Nine Military History Book Reviews for Spring 2026

Hammer of the Gods: King Olaf’s Viking Conquest (Don Hollway, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY, 400 pp., Read more

A Bedford Boy at Omaha Beach

Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Teass walked into the Western Union office in the small town of Bedford, Virginia, early on the morning of July 17, 1944, fully expecting a normal day as the teletype operator. Read more

The Survivor of the Sinking of U-451

Oberleutnant zur See Walter Köhler floated alone in the freezing Atlantic in the predawn hours of December 21, 1941. Read more

Mystery at the Battle of Ramree Island

The nights were “the most horrible ever experienced,” Bruce S. Wright, a Royal Canadian Lieutenant Commander later wrote about his time in Burma in February 1945. Read more

9 World War II Book Reviews for Spring 2026

The Hitler Years: Holocaust 1933–1945 (Frank McDonough, Apollo/Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, NY, 416pp., Jan. 27, 2026, $45 HC)

Resisting Nazism: True Stories of Resistance to the World’s Most Dangerous Ideology, from 1920 to the Present (Luke Berryman, Bloomsbury Academic, New York, NY, 296 pp., Read more

Philip Neame

During the Second World War the Western Desert campaign was a graveyard for the reputations of British generals—all at the hands of the Desert Fox, Gen. Read more

Don Hollway’s ‘Hammer of the Gods’

Viking literature has been popular since the 13th century and is more so than ever in the 21st, with television shows such as Vikings, Vikings: Valhalla, The Northman and The Last Kingdom (based on Bernard Cornwell’s books)—as well as the Viking-adjacent Game of Thrones (based on George R. Read more

Jamie Holmes’s ‘The Free and the Dead’

Following the end of the Revolutionary War, parts of Florida reverted to Spain, becoming a continuing source of conflict boundaries, the presence of formerly enslaved people and Native Americans from the region attacking the United States. Read more

Rob Zettel’s ‘American MiG Pilot’

Retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Rob Zettel, veteran who flew MiG-21 and MiG-23 fighters in the mid-1980s, shares an inside view of the U.S. Read more

Wil Haygood’s ‘The War Within a War’

Haygood’s vivid, engaging prose brings to life the experiences of those he knew growing up in Columbus, Ohio, who served in Vietnam and the struggle of those who returned. Read more

Jack Cheevers’s ‘Kennedy’s Coup’

Author of the award-winning Act of War—detailing the 1968 capture of the spy ship USS Pueblo by North Korean gunboats—comes a new look at one of America’s most serious foreign policy blunders. Read more

W. Fitzhugh Brundage’s ‘A Fate Worse than Hell’

In January 1864, with the Union’s Army of the Potomac in winter quarters about 80 miles north the Confederates decided to move many of the Union prisoners of war out of Richmond, Virginia. Read more

Trey Morriss’ ‘DOOM 34’

Before the stealth bombers could fly from Middle America to the Middle East and back, there was the secret mission code-named “Senior Surprise”—also nicknamed “Secret Squirrel” after the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character. Read more

David H. Lippman’s’ ‘World War II Day by Day’

The second installment of the author’s day-by-day history of World War II (e-book World War II Plus 75—The Road to War: A Day-by-Day History) this volume covers the six days of September 1, 1939, to September 6, 1939. Read more

Major Christopher G. Marquis’ ‘U.S. Mercenaries and the Condor Legion’

The Spanish Civil War served as a proving ground for airpower’s importance as an independent force. Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces overthrew the Republican (Loyalist) Government supported heavily by the Condor Legion of planes and pilots sent by Nazi Germany. Read more

Military Logistics Simulator

There are countless “[X] Simulator” games on Steam and other platforms, from Goat Simulator to Supermarket Simulator, PowerWash Simulator and beyond. Read more

The Crime At Pickett’s Mill

Peering through the thick underbrush west of Little Pumpkin Vine Creek, 30 miles northwest of Atlanta, on the afternoon of May 27, 1864, Ambrose Bierce had a bad feeling. Read more

Kerama Retto: Key to Victory at Okinawa

Close to the northern end of the island of Tokashiki, the largest member of a tiny group of islands called Kerama Retto, located 15 miles west of Okinawa and hardly 400 miles from the Japanese home islands, Corporal Alexander Roberts and the rest of the 306th Regimental Combat Team rested for the night beneath the starry skies of the northern Pacific. Read more

The Battle of Hue City: In the Thick of the Tet Offensive

The city of Hue was the capital of a unified Vietnam from 1802 until 1945. With its stately, tree-lined boulevards, Buddhist temples, national university, and ornate imperial palace within a massive walled city known as the Citadel, Hue was the cradle of the country’s culture and heritage. Read more

Allies’ Failure To Assist Jews During Holocaust Continues To Stir Debate

One of the most enduring questions emerging from World War II is the reaction of the West, and particularly the United States, to the plight of the Jews as they faced Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Read more