Two days after the unparalleled bloodletting at Antietam, a bushy-bearded Scottish photographer and his pudgy, clean-shaven assistant rolled onto the battlefield with their bulky stereoscopic cameras and portable darkroom. Read more
When word of the German breakthrough in the Ardennes Forest began to move back to the rear echelons of the American command in Western Europe, General Maxwell Taylor, commanding officer of the 101st Airborne Division, was attending a conference in Washington, D.C. Read more
“The woeful inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the Church of God in Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter,” reads the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, referring to the savage sacking of the island monastery off the coast of Northumbria in ad 793. Read more
War spared no one. As modern armies clashed in France’s Normandy countryside, French civilians found themselves in the crossfire or on the receiving end of bombs and heavy weapons. Read more
On October 4, 2013, Nicholas Oresko passed away in an Englewood, New Jersey hospital at the age of 96. Read more
The British Admiralty Board of Enquiry into the loss of the battlecruiser HMS Hood, presided over by Vice Admiral Sir Geoffrey Blake, concluded, “The sinking of Hood was due to a hit from Bismarck’s 15-inch shell in or adjacent to Hood’s 4-inch or 15-inch magazines, causing them to explode and wreck the after part of the ship.” Read more
This year marks the 80th anniversary of Operation Overlord, commonly known as “D-Day.” Of course, every military operation had a “D-day,” which simply means the date that the operation is scheduled to begin. Read more
This year I feel deeply honored to have been chosen by the Smithsonian Institution to lead three 70th anniversary D-Day trips to England and France (one took place in May; the other two are scheduled to take place in September and October). Read more
Soldatenkaffee, named after a café frequented by German soldiers in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II, is, thankfully, one of a number of choices for luncheon fare in Bandung, Indonesia. Read more
It can be a hefty challenge to shrink a majorly popular console/PC experience down to the world of mobile gaming without sacrificing too much of what made it work in the first place. Read more
Many militaria collectors can trace the roots of their hobby to their childhood encounters with toy soldiers. For American kids in the 1930s and 1940s, this may have been with three-inch-tall American-made Manoils or Barclays from the local dime store. Read more
In the wake of the impressive victory by American colonists over the French at Louisbourg in June 1745 during King George’s War (1744-1748), the Province of Massachusetts Bay braced for the inevitable raids by the French and their Native American allies on two fronts. Read more
This year’s E3 was full of the typical spectacle one expects from a slew of games and promises that are still waiting in the relatively distant future. Read more
On Thanksgiving Day 2009, a convoy of three mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles left the south gate of Camp Ramadi, Iraq, and began the roughly three-mile journey to the Provincial Government Building. Read more
Despite the franchise’s age, Wolfenstein remains in the category of “new nostalgia” for some. While it has deeper origins—starting with 2D adventure game Castle Wolfenstein, which made its Apple II debut in 1981—the series is well known for its seminal contribution to the first-person shooter genre with 1992’s Wolfenstein 3D. Read more
Corporal Manning Haney sat atop a dike near Randwijk, Holland, on October 7, 1944, manning a .50-caliber machine gun. Read more
Military miniatures are an extension of the toy soldiers many of us had when we were children. But they are distinguished from the ones we grew up with in that they are painted and detailed to an incredibly high degree. Read more
Company of Heroes 2 made a decent splash when it arrived in June of last year, placing players on the Eastern Front of World War II. Read more
The Cold War was fought on every continent and hemisphere in thousands of battles, large and small. Americans are mostly familiar with those the nation was directly involved in, such as Korea and Vietnam. Read more
The Ohio Valley Military Society’s Show of Shows (SOS) remains the biggest military collectibles event in North America. Read more
