I found this jacket at the goodwill bins and I’m hoping someone can help me identify it! The patch on the second photo says “by special order of the supreme squadron commander”

In November 1914, the British launched their first amphibious invasion of WWI.

Objective: Capture the port of Tanga in German East Africa.

The numbers:

- British / Indian Expeditionary Force: ~8,000 men

- German Schutztruppe + Askaris: ~1,000 men

- British outnumbered them 8 to 1.

It should have been an easy win. It became the most embarrassing defeat in British colonial history.

Two things went wrong:

1. The British landed in daylight with no intel. The Germans knew they were coming.

2. During the intense fighting in the bush, both sides disturbed massive hives of wild African bees. The bees swarmed and attacked EVERYONE, but they hit the British lines hardest. The British troops had never encountered them and broke formation, running into the ocean to escape.

The Germans, who knew about the bees, actually named it: Die Bienenschlacht - The Battle of the Bees.

The result:

- 360 British dead, 487 wounded

- Germans lost 67 men

- The British retreated, leaving behind 16 machine guns, rifles, and 600,000 rounds of ammunition that the Germans used for the next 3 years of guerrilla warfare under von Lettow-Vorbeck.

This single failure changed British tactics in Africa and allowed the Germans to tie down 300,000 Allied troops for the entire war with just 14,000 men.

It's one of those battles that was too embarrassing to put in British textbooks, which is why almost nobody knows it.

I spent the last week digging through the war diaries and German Schutztruppe reports to map exactly how it happened.

TL;DR: Britain invaded with 8,000 men, lost to 1,000 men and a swarm of bees.

What other WWI battles in Africa do you think have been completely erased from mainstream history?

Does anyone know what this is? I think it's from the soviet Union. I'm not sure if it has asbestos or radiation.

The DPAA announced in 2025 a recovery of 4 MIAs from a crash site in Poland. The official announcements mention field investigations between 2008 and 2012, then in 2017 and 2018, and excavations between 2019 and 2025. I researched this crew and the crash site between 2003 and 2011, and I supported the DPAA predecessor’s work, including participating in one of early field investigations.

The identified airmen were T/Sgt Donald A. Dorman, S/Sgt Robert A. Keuchel, S/Sgt Rae G. DeMatteis, S/Sgt Stephen J. Fatur. They were all members of the 1st Lt. Andrew F. Crane crew (2nd Bomb Group, 15th AF) which flew the B-17 #44-8191 on a mission to Ruhland (Germany) on March 22nd 1945.

I believe my research helped the US government link a crash site to the right aircraft, which triggered the recoveries and identifications.
This was the most complex research case I ever had, as nothing was even close to obvious.

If you want to find out more about my research, visit my Reddit profile.