As World War I raged across the European continent, the streets of Dublin erupted in violence on Easter Monday, 1916. Not with the tread of an invading army, but with gunfire from Irish rebels. On that day, a force of some 1,600 nationalists rose against British rule, to proclaim the …
Read More »Trapped Inside a Burning ‘Punishment Hut’ in WWI Germany: A Prisoner’s Story
Here at Soldier of Fortune, we uncovered a long-ago story of an atrocity during World War I, when eight prisoners met a horrific fate while captive in Germany. Here is the tale, as told by a fellow prisoner, “Pedro.” ~SKK Pedro’s Tale I was sailing on an English ship. She …
Read More »‘Get the F— Down!’ The Entire City Went Insane That Day, When We Were at War in Iraq
by Greg Chabot Editor’s note: This story contains some very raw, violent material that could bring readers back to their own stark experiences at war. ~SKK April 9th, 2004 Author’s note: During this time TF- 1/6 soldiers were living in three locations in the city. Troops were at the Provincial …
Read More »The True Story Behind Ray Mendoza’s ‘Warfare’
Mendoza received a Silver Star for his actions that day in Iraq. The film WARFARE follows a platoon of U.S. Navy SEALs on a surveillance mission gone wrong in November 2006, during a battle against insurgents in Ramadi Province, Iraq. The film from A24 is based on true events. Among them …
Read More »Special Forces at War: A Deadly Firefight in Iraq
by Alex Quade Diyala Province, Iraq — Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (A-Team) 072 rolled into the village. It was dead quiet. Nothing moved. Suddenly, “squirters”—people running away from the village and cars leaving at a high rate of speed. Clearly, something of interest was in that village. A-Team Commander …
Read More »Ordeal on Firebase 6: A Brutal Battle in Vietnam
by Jose Campos They knew the enemy was coming. On that day in March 1971, Army 1st Lt. Brian Miles Thacker and his seven-man team braced for the inevitable. But when the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) launched their assault, it was not a question of whether the firebase would fall …
Read More »A Reporter in Israel, 1989: Weapons, Checkpoints, and Deadly Cross-Border Attacks From Southern Lebanon
by Martin Kufus If Hezbollah’s rocket barrages into northern Israel seem to be a recent phenomenon, they aren’t. As former Soldier of Fortune magazine editor Martin Kufus writes, deadly cross-border attacks from southern Lebanon began decades ago. The following is an excerpt from chapter “L is for Lebanon” of his nonfiction book. Despite …
Read More »Fighting in the Trenches: British Troops Train For a Modern Version of Old Warfare
Trench fortifications, reminiscent of World War One, have become an integral part of the war in Ukraine. Both sides have dug vast networks of fortifications, signaling to Western forces that the old style warfare is very much in play. In the United Kingdom, British forces have dug a series of …
Read More »Eyewitnesses to War: Villagers Kept Record of Who Died Inside Airless ‘Dungeon of Death’ in Ukraine
by Mark Krutov, RFE/RL The elderly and sick died quietly. Crowded with hundreds of others held captive by Russian soldiers for four weeks in an airless, unsanitary school basement in Yahidne, a village in the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine, the ill and the frail were particularly vulnerable. Several could …
Read More »The Bloody Shores of Iwo Jima: A Veteran Tells His Story
Donald Raasch is one of the few men alive who fought in the fiercest battle in Marine Corps history. by Lance Cpl. David Brandes and Lance Cpl. Ethan Miller MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. – The corporal dragged his body up the obsidian sheet of sand speckled with other water-logged Marines. He clambered …
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