When war with Mexico erupted in 1846, the United States was woefully unprepared. The regular army was well below its authorized numbers and could only field slightly more than 5,000 officers and soldiers. Read more
If a picture truly paints a thousand words, then Gerry Embleton has painted volumes in his career. As a freelance illustrator of military subjects, he specializes in highly detailed, accurate studies of historical costumes, including period uniforms. Read more
Dear Editor:
In your October/November 2008 issue, Glenn Barnett’s article “Caring for the Casualties” was of particular interest to me. I was wounded on September 10, 1944, flown back to England from the 100th Evacuation Hospital outside of Brest, France, on September 18, arriving at the Army’s 121st General Hospital in the evening. Read more
The six-month-long land and naval battles for Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands chain have been well covered in books and magazine articles, but the war in the skies above the islands has received less attention. Read more
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution, from Firaxis for the Xbox 360, PS3, and DS, is not a traditional war simulation. Read more
Every war has unintended consequences— that’s why the wise leader never starts one. When King John returned to England in October 1214 from the European continent after yet another defeat at the hands of his lifelong enemies, the French, he faced perhaps the greatest unintended consequence in world history. Read more
Never let it be said that James Knox Polk was not a determined man. Although he suffered from ill health most of his life, this did not deter Polk from working tirelessly to rise to the top in politics as a Democrat, with fellow-Tennessean Andrew Jackson as his mentor. Read more
Dear Editor:
In “Secret Agent Man,” Peter Kross describes the outstanding British Mosquito plane as being “made of wood, which gave it tremendous speed and maneuverability.” Read more
During the whole of the Pacific campaign, no single mission was more difficult or challenging than the mission assigned to a unit of American GIs in New Guinea. Read more
Dear Editor:
I wish to commend you for your recent article in the April/May issue on the 761st Tank Battalion. As the first African American armored unit in the history of the U.S. Read more
In February of this year, decades after his death on the Pacific island of Ie Shima in 1945, a photo of famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle surfaced. Read more
When historians discuss the American Revolution, they give scant attention to the hard fighting that occurred in the southern states. Read more
More than 60 years after her death, Anne Frank, the young girl who was a virtual prisoner in the famous “annex” as she, her family, and others hid from the Nazi Jew hunters in Amsterdam, remains an icon of optimism and belief in the triumph of the human spirit. Read more
Some games take a small part of WWII and try to model it very closely. Some games take the whole of the war and try to model it very broadly. Read more
Only five modern American Army generals have ever been authorized to wear the five stars denoting the rank of General of the Army. Read more
I am happy nowhere else and in no other society, and all my wishes end, where I hope my days will end, at Monticello,” wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1787. Read more
If you have children, there is a good chance that you also have a Wii. And if you have a Wii, you’ve probably played tennis on it, and maybe even gone fishing, but you probably have not played a war game on the console, or if you have, it may have been Medal of Honor Vanguard, previously the best war game available on the Wii. Read more
In mid-December 1944, between Guam and the Philippines, the greatest enemy Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey’s Third Fleet encountered was not the Japanese but a monstrous typhoon—the largest storm the U.S. Read more
Dear Editor,
Please allow me to express my displeasure concerning the article in the January 2008 issue, “A Life Shaped by Dyslexia” by Jeansonne et al. Read more
The Roman conquest of Briton in ad 43 is modeled in the new board game from Avalanche Press, Rome at War: Queen of the Celts. Read more
