Latest Posts

Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes attack a Tangut (Xi) fortress in western China in ad 1205 in this highly imaginative 16th-century Indian painting.

Latest Posts

The Mongol Hordes Invade China

By Steven M. Johnson

In ad 1205, Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, having completed the unification of his Gobi Desert empire, began looking south toward China for further conquest. Read more

Latest Posts

Saga of the Cactus

By Christopher Miskimon

The messenger arrived as U.S. Navy Lt. James “Pug” Southerland tore into a sandwich and coffee in the wardroom of the carrier USS Saratoga. Read more

Latest Posts

Trent Hone’s ‘Mastering the Art of Command’

By Christopher Miskimon

Before World War II, the U.S. Navy developed a culture that purposely created leadership opportunities. An emphasis on decentralized authority gave direction to junior leaders while encouraging them to use their own initiative to achieve results. Read more

A Supermarine Spitfire fighter of the British Royal Air Force chases a German Heinkel He-111 bomber during a swirl of aerial combat in the Battle of Britain. Canadian pilot Howard Peter “Cowboy” Blatchford served with the RAF during the crucial battle and was later killed in action.

Latest Posts

Cowboy of the Royal Air Force

By Neil Taylor

In the six weeks since Britain’s formal declaration of war against Germany on September 3, 1939, the Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots of No. Read more

The Third Reich kept up a steady barrage of music of one style or another, from the constant thump of marching boots and military bands, to street recitals, to radio broadcasts of German classical music, to light romantic fare—all part of the “emotion over intellect” campaign that Nazi Party ideology promoted. A constant soundtrack engulfed citizens and soldiers with a litany of songs that also served to promote morale and military aggressiveness and whose lyrics sought to drum in Nazi political and racist propaganda.

Latest Posts

Off Duty, German Style

By G. Paul Garson

War has been described as long periods of extreme boredom punctuated by brief moments of extreme terror. Read more

Surrounded by Spanish pikemen at the climax of the Battle of Ravenna, French commander Gaston de Foix fights to stay on horseback. He would soon tumble to his inevitable death.

Latest Posts

Death of the Fox: Battle of Ravenna (1512)

By William E. Welsh

As the first rays of sunlight chased away the shadows from the base of the high walls surrounding the village of Ravenna in northern Italy on Easter Sunday, April 11, 1512, the French army besieging the town began to form into columns. Read more

Byzantine forces led by Narses won a decisive victory over the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Vesuvius in 553. The resourceful septuagenarian proved an able statesman and general.

Latest Posts

Narses the Eunuch

By Peter L. Boorn

On January 18, ad 532, a 54-year-old eunuch by the name of Narses, described by Agathias, a contemporary chronicler, as “small in stature and of abnormal thinness,” entered alone into the Hippodrome of Constantinople carrying a bag of gold. Read more

Tanks of the U.S. 6th Armored Division leave their telltale tracks in the snow as they advance toward the town of Bastogne, recently relieved after days under siege by German forces during the Battle of the Bulge.

Latest Posts

Prisoner in the Bulge

By David H. Lippman

Nobody knew it in the 6th Armored Division’s 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, but the tide of the Battle of the Bulge had turned by the time the outfit moved into snow-covered fields and forests near Bastogne. Read more

Latest Posts

Thomas Howard, Third Duke of Norfolk

By Robert L. Swain

On a sweltering evening in early July 1553, the  late King Henry VIII’s only legitimate son, the sickly 15-year-old Edward VI, died an agonizing death from tuberculosis, possibly complicated by measles. Read more

Latest Posts

Drusus the Elder: Hero of Rome

By P. Lindsay Powell

On a sultry summer night in 9 BC, 29-year-old commander of Augustus Caesar ’s army in Germania bolted upright in his cot, dripping with sweat. Read more

Bayonet-wielding troops in the British 31st Regiment of Foot overwhelm Sikh artillerists at Mukdi, the opening battle of the bloody First Sikh War between Great Britain and the Sikh empire.

Latest Posts

The Battle of Sobraon: Indian Waterloo

By Mike Phifer

Maharaja Ranjit Singh, ruler of the Sikh empire in northern India, was dead. Under his intrepid leadership, starting in 1799, Afghan control over Punjab, or Five Rivers Land, was thrown off and the Sikh empire flourished over the next 40 years. Read more

From Around the Network

  • WWII

    Nazi U-Boats: Rattlesnakes of the Deep
    Read More

  • Latest Posts

    Infantryman’s War atop Pork Chop Hill
    Read More

  • Latest Posts

    Prussian Blunder at Hochkirch
    Read More
  • A unique chronicle of Greece’s long and proud military history from the classical age to modern times.

    Military History

    The Athens War Museum
    Read More