Articles Archive

All photos: Naval History and Heritage Command

The USS Yorktown

By Mark Carlson

The Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 was the first naval engagement in history to be fought between aircraft carriers. Read more

Operation Tomahawk: Slamming the Door

By Kelly Bell

The first two tanks crossed the small Changnung river in one piece. As the third was splashing across, though, it hit a mine the first two had barely missed. Read more

9 Military History Book Reviews for Summer 2025

By Kevin Seabrooke Full Reviews

Faith of the Fathers: The Comprehensive History of Catholic Chaplains in the Civil War (Rev. Robert J. Read more

In September 1944, Red Army soldiers wade through a marshy area during a patrol. Such terrain played an important role on the Taman Peninsula as both armies had to contend with mobility issues.

Breaching the Blue Line: The Soviet Army at the Taman Peninsula

By Victor Kamenir

The charred remains of men and machines scattered through the Kursk salient in July 1943 signified the death knell of the last attempt by the German Wehrmacht to regain the initiative on the Eastern Front. Read more

General Omar Bradley: Dwight D Eisenhower’s Indispensible Lieutenant

By Cole Kingseed

Great commanders need great subordinates. In the campaigns in the Mediterranean and European Theaters of World War II, General Dwight D. Read more

Men from the Cameron Highlanders assault the thorn covered stockade walls of the Dervish Army’s camp northeast of Khartoum during British General Herbert Kitchener’s reconquest of Sudan in 1898.

The British Empire Returns to Sudan

By Kevin Morrow

Just a few hours beyond sunset, the Anglo-Egyptian army stopped to rest, officers and men stretching out on blankets on the desert floor. Read more

Attack And Defend, The Classic Quandary

In the title role of the film classic Patton, actor George C. Scott utters words to the effect that fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of man. Read more

Manning a Bren gun position along the forward line of C Troop, 2/4 Commando Squadron covering an area known as Snags Track, troopers McGowan, Sherring, and McDonald cast a wary eye toward Japanese positions. These Australian commandos were ashore near Tarakan, Borneo, on May 13, 1945.

Ralph Coyne: The Dark Blue Double Diamond

By Ken Wright

“We shall not be content with a defensive war,” stated British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during his speech to the House of Commons immediately after the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Forces from Dunkirk on June 4, 1940. Read more

Comte de Grasse’s 104-gun French flagship, Ville de Paris, is shown at center surrendering to British Admiral Sir George Rodney’s 98-gun HMS Formidable on the right of this Thomas Mitchell painting, The Battle of the Saints, 12 April 1782. In reality, de Grasse surrendered to Admiral Samuel Hood of the HMS Barfleur, the bow of which can be seen behind the Ville de Paris.

Clash in the Caribbean

By David A. Norris

Unexpected maneuvers by British Admiral George Brydges Rodney had scrambled the traditional engagement formation of the two fleets. Read more

Metal Thunder

By Joseph Luster

Developer and publisher Dumbbell Games released the aerial combat game Metal Thunder in Early Access on Steam back in November 2024. Read more

Europa Universalis V

By Joseph Luster

If grand strategy is your bread and butter, your plate is going to be especially loaded with the impending return of the Europa Universalis series. Read more

Rolling across a muddy field in France, the Sherman tank of Sergeant Harvey Woodward and his crew heads for the front. Shortly after this photograph was taken, the tank was hit by enemy fire and the entire crew killed.

Patton’s Panthers: The Story of the 761st Tank Battalion

By Charles W. Sasser

In the Academy Award-winning film Patton, the setting was all wrong when actor George C. Scott delivered General George S. Read more

A throng of mesmerized children attempts to squeeze between smiling SS guards to deliver the Nazi salute during a party rally. Children were intensely indoctrinated in the Third Reich and made to practice the salute along with a “Heil Hitler!” to increase their devotion to the regime.

The Madman of the Mountain: Adolf Hitler’s Personal Life

By Charles Whiting

Adolf Hitler loved children. Before the war consumed all his energies he entertained children at his holiday home on the “mountain” all the time. Read more

In his painting Suicide in Pairs, artist James Turnbull depicts a flaming Japanese kamikaze diving toward a stricken U.S. Navy transport vessel. Off Okinawa, the U.S. Navy endured the full fury of the desperate kamikaze attacks. (Naval Historical Foundation)

The USS Goodhue & A Torrent of Kamikazes at Okinawa

By Duane E. Shaffer

More than 60 years ago, in April 1945, the war in Europe was winding down to its inevitable conclusion. Read more

A flight of famed North American P-51 Mustang fighters flies in tight formation.

P-51 Mustang: The Untamed Beast of the Skies

By Sam McGowan

If a single airplane has captured the public imagination more than any other, it is undoubtedly the North American P-51 Mustang fighter. Read more

Photographing the Battle of Antietam

By Roy Morris, Jr.

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

The Thunder of Operation Gallop

By Pat McTaggart

As Adolf Hitler’s vaunted Sixth Army lay in its death throes in the ruins of Stalingrad, German forces to the west of the city faced their own kind of hell. Read more

WWII Secrets: The Mysterious Inga Arvad

By Peter Kross

Shortly before Pearl Harbor, an attractive Danish journalist arrived in the United States to pursue a writing career. Read more

Stonewall Jackson and John Gibbon at Brawner’s Farm

By John Walker

The ground around Manassas, Virginia, was not auspicious for Union Army forces in the first two years of the Civil War. Read more

The CSS Alabama’s Place in Naval History

By Roy Morris, Jr.

The CSS Alabama went to her watery grave on June 19, 1864, off the coast of France, but the lingering effects of her wartime successes made naval history: she continued to haunt the American and British governments for years to come, embroiling the two English-speaking nations in a legal test of wills that would last well into the next decade. Read more

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John Brown’s Bloody Abolitionist Crusade

Morgan’s Ohio Raid

Battle of Richmond, Kentucky: Cannae in the Bluegrass State

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A Moral Dilemma