Cold War Files: When the Air Force Dropped a Nuclear Bomb on South Carolina

A version of this story originally appeared on Muckrock.com.

If you ever find yourself traveling on Crater Road in Mars Bluff, South Carolina, be sure and carve out a few moments for a marker commemorating this whimsical footnote in Cold War history – that time the US nearly nuked itself.

Although the event was written about extensively at the time – and it gets brought up whenever an outlet’s having a slow news day – a 2012 FOIA request by Carlton Purvis led to the release of some rarely-seen photos of the Air Force investigation into the incident.

Read the Remainder of this Story and See the Amazing Pictures at Atlas Obscura

 

 

U.S Naval Military History: The First Submarine Ever Built

The Connecticut River Museum in Essex holds a fully-functional replica of the “Turtle,” the first American submarine ever built.

Little-known fact: the first submarine and underwater time bomb were created during the American Revolution–before electricity, and before Jules Verne.  

It was 100% human-operated (no engines just hand cranks and foot pedals) and used phosphorescent moss as the interior light source because a candle would use up too much of the available oxygen. Even though the “Turtle” failed to complete its few missions and its inventor always felt that he was a failure for it, he is often credited with being the Father of Submarine Warfare.

The son of a Connecticut farmer, David Bushnell was a brilliant man who had to delay going to college until he was 31 years old. While he was studying at Yale, he proved that gunpowder could be exploded underwater and also created a timing device to allow for delayed detonation–the first underwater time bomb.

His last year at Yale coincided with the beginnings of the American Revolution.  The university temporarily closed due to the impending crisis of war, but Bushnell knew he could use an underwater explosive to help his fellow patriots fight the superior British military power if only he could find a way to deliver it to the target.  He knew the machine had to be able to be completely submerged for at least a short amount of time to avoid detection and be maneuvered in the water.

His design is simple and efficient: a small barrel-like vessel, almost like two turtle shells glued together with simple pedal powered propellers. It had to be able to deliver the underwater time bomb, attach it to the target ship’s hull,  and then retreat before the bomb detonated, all before the pilot ran out of oxygen and had to surface.

The Connecticut River Museum has both a cut away display that you can sit in and feel what it was actually like to be inside the Turtle and a full scale replica that was hand made for the 1976 bicentennial. They tested the machine in a nearby harbor, and it is said to have worked beautifully.

Read the Original Article at Atlas Obscura

Obscure World War Two History: Faking Sick Sometimes Saves Lives

How a Fake Typhus Epidemic Saved a Polish City From the Nazis

During World War II, a man went to the doctor in Rozwadów, Poland with a unique complaint. He was one of thousands of Poles forced by the Nazi occupiers to work in German labor camps. The man had been granted a 14-day leave to visit his family, and his time was almost up.

He was desperate to escape the camp, but knew that if he did not return, he would be hunted down and he and his family would be arrested and sent to a concentration camp–a death sentence in many cases. He had considered suicide, but also knew that a serious disease, verified by a physician, would spare him from returning to the camp.

The two doctors who saw the man decided to help him in his quest for a diagnosis, and offered to give him an injection. He accepted. The doctors then drew a blood sample and sent it to a German lab. Soon, they received a telegram that read: “Weil-Felix positive.” Their patient had tested positive for typhus. The telegram was given to the local German authorities as proof that the patient had an infectious disease, and the man was subsequently released from his duties at the camp. He was also excluded from future detention, as were any family members he had come in contact with.

The doctors did not actually make their patient sick, of course. That would be unthinkable to them, even in the most dire circumstances. The typhus epidemic that they brought to Rozwadów was instead their own unique spin on “faking sick,” a concocted outbreak meant to shield their patients and neighbors from persecution. The doctors had saved the man’s life by giving him a simulacrum of the disease, and by giving the same shot to many others in the area, they would save thousands more.

Read the Remainder at Atlas Obscura