On November 8, 2023, a marine research team led by Kostas Toktaridis of ROV Planet Blue found the remains of the French submarine Floreal, sunk in 1918 during World War I in the waters of the Thermaic Gulf (also known as the Gulf of Thessaloniki), northeast of Greece. The Floreal belonged to the Pluviôse class […]
First World War
Posted inFirst World War
The Battle of the Porpoises, when a Brazilian Cruiser Fired on the Animals Believing Them to Be a German U-boat
What’s going on with the Brazilian navy and marine life? Once upon a time, warships from that country had their ups and downs with the French during a conflict of grotesque proportions known as the Lobster War. Now, we’re going to look at an even more bizarre episode: the Battle of the Porpoises, an incident […]
Posted inFirst World War
The Story of the Belgian Unit that Fought in Russia during World War I, and its Odyssey Back
You may have heard of 1914. It’s the year the First World War began, yes, but there’s also a Ukrainian death metal band named after that year because they emulate the Swedish band Sabaton, whose songs are about military history. In their case, they focus on the Great War, hence the name they chose. In […]
Posted inFirst World War
“Willy-Nicky Correspondence”, the Exchange of Telegrams between the Tsar and the Kaiser on the Eve of World War I
In the year 1918, just after the end of World War I, American journalist, writer, and diplomat Herman Bernstein published a book titled The Willy–Nicky correspondence. It was an anthology of private telegrams exchanged between Tsar Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm over several years, on the eve of the conflict, attempting to soothe tensions. The […]
Posted inFirst World War, Science
The chemical process invented to manufacture explosives that today feeds one-third of the world’s population
If I review the term Haber Process and accompany it with descriptive words such as industry, ammonia, nitrogen, fertilizer, and energy consumption, it is almost inevitable that most people will picture factories working non-stop, emitting columns of smoke into the air through their long chimneys, and ultimately polluting the environment. And there is certainly some […]
