By 1940, both England and Germany realized that the Kriegsmarine’s U-Boats were the key to the Battle of the Atlantic. Eliminating the German submarine threat was Britain’s top priority. Expanding the U-Boat fleet was Germany’s greatest hope to bring the British to their knees. In those dar...
I set the hook and immediately thought to myself, “Oh dang, this could be the biggest fish of the day.” The fight made me giggle like a little kid, but as I pulled the 4-pound bass over the gunwale of my kayak, I saw something strange in its throat. I reached into its mouth and […] The ...
Welcome back, folks! Last time around we kicked off a four-part look at the Colt 1862 Police revolver, covering the design philosophy that produced it, the Civil War timing that hampered its sales, the factory fire that made things worse, and the conversion craze that ate up the majority of survi...
In the mid-1930s, Adolph Hitler cast his eye towards France and dreamed of revenge for the outcome of World War One. Standing in his way was the French Maginot Line, a collection of massive concrete strongpoints, casemates, armored turrets, and observation posts. Among the barbed wire, mine field...
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...
The idealized concept immediately took root and blossomed: the Royal Air Force saved Britain from invasion in 1940. The conventional wisdom holds that Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s legendary “few” handed Nazi Germany its first defeat in World War II and paved the road to eventual victo...
It is hard to overestimate just how much movies shape modern gun culture. Like many, I attribute my fascination with firearms to Hollywood movies. But I am only aware of one instance when a movie gun accidentally created a new type of armament.
The USS Saratoga (CV-3) was one of just three United States Navy aircraft carriers—along with USS Ranger (CV-4) and USS Enterprise (CV-6)—to survive the entirety of the Second World War. Although outdated by 1943, as the newer and more capable Essex-cla...
Everything that changes when you're carrying concealed in the backcountry — campsite selection, tent storage, law, bear defense, carry position, medical, and comms.
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a cased pair of Uberti Hamilton-Burr flintlock dueling pistols manufactured for the United States Historical Society in 1976, one of 1,200 sets produced. These replicate the pistols used in the July 11, 1804 duel between Alexander Hamilton and...