"…the Italian Navigator has just landed in the New World…"

Compton: The Italian navigator has landed in the New World. Conant: How were the natives? Compton: Very friendly. December 2nd 1942 was the day the world changed forever. The title of this story is the coded telephone message confirming first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction on that day. On that afternoon, the Atomic Age began inside […]

Escape of the Casabianca

One of the most daring episodes of World War 2 submarining took place on November 27, 1942. That story comes from the French Navy in the port of Toulon in a most unexpected fashion. On that day, the officers and men of the Casabianca disobeyed the orders of the Vichy French and managed to pull […]

It Was a Real Honor

I ran into my younger brother’s recruiter last night as we were waiting to get into a local restaurant I haven’t seen George in many years but he recognized me right away. He hugged my wife and her sister and then turned to me and said “You look just like your old man”. I wasn’t […]

All or Nothing

Radical and Revolutionary Those were words used to describe one of the greatest Battleships ever to sail the seas in defense of freedom. The USS Nevada (BB-36) was the second IS Navy ship to be named after the 36th state and was the lead ship of the two Nevada-class battleships. Her sister ship was the […]

Navy Proud: It’s in the blood

On the sixth of April 1917, the United States Congress declared war on Germany. The declaration came after the German government increased its belligerent actions against the United States. President Wilson who had campaigned on the strength that he had kept the US out of war from 1914 until that very moment had relented after […]

They Never Lost Their Will to Win–The Battle of Cape Esperance

The Battle of Cape Esperance, also known as the Second Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the Sea Battle of Savo Island, took place on 11–12 October 1942, and was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and United States Navy. The battle […]

Lessons from Guadalcanal: “The Goettge Patrol”

There have been many books written through the ages about fighting a war. From the lessons of Sun Tzu to the lengthy books on modern war campaigns, we have learned better ways to achieve our goals if we are wise enough to learn from other’s mistakes. One of the ones from Guadalcanal was the disastrous […]

The Die is Cast; Vandegrift does the impossible

America and her allies were woefully unprepared to fight the kind of war they found themselves with in the Pacific. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent attacks around the Pacific Rim decimated the plans and the resources of the forces that would become allied in their opposition to Japanese aggression. Traditional forces were […]

Two Battles that Determined the Course of a War

By July of 1942, the U.S. Navy had proven itself in two critical battles and a number of smaller but significant actions. The Battle for the Coral Sea and Midway proved that the American sailor was more than an equal for any naval force on the face of the planet. Despite numerical strength, the Japanese […]

PQ 17 July 4th 1942… 2132… “Scatter”

The summer of 1942 was not just a horrible time for merchant shipping long the east coast of the United States, it was also one of significant losses in the Atlantic U-boats were coming out in larger and larger numbers and even the convoy systems were being tested to the limits with the existing escorts. […]