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.
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.
Below we present the story of probably the most effective sniper in history, the Finnish soldier Simo Häyhä, nicknamed “The White Death” by his enemies. During the Winter War between Finland and the USSR between 1939 and 1940, Simo killed over 500 Russians using mainly a simple sniper rifle. His methods of conducting concealed warfare have passed into legend, and the heroic Finn remained a national hero and a model for future generations of soldiers until the end of his life.
Eight kilometers from Kętrzyn, hidden among the Mazurian forests, is one of the most interesting military objects in Europe. We are talking about the famous Wolf’s Lair, the former secret headquarters of Hitler, which witnessed, among other things, the attack on the Soviet Union and the assassination attempt on the leader of the Third Reich. Below, we have compiled a collection of facts and interesting information describing this place.
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.