A Brief Naval History: Recent Episodes
Jeffrey Proctor
What was an atomic submarine doing in the desert? Why did the Navy fight the Air Force in 1949? What’s the difference between a quarantine and a blockade? And why did the British send the QE2 to the Falklands War? Join Jeffrey Proctor for a look at some of the interesting side notes in naval history!
The Russians have reinforced Franz Josef Land, an ice-covered archipelago far to the north, to safeguard its shipping and economic interests.
For my first episode of Season 3, a special guest recounts his recent trip to one of Massachusetts’ best naval history museums.
Communist forces prepared a massive invasion of South Vietnam in January 1968, and the US Marines at Khe Sanh were caught in the onslaught.
One of the most crucial strongholds in the Vietnam War was Khe Sanh Combat Base, home to thousands of battered US Marines and directly threatened by Communist troops.
Decades before a huge ship blocked the Suez Canal, four nations clashed over control of the world’s most vital waterway.
There were three atomic tests in the idyllic Montebellos between 1952 and 1956, which made Great Britain a nuclear power but left their radioactive mark on those who survived the dangerous acts.
Modern combat drones owe their lineage to a bug-like, coaxial helicopter born in the early days of the Cold War and an era of pioneer aviation.
On 25 February 1991, the crew of HMS GLOUCESTER put their money on Sea Dart to fend off a battery of Iraqi CSS-N-1 Silkworms. Both missiles were tested in war. Which one was going to win?
The Navy wanted a super carrier. The Air Force wanted a super bomber. In a time of post-WW2 budget cuts, two services jockeyed for favor and developed a bitter rivalry.
Since 1945, nations have committed to the ugly business of dumping chemical weapons at sea.
Some have called it the “Malta of the Baltic,” for Bornholm Island’s strategic value has not been forgotten by many regional powers. Learn more in this latest installment of our island series!
Not every sailor or marine has come home for the holidays. Duty has required them to travel far and endure much in the name of service. However, naval tradition has allowed them to celebrate the holidays in their own way.
In this slightly musical episode, a sailor and soldier come together to share all that is hard in work and life on the open sea.
Mussolini’s decision to declare war in 1940 would cost the Italian Navy, which became locked in the Mediterranean and sustained heavy losses. The structure of the fleet was altered by peace treaty, and with the advent of the Cold War, the fleet transformed for the future.
Continuing with our island series, we look into a Norwegian place known not just for the passage of migrating whales, but Russian submarines as well.
When you intentionally sink a ship in a harbor, canal, or channel, you make it quite hard for an enemy to go about their day! Learn about the ancient tactic of block ships in our latest podcast episode.
What would NASA, GCHQ, the RAF, BBC, ESA, and other government and military entities want with a small volcanic island full of sea turtles and birds?
Polaris promised to revolutionize US nuclear deterrent forces. Great Britain would seek the missile for its next generation of nuclear submarines. But first, a critical deal would have to spell out how Polaris could be used in an evolving world.
From the ubiquitous Soviet trawler to the USS Liberty and USS Pueblo, spy ships are some of the best platforms for gathering intelligence, albeit at great risk.
“So others may live” is the motto for SAR units around the world. Learn how subs, flying planes, and helicopters have made search and rescue a vital part of naval operations.
From Ensign Jesse Brown’s sacrifice in Korea to the Kitty Hawk riots, the Navy has experienced many challenges on the road to racial equality.
There are many examples of how naval blockades have decimated an enemy, from Cadiz in 1805 to Cuba in 1962. At its essence, a blockade is meant to control an enemy.
In October 1986, a Soviet missile submarine suffered a terrible explosion that resulted in the deaths of multiple sailors and the eventual loss of the warship.
Privateers were legitimized raiders of the high seas, balancing danger and rewards with every captured prize. For the government that permitted them, privateers could prove to be both benefit and bane.
With more than 120 ships and thousands of infantry, the Duke of Medina Sedonia sets out to conquer England. The Spanish Armada was probably the biggest naval force assembled in the period, but at what cost?
An old freighter called the “Lucky Two” was scrapped at Kaohsiung in 1972. But before its undignified end, the ship had served as an escort carrier, HMS Arbiter (D.31), in the Second World War.
In 1946, British warships sailed through the Corfu Channel and into an Albanian minefield. What happened next was a shocking loss of life and a long-lasting argument over territory, reparations, and national defense.
Admiral Clark’s task group is powerless to intervene as the Cuban Expeditionary Force is chopped up by Castro’s forces.
A brigade of counter-revolutionaries would use surplus US landing craft and bombers to retake Cuba in 1961, but despite immense CIA support and an entire carrier group behind them, the odds were not in their favor.
An unfortunate yard accident in 1969 causes the USS Guitarro, one of the US Navy’s newest nuclear attack subs, to sink at the pier.
It was a time when war and society smashed together. Caught between these pressures, sailors and marines found drugs and alcohol as an easy but costly reprieve.
Eleven crashes. Four dead pilots. An underpowered engine. What was the Navy supposed to do with a carrier fighter meant to beat the MiG-15?
Some of the biggest warships of WW2 and WW1 were scrapped, cannibalized for parts, or even hit by atomic bombs! Learn what happened to some of the great titans of naval history.
From floating headquarters to Tomahawk missile batteries, take a look at the ships remade for incredible missions.
In the American Civil War, the Confederate Navy built a number of iron-plated warships, the ironclads, to break the Union blockade.
Before the world’s first atomic submarine could be built in a Connecticut shipyard, a test reactor had to be studied faraway in an Idaho desert.
In late April 1952, a destroyer struck the carrier Wasp and sank in the mid-Atlantic, marking the Navy’s worst loss of life since the Second World War.
Despite a nearly catastrophic attack on a landing in Fitzroy, the UK task force brings more troops to the fight on East Falkland. With bombs and missiles, Argentine air forces try one last time to repel a takeover of the Malvinas.
In the second part of this podcast, British forces land on East Falkland, the old cruiser Belgrano falls to a modern nuclear submarine, and an Exocet brings disaster to the MV Atlantic Conveyor.
A UK task force must travel thousands of miles to confront the Argentine Navy and reclaim the Falkland Islands.