Highlights from Naval History
Helicopters are lined up on the deck of the USS Guam (LPH-9) for servicing between missions off the coast of Grenada, 25 October 1983.

On Our Scope

October 2023
Operation Urgent Fury, the name given to the invasion, transpired in whirlwind fashion 40 years ago this October.
The Eastwind is shown off the coast of Greenland in her World War II state, including her Arctic camouflage. Note the twin dual 5-inch/38-caliber gun houses fore and aft.

The Other Capture

J. M. Caiella
October 2023
Soon after the end of World War II in Europe, hitherto secrets of the fight against Germany became more widely known. One of the major headline-grabbing stories was the revelation...
An OL-2 showing the aircraft’s two open cockpits; it could be flown with a control wheel in the forward cockpit or a control stick in the rear cockpit.

A Plane for All Seasons

By Norman Polmar
October 2023
The Loening OL-series amphibians were among the most popular aircraft used by the U.S. military services between the world wars, being flown by the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast...
USS West Virginia

The Waterbury Pump

By Andrew K. Blackley
October 2023
In the early 1900s, the U.S. Navy was on a quest for improved gunnery, led by William S. Sims and like-minded officers. American crews had demonstrated at the Battle of...
Mr. Robbins, a former naval officer, is the author of the political thriller The Accomplice (St. Martin’s, 2012) and coauthor of three nonfiction books with U.S. Senators, including The U.S. Senate (St. Martin’s, 2013) with former Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

Honda Point Remembered

By Former Secretary of the Navy Kenneth Braithwaite and Charles Robbins
October 2023
One night. Seven destroyers wrecked. An unprecedented peacetime loss for the Navy: a look back at the Honda Point disaster from a century hence.
2 September 1898: As the outnumbered troops of Major General Herbert Kitchener’s Anglo-Egyptian expeditionary force square off against the Mahdi Army on the outskirts of Omdurman, the Nile flotilla of British gunboats—which will prove to be a decisive factor in the battle’s ultimate outcome—can be seen in the upper left.

The Gunboats of Omdurman

By Brigadier General Raymond E. Bell Jr., U.S. Army (Retired)
October 2023
Major General Herbert Kitchener was outnumbered as his force confronted the hard-fighting Mahdist Army in September 1898, but he had an ace up his sleeve: naval gunfire support.
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