Military History
Collecting Medieval Military Books
By William McPeakThe special packaging of the printed word between compact durable covers and a stitched spine—the book—is one of humanity’s greatest and most enduring achievements. Read more
Military History
Military History
Disaster at Queenston Heights
By Chuck LyonsIn June 1812, the United States, provoked by arrogant British actions on the high seas and its support of hostile Indians in the Northwest Territories, declared war on Great Britain and immediately began planning an invasion of British-held Canada. Read more
Military History
Battle of Camarón: Legendary Last Stand of the French Foreign Legion
By Robert Barr SmithNear Marseilles, at Aubagne, stands the modern home of the French Foreign Legion. Its spotless grounds include a massive stone pile, the Monument aux Morts, which commemorates the Legion dead of the past 175 years. Read more
Military History
Gardening in Salonika: World War I in the Balkans
By John W. Osborn, Jr.The Germans mocked it as their largest prisoner-of-war camp, and French Premier Georges Clemenceau was hardly less withering in his opinion of the Allied stronghold at Salonika, Greece. Read more
Military History
The Multiple Launch Rocket System
By Christopher MiskimonOn February 24, 1991, the ground phase of Operation Desert Storm began. Over the next four days, the soldiers of an international coalition, formed to eject the Iraqi army of Saddam Hussein from the neighboring nation of Kuwait, carried out a whirlwind offensive that quickly overwhelmed their foe. Read more
Military History
Decision at the Battle of the Dunes
By Roy Morris Jr.The cold North Sea surf washed over the boots of the advancing English infantry of Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army as they tromped through the drifting sand dunes across the beach at Dunkirk on the morning of June 14, 1658. Read more
Military History
The Air War for Rabaul
By Allyn VannoyOn February 23, 1942, one month after Rabaul had fallen to the Japanese, six B-17s of the U.S. Read more
Military History
Delaying Action at Kapyong
By Marc D. BernsteinThe Chinese always attacked at night. It was April 22, 1951, and the Communists had just launched the largest offensive of the Korean War. Read more
Military History
Fehrbellin: The Battle that Made Prussia
By Louis CiotolaFor nearly two and a half centuries, Prussia celebrated June 28 as a birthday of sorts. On that date in 1675, the Prussians achieved the start of their proud military tradition. Read more
Military History
Indian Victory in Bangladesh
By William StroockAfter the British left India in 1947, abandoning the jewel in their centuries-long empire, the subcontinent was partitioned into two states, India and Pakistan. Read more
Military History
Emelian Pugachev: Master Imposter of a Russian Czar
By Blaine TaylorOn August 12, 1772, a wandering Don Cossack named Emelian Pugachev crossed the Polish frontier into Imperial Russia on an official passport that entitled him, after spending six weeks in quarantine, to resettle as a free citizen on the Irgiz River in southeast Russia. Read more
Military History
Canadians in Spain: The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion
By Jerome BaldwinAfter years of social upheaval, political unrest, and violence, Spain erupted into all-out civil war on July 18, 1936, when General Francisco Franco led a junta of right-wing army officers in a revolt against the democratically elected government of the Spanish Republic. Read more
Military History
Weapons: The Soviet MiG-17 in Vietnam
By William F. Floyd, Jr.The American pilots did not see the North Vietnamese Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 fighter jets approaching their strike aircraft as they zeroed in on Than Hoa Bridge on April 3, 1965. Read more
Military History
King Henry VIII of England and the Siege of Boulogne: His Last War
By Bob SwainIn November 1541, roughly three years before the Siege of Boulogne, King Henry VIII of England suffered one of the most severe shocks of his life when he was shown a report alleging that his plumpish 19-year-old queen, Catherine Howard, had been intimate with other men before their marriage. Read more
Military History
U.S. Marine Hero John J. Kelly in World War I
By William E. WelshChicago native Private John J. Kelly of the 78th Company of the 6th Marine Regiment and another soldier requested permission from First Lieutenant James M. Read more
Military History
George Washington’s Counterpunch at Germantown
By Chuck LyonsOn the morning of September 11, 1777, 19-year-old Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, calmly sat on his horse next to George Washington, commander in chief of America’s revolutionary forces. Read more
Military History
George Washington’s Daring Gamble at Yorktown
By David A. NorrisSergeant Joseph Plumb Martin, a sapper in the Continental Army, waited for the signal that would begin the night attack on two enemy-held redoubts. Read more
Military History
The Battle of Hue City: In the Thick of the Tet Offensive
By John WalkerThe city of Hue was the capital of a unified Vietnam from 1802 until 1945. With its stately, tree-lined boulevards, Buddhist temples, national university, and ornate imperial palace within a massive walled city known as the Citadel, Hue was the cradle of the country’s culture and heritage. Read more
Military History
Dismal British Retreat to Corunna
By Eric NiderostIt was December 1808, and the French Army was struggling though the 4,500-foot Sierra de Guadarrama Mountains in central Spain. Read more
Military History
Locating Enemies on the Western Front
By John E. GoodwinAll wars give rise to change and innovation. In the early years of the 20th century, a short but nasty territorial war erupted between Russia and Japan. Read more
