Topic: Military history (Page 23)

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πŸ”— 2024 Lebanon Pager Explosions

πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Disaster management πŸ”— Military history/Military aviation πŸ”— Telecommunications πŸ”— Computer Security πŸ”— Computer Security/Computing πŸ”— Syria πŸ”— Israel πŸ”— Military history/Middle Eastern military history πŸ”— Explosives πŸ”— Military history/Post-Cold War πŸ”— Lebanon

On 17 September 2024, communication pagers simultaneously exploded across Lebanon and Syria in an apparent coordinated attack. Many of the pagers were owned by members of the Hezbollah militant group. Eighteen people were confirmed killed: eleven in Lebanon (including a child and at least two Hezbollah members) and seven in Syria. Around 4,000 people were reportedly injured, including Hezbollah members and civilians.

The blasts affected several Hezbollah strongholds, including Beirut's Dahieh suburb, southern Lebanon, and in the Beqaa Valley. Over 500 of the group's militants lost their eyesight. They called the incident the organization's "biggest security breach yet" and accused Israel of responsibility.

A day after Hamas launched its October 7 attacks on Israel in 2023, the Iranian-backed organization Hezbollah joined the conflict in support of Hamas by firing on Israel. This led to a series of cross-border military exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel. In February 2024, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, told the group's members to use pagers instead of cell phones, claiming that Israel had infiltrated their cell phone network. Hezbollah then bought a new brand of pagers that were recently imported to Lebanon.

Earlier on the day of the explosion, Israel's domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, announced it had thwarted a Hezbollah plot to assassinate a former senior defense official using an explosive device.

Around 150 hospitals across Lebanon received victims of the attack, which saw chaotic scenes.

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πŸ”— Welrod

πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/Military science, technology, and theory πŸ”— Military history/Weaponry πŸ”— Military history/World War II πŸ”— Firearms πŸ”— Military history/European military history πŸ”— Military history/British military history

The Welrod is a British bolt-action, magazine-fed pistol with an integrated silencer which was devised for covert operations during the Second World War by Major Hugh Reeves at the Inter-Services Research Bureau (later Station IX).

Station IX, being based in Welwyn, gave the Welrod its unusual name, being derived from "Wel" from "Welwyn" (a prefix used by covert equipment designed by Station IX) and "rod", gangland slang for gun, as a way to obscure its purpose.

Designed for use by irregular forces and resistance groups, the Welrod is an extremely quiet gun thanks to its integrated silencer. Approximately 2,800 were made in wartime and perhaps 14,000 in total when post-war examples are included.

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πŸ”— The Dreyfus affair

πŸ”— France πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Politics πŸ”— Military history/Intelligence πŸ”— Judaism πŸ”— Military history/French military history πŸ”— Jewish history πŸ”— European history πŸ”— Military history/European military history

The Dreyfus Affair (French: l'affaire Dreyfus, pronouncedΒ [lafɛːʁ dʁɛfys]) was a political scandal that divided the Third French Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "The Affair", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francophone world, and it remains one of the most notable examples of a complex miscarriage of justice and antisemitism. The role played by the press and public opinion proved influential in the conflict.

The scandal began in December 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason. Dreyfus was a 35-year-old Alsatian French artillery officer of Jewish descent. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly communicating French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris, and was imprisoned on Devil's Island in French Guiana, where he spent nearly five years.

In 1896, evidence came to lightβ€”primarily through an investigation instigated by Georges Picquart, head of counter-espionageβ€”which identified the real culprit as a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. When high-ranking military officials suppressed the new evidence, a military court unanimously acquitted Esterhazy after a trial lasting only two days. The Army laid additional charges against Dreyfus, based on forged documents. Subsequently, Γ‰mile Zola's open letter J'Accuse…!, stoked a growing movement of support for Dreyfus, putting pressure on the government to reopen the case.

In 1899, Dreyfus was returned to France for another trial. The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued divided French society between those who supported Dreyfus (now called "Dreyfusards"), such as Sarah Bernhardt, Anatole France, Henri PoincarΓ© and Georges Clemenceau, and those who condemned him (the anti-Dreyfusards), such as Γ‰douard Drumont, the director and publisher of the antisemitic newspaper La Libre Parole. The new trial resulted in another conviction and a 10-year sentence, but Dreyfus was pardoned and released. In 1906, Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated as a major in the French Army. He served during the whole of World War I, ending his service with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He died in 1935.

The affair from 1894 to 1906 divided France into pro-republican, anticlerical, Dreyfusards and pro-Army, mostly Catholic "anti-Dreyfusards". It embittered French politics and encouraged radicalisation.

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πŸ”— Nuclear Football

πŸ”— United States πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/North American military history πŸ”— Military history/United States military history

The nuclear football (also known as the atomic football, the president's emergency satchel, the Presidential Emergency Satchel, the button, the black box, or just the football) is a briefcase, the contents of which are to be used by the President of the United States to authorize a nuclear attack while away from fixed command centers, such as the White House Situation Room. It functions as a mobile hub in the strategic defense system of the United States. It is held by an aide-de-camp.

πŸ”— Maj. Gen. Sir Nils Olav

πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Norway πŸ”— Birds πŸ”— Zoo πŸ”— Military history/Nordic military history πŸ”— Military history/European military history πŸ”— Edinburgh

Major General Sir Nils Olav III, Baron of the Bouvet Islands (Norwegian: [ˌnΙͺls ˈôːlΙ‘v]) is a king penguin who resides in Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland. He is the mascot and colonel-in-chief of the Norwegian King's Guard. The name 'Nils Olav' and associated ranks have been passed down through three king penguins since 1972, the current holder being Nils Olav III.

