Wikipedia:Unusual articles/Military

Military

Sometimes, the best fighting men are women.

The wooden broomstick on which the Night Witches worked their magic.

Adrian Carton de Wiart	Fought in two World Wars, shot repeatedly, survived two plane crashes, escaped a POW camp, married a countess, and amputated his own fingers when his doctor refused. Also looked like a pirate.
Angels of Mons	Phantom bowmen from the Battle of Agincourt rose up from the dead to enact justice on the invading German Empire during the Battle of Mons...supposably.
Vasily Arkhipov	Potentially averted a nuclear war.
Bolivian Navy	Not having access to the sea won't stop Bolivia from having a 5,000 man navy.
Boot Monument	In celebration of Benedict Arnold's foot.
List of camoufleurs	Pioneering artists in the field of military camouflage.
Caspian Sea Monster	Actually a product of the Cold War.
Jack Churchill	Longbows and broadswords weren't used in World War II. Or were they?
The Crucified Soldier	A Canadian soldier who was reportedly crucified with bayonets during the Second Battle of Ypres...ouch.
CONOP 8888	The Pentagon's zombie apocalypse plan.
Boston Corbett	English-born soldier who killed John Wilkes Booth. Devoutly religious to the point of eccentricity, he was later committed to a mental institution, and disappeared after escaping from it.
*D-Day Daily Telegraph* crossword security alarm**	Crossword puzzles: A major danger to national security.
Deborah's Hole Camp	An Iron Age hillfort situated atop the cliff above Deborah's Hole cave.
Demob suit	Imagine the feeling: you've come back from war and they've given you a nice civilian suit, but it's too small for you.
Devil Eyes	This CIA psyop plan called for Hasbro to make G.I. Joe style figures of Osama bin Laden with a hidden demon face underneath.
Dreadnought hoax	A practical joke at the expense of the Royal Navy, inspiring the influential Bloomsbury Group.
Juan Pujol García	A spy who worked as a double agent for the Nazis and the United Kingdom during World War II.
Henry Gunther	The last man to die in World War I, and quite possibly the dumbest.
Simo Häyhä	Showed some extraordinary Finnish sisu in the Winter War against the Soviets.
Ice cream barge	Warning! Delicious creamy goodness ahead!
Kamikaze	A series of typhoons which were said to have prevented two Mongol fleets from invading Japan, seven years apart.
Koshiro Tanaka	What happens when a salaryman decides he wants to do more with his life in the mid 1980s? If you guessed joining an Afghani paramilitary group in order to fight invading Soviets, you'd be correct.
Aimo Koivunen	Finnish soldier in the Continuation War, and first documented case of meth overdose during combat.
Line-crossing ceremony	An initiation rite performed when a ship crosses the equator.
List of wartime crossdressers	Because war demands proper fashion.
Alan Mcilwraith	A call center worker who pretended to be a British Army officer, and then pretended to be a magician.
Wilmer McLean	It can be said that the American Civil War both started and ended in one man's front yard.
Miss Russian Army	A beauty contest minus the swimsuit competition but plus the automatic weapons drills.
Montauk Project	Real military science experiment or urban legend? Maybe the civilians who were in full view of the military base will be able to tell you.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front	A rebel, some might say terrorist, group in the Southern Philippines who may or may not be aware that their initials are also an acronym for mom I'd like to...
Mozart Group	An ambitious American private military company created for the purpose of supporting Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion. Fell apart after less than a year due largely to underfunding, infighting and rowdy soldier behavior.
Navies of landlocked countries	Mongolia once had one of the world's largest navies. Today they have one vessel with a crew of seven sailors, one of them able to swim.
Nebraska Admiral	The landlocked U.S. state of Nebraska and its "Great Navy".
Night Witches	An all-women Soviet bomber regiment who, despite flying in wooden training planes (or perhaps because of it), were highly successful and contained 23 different Heroes of the Soviet Union.
NORAD Tracks Santa	A tradition with the American and Canadian military to track Santa Claus for children.
Hiroo Onoda	A Japanese soldier who hid out in the Philippines during World War II, refusing to surrender until 1974.
Stanislav Petrov	Another man who potentially averted nuclear war.
Pentagon UFO videos	Yes, they're official.
Philadelphia Experiment	An alleged experiment in 1943 involving electromagnetic technology to render vessels invisible.
Portuguese Fireplace	A fireplace in the middle of the New Forest.
Project A119	If you can't land on the Moon, nuke it.
Ratlines	The underground secret lines for fleeing Nazis after World War II.
Russian warship, go fuck yourself	An eternalized catchphrase of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Shi Yousan	Early 20th-century Chinese general who seemingly made it his life mission to betray everyone he met.
Siachen Glacier	The world's highest battlefield, with very predictable terrain.
Otto Skorzeny	His career reads like several thriller novels in a row; he worked for the Nazis, Nasser, Perón, and apparently Mossad as a hit man (without ever denouncing Nazism).
Henry Tandey	Allegedly met a young Adolf Hitler during World War I - and spared his life.
The terrorists have won	Or have they?
Truelove Eyre	A man who supposedly saved William the Conqueror's life during the Battle of Hastings.
András Toma	A Hungarian soldier taken as a prisoner of war by the USSR in 1945 and declared dead... until he turned up in a Russian mental hospital in 2000, having not spoken to anyone for 55 years.
Lauri Törni	Fought in the Finnish Army, Waffen-SS, and United States Army, in that order. Only member of the Waffen-SS interred in Arlington National Cemetery.
USS William D. Porter	The US Navy's unluckiest ship ever?
William Patrick Hitler	Judging from his surname alone, you can guess who he was related to. Actually fought in the U.S. Navy during WWII, and lived to be the last member of the Hitler family.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi	Survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings in 1945. See also Jacob Beser.
Yang Kyoungjong	A mysterious Korean soldier said to have served Japan, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany.
Z (military symbol)	What does it mean? And why has Russia used it so heavily?
Zeppelin LZ 66	Real-life sky pirates.
Zhang Zongchang	Eccentric Chinese warlord that, among other things, assigned numbers to his many concubines, as he could not remember all of their names.

