The Tet Offensive and the Battle of Hue
By Victor KamenirThe old Imperial capital of Hue was ready for the Tet Festival, a joyous occasion celebrating the Vietnamese Lunar New Year on January 31, 1968. Read more
Noble Celtic Warrior, 1st Century, B.C.
The Gauls were Celtic people who lived in much of Europe from the 5th century BC. They were described by Greek and Roman historians as tall, muscular, fair-skinned, with long blonde, or reddish hair. Read more
Roncesvalles and the Birth of Chivalry
By Don HollwayThe Age of Chivalry brings to mind knights in shining armor and damsels in distress, along with traveling troubadours and minstrels singing chansons de geste, “songs of deeds,” telling of feats of arms and labors of love. Read more
The BAe Sea Harrier
By John E. SpindlerAt 1:25 p.m. on May 1, 1982, the Sea Harrier naval jet fighter became the symbol of British resolve. Read more
The Bridge at Remagen
By Victor KamenirBy the end of January 1945, Hitler’s desperate Ardennes Offensive had ground to a halt. Though the last-ditch push to the west had inflicted heavy casualties on American forces, it was the German army that suffered irreplaceable losses in men, equipment, and materiel and was no longer capable of offensive operations. Read more
Military History Book Reviews for Fall 2023
Full ReviewsSign Here for Sacrifice: The Untold Story of the Third Battalion, 506th Airborne Vietnam 1968 (Ian Gardner, Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2023, 304 pp., Read more
Alexander: What Made Him Great
By Kelly BellHe was the first Caucasian many of his conquered subjects had ever seen. The empire he established during his short life stretched from Greece to the Indus River in modern Pakistan, an area of about 2 million square miles—more than twice the size of the Louisiana Purchase. Read more
Last Train Home
By Joseph LusterWhen it comes to war games, there’s no situation that can truly be described as anything but bleak and unforgiving, though we often see all the shades imaginable in the various era-spanning depictions across many genres. Read more
Stronghold: Definitive Edition
By Joseph LusterThose looking to relive—or try for the very first time—one of the more celebrated real-time strategy war games of the last couple decades will soon be able to do so in the form of Stronghold: Definitive Edition. Read more
Battle of Richmond, Kentucky: Cannae in the Bluegrass State
By Pedro GarciaOn September 7, 1862, Colonel Walter Taylor of General Robert E. Lee’s staff wrote to his sister: “The Yankee papers of the 6th exhibit a gloomy picture for our enemy. Read more
The Soviet Secret Police & the Katyn Forest Massacre
By Richard RuleOn September 17, 1939, in the wake of Hitler’s invasion of Poland, the Soviet Red Army crossed the Polish frontier from the east. Read more
The USS Vestal: The Pearl Harbor Attack & Beyond
by Glenn BarnettOn Saturday, December 6, 1941, the repair ship USS Vestal eased alongside the USS Arizona at her berth at Pearl Harbor. Read more
Napoleon Bonaparte & the Patriotic War of 1812
By Frank QuinnFor many, the fascination of military history lies in the “What if …” What if Hitler had not ordered the Luftwaffe to shift from bombing RAF airfields to bombing London in 1940? Read more
Battle of Cape Ecnomus & the First Punic War
By Marc G. De Santis“But so long as the Carthaginians held unchallenged control of the sea, the issue of the war still hung in the balance. Read more
Cold War Spies: General Reinhard Gehlen
By Peter KrossBy 1944, many top generals in Adolf Hitler’s army understood the war was lost and that they had better make arrangements to ensure their safety. Read more
Hit & Run: British Commandos Striking the Atlantic Wall in Norway
By Donald J. Roberts IIFollowing the forced evacuation of Allied forces at Dunkirk in June 1940, British leaders viewed a dim future. Read more
The Composite Bow: The Medieval Precursor to the Rifle
By O’Brien BrowneOrderly rows of Sumerian soldiers stretched across the grassy plain, their conical bronze helmets hard and bright under the sizzling sun. Read more
Prit Buttar’s ‘To Besiege a City’
By Christopher MiskimonThe terrain around Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, in the Soviet Union proved difficult for the attacking German armies in August and September 1941. Read more
Joseph P. Olexa’s ‘Death and Life in the Big Red One’
By Christopher MiskimonJoe Olexa figured that if a war was coming, he wanted to be ready for it, so he joined the army in December 1940. Read more
Minge, Ward and Brun’s ‘The Viking Battalion’
By Christopher MiskimonWith Norway occupied by the Third Reich, thousands of Norwegians abroad were without a home and many more who had immigrated to the United States wanted to see their homeland liberated. Read more
