Articles Archive

Spartacus: Freedom by the Sword

By Eric Niderost

In the spring of 73 bc, Thracian gladiator Spartacus decided that the time was right to attempt an escape. Read more

Australian troops on a narrow mountain road west of Jezzine, Lebanon, come under fire from Vichy French artillery and mortars. The Aussies fought the German-aligned Vichy forces for possession of the town over the course of several weeks, finally capturing it on June 28, 1941.

Fighting The War in the Middle East

By William Stroock

For more than a century the Middle East was the British Empire’s vital link between the Mediterranean and India. Read more

Italian Military Adventurer

By William E. Welsh

An assault on an Alan woman by an Almogavar of the Catalan Company exploded into a skirmish between the two groups of allies in the pay of the Byzantine Empire on April 9, 1303. Read more

French troops in the foreground counterattack Prussian infantry in a vain effort to stabilize their right flank at the elevated village of Saint-Privat seen in the background. Infantry of both sides fought valiantly throughout the day, but both the French and Prussian high commands performed poorly.

Victory At A Dreadful Cost

By William E. Welsh

King William I of Prussia stood resplendent in the uniform of a Prussian Guard officer on a hill in eastern France on a sunny day in late summer 1870. Read more

The final outcome of the Franco-Prussian War was decided on September 2, 1870. On that day, more than 100,000 French troops, including Emperor Napoleon III, surrendered to the Prussian Army at Sedan. Read more

The guns of the German battleship Bismarck and the cruiser Prinz Eugen fire at the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Hood in the Denmark Strait on May 23, 1941.

The Hood Has Blown Up!

By Mark Carlson

In one of the most gripping scenes of the 1960 motion picture Sink the Bismarck! the viewer is witness to the climactic moment of the Battle of the Denmark Strait on May 24, 1941. Read more

Uniform: The 8th Texas Cavalry

By Don Troiani & William Welsh

Colonel Benjamin F. Terry, a sugar planter from Fort Bend County on the coastal plains of Texas, raised the 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment. Read more

Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated Confederate General Joseph Johnston at Jackson two days before Champion’s Hill. To deny the state capitol’s use to Johnston, Grant torched its buildings, cut its telegraph wires, and tore up its railroad tracks.

Grant’s Army of the Tennesee overcame adversity on the roundabout road to Vicksburg.

Major General Ulysses S. Grant sat on his horse in late April 1863 next to a narrow bridge over a wide marsh on the west bank of the Mississippi River in northeastern Louisiana. Read more

Wartales

By Joseph Luster

Wartales is a medieval-themed open-world tactical RPG from Shiro Unlimited, and it’s been doing pretty well for itself since its initial launch. Read more

Ten Days at Aschaffenburg

By Christopher Miskimon

As the winter of 1944-1945 slowly gave way to spring, the combined Allied armies ground their way into Germany. Read more

War So Terrible: The Battle of Fredericksburg

By Arnold Blumberg

Word spread like wildfire through the camps of the Army of the Potomac during the second week of November 1862: “Little Mac” was out, “Old Burn” was in. Read more

In this painting by artist Jack Fellows, U.S. Navy Lieutenant “Syd” Bottomley pilots his Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless dive bomber in a steep descent, dive brakes extended on the trailing edges of the plane’s wings, during a bombing run against the Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga, the largest of four carriers the Imperial Japanese Navy deployed during the Battle of Midway. Bottomley scored a direct hit during the pivotal action of June 4, 1942, but found his own carrier, USS Yorktown, damaged upon his return.

Epic Stand at Midway

By Michael E. Haskew

On May 2, 1942, the eve of the Battle of the Coral Sea, a Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina flying boat skimmed the water’s surface and touched down in the lagoon of Midway Atoll, 1,137 miles west of Oahu. Read more

Hannibal leads his Carthaginian army, mounted on elephants, against the Romans in this 16th-century painting.

Hannibal And The Failure Of Success

By Steven Weingartner

Although Hannibal Barca has rightly been hailed as one of history’s greatest military commanders, his reputation for greatness is based largely on his performance in the first three years (218-202 bc) of the 16-year conflict known as the Second Punic War. Read more