Animals in the military

Corporal Jackie	A baboon owned by a draftee who didn't want to leave him behind, he ended the First World War as a South African corporal, having picked up several injuries and a habit of saluting superior officers.
Dickin Medal	Only awarded to animals.
Moose cavalry	The supposed moose cavalries of Sweden and Russia.
Sergeant Stubby	The only dog to be promoted to sergeant through combat.
United States Camel Corps	Full-blooded Arabian mount, imported!
Unsinkable Sam	Three strikes (or in this case, sunken ships) didn't knock him out at all.
Wojtek	Arguably the most extraordinary soldier of all time.

Wars, operations and battles

1998 Sokcho submarine incident	North Korean submarine becomes entangled in a large South Korean fishing net. All of the crew aboard perished before it could be towed to port.
Anglo-Zanzibar War	The world's shortest war. It literally lasted 38 minutes.
Attack of the Dead Men	Russian combatants looking like zombies win the battle by scaring away the Germans.
Attack on Marstrand	A Danish-Norwegian siege in Sweden that succeeded partly because the Danish commander used all sorts of trickery to force a Swedish surrender. One popular story tells that he ordered his soldiers to walk slowly and in larger groups so it looked like there were more of them.
Bahia incident	Did you know that the American Civil War also took place in Brazil?
Battle of Castle Itter	American and German soldiers team up against the Nazis in a battle for a medieval castle.
Battle of Domažlice	A Hussite army routs the twice as numerous crusading Holy Roman army with the power of singing.
Battle of Fishguard	That time when France tried to invade Wales, got drunk and surrendered because they took the British forces too seriously.
Battle of Karánsebes	How the Austrians fought against themselves over liquor and resulted in 1,200 own casualties.
Battle of Lake Baikal	Czechoslovak Legionnares stole a steamship and won a naval battle against the Red Army.
Battle of Tanga	A World War I battle where 8,000 British troops were defeated by a German-led force of 1,100 Askaris – aided by swarms of angry bees.
Battle of the Eclipse	Lydia and Media had been fighting for six years, until an eclipse happening during one of their battles abruptly convinced them to stop.
Battle of the Herrings	An incident during the siege of Orléans, where French and Scottish forces attempted to stop a supply convoy full of barrels of herring.
British invasion of Iceland	How do you stop an enemy nation from invading a neutral country? By invading it yourself.
Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprising	When you're subject to execution for being late, what else can you do but revolt?
Dai Hong Dan incident	North Korea and the United States team up to defeat Somali pirates.
Empresa de China	Spain's plan for an Iberian-Filipino-Japanese motley crew to take over China. Cancelled after England sunk the Armada.
Emu War	Final score for this one: Emus 1, Australians 0.
Flagstaff War	A war that started between British military forces and the indigenous Polynesian people in New Zealand after a flagstaff was cut down four times.
Football War	A six-day war fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969 that was triggered by a game of football (soccer).
Gombe Chimpanzee War	A four-year war, fought between two groups of chimpanzees in Tanzania.
Huéscar-Danish War	When one town joined a war on the opposite side from the rest of its country, then forgot about it for 170 years.
If Day	A simulated Nazi invasion of the Canadian city of Winnipeg, complete with book-burning, arrests of politicians, and newspaper censorship.
Iowa Cow War	A battle between cow ranchers and the state of Iowa over tuberculosis testing.
Lobster War	A particularly heated dispute over whether lobsters swim or walk.
Operation Cottage	The Japanese never showed up.
Operation Mincemeat	The true story behind the best-reviewed West End musical of all time.
Operation Paul Bunyan	An American and South Korean military operation conducted over a tree.
Operation Pig Bristle	A daring air force operation to transport 25 tonnes of pig bristles from Chongqing in China to Hong Kong during the Chinese Civil War. The bristles were shipped to Australia to be made into paint brushes.
Operation Red Dog	A group of American and Canadian white supremacists plot to independently filibuster a small Caribbean nation. A plan straight from the mid-1800s: foiled in 1981.
Operation Tamarisk	Claimed to be the most successful intelligence operation in the Cold War; emptying supplies of Soviet Union toilet paper, forcing them to use documents, and retrieving these documents after use.
Operation Wikinger	Poor communication leads to the German air force scoring a great victory ... against the German navy.
Pastry War	Looting a pastry shop? This means war!
Pig War	A war between the United States and the British Empire that almost erupted over one dead pig.
Taiping Rebellion	One of the most lethal wars in history centers around a Chinese man claiming to be the brother of Jesus Christ.
Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War	A "war" that lasted 335 years without a single shot being fired, between the Netherlands and the tiny Isles of Scilly.
Toledo War	A war between the State of Ohio and the Michigan Territory that resulted in one injury and over a century of bitterness.
Toyota War	A war in the last phase of the Chadian–Libyan conflict, named after the Toyota trucks that were used in the battle.
Turkish Abductions	A 1627 slave raid by Turkish pirates off the coast of Iceland.
War of the Bucket	Started when Modenese soldiers stole a bucket from a city well in Bologna.
War of Jenkins' Ear	A nine-year war, started when Captain Robert Jenkins complained that the Spanish Coastguard had cut off his ear.
War of the Stray Dog	Greek soldier chases his pooch across the Bulgaria border. Warfare nearly ensues.
War of the Donkey	Two Venetian noble families go to war over a single donkey. Just one. It probably died during the conflict anyway.
War of the Insane	Hmong revolt against taxing by the French colonial administration in Indochina lasting from 1918 to 1921.
War of the League of Cambrai	A war that started when France and the Pope attacked Venice. Ended when France and Venice defeated literally everyone else in Western Europe.
War Plan Red	U.S. war plans from the 1930s to invade Canada in the unlikely event of war with the United Kingdom. Also see the counterpart war plan Defence Scheme No. 1 (the Canadian war plan to invade the United States).

