Narva: The Battle of Nations

In the latter half of 1943, the German Wehrmacht had seen disaster follow disaster on the Eastern Front. Read more

Battle of Richmond, Kentucky: Cannae in the Bluegrass State

On 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 MG-42 Light Machine Gun

Whether fighting in the mountains of the Italian peninsula, assaulting Nazi defensive positions along the vast Russo-German Eastern Front, or clashing with German Army opponents from Normandy to the Elbe River, from 1942 to 1945, Allied soldiers in World War II faced a determined enemy armed with the most effective machine gun produced during that struggle: the Maschinengewehr 42, or the MG 42 for short. Read more

Snared in a Prussian Trap

Driven and energetic in his youth, by the late 1860s French Emperor Napoleon III was a shadow of his former self. Read more

What Made the Lockheed P-38 Lightning So Special?

Due largely to their use in the postwar U.S. Army Air Forces and present proliferation among the air show community, the North American P-51 Mustang is thought of by many as the most important American fighter of World War II. Read more

The Taylor-Smith feud derailed the Red River Campaign

The feud between Confederate generals Richard Taylor and Kirby Smith remains one of the most contentious examples of in-fighting in the Confederate high command during the American Civil War. Read more

Death in the Wheat Field

The warm spring breeze blew the still-new green of the trees about Falmouth, Virginia, as the last of three rousing cheers echoed into the sky. Read more

Christmas Day Air Raid on the Zeppelins at Cuxhaven

A quarter of a century before the epic Battle of Britain during World War II, England’s capital city was threatened from the air for the first time. Read more

The Battle for Britain… and much more.

Writers and soldiers. The two don’t go together.

Soldiers are men of action. They are out in the elements. They command men. Read more

Commander Quentin Walsh Earns the Navy Cross

The gray, churning waters of the English Channel slammed against the steel ramp of the landing craft on June 10, 1944. Read more

Imperial Landsknecht Halberdier 1486-1600

The Landsknecht were German mercenaries originally recruited by Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emperor from 1486-1519. Influenced by the success of Swiss pikemen, Landsknecht mercenaries were formed into a Landsknecht army, defeating the Hungarians during the Austro-Hungarian War of 1490. Read more

9 Military History Book Reviews for Summer 2026

The Impossible Factory: The Remarkable True Story of Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed Skunk Works, America’s Innovation Machine (Josh Dean, Dutton, New York, NY, 496 pp., Read more

Destruction Of The Colmar Pocket

On January 25, 1945, every officer in Company B of the 15th Infantry Regiment of the American 3rd Infantry Division became a casualty in the fight for the “Colmar Pocket” except Lieutenant Audie Murphy. Read more

End Game at Appomattox

Lieutenant Colonel Horace Porter, personal aide to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, maneuvered his mount past ammunition wagons, ambulances, stragglers, and prisoners jamming the muddy roads leading back to headquarters from Five Forks, Virginia, on the evening of April 1, 1865. Read more

The Superbattleship Yamato in Operation Ten-ichi-go

Allied victory in both the European and Pacific theaters seemed inevitable by spring 1945. The German Army was fighting on its own soil, and Japanese forces were defending Okinawa, the principal island of the Ryukyu archipelago. Read more

Mauled in Laos

The South Vietnamese rangers huddled in their trenches and bunkers at landing zone Ranger North throughout the day of February 19, 1971, as mortar shells crashed inside the perimeter. Read more

Germany’s Deadly V-2 Rockets

Sixty-four-year-old Robert Stubbs slowly walked across the playing field of the Staveley Road School in the West London suburb of Chiswick. Read more

Military Films

From earliest recorded history to yesterday, it is now possible to trace virtually all major human conflicts on videotapes and DVDs through both rental and purchase. Read more

The Battle of Kernstown: Stonewall’s Victorious Defeat

Sunday morning, March 23, 1862, was sunny and warm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Confederate general Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, a devout Christian, did not like to fight on the Lord’s Day. Read more

My Battle Up the Boot: Paul McNelis in the Italian Campaign

The U.S. 85th Infantry Division was one of the Allied workhorses in Italy during World War II. Read more