Military History Archives

An Iraqi tank crashes forward through the Hawizeh swamp region near the village of Al Azayr on March 18, 1985. By then, the Iran-Iraq War had been going on for over four years.

Military History

New Borders, Old Enemies, The Iran-Iraq War

By John Walker

The world awoke to ominous news on September 22, 1980. Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein had launched a massive armored and air attack across the Iraq-Iran border. Read more

When Kamehameha came into possession of a cannon and some small arms, he was ready to settle old scores with Maui and conquer the other rival islands. The result was the Battle of the Red-Mouthed Gun.

Military History

King Kamehameha’s Conquest of Hawaii

By Tom Wolforth

In July 1782, the island kingdom of Hawaii was fractured into three groups, beginning a power struggle that would last for the next 10 years. Read more

Military History

Dorylaeum: The First Christian-Muslim Clash of the Crusades

By Scott A. Richardson

The Battle of Dorylaeum, fought on July 1, 1097, marked the first full-scale military clash between the Christian armies of the West and the Muslim armies of the East. Read more

Israeli soldiers operate Super Sherman tanks during winter maneuvers in the Negev Desert, January 3, 1967. The tanks would soon prove their worth in combat.

Military History

Sherman Tanks of the Israeli Army

By Christopher Miskimon

From its inception, Zahal, the Israeli Army, has been forced to use ingenuity and improvisation to arm itself against its Arab enemies. Read more

Military History

Trampled Banners: The Battle of Nördlingen (1634)

By William E. Welsh

From within the walled city of Nördlingen in the Upper Palatinate, a lone rocket arced slowly skyward on the night of September 3, 1634. Read more

Military History

Collecting War Comics

By Peter Suciu

For the brave soldiers of Easy Company, it must have seemed as though World War II would never end. Read more

A British soldier searches for a dead comrade’s identity disc after the disastrous attack at the Somme. Painting by Frank Crozier, who also took part in a similar British rout at Gallipoli.

Military History

A Hobbit on the Somme

By O’Brien Browne

Smoke and ash drifted across the shattered ground. Dead faces peered up with lidless eyes from pools of stagnant water. Read more

Colonial troops under Lord Stirling retreat across Gowanus Creek after holding off the British long enough for Washington’s army to regroup along Brooklyn Heights.

Military History

William Alexander: Hero of the American Revolution

By William Be. Allmon

Of all the generals who fought on the Patriot side during the American Revolution, none was more renowned than New York City native William Alexander, better known to his contemporaries as “Lord Stirling.” Read more

Military History

Freedom or Death: The Hungarian Uprising of 1956

By Todd Avery Raffensperger

“To the Great Stalin, from the grateful Hungarian People,” read the inscription on a 24-foot-high bronze statue of Joseph Stalin on the grounds of Budapest City Park, erected in 1951 to honor the tyrant of the Soviet Union. Read more

Burly bluejackets from the Royal Navy muscle the landing craft to shore during the British amphibious landing at Aboukir Bay, Egypt, on March 8, 1801, in this contemporary oil painting by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg.

Military History

Alexandria: Redcoats in the Land of the Pharaohs

By Eric Niderost

It was a spectacle never to be forgotten by those few who were lucky enough to witness it. Read more

Hotspur had as good a claim to the throne as Henry Bolingbroke, but a well-aimed arrow fatally struck him in the face when he raised his visor.

Military History

Like Apples Fallen In Autumn: The Battle of Shrewsbury

By Al Hemingway

By the middle of July 1403, a series of seemingly inevitable events had led two armies to a field near the small and hitherto unheralded village of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, approximately 150 miles northwest of London. Read more

French artillerymen efficiently handle a 75mm cannon and caisson at the First Battle of the Marne, September 1914. French artillery was key to holding off the rampaging German Army and keeping it out of Paris.

Military History

The French 75 Gun: The Secret Cannon Used for Over Half a Century

By Christopher Miskimon

A regiment of Bavarian infantry advanced quietly in the dark, rising from its own trenches and moving toward the French lines across the desolate no-man’s-land in between. Read more

A young George Washington, mounted at right, accompanied his Virginia militia onto the field at Great Meadows, exposing everyone to the French and Indians concealed in the woods. From the Robert Griffing mural, A Charming Field for an Encounter.

Military History

Fort Necessity: George Washington’s First Defeat

By Kevin M. Hymel

George Washington looked down at the surrender documents. They were soaked from pouring rain and the ink was splotched. Read more

Kaiser Wilhelm I, standing on the dais, proclaims a new German empire in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on January 18, 1871. He is flanked by Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm and the Grand Duke of Baden. Otto von Bismarck stands at the base of the steps in a white uniform.

Military History

Wilhelm I, Accidental King of Prussia

By Blaine Taylor

In mid-October 1806, four days after Napoleon had crushed the Royal Prussian Army at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstädt, a distraught Queen Louise sat down with her two sons at the royal castle in Schwedt. Read more

A joint English and French naval force launches an assault on the Russian-held port of Petropavlovsk on August 29, 1854. Attacking ships, left right, include Obligado, Virago, Eurydice, and Pique.

Military History

Petropavlovsk: The Crimean War’s Forgotten Battle

By Mark N. Lardas

The Crimean War is usually considered a Black Sea conflict, but it actually took place on several frontiers of the Russian empire, including the Baltic and White Seas. Read more

A hard-bitten Prussian recruiting officer dragoons a reluctant peasant into the service in Louis Joseph Watteau’s 1770 painting, The Unwilling Recruit.

Military History

To Field an Army: A Short History of the Draft

By Mike Haskew

The call of a nation on its civilian population either to create a military force or to augment a standing army is virtually as old as civilization itself. Read more

Champions from the long- feuding Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron resolve their differences the Scottish way during the Battle of the Clans at North Inch in 1396.

Military History

The 1396 Battle of the Clans

By Andrew McGregor

The 14th-century Scottish highlands region was an isolated and undeveloped region of great forests, deep cold lakes, and rocky peaks uncrossed by any road. Read more

A 19th-century painting by Charles de Lariviere shows the fatal wounding of white-haired Lord Talbot, the Earl of Shrewsbury, at the climax of the Battle of Castillon.

Military History

Castillon: Last Battle of the Hundred Years’ War

By William E. Welsh

England’s long downward slide to defeat in the Hundred Years’ War began with the failed siege of Orleans in 1428. Read more

American forces assault the Mexican army at Cerro Gordo in this lithograph by Carl Nebel of the New Orleans Picayune, who accompanied Winfield Scott during the campaign.

Military History

Santa Anna at Cerro Gordo: Battle for Devil’s Jaws

By Frank A. O’Reilly

American Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott captured the port city of Vera Cruz on March 27, 1847, and immediately prepared to leave it behind. Read more

A soldier from the 172nd Stryker Brigade fires an illumination flare over Mosul, Iraq, from the vehicle’s 120mm mortar. Flares are used to spot terrorists emplacing roadside bombs.

Military History

Famous Military Weapons: Mortars

By William McPeak

The mortar is perhaps the oldest surviving ordnance piece developed during the Middle Ages. The earliest known forerunner to the mortar, introduced by Spanish Muslims about ad 1250, was essentially an iron-reinforced bucket that hurled stones with gunpowder. Read more

Military History

From Around the Network

The Largest Kamikaze: The Battleship Yamato At Okinawa

U.S. Army Heritage Museum

Bloody Tarawa: Betio’s Lagoon

Preview: ﻿Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2

Preview: Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2