Articles Archive

“Battle of Cedar Creek,” chromolithograph by Kurz & Allison of Chicago, December 12, 1890.

‘A Bad Place for a Fight’

By Mike Phifer

In the early hours of October 19, 1864, fog blanketed the hills and fields along the meandering Cedar Creek in the northern Shenandoah Valley. Read more

Refugees file past an M48 Patton Tank supporting the 1st Marine Division during the Battle of Hue City on February 3, 1968.

The Tet Offensive and the Battle of Hue

By Victor Kamenir

The old Imperial capital of Hue was ready for the Tet Festival, a joyous occasion celebrating the Vietnamese Lunar New Year on January 31, 1968. Read more

A Sea Harrier takes off from the airfield at Port Stanley during Falklands war. In the background is a destroyed Argentinian Air Force IA 58 Pucará counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft.

The BAe Sea Harrier

By John E. Spindler

At 1:25 p.m. on May 1, 1982, the Sea Harrier naval jet fighter became the symbol of British resolve. Read more

Military History Book Reviews for Fall 2023

Full Reviews

Sign Here for Sacrifice: The Untold Story of the Third Battalion, 506th Airborne Vietnam 1968 (Ian Gardner, Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2023, 304 pp., Read more

The “Alexander mosaic” on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy. From Pompeii, c.100 BCE, the floor mosaic is believed to be a copy of a lost Hellenistic Greek painting by Philoxenos of Eretria from the 4th century BCE , depicting Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia at the Battle of Issus (333 BCE).

Alexander: What Made Him Great

By Kelly Bell

He was the first Caucasian many of his conquered subjects had ever seen. The empire he established during his short life stretched from Greece to the Indus River in modern Pakistan, an area of about 2 million square miles—more than twice the size of the Louisiana Purchase. Read more

Last Train Home

By Joseph Luster

When it comes to war games, there’s no situation that can truly be described as anything but bleak and unforgiving, though we often see all the shades imaginable in the various era-spanning depictions across many genres. Read more

Stronghold: Definitive Edition

By Joseph Luster

Those looking to relive—or try for the very first time—one of the more celebrated real-time strategy war games of the last couple decades will soon be able to do so in the form of Stronghold: Definitive Edition. Read more

A propaganda poster depicts a polish officer being executed in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk.

The Soviet Secret Police & the Katyn Forest Massacre

By Richard Rule

On September 17, 1939, in the wake of Hitler’s invasion of Poland, the Soviet Red Army crossed the Polish frontier from the east. Read more

The Vestal assists a U.S. Navy destroyer.

The USS Vestal: The Pearl Harbor Attack & Beyond

by Glenn Barnett

On Saturday, December 6, 1941, the repair ship USS Vestal eased alongside the USS Arizona at her berth at Pearl Harbor. Read more

Napoleon Bonaparte & the Patriotic War of 1812

By Frank Quinn

For many, the fascination of military history lies in the “What if …” What if Hitler had not ordered the Luftwaffe to shift from bombing RAF airfields to bombing London in 1940? Read more

Battle of Cape Ecnomus & the First Punic War

By Marc G. De Santis

“But so long as the Carthaginians held unchallenged control of the sea, the issue of the war still hung in the balance. Read more

Hit & Run: British Commandos Striking the Atlantic Wall in Norway

By Donald J. Roberts II

Following the forced evacuation of Allied forces at Dunkirk in June 1940, British leaders viewed a dim future. Read more

Prit Buttar’s ‘To Besiege a City’

By Christopher Miskimon

The terrain around Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, in the Soviet Union proved difficult for the attacking German armies in August and September 1941. Read more

The 48-star U.S. flag catching the breeze at the head of their formation, U.S. paratroopers march toward the Maison Blanche airdrome, an installation near the city of Algiers. Maison Blanche served as a base for further airborne operations following the initial American drop during Operation Torch.

Joseph P. Olexa’s ‘Death and Life in the Big Red One’

By Christopher Miskimon

Joe Olexa figured that if a war was coming, he wanted to be ready for it, so he joined the army in December 1940. Read more

Goose-stepping German soldiers parade through the streets of Bergen, Norway, after occupying the country in a swift operation that began on April 9, 1940.

Minge, Ward and Brun’s ‘The Viking Battalion’

By Christopher Miskimon

With Norway occupied by the Third Reich, thousands of Norwegians abroad were without a home and many more who had immigrated to the United States wanted to see their homeland liberated. Read more

Silhouetted against a battle-scarred landscape, a German Tiger tank is seen in action at Kursk on July 13, 1943.

Ben Wheatley’s ‘The Panzers of Prokhorovka’

Part of the summer 1943 Battle of Kursk in the Soviet Union, Prokhorovka stands out as a fearsome clash of opposing tanks and a turning point on the Eastern Front. Read more

A seaman recalls his harrowing rescue as the light career USS Princeton sank in the Sibuyan Sea doing the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Mark E. Stille’s ‘Leyte Gulf’

By Christopher Miskimon

In addition to being history’s biggest naval battle, Leyte Gulf was also the last battle to take place between fleets. 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.

Claringbould and Ingman’s ‘Solomons Air War Volume 1’

By Christopher Miskimon

At 1 p.m. on August 7, 1942, Lieutenant (jg) Gordon Firebaugh took off from the carrier USS Enterprise leading six Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters. Read more

Tom Hutton’s ‘Hitler’s Maladies’

By Christopher Miskimon

By April 1945, Hitler suffered from several mental and physical ailments. These included an advanced case of Parkinson’s Disease, heart disease, and gastrointestinal disorders along with other minor illnesses. Read more

The Battle of Chosin Reservoir: The Korean War’s Hills of Hell

By Eric Hammel

The 1st Marine Division was on the move toward the Yalu River. With any luck, if the weather cooperated, the Korean War, or rather, the United Nations police action in Korea, would be over in weeks. Read more

From Around the Network

The Devil Must Have Brought Them: The Battle of Oudenarde

Flying For the Luftwaffe

Civil War Artillery

French meddling in Mexico almost led to a post-Civil War confrontation between France and the United States.