Curated playlist
Warfare by type
- Special forcesSpecial forces are units built for missions that regular armies cannot, or will not, undertake.
- Biological warfareIn 1942, a Japanese biological attack rebounded on its own troops. Around 1,700 died out of roughly 10,000 who fell ill.
- Attrition warfareNapoleon's army marched into Russia in 1812 and was ground away almost entirely.
- Land warfareIn land warfare, terrain does not negotiate. Arctic cold, desert heat, jungle and mountains demand different skills.
- Chemical warfareNazi Germany built nerve agents but never fired one in battle. One historian points to a missing antidote.
- CounterinsurgencyHistorian Martin van Creveld likens counterinsurgency to an adult fighting a child. Hurt the child and you feel unjust.
- Trench warfareTrench warfare made a ditch deadlier than many weapons. A defender could kill several attackers before they reached him.
- Anti-aircraft warfareIn 1915, a Serbian private shot down a bomber with a captured Turkish cannon.
- Anti-tank warfareGermany began building anti-tank weapons within months of the first tanks in September 1916.
- Cold war (term)The phrase "cold war" first appeared in English in 1938, about Nazi Germany.
- BlitzkriegHitler privately called the word blitzkrieg a completely idiotic word. He later denied ever using it at all.
- Submarine warfareIn 1864, a Confederate submarine sank a Union sloop, then sank itself. H. L. Hunley lost all eight crew members.