debor044

Vichy France's "small war" with Thailand in 1940-1941 is one of the most unique campaigns and micro conflicts in the greater military history of World War Two (1939-1945). Marshall Pétains shakes Adolph Hitler's hand, 1941 The Vichy collaborators in France and abroad formed a coalition/puppet government with their conquerors in the North of France while a 'free' southern zone was established rule by Vichy following the defeat of the French Army and the capture of Paris. The Vichy army fought rather poorly against their former Allies in North Africa while helping to cement fascist rule throughout occupied metropolitan France and Algeria. Thousands of miles away in French Indochina where French rule had been established by imperial conquest beginning in 1862 as French Cochinchina (Vietnam), the Vichy government collaborated nominally with the Japanese in fear of being ousted by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) forces who were already poised to invade the region ...

The Second Sino-Japanese Conflict of 1931-1945 saw thousands of different regiments, divisions, units, and armies, nationalities fighting throughout what is today Mainland China, Myanmar (Burma), Mongolia, and Korea. Torn apart by revolution and civil war from 1911-1930, China faced a great challenge to its national sovereignty when the mighty Japanese military decided to press its economic and political claims in Manchuria and Northern China beginning in 1930-1931. Japanese Army artillery in Manchuria, 1931 One of the most unique Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) units to fight in the earliest portion of the great Sino-Japanese conflict of 1931-1945 was the Skull Regiment, known alternatively as the Skull Squadron and as the “Manchurian Stormtroopers” for their unique regimental iconography and symbols. The Japanese Skull Regiment was seemingly inspired by the German Totenkopf, or Death’s Head regiments/brigades of the 18th-20th centuries.  Formed originally during the reign of King Fr...

One of the most impressive man-made structures on the beautiful “Garden Island” of Kaua’i County, Hawaii’s most populated, westernmost island, relating to military history and warfare studies is the Russian constructed (1817) Fort Elizabeth. Its walls and defensive structures still stand today, albeit in ruins, outside of Waimea on the southwestern Kaua’i coast on the eastern banks of the Waimea river mouth overlooking Waimea Bay, directly off what is today the Kaumuali'i Highway. These ancient overgrown red volcanic rocks and ruined outer defenses are all that remain of the Russian Empires attempts to colonize and intervene in the Hawaiian Islands ( Mokupuni o Hawai‘i ) from c.1815-1817. Russian Fort Elizabeth, Waimea, Kaua'i  (Taken by the author) To understand the importance of Russian influence and the importance of Kaua’i one must look to the decades of fighting inter-Island warfare which had all but come to end following the unification of the Hawaiian islands, save for...

The culture of the Japanese Army and its rigid command structure is critical in analyzing the strategies used by them in China from 1931-1939. The Kwantung Army was an anomaly in the greater study of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) from 1900-1945, in that it often took extra-judicial measures in its occupied territories and theatres of operations. Formed in 1919 from the original  Kwantung Garrison , which since 1906 had guarded the southern Manchurian railway from bandits or enemy nations, the Kwantung garrisoned the Liaodong Peninsula. Occupation of this territory had begun during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Japanese Army 'Skull Squadron' Manchuria, 1933 Soon dominated by young officers who privatized and isolated command, the Kwantung often operated under regional command structures. This so called "loyal insubordination" became the key to the Kwantung's military doctrine whilst serving in Manchuria and Northern China beginning in the early 1920...