Steph's Swishers

"They Did Things We'd Never Authorize" — What US Special Forces Said About Australian SAS

Kandahar Airfield, Southern Afghanistan, August 2002. Captain David Morurell, Third Special Forces Group, United States Army, had been running joint operations out of the same forward operating base for 11 weeks. He had worked alongside Canadians, British, and D and Dutch. He understood Allied forces.

He understood how they were trained, what constraints they operated under, how they reported up up their chains of command, and crucially what they would and would not do when the situation deteriorated past the point where the manual remained useful. He thought he understood them all. Then the Australians arrived. What followed over the next several months was, according to official US Army afteraction reviews obtained under Freedom of Information requests, an experience that multiple American special forces officers described in terms suggesting not merely

professional admiration, but something closer to ontological disturbance, a recalibration of what they had assumed was possible inside a sanctioned military operation. One captain quoted in a joint doctrine assessment compiled by US Special Operations Command in 2003 [music] put it with a precision that had probably been carefully considered before it was committed to paper.

Germans Couldn't Believe This B-17 Kept Flying — After Slicing Fuselage Completely Through

At 9:14 a.m. on February 1st, 1943, First Lieutenant Kendrick Bragg crouched behind the controls of his B7 Flying Fortress over Tunis, watching two German fighters dive toward his formation from 11,000 ft. 26 years old, 41 combat missions, zero aircraft lost. Two Messers fighters broke from their patrol.

One rolled toward the lead bomber, the second lined up on all American. The mission to Tunis had started 3 hours earlier from Biscra airfield in Algeria. Bragg squadron, the 414 bomb squadron of the 97th Bomb Group, had received orders to hit the docks. German supply ships were feeding Raml's Africa Corps. Cut the supply line. Starve the army.

They dropped their bombs 12 minutes ago. The docks were burning. Now they face the fighters. These 17 crews called it the gauntlet. The moment after bombs away when formations turned for home and German fighters swarmed. In the previous four months, the 97th had lost 19 fortresses. 190 men. Some bailed out over enemy territory.

Some burned in their cockpits. Most crashed into the Mediterranean. The mathematics were brutal. A bomber crew needed to survive 25 missions to go home. The odds of reaching 25 were less than 1 in4. Bragg watched the first Messersmidt attack the lead plane. Tracers cut through the formation. The B7's nose guns returned fire.

Germans Laughed at This “Legless Pilot” — Until He Destroyed 21 of Their Fighters​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

At 0745 on the morning of June 1st, 1940, Squadron leader Douglas Bader pushed his Hawker Hurricane to 3,000 ft above the French coast near Dunkirk when a Messormid BF 109 appeared directly ahead, flying the same direction at nearly identical speed. Bader was 29 years old. He'd been flying combat missions for exactly 4 weeks.

9 years earlier, he'd lost both legs in a training accident that should have ended his career forever. The Messersmid pilot held his course. No evasive action. Bader had 400 rounds in his guns and 300 yards of empty sky between him and his first kill. December 14th, 1931, Woodley Airfield near Reading.

Bader had been 21. A rising star in number 23 squadron flying Bristol Bulldogs. Someone at the Reading Aero Club made a challenge. Said Bader couldn't perform a slow roll below 500 ft. Regulations prohibited arerobatics under 2,000 ft. Bader took off anyway. Entered the roll at 200 ft. The left wing tip touched grass.

The bulldog cartw wheeled, exploded on impact. His right leg was amputated that day at Royal Berkshire Hospital. The surgeon was J. Leonard Joyce. He told Bader's family the young pilot would likely die from shock and blood loss. 3 days later, infection set in. They amputated the left leg, one above the knee, one below.

Iran Challenged U.S. Air Force — BIG MISTAKE

At 0247 local time, four B2 Spirit stealth bombers, call signs Pro 41 through 44, were pushing into Iranian airspace from three different vectors. Their mission, destroy Iranian ballistic missile storage sites buried in deep underground caves throughout the country. The Iranians thought their missiles were safe, but little did they know, they were about to get a taste of the Freedom Dorito.

Pro 41 and 44 were 90 mi southeast of Tabris North missile base and the mission commanders are deep in the drop. The complex they're about to hit has some bonfill and level engineering with eight cave entrances and six vertical shafts that allow the Iranians to fire straight upwards even if in tuned in the cave. The math is brutal.

They have to figure out bearing, speed, time, wind direction, and a half dozen other variables to find that one point in space where they need to release their payloads. And right in the middle of this calculation, their radios squawk with a problem. This is Viper 1. Two contacts bearing 045 climbing through Angel's 20. Looks like fulcrums.

Two MiG 29s scrambling out of Tabreze Air Base, which sits barely 15 mi from the missile complex. Pro 41 and 44 are about to seal shut. The B2 crews absorb this in silence. Radio transmissions can be detected, geoloccated, exploited. Silence is doctrine. But silence doesn't mean calm. Here's the problem. A B2 in a fight with a MiG 29 is like a billionaire in a tuxedo stuck in a dark alley with a fortune, completely unarmed, and surviving entirely on the hope that nobody notices him.