Weapons and military equipment

The Bazooka Vespa – the ultimate in Mod(ern) warfare.

Anti-tank dog	Failed Soviet weapon of the Second World War.
Antonov A-40	The "flying tank", an experimental Soviet tank with wings and tailboom, meant to glide into the battlefield, ready for combat. Trials were unsuccessful.
Bat bomb	A World War II plan to bomb Japan with bats carrying tiny incendiary bombs.
Baynes Bat	An experimental British glider, designed to convert tanks into gliders which could fly into battle.
Bazooka Vespa	A heavily armed scooter
Bicycle infantry	Soldiers have occasionally been trained to use the bicycle for military purposes.
Blue Peacock	In case the Soviets decided they wanted the whole of Germany, the British planned to plant a bunch of nuclear landmines... heated by chickens.
Cornfield Bomber	An F-106 jet fighter made a perfect gear-up landing in a farmer's field – after the pilot had ejected at 15,000 feet (4,600 m).
Dazzle camouflage	A colorful way to hide in plain sight.
Davy Crockett (nuclear device)	A portable nuclear weapon.
Double-barreled cannon	A failed civil war era attempt to create a weapon of mass destruction. Now a monument in Athens, GA.
Explosive rat	A World War II weapon designed to cause boiler explosions. Never used, yet still a success.
Gay bomb	A speculative non-lethal chemical weapon that could be dropped on enemy troops to cause "homosexual behaviour". Not to be confused with the fag bomb.
German submarine U-1206	A Nazi submarine that was attacked by British forces after it was forced to surface due to a malfunctioning toilet.
Golden rivet	The hidden secret in every Navy ship (allegedly).
Grand Panjandrum	Britain's World War II Catherine wheel of death.
Harmonica gun	What's the best way to play the harmonica? Turn it into a weapon, of course!
History of military ballooning	Aerial warfare had to start somewhere.
HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen (1936)	A Navy ship that attempted to avoid detection by Japanese aircraft and escape back to Australia by having it disguised as a tropical island.
Human torpedo	Secret naval weapons of World War II.
Millwall brick	An improvised weapon constructed from a newspaper.
Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards	A set of playing cards created by U.S. Army soldiers featuring the most-wanted Iraqis, with Saddam Hussein as the Ace of spades.
Project Habakkuk	A British plan to construct an aircraft carrier out of ice (pykrete).
Project Pigeon	Bombs guided by pigeon pecks.
Project Plowshare	The search for peaceful uses of nuclear bombs. Most audacious and impractical idea: nuking a 160-mile canal out of Israel.
Puckle gun	A gun with square bullets to be used against non-Christian enemies.
Schwerer Gustav	The largest piece of artillery ever used in combat.
Skunk (weapon)	A nonlethal weapon with an extremely strong odor that may linger on clothes for years.
Sticky bomb	The most unpopular weapon the British soldier has ever been asked to use.
Tachanka	Twentieth century chariot used in combat.
Tsar Tank	An Imperial Russian tank designed as a tricycle with nine-metre wheels.
United States Navy Marine Mammal Program	A U.S. Navy program which studies the military use of Bottlenose Dolphins and California Sea Lions.
Whistling Dick (cannon)	A cannon of "rather modest proportions". Huh, I wonder why they mentioned the size...
Who Me	A top secret stench weapon designed to be unobtrusively sprayed on German officers by French Resistance members.
Zhanmadao	An anti-horse sword.

See also