Napoleon’s Last Victory

At 2:30 am on June 15, 1815, tens of thousands of French soldiers around the town of Beaumont, France, were roused from their bivouacs. Read more

World War II Book Reviews for Spring 2023

Bitter Peleliu: The Forgotten Struggle on the Pacific War’s Worst Battlefield (Joseph Wheelan, Osprey Books, Oxford, UK, 2022, 336 pp., Read more

Killing Ground at Colenso

On the morning of December 15, 1899, the serene, windswept wilderness of northern Natal was punctuated by the sound of 18,000 British soldiers trudging north to relieve the besieged town of Ladysmith. Read more

Operation Biting: ‘The Bruneval Raid’

By January 1942, Britain was still in the fight of her life. Germany had occupied all western Europe, controlled the Mediterranean, and was threatening British colonies in North Africa. Read more

Heroic Stand at Verdun

The morning of June 23, 1916, dawned over the broad crenellated valley of the Meuse River in northeastern France. Read more

Wolfpack

Some World War II games give you control over an entire battlefield, or offer you an abundance of vehicular options that you can easily swap between at any given moment. Read more

Royalist Reckoning at Naseby

Late on the evening of June 13, 1645, King Charles I convened a hurried council with senior officers of the Royalist army at the village of Market Harborough in England’s East Midlands. Read more

Vanguard: Normandy 1944

If you’re looking for a historically-accurate World War II shooter, the team at Pathfinder Games has your back with Vanguard: Normandy 1944. Read more

Letters from Oblivion: Auschwitz and Buchenwald

Henry Zguda, a Polish Catholic, spent three and a half years interned at Auschwitz and Buchenwald as a political prisoner. Read more

Hitler’s Experience in the Trenches of the Great War

In the months before the outbreak of World War I, 25-year-old Adolf Hitler was living the starving artist’s life in the Bavarian city of Munich, selling his paintings door-to-door and in the city’s numerous beer halls. Read more

Codebreaking Sergeant Richard

Wewak Convoy 21 was being annihilated, and the Japanese Army could do nothing to stop it.

The first vessel to die was Yakumo Maru. Read more

Ambush at Oriskany

The young Oneida warrior paused, tensing as he spotted some activity in the forest just in front of him. Read more

The 28th Infantry Division Stands

On September 16, 1944, Adolf Hitler revealed his master plan for reversing Germany’s declining fortunes in the West during World War II. Read more

First Sustained Nuclear Reaction

Enrico Fermi’s face was a study in concentration as his fingers deftly moved across the well-worn surface of his slide rule. Read more

Roman Disaster at Carrhae

Gigantic clouds of dust rose from the sun-baked plain. The ground shook under the hoofs of thousands of cavalry. Read more

Major General Edward L. Spears

On May 22, 1940, within a fortnight of being appointed Britain’s prime minister, Winston S. Churchill was confronted with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), under Lord Gort, retreating from Belgium. Read more

Revolutionary France’s Opening Salvo

The French Revolution of 1789, which began as a peaceful process of social and financial reform, rapidly descended into internal strife and violence. Read more

Slaughter in the Sunda Strait

It was nearly over. Since Singapore had fallen to the Japanese on February 14, 1942, the Allied forces defending the Dutch East Indies had battled against a Japanese pincer-like movement, which consisted of aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, aircraft, and well-trained “Special Naval Landing Forces”—Japan’s version of American and British Marines. Read more

Conrad Veidt Lived Out His Anti-Nazi Commitment

The 1942 film Casablanca remains one of the most popular Hollywood creations of all time, immortalizing the characters played by Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine) and Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa Lund). Read more

The Death of Prince William of Orange

On Sunday, March 18, 1582, 37-year-old Dutch Stadholder Prince William of Orange attended a festive luncheon in his palace in Antwerp to celebrate the birthday of major ally French Duke Francis of Anjou, who had arrived in the Low Countries the previous month to support the Dutch in their rebellion against the Spanish crown. Read more