Arleigh-Burke: The Mother of all Naval Destroyers

If you could only go to war with a single ship, the Arley Burke class would be your choice, hands down. It can fire projectiles 60 mi. It can track 100 separate targets simultaneously. And it has a combat system so advanced that it may as well have a master's degree in kicking.

It was born out of the rock and roll of the 80s when the US Navy needed something new, something that could literally blow everything else out of the water. And what they came up with would be a class of vessels so legendary that it is still in service today. and will likely still be in service 20 years from now. So, what armaments and technology have they got that has yet to be bested by a single earthly ship in the decades since its creation? Also, it may be topped today, but what about the ships of tomorrow? Also, does it really have lasers? This is how you build a

ship that is the Second Amendment made manifest America style. Just before we continue with today's episode, did you know that every time you're online, your data is just kind of flying around out there ready to be stolen by bad actors or even just your ISP? He's just looking at your information and is like, "Oh, yes, let's sell that to advertisers so they can get creepily specific and all of that unpleasant stuff.

B-25 Gunship - A Tank Gun in the Sky

Dark Skies - The First American Gunship - Script (Sam Final Edit) Days after the Japanese conducted a surprise attack against US forces in Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt held an urgent meeting with Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss American military response to their enemy in the Pacific. The President, visibly preoccupied about American morale after the treacherous Japanese carrier airstrike, told his senior officers that mainland Japan had to be bombed as soon as possible.

This, he thought, would boost the country's morale, increase voluntary enlistments and fortify war bonds. The result of his order was the Doolittle Raid, under the command of renowned aviator and engineer, James H. Doolittle, whom in his autobiography later wrote (QUOTE): "An attack on the Japanese homeland would cause confusion in the minds of the Japanese people and sow doubt about the reliability of their leaders...

Americans badly needed a morale boost." The operation took place on April 18, 1942, and it was a resounding success thanks to the newly converted medium bomber, the B-25 Mitchell. The squadron of B-25s bombed Tokyo and Honshu, claiming over 60 lives and injuring 500 hundred people. Although damage was relatively minimal, it achieved the desired effects.

Engineers Called His B-25 Gunship "Impossible" — Until It Sank 12 Japanese Ships in 3 Days

At 7:42 a.m. on August 17th, 1942, Captain Paul Gun crouched under the wing of a Douglas A20 Havoc at Eagle Farm Airfield near Brisbane, watching mechanics weld 50 caliber machine guns into the bomber's nose where the bombader used to sit. 43 years old, 21 years in the Navy, his wife and four children trapped in a Japanese prison camp [music] in Manila.

The Fifth Air Force was losing bombers faster than replacements arrived. In July alone, the third attack group had lost 11 A20s trying to hit Japanese convoys from high altitude. The bombaders couldn't hit moving ships. When they dropped lower, the deck gunners shredded them. Captain Ed Lner had watched three of his crews burn in the Coral Sea the previous week.

The Japanese were reinforcing New Guinea at will. Gun had a different idea. If bombers flew low enough to skip bombs across the water like stones, they could hit ships at pointblank range. But first, they had to survive the approach. That meant overwhelming the deck guns with forward firepower. That meant turning bombers into strafers.

The problem was simple. The A20 Havoc had four 30 caliber machine guns in the nose. 30 caliber rounds bounced off ship armor like hail. Gun needed 50 caliber guns. Four of them mounted where the bombader sat, firing straight ahead, 1,700 rounds per minute combined. General George Kenny, the new fifth air force commander, had given Gun one week to prove the concept worked.

When a German Ace Sliced His B-17 in Half — He Refused to Jump and Saved All 10 Crew

At 13:25 on February 1st, 1943, First Lieutenant Kendrick Bragg gripped the controls of his B17 Flying Fortress over Tunis, watching two Messid fighters climb toward his formation. 24 years old, former Duke University football star from Savannah, Georgia. A veteran of the very first American heavy bomber raid over N**i occupied Europe.

The Luftwaffa had sent two aces from Yag Gishwatter 53. One with 31 kills, the other with 16 to attack 12 unes**rted bombers. The 97th bomb group had been flying out of Biscra, Algeria since Christmas 1942. Their targets lay 300 m northwest, the ports of Berti and Tunis, where German and Italian forces received supplies to sustain Raml's army in North Africa.

Every mission meant 600 m round trip over enemy territory without fighter es**rt. By early 1943, the odds were brutal. Fewer than one in four heavy bomber crews could expect to survive a 25 mission tour. The B7F carried 10 men, pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, flight engineer, radio operator, ball turret gunner, two waste gunners, and a tail gunner.

50 caliber machine guns covered nearly every angle from turrets and open windows. But at 25,000 ft, the outside temperature dropped to 40° below zero. Frostbite killed attention before flack did, and one bullet through an oxygen line meant unconsciousness in 90 seconds. Head-on attacks were the deadliest threat.

When This German Ace Saved 9 Americans — One Became His Brother for Life

At 11:32 on the morning of December 20th, 1943, Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown gripped the controls of his B17 bomber over Bremen, Germany, watching 250 flat guns open fire on his formation. 21 years old, zero combat missions completed. This was his first. The German anti-aircraft gunners below were not ordinary soldiers.

