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On Our Scope

August 2023
Late in the summer of 1740, an eight-ship Royal Navy squadron set sail from Spithead for a voyage around the world. Four years later, when the tattered remnant of Commodore ...
midget submarine X-1

The Smallest Boat

By J. M. Caiella
August 2023
During World War II, four major combatants—Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Japan—used midget submarines with varying degrees of success.
XC-142A taking off

The Largest V/STOL Aircraft

By Norman Polmar, Author, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet
August 2023
One of the more unusual vertical/short-takeoff-and-landing (V/STOL) aircraft flown by the U.S. military services was the Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142.
HMS Centurion (left) captures the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de Covadonga off the Philippines.

Anson’s Voyage

By Captain Thomas R. Beall, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2023
The circumnavigation of 1740–44 was marked by treasure, tragedy—and lessons that fueled the rise of the Royal Navy as a global force.
U.S. Marines

A Deadly Dilemma

By Michael Archer
August 2023
At the height of the Vietnam War, the Khe Sanh battlefield turned the Marine Corps’ most cherished virtue of Semper Fidelis into a liability.
ship

‘That Was a Helluva Night’

By Admiral Harold E. Shear, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2023
Admiral Shear gives a vivid firsthand account of the battle that the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings described in 1945 as “one of the most nicely executed and decisive victories of ...
YD-171

Herman the German

By Jon Hoppe
August 2023
The gigantic crane, built by Demag A. G. in 1941 in Bremerhaven, Germany to lift U-Boats out of the water for repair and for other heavy-lifting tasks.
AJS265 (1)

Earning Your Ink

By Taylor Sparks
August 2022
Mariners getting "inked" is a tradition that spans back to the Age of Sail. Many of the same tattoo patterns from centuries ago are still found on sailors today.
1945 Nimitz Guam Lanai navy photo

Nimitz at Guam: How He Relaxed from War

By Captain Michael A. Lilly, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2023
The move to Guam would bring Nimitz closer to the war, but it “was also farther from Washington” and would perhaps “discourage at least some of the VIP visitors..."