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πŸ”— Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage

πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/North American military history πŸ”— Military history/United States military history πŸ”— Books πŸ”— Military history/Intelligence πŸ”— Military history/Maritime warfare πŸ”— Military history/Military historiography

Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage (ISBNΒ 0-06-103004-X) by Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, and Annette Lawrence Drew, published in 1998 by PublicAffairs, is a non-fiction book about U.S. Navy submarine operations during the Cold War. Several operations are described in the book, such as the use of USSΒ Parche to tap Soviet undersea communications cables and USSΒ Halibut to do the same in Operation Ivy Bells.

The book also contains an extensive list of collisions between Western and Soviet submarines and U.S. submarine awards.

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πŸ”— Heckler and Koch P 11, underwater firearm from 1976

πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/Military science, technology, and theory πŸ”— Military history/Weaponry πŸ”— Military history/German military history πŸ”— Firearms πŸ”— Military history/European military history

The Heckler & Koch P11 is an underwater firearm developed in 1976 by Heckler & Koch. It has five barrels and each fires a 7.62Γ—36mm dart electrically. Loading is by means of a five-round case. The design resembles that of a pepper-box firearm.

πŸ”— NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia

πŸ”— Serbia πŸ”— Yugoslavia πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/North American military history πŸ”— Military history/United States military history πŸ”— Military history/French military history πŸ”— Military history/Balkan military history πŸ”— Military history/European military history πŸ”— Military history/Post-Cold War πŸ”— Kosovo πŸ”— NATO πŸ”— Serbia/Belgrade

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an agreement was reached that led to the withdrawal of Yugoslav armed forces from Kosovo, and the establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, a UN peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. The official NATO operation code name was Operation Allied Force whereas the United States called it Operation Noble Anvil; in Yugoslavia the operation was incorrectly called Merciful Angel (Serbian: ΠœΠΈΠ»ΠΎΡΡ€Π΄Π½ΠΈ Π°Π½Ρ’Π΅ΠΎ / Milosrdni anΔ‘eo) as a result of a misunderstanding or mistranslation.

NATO's intervention was prompted by Yugoslavia's bloodshed and ethnic cleansing of Albanians, which drove the Albanians into neighbouring countries and had the potential to destabilize the region. Yugoslavia's actions had already provoked condemnation by international organisations and agencies such as the UN, NATO, and various INGOs. Yugoslavia's refusal to sign the Rambouillet Accords was initially offered as justification for NATO's use of force. NATO countries attempted to gain authorisation from the UN Security Council for military action, but were opposed by China and Russia, who indicated that they would veto such a measure. As a result, NATO launched its campaign without the UN's approval, stating that it was a humanitarian intervention. The UN Charter prohibits the use of force except in the case of a decision by the Security Council under Chapter VII, or self-defence against an armed attack – neither of which were present in this case.

By the end of the war, the Yugoslavs had killed 1,500 to 2,131 combatants, while choosing to heavily target Kosovar Albanian civilians, with 8,676 killed or missing and some 848,000 expelled from Kosovo. The NATO bombing killed about 1,000 members of the Yugoslav security forces in addition to between 489 and 528 civilians. It destroyed or damaged bridges, industrial plants, hospitals, schools, cultural monuments, private businesses as well as barracks and military installations. In the days after the Yugoslav army withdrew, over 164,000 Serbs and 24,000 Roma left Kosovo. Many of the remaining non-Albanian civilians (as well as Albanians perceived as collaborators) were victims of abuse which included beatings, abductions, and murders. After Kosovo and other Yugoslav Wars, Serbia became home to the highest number of refugees and IDPs (including Kosovo Serbs) in Europe.

The bombing was NATO's second major combat operation, following the 1995 bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was the first time that NATO had used military force without the expressed endorsement of the UN Security Council, which triggered debates over the legitimacy of the intervention.

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πŸ”— Molle

πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/North American military history πŸ”— Military history/United States military history πŸ”— Military history/Military science, technology, and theory

MOLLE (pronounced , similar in pronunciation to the name Molly) is an acronym for Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment. It is used to define the current generation of load-bearing equipment and backpacks used by a number of NATO armed forces, especially the British Army and the United States Army.

The system's modularity is derived from the use of Pouch Attachment Ladder System (PALS) webbing equipment as rows of heavy-duty nylon stitched onto the vest to allow for the attachment of various compatible pouches and accessories. This method of attachment has become a de facto standard for modular tactical gear, replacing the All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment (ALICE) system used in the earliest modular vest systems (which is still in use with many police forces).

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  • "Molle" | 2022-04-03 | 12 Upvotes 2 Comments

πŸ”— 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash

πŸ”— United States πŸ”— United States/North Carolina πŸ”— Aviation πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Disaster management πŸ”— Military history/Military aviation πŸ”— Military history/North American military history πŸ”— Military history/United States military history πŸ”— United States/Military history - U.S. military history πŸ”— Aviation/Aviation accident πŸ”— Military history/Military science, technology, and theory πŸ”— Military history/Weaponry

The 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash was an accident that occurred near Goldsboro, North Carolina, on 23 January 1961. A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two 3–4-megaton Mark 39 nuclear bombs broke up in mid-air, dropping its nuclear payload in the process. The pilot in command, Walter Scott Tulloch, ordered the crew to eject at 9,000 feet (2,700Β m). Five crewmen successfully ejected or bailed out of the aircraft and landed safely, another ejected, but did not survive the landing, and two died in the crash. Information declassified in 2013 showed that one of the bombs came very close to detonating.

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