Military History

Photo Credit: Indiana Military Museum

Israeli jets swoop in to catch the Egyptian Air Force on the ground where it was resting after standing down from dawn patrols.

Military History

The Sinai Air Strike: June 5, 1967

By Eric Hammel

It was 7 o’clock Israeli time, three hours after dawn on Monday, June 5, 1967. The summer season’s daily thick morning mist was just lifting from the coastal areas, across the breadth of the humid Nile Delta, and along the Suez Canal. Read more

A Roman soldier dictates a letter to a scribe outside a permanent Roman camp in Germany.

Military History

Roman Generals: Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo

By Harold E. Raugh, Jr.

Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo was probably born between 4 bc and ad 1. His younger half-sister was first the mistress and then the consort of Gaius Caesar Germanicus, better known as the Emperor Caligula. Read more

Military History

Islam at Vienna’s Gates

By Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

For nearly two long months, from July 14 to early September 1683, Vienna endured the siege from the Ottoman Empire. Read more

U-2 flights over the Soviet Union began in the mid-1950s. U-2s had extraordinary range and could fly 14 miles high while photographing in astonishing detail. A major objective: the extent of Soviet nuclear weaponry.

Military History

The U-2 Spy Plane’s Cold War Missions

By John D. Gresham

Movies and novels about spies and espionage usually portray brave and sexy secret agents going deep behind enemy lines to grab some invaluable and potentially destabilizing piece of information. Read more

Military History

The History of Mobile Artillery

By Arnold Blumberg

“It is with artillery that one makes war.” So declared Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the Great Captains of military history and a born gunner himself. Read more

A gold quiver from the tomb of King Philip II of Macedon shows lines of warriors in battle. Philip fell upon the Greeks with a fury.

Military History

The Rise of Macedon

By Jonas Goldstein

The city-states of ancient Greece were rich in culture and history. But following the Peloponnesian War, which lasted 27 years, they were exhausted, their best young men dead, Attica’s farms ruined. Read more

Lieutenant Colonel John Edgar Howard slashes his way into the British line, which reels under the pressure. The British were hasty in their attacks and came to regret it.

Military History

Duel in the Backwoods

By James K. Swisher

Richard Hovenden of His Majesty’s British Legion Dragoons cautiously urged his tired horse through a parklike expanse of tall trees that marked the entrance to a South Carolina country crossroads junction called locally “Hannah’s Cowpens.” Read more

Move and countermove led the leaders of opposing armies to come face to face in Shingen’s newly set up camp. Swords flew among the tents in one of the largest battles in Japanese history.

Military History

The Battle of Kawanakajima

By Vince Hawkins

In 1490 Japan entered a crucial period of its history known as the sengoku-jidai, or the “Age of the Country at War.” Read more

Reenactors heft medieval bills in anticipation of an attack by men on horse. Bills were favored by the English but were more effective on mail than on plate armor.

Military History

Polearms

By Michael Kluever

The medieval polearm was the Colt Pistol equalizer of the Middle Ages. it placed the common infantry soldier on par with the heavily armored horseman. Read more

Military History

Angus McBride

By David W. Rickman

Unmistakable—that is what Angus McBride’s illustrations are. They reconstruct a past that is filled with drama and danger, as well as wonder and humor. Read more

Native Americans demostrated extraordinary service, honor, and heroism during World War I. Anglo officers revered them for their abilities, but no one early on thought their language would help confound the Germans.

Military History

Choctaw Code Talkers in World War I

By Richard L. Hayes

The affection that Europeans have for the Great American West is well known, so it shouldn’t be surprising that several traveling Wild West Shows happened to be in enemy territory when World War I broke out. Read more

Russian model builder Alex Shlakhter poses with his 1/16 scale Panther tank.

Military History

Mobile Models

By Peter Suciu

Almost as long as there have been history buffs there have been scale models. Toy soldiers have been popular among children for hundreds of years, but it was the introduction of specialized military vehicles that really gave birth to scale models after World War I. Read more

Having heard that the Russians claimed a victory, Napoleon commissioned a painting showing that he was the victor. The results depict the Emperor visiting the frozen field of the struggle, surrounded by the defeated begging for mercy.

Military History

The Battle of Eylau: A Massacre Without Results

By Vince Hawkins

Following the French Army’s brilliant victories at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstadt on October 14, 1806, the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte subsequently launched his Grande Armée in a devastating pursuit of the remnants of the Prussian Army. Read more

Lt. Benjamin Foulois and Orville Wright fly over Virginia countryside in 1909, testing a Wright flier for the U.S. Army. The test was successful and Foulois began a lifetime of promoting U.S. airpower.

Military History

Benny Delahauf Foulois

By Michael D. Hull

Resembling a “collection of bamboo poles more or less indefinitely attached to a gasoline engine,” the U.S. Read more

Military History

The Dade Battle: Ambush in Florida

By Donald J. Roberts II

The road that stretched through the pine and palmetto woodlands of central Florida was void of the usual animal chitter-chatter on the cool morning of December 28, 1835. Read more

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