Admiral James Stavridis’ ‘To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision’

Stephen Decatur, captain of the USS Intrepid, sprang his trap under cover of darkness on the night of February 16, 1804. Read more

John L. Plaster’s ‘SOG: A Photo History of the Secret Wars’

The Studies and Observations Group of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam ranks among the most secretive of the Vietnam War’s special operations organizations. Read more

Don Hollway’s ‘At The Gates of Rome: The Fall of the Eternal City, AD 410’

Roman General Flavius Stilicho defended the waning Roman Empire against numerous invasions. His dedication to the restoration of the empire was complete, but he faced enemies from within and without. Read more

Thomas Sheppard’s ‘Commanding Petty Despots’

Captain James Lawrence climbed the rigging of the frigate USS Chesapeake in Boston Harbor on June 1, 1813, to get a better look at the unknown ship on the horizon. Read more

Chris McNab’s ‘Dreadnoughts and Super-Dreadnoughts’

HMS Dreadnought was such a revolutionary design its name became the byword for an entire class of warship. Read more

David Axe’s ‘Drone War Vietnam’

Unmanned aerial vehicles are generally thought of as a modern weapon of war, a product of the digital age. Read more

Simon Elliott’s ‘Roman Conquests: Britain’

The Romans found Britain to be a terrifying land. They had little information about its people and they found it difficult to invade. Read more

Chris Glenn’s ‘The Battle of Sekigahara’

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a samurai and feudal lord, unified Japan and ushered in a period of peace for the war-torn nation. Read more

Last World War II Recipient of the Medal of Honor Dies.

The citation made it plain. U.S. Marine Corps Demolition Sergeant Hershel W. “Woody” Williams had exhibited extraordinary courage during the bloody, protracted fight for the porkchop-shaped scrap of land in the Volcano Islands known as Iwo Jima. Read more

Bitter Bloodletting At Iwo Jima

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber nicknamed Dinah Might struggled to stay in the air on the afternoon of March 4, 1945. Read more

Hitler’s Winter of ‘44

Few festivities occurred on Christmas Eve, 1944, in the Ardennes Forest. Thousands of soldiers struggled to attack or defend positions, or to simply survive. Read more

The Frigate USS Confederacy

The British frigates HMS Orpheus and Roebuck, on April 20, 1781, escorted their prize—the Continental Navy frigate USS Confederacy—with the Union Jack flying above the Stars and Stripes, to New York harbor, thus ending Confederacy’s two-year service to the American rebels. Read more

A Sting In Venlo

Sir Alexander Cadogan did not believe it.

He had been given a report from Admiral Sir Archibald “Quex” Sinclair, head of MI6, on October 6, 1939, that German generals were reaching out to the British Embassy in The Hague in neutral Holland, to orchestrate a coup against Adolf Hitler that would replace the Nazi regime with a military junta, which would then make peace. Read more

Jacobite Victory at Prestonpans

Before dawn on September 21, 1745, the dragoons and infantry of King George II stood in line of battle in a freshly harvested wheat field. Read more

Korea Under the Rising Sun

The first recorded encounter between American forces and Koreans in the Central Pacific during World War II came at Tarawa Atoll in November 1943. Read more

Albrecht von Wallenstein

After September 17, 1631, half of Germany feared that God was a Protestant. The other half was sure of it. Read more

“I’m Going Up That Mountain!”

Red-hot grenade fragments sliced through First Lieutenant Bill Munson’s left arm and shoulder, causing him to fall backwards onto the lip of a German machine gun nest. Read more

Napoleon’s Stunning Debut: The Italian Campaign

Barthélemy Schérer, commander of the French Army, gazed at the new military orders from Paris in disbelief. The grandoise strategy, detailing an advance on three fronts with the armies uniting in Tyrol for a concentrated thrust at Vienna, were far beyond the capabilities of the starving southern army he commanded along the French Riveria against the combined forces of Austria and Sardinia. Read more

Not War, But Murder: The Clash at Cold Harbor

By William E. Welsh

Private Augustus Du Bois marched forward at daybreak on June 3, 1864, along with hundreds of other members of the 7th New York Heavy Artillery regiment to a thin belt of timber a mile south of the key road junction of Cold Harbor. Read more

USS Langley: The U.S. Navy’s Covered Wagon

Five years after Great Britain had launched HMS Argus, the world’s first aircraft carrier, in 1917, and following the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty on February 6, 1922, the U.S. Read more