Military Secrets: The Nazi Spies Who Never Were

As the 1930s unfolded, Adolf Hitler sought to avoid having Great Britain join the war he intended to launch. Read more

Defending the Pass at the Battle of Thermopylae

What nation of Asia, did not Xerxes lead against Hellas? —Herodotus

On the Doricus, the vast Thracian plain and beach on the Aegean coast, rose a stronghold. Read more

Famous Fighter Aces: Edward Mannock

The agent from the American consul followed a Turkish guard through the prisoner compound. It was early 1915, and he had come on behalf of the Red Cross seeking prisoner exchange for the worst cases in this miserable, disease-ridden place. Read more

Fortunino Matania and the Art of War

The short, slim man strove to keep still despite the stifling heat and the perspiration trickling down his face and neck. Read more

Mirrors on the Mountains

When Brig. Gen. Nelson A. Miles finally met Geronimo in Skeleton Canyon, four miles above the Mexican border in southeastern Arizona Territory on September 3, 1886, the U.S. Read more

If Lessons are Learned, ‘Fighting the Last War’ can Yield a Positive Result

An astounding range of human capacities can be found throughout military heritage—bravery, fortitude and sacrifice of ordinary men and women engaged in the often heartbreaking act of making history. Read more

Final Attack at the Battle of Stones River

Late in the morning of January 2, 1863, Confederate Maj. Gen. John Breckinridge gazed through the brush at newly arrived Union infantry occupying a partially wooded hill to his front near Murfreesboro, Tenn. Read more

The War Chariots of the Celtic Elite

To the Latins they were Gauls; to the Greeks they were the keatoi (Keltoi), or Celts. A warrior people who at one time roamed Europe from Britain to the Black Sea, Celts reached the height of their power and cultural influence around the 2nd century bc. Read more

Death on the Hill of Doves: The Battle of Majuba Hill

In 1814, as a consequence of her victory in the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain was formally ceded the Dutch South African territory of Cape Colony. Read more

Helmets of the Superpowers—Soviet and American— attract collectors.

The basic shape of the American M1 helmet and the Soviet M40 helmets became iconic symbols of the Cold War and remain popular with collectors today. Read more

Frederick the Great & the Battle of Rossbach

The evening of June 18, 1757, found the remnants of Frederick the Great’s Prussian army in full flight toward the Kaiser-Strasse (Imperial Road) in Bohemia. Read more

The Plot Against Einstein

When Albert Einstein arrived in Pasadena, California, in early 1933, he was to take up his duties as visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology for about three months. Read more

‘Vat Goes on Here?’

On a Belgian hillside at the height of the Battle of the Bulge, an American lieutenant watched as a jeep carrying four men dressed in American uniforms stopped on the road in front of him. Read more

The Boy Who Got Rommel

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the infamous “Desert Fox,” was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Army Group B on the Western Front and put in charge of strengthening the Normandy coastal defenses. Read more

The Bloody Gilberts: ‘Another Road to Tokyo’

By the spring of 1943, the Japanese advance across the Pacific had been brought to a halt. Read more

The USS Zane

Much credit goes to the American ability to quickly manufacture the many ships and planes needed to fight the Pacific War and overwhelm the Japanese enemy. Read more

Germans Seize Field Hospital at Bastogne

Captain (Dr.) Willis P. McKee did not like what he was seeing. For several hours now, crowds of panicky civilians had been streaming past his unit’s tent hospital located at a crossroads eight miles northwest of Bastogne, Belgium. Read more

Julius Boreali in Operation Overlord

Julius Boreali’s diary entry from May 29, 1944, is different from the more typical “calm sea, sun shining” entries that precede it: 12:30 am attacked by a group of German planes. Read more

French Commandos Land on D-Day

Aboard one of two LCIs carrying French commandos approaching the Normandy coast, Lieutenant-Commander (Capitaine de Corvette) Philippe Kieffer looked at his watch. Read more

Six World War II Book Reviews for Spring 2024

Patton’s War: An American General’s Combat Leadership, Volume 2 August-December 1944 (Kevin M. Hymel, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, 2023, 467 pp., Read more