The 1939 invasion of Poland is generally seen as the beginning of the second world war. An enduring image of that battle is of Polish lancers bravely but hopelessly charging German tank formations, getting cut to pieces. But that story, like so many in the popular mindset, is false, and the true story is somewhat different, but no less interesting.
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.