U.S. Navy Seawolves Helicopter Attack Squadron HA(L)-3

In 1965, as the war in Vietnam continued to escalate, the U.S. Navy began joint operations in the south to stop the flow of supplies and interrupt communications to the Viet Cong via the Mekong Delta. The U.S. Navy began operating riverine forces throughout the Delta and launched Operation Game W...

By Friedrich Seiltgen •

Britain’s Forgotten Bomber: The Short Stirling

The Royal Air Force’s Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax are considered by many aviation historians to be among the most capable heavy bombers of the Second World War. However, neither were the RAF’s first four-engine bomber. Overshadowed by the Lancaster’s success was the ...

By Peter Suciu •

Capt. Dale Dye: The Battle of Guadalcanal

“It was scary, you know? The damnedest thing…” The old Marine flicked at a bright yellow tie he was wearing. “We were ordered to take Atabrine to prevent malaria. Most of us did that but it tended to turn our eyes and skin a bright yellow. And then a rumor started that the stuff would Rea...

By Capt. Dale Dye, USMC (Ret) •

Military Clears SIG M17 and M18, but P320 Safety Questions Remain

The military says its M17 and M18 pistols are safe and reliable after nearly 114,000 M18s were inspected. The findings strongly support the military sidearms, but differences between the M17/M18 and civilian P320 configurations leave broader safety questions unresolved.

By AmmoLand Editor Duncan Johnson •

Fokker D.VIII Fighter: The Deadly Flying Razor

In the summer of 1918, a new fighter ascended in the German Air Combat Forces, or Luftstreitkräfte, boasting a level of performance that would outpace any of Anthony Fokkers’ famous designs. The Fokker E.V parasol monoplane, eventually known as the Fokker D.VIII, demonstrated tremendous combat...

By Tom Laemlein •

Tragic WWII Story of the Sullivan Brothers

Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan is pure Hollywood fiction, but it was inspired by the true – and all too tragic – story of the five Sullivan brothers. The siblings enlisted/re-enlisted in the U.S. Navy following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and i...

By Peter Suciu •

Curtiss SB2C Helldiver — The Big-Tailed Beast

In 1937, the Curtiss SBC Helldiver entered service, but even at that point, the carrier-based two-seat scout/dive bomber was on the verge of being obsolete. Interestingly, it was also the second aircraft produced by Curtiss-Wright to earn the designation “Helldiver” after the United States Ma...

By Peter Suciu •

Mikoyan MiG-29: The Reactive Fulcrum?

Military aircraft design of the Cold War era could be described as akin to physics, or, more specifically, to Newton’s Third Law of motion, which states, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” From lessons learned in the Vietnam War, the United States Air Force determi...

By Peter Suciu •