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Grognard:
today: 100th anniversary of the Battle for Liege.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/german-assault-on-liege-begins-first-battle-of-world-war-i

GarandMarine:
Marine Corps Special Operations Command is being renamed and realigned with the Marine Raider Battalions and Regiments of WW2.

http://www.oafnation.com/marines/2014/8/6/-marine-raidersrenamed

This is hardcore moto at it's finest.

Grognard:
6 AUG 1945.

first ever use of an Atomic bomb in anger.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

69 years ago.

LeeC:
I've been watching a long WW1 documentary and came across the Battle of Tsingtao.  Tsingtao being a German naval base of operations in the pacific.  The Brits needed help and asked the growing power of Japan to ally with them in this battle.  On the 2nd of September 1914 the Japanese Imperial Army sent 60,000 troops to meet up with the 2,000 British troops to siege Tsingtao.  The Germans had around 4,500 troops.



The siege began on October 31st and for a solid week the Japanese battered the defenses of Tsingtao.  The Germans sneered at the British forces, making the Japanese do their dirty work.  During the victory parade through Tsingtao, German officers ordered their troops to turn their backs on the passing British forces.  The British high officer complained to the Japanese commander who replied "Well, we cannot repeat the whole procession because of that."  Capturing Tsingtao would be a spring board later for Japan's empire building.  Within weeks demanding territory and trading rights in China and gaining all of the German colonies and territories north of the equator.  Australia and New Zealand took the ones in the south. The Americans were not too happy about the British empowering the Japanese in the pacific.



The British were hoping to Neutralize the German fleet in the pacific but most of their cruisers got away and wreaked havoc on the seas.  The Kaiser gave them full authority to do what they wish, basically making them well armed privateers.

Akima:

--- Quote from: LeeC on 16 Sep 2014, 09:15 ---The Americans were not too happy about the British empowering the Japanese in the pacific.

--- End quote ---
I think this is an ahistorical judgement made by peering through the lens of Pearl Harbour. There is little evidence that the US government had any real qualms about Japanese imperialism in China in 1914, or in 1917 when the Lancing-Ishii Agreement included the USA's acknowledgement of Japan's "special status" in China, or 1919 when Woodrow Wilson signed off on the Treaty of Versailles which, among its many iniquities, handed over a chunk of China to Imperial Japan.

I think it is also questionable to call the capture of Tsingtao (Qingdao now) the springboard for Japanese empire-building. I would look to the annexation of Korea, from which Japan launched its later invasion of China. Japan's "protectorate" over Korea was legitimised by the Treaty of Portsmouth (1905, full annexation followed in 1910) negotiated with the mediation of US President Theodore Roosevelt, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role. Irony.

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