Newsletter & Updates

Military History

On 3 Oct 1942, German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun’s brainchild, the V-2 missile, was fired successfully from Peenemunde, as island off Germany’s Baltic coast. It traveled 118 miles. It proved extraordinarily deadly in the war and as the precursor to the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) of the postwar era.

On 4 Oct 1861, President Abraham Lincoln observed a balloon demonstration near Washington, DC. Both Confederate and Union armies experimented with using balloons to gather military intelligence in the early stages of the war, but the balloons proved to be dangerous and impractical for most situations.

On 4 Oct 1918, in the early morning hours, German Chancellor Max von Baden, appointed by Kaiser Wilhelm II just three days earlier, sent a telegraph message to the administration of President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, DC, requesting an armistice between Germany and the Allied powers in WWI. The armistice, or cease fire, was agreed on and took effect at 11 min after 11 am on the 11the day of the 11th month. 11 Nov was originally celebrated as Armistice Day in the US; it’s now celebrated as Veterans Day.

On 4 Oct 1944, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower distributed to his combat units a report by the US Surgeon General that revealed the hazards of prolonged exposure to combat; it was called shell-shock. “The danger of being killed or maimed imposes a strain so great that it causes men to break down. One look at the shrunken, apathetic faces of psychiatric patients…sobbing, trembling, referring shudderingly to ‘them shells’ and to buddies mutilated or dead, is enough to convince most observers of this fact.” This was the beginning of recognition of what we now know as Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

On 6 Oct 1973, the surprise attack by Egyptian and Syrian forces on Israel threw the Mideast into turmoil and threatened to bring the US and the Soviet Union into direct conflict for the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Though actual combat did not break out between the two nations, the events surrounding the Yom Kippur War seriously damaged US-Soviet relations and all but destroyed President Richard Nixon’s much publicized policy of detente.

On 7 Oct 2001, a US-led coalition began attacks on Taliban-controlled Afghanistan with an intense bombing campaign by American and British forces. Logistical support was provided by other nations including France, Germany, Australia and Canada and, later, troops were provided by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance rebels. The invasion of Afghanistan was the opening salvo in the US “war on terrorism” and a response to the 9-11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, DC.

On 8 Oct 1918, during WWI, Army Corporal Alvin C. York personally killed over 20 German soldiers and captured an additional 132 at the head of a small detachment in the Argonne Forest near the Meuse River in France. The exploits later earned York the Congressional Medal of Honor.

On 10 Oct 1985, the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro reached a dramatic climax when US Navy F-14 fighters intercepted an Egyptian airliner attempting to fly the Palestinian hijackers to freedom and force the jet to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily. American and Italian troops surrounded the plane, and the terrorists were taken into Italian custody.

On 10 Oct 1845, the US Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, Maryland, with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors. Known as the Naval School until 1850, the curriculum included mathematics and navigation, gunnery and steam, chemistry, English, natural philosophy, and French. The Naval School officially became the US Naval Academy in 1850, and a new curriculum went into effect, requiring midshipmen to study at the academy for four years and to train aboard ships each summer–the basic format that remains at the academy to this day.

On 11 Oct 1942, during WWII, our Navy intercepted a Japanese fleet of ships on their way to reinforce troops at Guadalcanal. Our Navy succeeded in its operation, sinking a majority of the ships in the Battle of Cape Esperance

On 12 Oct 1960, in one of the most surreal moments in the history of the Cold War, Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev removed his shoe and pounded a table with it in protest against a speech critical of Soviet policy in Eastern Europe. During a debate over a Russian resolution decrying colonialism, a representative of the government of the Philippines charged the Soviets with employing a double standard, pointing to their domination of Eastern Europe as an example of the colonialism they were criticizing in their resolution. In response, Khrushchev took off one of his shoes and began to furiously pound the table. The chaotic scene finally ended when General Assembly President Frederick Boland (Ireland) broke his gavel calling the meeting to order, but not before the image of Khrushchev as a hotheaded buffoon was indelibly etched into America’s collective memory.

On 12 Oct 2000, at 12:15 pm local time, a motorized rubber dinghy loaded with explosives blew a 40-by-40-foot hole in the port side of the USS Cole, a Navy destroyer that was refueling at Aden, Yemen. Seventeen sailors were killed and 38 wounded in the attack, which was carried out by two suicide terrorists alleged to be members of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network.

On 13 Oct 1775, the Continental Congress authorized construction and administration of the first American naval force—the precursor of the US Navy.

On 14 Oct 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis began, bringing the US and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict. Photographs taken by a high-altitude U-2 spy plane offered incontrovertible evidence that Soviet-made, medium-range missiles were in Cuba—capable of carrying nuclear warheads—and, now stationed 90 miles off the American coastline.

The America’s Frontlines Newsletter is published twice monthly, at the beginning and middle of the month.

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