Military History

Military History

William Wells

By Joshua Shepherd

Long before he attained fame as the co-commander of the Lewis and Clark expedition, William Clark was a discontented young lieutenant assigned to the U.S. Read more

Military History

Sir Francis Walsingham

By Arnold Blumberg

Among the many portraits of famous Elizabethans hanging in London’s National Portrait Gallery is that of Sir Francis Walsingham, painted around 1587 by the artist John De Critz the Elder. Read more

Military History

Belgrade Blitz

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

It was the most exciting scene Associated Press correspondent Robert St. John had yet witnessed in the career he had abandoned for five years to farm in New Hampshire then returned to when he sensed that war was coming. Read more

Military History

The Devil Must Have Brought Them: The Battle of Oudenarde

By David A. Norris

Lieutenant General Armand-Charles de Gontaut, Marquis de Biron, led a party of foragers ahead of the French Army. Read more

Military History

Battle for Tolvarjarvi

By David H. Lippman

From Leningrad to Murmansk, columns of Soviet Red Army troops stormed down roads and trails into Finland’s dense forests, lakes, and swamps, seeking to cut Finland in half. Read more

Military History

The Mystery of the Amber Room

By Chuck Lyons

In September 1941, during the siege of Leningrad, as the Soviets then called St. Petersburg, Nazi troops overran the Tsarskoye Selo Palace, the former summer residence of the czars in the suburban town of Pushkin. Read more

Military History

Sinking the Bismarck Myth

By Mark Carlson

In 1960 Twentieth Century Fox released the film Sink the Bismarck! Based on C.S. Forrester’s bestselling book The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck, the documentary-style film tells a gripping and reasonably factual account of the most famous sea chase in history. Read more

Military History

Deliverance on the Delaware

By Robert Heege

The grim-faced men waiting to take their places in the boats were already chilled to the bone, the winter winds whipping mercilessly through their makeshift, threadbare uniforms as they silently formed up along the icy Pennsylvania riverbank. Read more

Military History

Alexander’s Triumph at Granicus

In the spring of 334 bc, Alexander of Macedon paused with his army on the western side of the Granicus River. Read more

Military History

Army Infantry at Chosin: The Fate of Task Force MacLean/Faith

By Kevin M. Hymel

The U.S. Marine Corps was not the only group of Americans facing off against the Chinese at the Chosin Reservoir. Read more

Military History

Marine Colonel David Lownds at Khe Sanh

By William E. Welsh

The Marines patrolling outside Khe Sanh Combat Base watched three enemy soldiers dart across an access road and dive into the protective edge of a tract of woods. Read more

Military History

The Swiss Army Knife is Headed For the U.S. Army

By Nicholas Varangis

Victorinox, manufacturers of the world-famous Swiss Army knife, made a recent announcement that the Victorinox soldier knife is on the official order list of the U.S. Read more

Military History

Jim McCloughan received the Medal of Honor for service during the Vietnam War

By Nicholas Varangis

The Vietnam War ended in 1975, yet it has taken decades for the heroism and sacrifices of many of the men who fought and served to be recognized. Read more

Military History

Bold Stand at Rorke’s Drift

By Arnold Blumberg

From atop the bluff overlooking a ford on the Buffalo River, Captain Alan Gardner, a staff officer in the British Army’s 24th Regiment of Foot, looked down at the chaos and carnage being played out below him. Read more

Military History

The History of The Hand Grenade

By William F. Floyd, Jr.

During the five-month Japanese siege of Russian-held Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 both sides employed hand grenades. Read more

Military History

Weighing the Odds of Crusader Success

The christian crusaders that marched south into Ottoman Rumelia in 1444 bet heavily that the combined power of Poland, Hungary, and Wallachia would prove sufficient to break the iron grip the Ottoman Porte had on the southern Balkans. Read more

Military History

Britain’s “Light Bobs” in the French and Indian Wars

by James L. Kochan

Provisional light infantry units were first formed in the British Army during the French and Indian Wars to deal with the French irregulars and their Indian allies. Read more

Military History

Conquest of Constantinople

By Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

In the late evening of March 29, 1432, Murad II, sultan of the Ottoman Turks, awaited the imminent birth of his child to one of his harem wives. Read more

Military History

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

By Edmond Holcombe

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, is home to the National Museum of the United States Air Force––the oldest and largest aviation museum in the world. Read more

Military History

The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center

By Borden Black

The American Infantry’s illustrious history, which is older than that of the country, comes alive in an impressive, $100,000,000, 190,000-square-foot museum located just outside Fort Benning, Georgia. Read more