George Franchi’s blog

1: Spy Balloons
These were used primarily by the North. Balloons holding up to 5 men spied on enemy formations during battles. Part of a battlefield commander’s strategy was keeping his reserves and counterattack elements hidden from enemy view either by using natural topographical features, such as hills or patches of woods, or placing them behind other units. The balloonists were often able to see them and signal their positions to their own forces. They also acted as forward observers to direct artillery fire. Hydrogen and natural gas were used as lifting agents. The USS George Washington Parke Custis was a coal barge the North converted into a balloon boat, effectively making it the world’s first ‘aircraft carrier.’

The Battle of Hattin in July 1187 was a complete disaster for the Crusaders of Outremer, the Roman Catholic states set up in the Holy Land during the First Crusade.  It caused a total reversal in the fortunes of the Christians and led directly to the Third Crusade, which attempted to fix the damage.  This catastrophe need not have occurred.  That is because a series of absolutely idiotic decisions made by people who knew better led to this outcome.  Even worse, the Crusaders were up against one of the greatest generals of the time: Saladin.

An interesting question that sometimes comes up in casual conversation is if certain historical characters were actually real people or are they fiction. King Arthur and Robin Hood immediately come to mind, especially considering how many films about both exist for us to watch and enjoy. In the sphere of Christianity, there is much discussion among historians and lay people over whether the characters from the Bible really existed. In this article, I am going to focus on Jesus’ historicity.

In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. That is the opening line of a Columbus Day poem that American school children had to learn for many years. It will also serve as the lead-in for this article about the momentous year of 1492 with its 4 major events and their significant consequences.

France lost the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and had to pay a heavy penalty as a result. The Treaty of Frankfurt, signed on 10 May 1871, stripped her of Alsace and parts of Lorraine as well as requiring her to pay a war indemnity of 5 billion francs in gold ($23.7 billion in 2022 dollars). It is usually taught that the Germans punished the French too harshly, thus virtually guaranteeing a future war in which the French would try to extract a terrible revenge. That desire for payback manifested itself in the Versailles Treaty, which in turn led to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party along with their own war of vengeance. But how justified is this criticism? Were the German demands really that unreasonable?

To the disappointment of the conspiracy theorists out there, the short answer is no. Absolutely NO.
Several waves of this accusation cropped up over the years, none of them truthful. The first was in the 1920s, early in Hitler’s career. As one can imagine, Hitler’s detractors and enemies at the time couldn’t resist taking such potshots at him. Considering his extreme anti-Semitism, little to no proof was needed to set tongues wagging and the people making the accusations had absolutely none of it. Nevertheless, so many people wanted to believe it that the myth was established.

One of the many fascinating aspects of studying history is reading about circumstances that existed in the past that are difficult for us to comprehend today and seeing how they dramatically altered the events of their time. Such is the case of a Dutch war fleet being captured by a French cavalry detachment on 23 January 1795.

One of the great questions of World War II is if Hitler and his High Command had forgotten about the severity of the Russian winter when they planned Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.  Most people assume so because the German soldiers eventually found themselves in temperatures as low as -55.6 C (-68 F) ((Panzer p.258.)) while still wearing their summer uniforms.  How could that have been possible if not for a colossal oversight on behalf of those in charge of planning the operation as well as those in command?  It seems like a no-brainer but how true is it?  Looking at the evidence, we can see that it is not only a false assumption, but there are elements in the affair that are rarely reported in articles or books on the subject.