Posted inUncategorized

Little Soldiers: A French photojournalist captures Paris children playing at war in the dark days of World War I

by Jennifer E. Berry

The French army was in a precarious position in the summer of 1915, as its offensives bogged down and casualties skyrocketed. L’Illustration, a popular image-driven newspaper, encouraged renowned Paris-based photojournalist Léon Gimpel to find subjects worthy of color photographs—a rarity at a time when the heavy equipment and complex processing of color newspaper photography meant few photographers could shoot for that medium. Inspired by poster artist Francisque Poulbot’s comic and colorful illustrations of children playing at war, Gimpel went to work.

Posted inUncategorized

John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 Disaster

by Thomas Fleming

The most famous collision in U.S. Navy history occurred at about 2:30 a.m. on August 2, 1943, a hot, moonless night in the Pacific. Patrol Torpedo boat 109 was idling in Blackett Strait in the Solomon Islands. The 80-foot craft had orders to attack enemy ships on a resupply mission. With virtually no warning, a Japanese destroyer emerged from the black night and smashed into PT-109, slicing it in two and igniting its fuel tanks.