The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them
History
History of Aviation
Sep 7th
For thousands of years, people dreamed of flying like birds, but it was not until the 15th century that Leonardo da Vinci designed an ornithopter, a machine that flaps its wings. Da Vinci also designed a machine with a helical wing, much like a helicopter.
The first device to take to the air was made by the Montgolfier brothers. Normally papermakers, they started experimenting with hot-air balloons in 1782. On September 19, 1783, they successfully sent a balloon into the air carrying a rooster, a duck, and a sheep. More >
Gallipoli – Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey
Aug 17th
Early in World War I, a plan was developed to outflank the trench deadlock on the Western Front in Flanders and establish a supply route to Russia: Britain and France determined to attack Austria and Germany’s main ally, the Ottoman Empire. The plan was for an assault against Turkish positions along the Dardanelles Straits, in preparation for a march on Istanbul that, it was argued, would knock the Ottomans out of the war.
The harsh terrain of the Gallipoli Peninsula gives the modern traveller a good idea of the nightmare the Allies faced, with the Turks holding the high ground, looking down on the Allied positions tenuously clinging to the shoreline. More >
The Berlin Wall – Berlin, Germany
Aug 7th
It happened around midnight. Units of the National People’s Army stationed in East Berlin went on alert late on August 12, 1961, and by early morning had improvised a wall of barbed wire and tank traps along the96-mile – 155 km – border with West Berlin. U-Bahn and S-Bahn transit between the two halves of the city was shut down.
East Germans had been voting with their feet for years. In the first half of 1961 alone, 200,000 had left for the West. The exodus threatened to destroy the country’s economy. SED party Chief Walter Ulbricht had declared in June: “No one has any intention of building a wall.” He was lying. In agreement with the other countries of the Soviet-controlled Warsaw Pact, East Germany decided to ‘settle the Berlin problem’ with a physical barrier. More >
World War II
Aug 5th
The causes of World War II lay in Adolf Hitler’s expansionist military and foreign policies. In 1936 he reoccupied the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone between France and Belgium. In March 1938 he forced Austria to unite with Germany and then took over part of Czechoslovakia. Each time, Britain and France did not resist. Their policy of non-intervention came to be called appeasement. On 1 September 1939 Hitler invaded Poland, having agreed with the Soviet Union to divide the country between them. He did not think that Britain and France would help Poland, but on 3 September they declared war. Two years later Japan came in on Germany’s side.
The assaults of the German forces involved powerful thrusts by columns of tanks and other armoured vehicles deep into enemy territory, followed up by linking or sweeping movements by infantry coming up from behind which surrounded large pockets of enemy forces, the whole operation supported by powerful air cover. More >
