Military life is no joke. It’s a dangerous profession, and there are risks every day that put men and women in horrific danger. However, accidents happen, and people suffer or die as a result. Military history ranges from fascinating to heartbreaking, including ten incidents that no one thought would happen.
Sinking Their Own Ship
During World War II, the crew of a Brazilian cruiser called the Bahia sank their own ship. They were practicing a live-fire drill, and the gunner accidentally hit depth charges. This was due to the lack of guard rails preventing guns from firing so close to the ship. Once the depth charges exploded, the ship sank, and the surviving crew members spent a week out at sea.
Invasion
In 2002, twenty-four British soldiers on a training exercise stormed a beach. The problem was that they stormed the wrong one. Instead of it being in Gibraltar, it was in La Linea. The locals and policemen let them know they were in the wrong place and the British immediately apologized. Surprisingly, they were not the only country to have done this, with others inadvertently invading countries on accident more than three times!
A Tragic Crash
A Soviet MiG-23 fighter jet made an unmanned flight from Poland to Belgium. When it ran out of fuel, it crashed, killing a teenager. The problem began when the jet’s pilot saw the afterburner and thought it was failing. After he believed that the engine had shut down completely, he ejected and was surprised to see it still flying.
Hannibal
A brilliant tactician, he had unconventional strategies, which made his career famous. However, one of his treks didn’t go as planned. When traveling through snow-capped mountains, his army and the war elephants stopped and wouldn’t continue. Hannibal got angry and slammed his cane into the ground, causing an avalanche that was said to kill more than 25,000 of his men and several of the elephants.
Goose Green
The Battle of Goose Green was remembered as bloody. The British soldiers had prepared to attack Argentine forces secretly, but the BBC blew the whistle early, announcing the plans to the world. This angered the British commanding officers, and one of them pushed through with the operation, hoping the Argentine soldiers didn’t believe it. It turned out he was right, and the British ended up winning because the Argentines hadn’t thought to bolster their defenses.
Confession
Lloyd Butcher ridiculed his tormentors when captured by North Korea. He didn’t want to sign a confession of wrongdoing, but finally relented when the captors threatened to kill his men in front of him. Taking advantage of their lack of knowledge of the English language, he wrote a sham confession dripping with sarcasm, and when the men were released, the North Koreans still didn’t know what he had written.
FDR
In 1943, the USS Iowa carried FDR and his Secretary of State. During this trip, the Wiliam D. Porter caused an issue when one of the depth charges fell and exploded in the water. It caused everyone to think U-boats had found them. Immediately, a torpedo was launched at the USS Iowa, but it dodged it just in time.
Philip Sheridan
In 1863, Philip Sheridan and his men had secured the first line of Confederate trenches when he toasted the defenders above the ridge during the Battle of Missionary Ridge. The Confederates promptly shot cannon rounds at him, and after getting upset at their lack of manners, Sheridan charged toward them. The Union troops succeeded in overrunning the ridge and winning the battle.
Drunken British
In 1625, the British sent a force of men on 80 ships to invade Cadiz. The force mainly consisted of undisciplined men who had been pressed into service. Not only that, their superiors hadn’t brought many supplies on this trip. When they got to the city, they stole wine from the local vats and got incredibly drunk, threatening to mutiny. The leader ordered them back to the ship, but left behind 2,000 men who were executed by the Spanish. Only half of the boats made it back home, costing them more men.
Flood
The Japanese battleship Musashi was one of the largest battleships ever built. When it launched in 1940, its massive size accidentally flooded the city of Nagasaki. The ship’s lowering caused a tsunami that immediately flooded the residential areas nearby and capsized fishing boats. Because the ship launch was supposed to be a secret, the military forced the flooded families to stay in their homes.
Tragic Events
The tragic events that occurred in military history are events that no one saw coming and unfortunately almost cost people their lives, or killed massive numbers of people. With this list, you can see that sometimes thinking first is probably the best solution to avoiding simple mistakes, but sometimes in history, this simply doesn’t happen. Which event shocked you?
