Military History
Weapons: 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
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. KochanProvisional 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 DyckIn 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 HolcombeWright-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 BlackThe 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
Military History
Intelligence: Confederate Spies Used Newspapers to Communicate
By David A. NorrisThe Herald, like other major New York newspapers, was packed with classified ads on November 1, 1863. Read more
Military History
Sailing Ships and Artillery
By Eric NiderostThe Battle of the Nile represents the apogee of the Age of Fighting Sail, a peak that was confirmed at Trafalgar seven years later. Read more
Military History
Geronimo: Ruthless Apache Chief
By John WalkerOn March 5, 1851, a group of Mexican soldiers from Sonora plundered a lightly guarded Apache camp outside the village of Janos in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua 75 miles south of the U.S.-Mexican Read more
Military History
Operation Gold: The CIA’s Berlin Tunnel
By Peter KrossNo sooner had the last shot of World War II been fired than a new, different kind of conflict began. Read more
Military History
The National Museum of the Marine Corps
By Al HemingwayTwenty miles outside Washington, D.C., at Quantico, Virginia, motorists traveling on Interstate 95 will come upon an unusual building that is clearly visible, day or night. Read more
Military History
The Christmas Truce of 1914: Fact and Fiction
The German offensive into France and Belgium had ground to a halt as armies on both sides constructed sophisticated trenches to escape the murderous artillery and machine guns of a 20th c. Read more
Military History
Roman Disaster at Adrianople
By Alex ZakrzewskiAfter five hours of continuous slaughter, an eerie calm descended on the blood-soaked plain near the Roman city of Adrianople. Read more
Military History
Archduke Charles: Napoleon’s Worthy Opponent
To say the Austrians despised the French after they were vanquished by them in 1805 at Ulm and Austerlitz is an understatement. Read more
Military History
King John the Tyrant
The tension between the king and his barons always seemed to be ready to explode into civil war during the reign of the three Angevin kings of England. Read more
Military History
Bunker Hill: “Lick Them Once More Boys!”
By Arnold BlumbergA stark dichotomy was evident among the Americans defending Breed’s Hill on June 17, 1775. One type of provincial soldier stood ready to give his life in defense of liberty that day. Read more
Military History
Japanese Ashigaru: The “Samurai of the Land”
By Eric NiderostIn the 17th century samurai were elite warriors, members of Japan’s ruling class. They were born, not made; you had to come from a samurai family to be considered samurai. Read more
Military History
The Citizen-Soldier: Militia in Early America
by Donald Roberts IIBritish colonization of the New World transplanted many British institutions to America. Besides the political and social beliefs seeded in the colonies, military ideals were also implemented. Read more
Military History
Frederick the Great at Leuthen: The Oblique Order
by Vince HawkinsUsually considered to be a single maneuver, Frederick the Great’s “oblique attack” or “oblique order” was in fact two distinct grand tactical maneuvers, each of which could be executed separately or in combination as demonstrated at Leuthen. Read more
Military History
African American Revolutionary War Heroes: Boston to Yorktown
by Mike HaskewAlthough a large number of colonial slaves fled their condition of involuntary servitude seeking freedom through service to the British Army, an estimated 5,000 African Americans served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Read more
