It was one of those dramatic events in time of war. Civilians, threatened by an invasion by a remorseless and intractable enemy, desperately calling for military bombers to attack that enemy as it surged towards the defenseless town. In a raging storm a brave crew volunteers for the dangerous mission, with the fate of the city in their hands. Such brave acts were often required during the violence of the Second World War. Just not usually in Montana.
In August of 1918, as the armies of Europe neared exhaustion, American troops of the 28th “Keystone” division were thrown into a nearly forgotten battle that fully represented the horrors of the War to End All Wars.
Of the vaunted ironclad warships of the US Civil War perhaps the mightiest and most terrifying was the confederate ram Tennessee. On August 5, 1864, she would be put to the test in the largest naval engagement of the war, an engagement that defined the divided loyalties of the War of the Rebellion.