I’m posting the First World War memoirs of my grandfather-in-law, Sampson J. Goodfellow, a few pages at a time… (Read Part 1.) The Supply Column wanted 400 Drivers and 200 Loaders. The Ammunition Column required 200 Motor Drivers and 200 Loaders. We did all types of drilling–physical culture–and when it rained the Government had rented …
Tag: warfare
The First World War Memoirs of Sampson J. Goodfellow: Part 1
Tomorrow is Remembrance Day, the 90th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended the First World War, and in honour of that, I’m going to start doing something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: posting the First World War memoirs of my grandfather-in-law Sampson John Goodfellow.I’ll post a few pages almost …
Willett of the Day: Louis Edward Willett, Medal of Honor Recipient
Here’s a fellow I’m proud to share a name with: Private First Class Louis Edward Willett, born June 19, 1945, died February 15, 1967, awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the Vietnam War as a member of Company C, 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity …
Lest We Forget: Remembrance Day resources on the Web
This week’s CBC Web column… **** Most flowers are dead this time of year, but there’s one that only blooms in November: the poppy of Remembrance Day. King George V created Remembrance Day in 1919 in memory of members of the armed forces who were killed during war. But it’s hard to remember a war …
Robots with guns…
…the first armed robots in history…have now been deployed in Iraq. No, they don’t look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Another Edward Willett
I just discovered that I share a name with one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen (you have to register with the Dayton Daily News to follow that first link, by the way; if you do, you’ll see Edward Willett of Yellow Springs, Ohio, is mentioned as one of the other pilots from the Dayton area …
Rise of the robots…
Next stop, the Terminator? Singapore is launching a contest to build “urban warrior robots.”
Nanotech battle suits
In his 1959 novel Starship Troopers (the movie of the same name has almost nothing in common with the book–ignore it!), Robert Heinlein invented the idea of powered battle armor, which gave an infantryman more fighting power than a modern tank, protected him from battlefield hazards, allowed central command to locate him and monitor …
Nuclear testing
With the explosion of “nuclear devices” (aka “bombs”) in the past couple of weeks, India and Pakistan have joined the “nuclear club,” and also, alas. brought nuclear weapons into the forefront of the news for the first time in years. So perhaps it’s time for a little refresher course on just how a nuclear bomb …
Radar
With the end of the Cold War, a lot of previously classified military technology is making its way into civilian hands. Spy satellites whose very existence was top secret, for instance, are now being used to survey crops. This post-war transfer of technology from military to civilian use is not new: it happened after the …
Hobart’s Funnies
Necessity is the mother of invention, as the old saying goes; and in warfare, necessities can be urgent indeed. As a result, many technological innovations occur during wartime. The First World War brought us huge advances in aircraft design; the Second World War brought us atomic energy. But on a less grandiose scale, technical innovations …