They were officer candidate school trainees, elite, the best marksmen the Luftvafa had. and they had been waiting for the American bombers all morning. Brown's aircraft was called Ye Old Old Pub. It carried 10 men and 6,000 pounds of bombs. The target was a Faul Wolf 190 fighter aircraft factory on the outskirts of Bremen.

Intelligence officers had warned the crews at the morning briefing that they would face hundreds of German fighters. What they did not mention was that the position assigned to Brown's bomber was the most dangerous slot in the entire formation. The men of the 379th Bombardment Group had a name for it, Purple Heart Corner, the edge of the formation, the spot where German fighters always attacked first because the defensive fire from neighboring bombers could not overlap effectively.

This Finnish Farmer Killed 542 Soldiers — And None of Them Ever Saw Who Was Shooting

At 6:47 a.m. on February 17th, 1940, Corporal Simo Hiha lay motionless in a snowdrift 150 meters from a Soviet supply route near Cola, Finland, watching a Red Army patrol of 12 soldiers march through frozen forest. The temperature was -43° C. The 34year-old Heiha had been in this position for 4 hours.

He wore no winter camouflage, just a white snow smok over his standard Finnish army uniform. His rifle was a Mosen Negant M2830. No telescopic sight, only iron sights. The rifle was 46 in long, weight 9.6 lb. Chambered in 7.62x 54 mm R, five round internal magazine. Heiha had already killed 387 Soviet soldiers in 79 days of war.

The Soviets had sent counter sniper teams to find him. They had sent artillery to destroy his positions. They had sent patrols with orders to capture him alive. All had failed. Now 12 more Soviet soldiers were approaching. They carried Mosen Negant 9130 rifles. They had scopes. They outnumbered Heiha 12 to1. None of them would see who was shooting.

None of them would survive the next four minutes. If you want to see how one Finnish farmer became the deadliest sniper in history, hit that like button. Subscribe for more impossible stories. Back to Hiha. Simo Hiha was born December 17th, 1905 in Raervi, Finland near the Russian border. His family were farmers. His father owned 150 acres.

Japanese Couldn't Stop This Marine With a ‘Medieval’ Bow — Until 116 Fell in 5 Days

November 17th, 1943. Bugenville Island, Solomon Islands. The tropical darkness hung thick over the jungle perimeter as Private First Class Howard Hill crouched in his fighting position, fingers gently testing the bowring tension. 70 yards to his front, Japanese soldiers of the Sixth Infantry Division were preparing their nightly infiltration attempt.

They had no idea they were being hunted by a weapon older than gunpowder itself. Through years of jungle warfare, Japanese troops had learned to recognize every sound of American firepower, the distinctive bark of M1 Garands, the chatter of Browning automatic rifles, the crack of Springfield sniper rifles. They understood these weapons, feared them, developed tactics to counter them.

But tonight they would encounter something their training manuals never addressed. Something their officers insisted was impossible on a modern battlefield. Hill drew his 70-lb longbow, a weapon he had carried from California, despite the protests of supply sergeants who insisted it was not regulation equipment.

The arrow, a hunting broadhead he had modified himself, was knocked and ready. No muzzle flash would reveal his position. No ejected brass would mark his location. No report would alert enemy reinforcements. Just the whisper of string and shaft, and death delivered in absolute silence. The first Japanese soldier emerged from the treeine, moving with the confidence of a veteran who had survived months of brutal combat.

He Was Gotti's Driver for 8 Years — Gotti Had Him Killed When He Retired

April 13th, 1991. Bay 29th Street, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. 7:45 in the evening. A big man steps out of his house in the fading light and walks toward his 1991 Lincoln Town Car. He's 47 years old, 6'3, 230 lb of South Brooklyn muscle. He's been one of the most feared men in New York organized crime for over a decade.

He survived shootings, arrests, internal mob politics that chewed lesser men to pieces. He's killed for his boss. He's protected his boss with his own body. He's driven his boss through the streets of New York for years while federal agents photographed them from parked vans.

He thought the worst was behind him. He was 6 ft from his car when he heard the footsteps. He never heard the shots. Frank Lesterino opened up with a 380 automatic and didn't stop until the magazine was empty. Twice in the head, five times in the torso, seven rounds. Bobby Boreello dropped beside his own car on his own street, bled out on the asphalt of his driveway while his 2-year-old son sat in the kitchen inside, and his wife Susan came running out of the house to find her husband of 17 years faced down and full of holes.

The paramedics arrived in minutes. They could do nothing. Bobby Boreello was pronounced dead on the scene. This wasn't just another mob killing. Bobby Boreello was John Goty's man, his driver, his bodyguard, his closest personal protector for years. If you wanted to get to the Dapper Dawn, you had to get through Bobby first.

And everyone in New York knew it. So when Bobby went down in that driveway, the whole underworld asked the same question. who was powerful enough, crazy enough, and well-connected enough to touch John Goty's personal bodyguard. Here's the thing that the newspapers got wrong. The rumor on the street for years was that Goty himself had ordered it, that Bobby had tried to step back from the life and paid the ultimate price for wanting out.