Air power in the World Wars: From “expensive toy” to a serious weapon

“There are a lot of people who say that bombing can never win a war. Well, my answer to that is that it has never been tried yet, and we shall see.”

– Royal Air Force general Sir Arthur Harris (a.k.a. “Bomber” Harris), in a speech given in 1942 (during World War Two)

In 1903, the Wright brothers showed the world that “man really can fly” (to paraphrase Dieter F. Uchtdorf). As Wikipedia puts it, Orville and Wilbur Wright made “the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, four miles (6 km) south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, at what is now known as Kill Devil Hills.” (see source) Planes have since been used for scientific and commercial reasons, but they have also been an important part of warfare for more than a century now. They have altered the way that warfare has been fought, on both the land and the sea. The history of military aviation is one of conflict between carrier and battleship theories, between heavy bombing and close air support theories, and other changes in military strategy and tactics. I freely confess that I’m no expert on any kind of aviation, but my paternal grandfather was well-versed in the subject, and taught me some of what he knew about it. This post will thus focus on aviation in the two massive World Wars, particularly as used by the United States. This was my grandfather’s biggest area of historical expertise.

German biplane shot down by the Americans in the Argonne, 1918 (during World War One)

Colonial Canada: From the Seven Years’ War to the War of 1812

“An Act for making more effectual Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North America …”

– Long title of the “Quebec Act, 1774” (French: Acte de Québec de 1774), as passed by the British Parliament – remembered by the United States as one of the “Intolerable Acts”

How do Canadians remember the conflicts between the English, the French, and the Americans? As it turns out, the Canadians remember these conflicts somewhat differently than we do. They were a crucible for Canada, as they were for the United States – and its various colonial predecessors. Canada stayed a colony for a lot longer than we did, so there are at least three major conflicts during its colonial history. These conflicts are (in order) the Seven Years’ War, the American War of Independence, and the “War of 1812” (as it is usually called). Some of these conflicts are more often remembered in Canada than in the United States. One of these wars still creates controversy in Canada today, more than two centuries later. Thus, this might be a good time to talk about Colonial Canada, and how it was shaped by the trials of its early wars.

Engraving from the Battle of the Plains of Abraham – Quebec, 1759

Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia led to his downfall

“From the day of exchanging the ratification of the present treaties, there shall be perfect peace and amity between his majesty the emperor of the French [Napoleon], king of Italy, and his majesty the emperor of all the Russias.”

– “Treaty of Tilsit, 7 July 1807,” between Napoleon Bonaparte of France and “Alexander the First” of Russia – a treaty which was soon broken in 1812, when Napoleon invaded Russia

In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte came to the throne of France. He was the victor of campaigns in the “French Revolutionary Wars,” and must have seemed truly “invincible.” But his world came crashing down all around him, when his forces were defeated while invading Russia in 1812. How did all of this happen? How did the most powerful man in Europe become a prisoner in St. Helena by 1815 – later to die as a prisoner in 1821? How did the Russian people rally against the French (and other invaders) in this campaign? And what do certain prior events in the Napoleonic Wars, such as Russia’s twice switching sides in that conflict, tell us about Napoleon’s invasion of Russia? In this post, I will try to answer these questions. I will show how the larger “Napoleonic Wars” turned around in this massive Russian campaign. And I will show how Napoleon’s downfall owed much to his being routed by the Russians during this invasion.

Paul the First of Russia

Color movies are great, but so are black-and-white movies

Why one should consider watching classic black-and-white movies

This might seem a strange way to start this post, but there is a decades-long international interest in World War II. People in many nations are fascinated by the greatest shooting war of the twentieth century – and, arguably, of all time. Thus, there’s a strong subculture that’s interested in the real footage of the war. Some of that footage is in color, but much of it is instead in black-and-white. Nonetheless, people watch it anyway, because they want to see some of what the real thing looked like. It’s one of the few historical subjects that is not stigmatized as “nerdy,” because it continues to enjoy such a great following. This shows that there is still some interest in black-and-white photography, both of the moving and non-moving (or “still”) kinds. But the younger generation often has no interest in old movies, particularly when they are in black-and-white. They’ve been raised in a culture of color movies, many of which really are quite good. But I believe that there are a lot of old movies that are worth watching, too. This post will try to explain some of the reasons why.

Clark Gable and Doris Day together in “Teacher’s Pet” (1958)

Benjamin Harrison: A president whose grandfather was another president

Benjamin Harrison’s grandfather was William Henry Harrison, who was the ninth president of the United States. This grandfather had served as president for 31 days in 1841. But William Henry Harrison had died of natural causes after only this month in office. William Henry Harrison had enjoyed a distinguished career as a general, especially in the War of 1812. But the grandfather, William Henry Harrison, did not live long enough to make much of a difference as president. By contrast, Benjamin Harrison would eventually serve out a full term as president. He never won the popular vote, but he still defeated the incumbent president Grover Cleveland anyway. Again, Benjamin Harrison served a full term before his fatal rematch with Grover Cleveland. Where did Benjamin Harrison come from? How did he become the 23rd President of the United States? And what exactly is Benjamin Harrison’s legacy? These are the questions that this post will attempt to answer, however briefly.

Benjamin Harrison

The Napoleonic Wars: A series of several coalitions and conflicts

The Napoleonic Wars lasted for twelve years, with a death toll in the millions …

The Napoleonic Wars lasted for twelve years, with a death toll in the millions. They are among the most defining conflicts in European history. But most Americans know very little about them, even though they crossed the Atlantic on more than one occasion. Most importantly, they hit the United States in the “War of 1812,” which actually ended in 1815. Thus, it might be helpful to examine the defining European conflict of the early nineteenth century. It has origins in the French Revolution, and in the life of Napoleon Bonaparte himself. He came to power some years before these wars that bear his name. Thus, an overview of the domestic “French Revolution” might be in order here, to show how it affected Napoleon … and, in so many ways, also affected the world at large.

French victory over the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy, 1792

Herbert Hoover: More interventionist than he’s remembered

How much of the blame for the Great Depression belongs to Herbert Hoover?

Herbert Hoover had been president for only seven months, when the American stock market crashed in October of 1929. The Wall Street Crash of ‘29, sometimes called the “Great Crash,” is often marked as the beginning of the Great Depression. But this nation has had several other stock market crashes in its long history, and recovered much more quickly from most of these other crashes. Thus, I’m not entirely convinced that the 1929 Crash is what “caused” the Depression, although it was certainly a catastrophe of gargantuan proportions. Regardless, Herbert Hoover got the blame for the crash, and for the truly Great Depression that soon followed it. Many homeless Americans then lived in shanty towns that came to be called “Hoovervilles,” named (with some bitterness) after him. But how much of the blame does Herbert Hoover really deserve for this (and he does indeed deserve some)? What is the legacy of Herbert Hoover’s presidency? And just where did Mr. Hoover come from? These are the questions that this post will attempt to answer.

Herbert Hoover