but only became the beginning of the end for the Empire of Japan.
Below, we present the profile of the man dubbed the ‘last kamikaze’ – one of the most dedicated and courageous figures in the history of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki lived by the spirit of the Bushidō code, and his death in the final days of the war reflected the ideals of samurai courage and honor. His warrior spirit, unwavering loyalty, and steadfast sense of duty were his defining traits, and one of the more unusual aspects of his samurai character was his legendary tolerance for alcohol.
The Chancellor of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler, was the target of at least 42 documented assassination attacks not only during the Second World War, but also earlier, in the 1930s, when he took over power in Germany.
He was attempted to be shot, blown up by detonation of explosives, simulated a fatal car accident, poisoned, and derailed in his armored train.
When a heavy bomber B-29 was distancing itself from the Japanese city of Hiroshima, on which the crew just dropped the first atomic bomb in history, the second pilot of the “flying fortress” – Robert A. Lewis, seeing the exodus of almost 80,000 people underneath them, screamed: “My God, what have we done?”
The American did not know that in addition to the complete destruction of a large city, his crew had contributed to the end of World War II in the Pacific and the start of the nuclear arms race between the world’s superpowers.
The German offensive code-named “Zitadelle” carried out in the area of Kursk on the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union led to the largest armoured battle fought during World War II. Thousands of tanks, guns, planes and almost 3 million soldiers stood in front of each other. It was also the first test for new German medium tanks – PzKpfw V Panther and a demonstration of the strength of heavy tanks, PzKpfw VI Tiger.
WWII forced automakers from production of consumer vehicles to military vehicles and munitions to the tune of $29 million worth of goods from 1942-1945.
