The Great War: 100 Years Ago

I first encountered the Killing Time in 1974 when my father, who had received his copy as part of a book club, left it on the floor of our 9th Street soutside house in St. Petersburg, Florida.  I was around six at the time, and was already an avid… more »

Three obsolete British of the 7th Cruiser Squadron, the HMS Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy were sunk by the German submarine U9 piloted by  Otto Weddigen.    The victory of a submarine against a surface ship was not the first in history, submarines had been… more »

The Battle of Zanzibar was a minor skirmish between the British Navy and the German Navy in Zanzibar harbor.  The German patrol unit for its colonial possessions in that part of Africa in 1914 was the SMS Königsberg, a fast, well armed light cruiser… more »

Siegfried Sassoon was the scion of a wealthy British family who had a formal education at  Marlborough College and Clare College, Cambridge where he read history.  He was somewhat of a dilletente but was also a brilliant writer, publishing the… more »

In the past several years more than one new comer to the history of French rifles has pointed out to me an interesting fact: from the 1870s to the 1940s the official French  sidearm always fired the same calibre bullet as the main service rifle.  Many… more »