Articles Archive

The Eagle at Asculum: General Pyrrhus of Epirus

By Jeffrey A. Easton

By the middle of the 4th century bc, the Roman Empire had steadily expanded its reach into the southern half of Italy. Read more

An M3 Grant tank leads a column of armored vehicles during maneuvers at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in June 1942. The Grant was a stopgap design with a sponson mounted 75mm gun.

M3 Grant/Lee Tank: The Armored Stopgap

By David H. Lippman

Standing 10 feet tall, equipped with both a 75mm and 37mm, an impressive mass of steel and rivets, the Grant and Lee M3 tank seemed like the definitive answer to Hitler’s raging panzer tanks. Read more

Though outnumbered by their Simba rebel oppo- nents, mercenaries in the Congo relied on a lethal combination of speed and firepower to overwhelm the indigenous rebels

Mad Mike Hoare: How a Businessman Became a Legendary Mercenary

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

With the exception of the French Foreign Legion, the concept of the mercenary, or soldier of fortune, seemed extinct after World War II. Read more

M4 Sherman medium tanks of the 35th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division, clear the road to Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. The 4th Armored Division was the spearhead of the Third Army drive north to relieve the 101st Airborne Division holding Bastogne, a vital crossroads.

Patton’s Dual Drives

By Kevin M. Hymel

This article is excerpted from Kevin Hymel’s latest book, Patton’s War: An American General’s Combat Leadership, Volume 2: August—December 1944, published by University of Missouri Press. Read more

Spanish loyalist Federico Borrell Garcia is captured at the moment of his death at Cerro Muriano by photographer Robert Capa on September 5, 1936. Capa’s Falling Soldier remains the most controversial war photo in history.

The Heroism of Vision: Photographs from the Battlefield

By Al Hemingway

On the morning of February 23, 1945, on the tiny Pacific island of Iwo Jima, a 40-man patrol gathered at the 5th Marine Division headquarters for their final briefing with battalion commander Lt. Read more

In this painting by British war artist W. Krogman, Matilda II tanks rush past the burning hulks of German armor and fire their guns at distant targets. The Matilda in the foreground is emblazoned with a Union Jack on its hull.

World War II Book Reviews for Summer 2023

By Christopher Miskimon Full Reviews

Desert Armour: Tank Warfare in North Africa, Beda Fomm to Operation Crusader, 1940-41 (Robert Forczyk, Osprey Books, Oxford, UK, 2023, 336 pp., Read more

American soldiers man an artillery post on the south end of San Juan Island. A dispute over the boundary between Washington Territory and British Columbia almost led to an armed conflict between the United States and Great Britain in 1859.

James Douglas’ Audacious Plans after the Trent Affair

By William Silvester

On November 8, 1861, two distinguished diplomats from the newly established Confederate States of America were arrested and removed from the British mail steamer Trent by the American ship San Jacinto in the Bahama Channel near Havana, Cuba. Read more

A Lockheed PV-1 Ventura bomber is shown in flight in the Solomon Islands. During the early days of the Solomons campaign the Ventura was modified to serve as a night fighter with the squadron based at Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field.

Grey Ghosts Over The Solomons

By Patrick J. Chaisson

It didn’t take long for Rear Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., to notice how exhausted the men all seemed. Read more

The Liverpool ferryboat Daffodil rides alongside the cruiser Vindictive as Royal Marines disembark the cruiser’s battered decks in this painting by Charles J. de Lacy.

Zeebrugge: A Gallant Raid on Saint George’s Day

By Robert Barr Smith

In the spring of 1918, World War I was well into its fourth year, and still the armies struggled and died in the glutinous mud of Flanders. Read more

Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers of the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force fly through thick enemy flak during bombing runs against the oil refinery complex at Ploesti, Romania. These bombers executed one of the most hazardous missions of World War II, and accurate weather information decrypted from German sources facilitated such air operations.

Department G Code Breaker

By Glenn Barnett

Throughout World War II the center of cryptography among the Allies was at the top-secret location at Bletchley Park outside London. Read more

A 17th-century cavalry- man charging into battle atop a white charger opens fire with his wheel lock pistol in this painting by Dutch artist Pieter Meulener.

The Wheel Lock: Birth of the Combat Pistol

By William J. McPeak

By the late 15th Century, early firearm designers were already looking at ideas for semi-automatic weapons. The matchlock had been the first mechanism to make a shoulder-aimed firearm, the arquebus, possible. Read more

This stirring image titled “Douglas A. Munro Covers the Withdrawal of the 7th Marines at Guadalcanal”was painted by artist Bernard D’Andrea for the observance of the bicentennial of the United States Coast Guard.

U.S. Coast Guard Goes to War

By Michael D. Hull

Recently put ashore, three companies of U.S. Marines advanced stealthily along the Matanikau River on the northern coast of Guadalcanal on September 27, 1942. Read more

Dwarfed by Lookout Mountain, the Union Army of the Cumberland hunkers down in besieged Chattanooga in this idealized painting. Actual conditions were much worse.

Miracle at Chattanooga’s Battle of Missionary Ridge

By Mike Phifer

Peering through a pair of field glasses, Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest perched in an oak tree on Missionary Ridge, overlooking the Tennessee town of Chattanooga, and observed a Union army in complete disarray. Read more

Aces of Thunder

By Joseph Luster

The War Thunder series recently revealed plans to deliver an aerial combat spinoff titled Aces of Thunder in the most immersive way possible. Read more

Slaughter in the Park: The Battle of Pavia

By William E. Welsh

From the moment he was crowned King of France in 1514, Francis I shared the same obsession with the rich Italian territories of Milan and Naples that his predecessors, Charles VIII and Louis XII, had shown during their time on the throne. Read more

Broken Lines: The Drunk and the Dead

By Joseph Luster

It’s time to venture into uncharted territory with narrative-driven alternate timeline tactical RPG Broken Lines, which just unleashed a DLC expansion titled The Dead and the Drunk. Read more

Troops of the 4th U.S. Infantry Division cross the Rhine River at Worms, March 26, 1945, on a pontoon bridge constructed by the 85th Engineer Heavy Pontoon Battalion. In background are the ruins of the Ernst Ludwig highway bridge that the retreating Germans destroyed in a vain hope of stopping the Allied advance.

The Forgotten Rhine Crossings

By Mason B. Webb

While British Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery’s 21st Army Group was marching across Belgium, Holland, and into northern Germany on his way to the Rhine, Omar Bradley’s 12th Army Group, made up of Courtney Hodges’s First and George Patton’s Third U.S. Read more