April 2008

Volume 9, No. 5

COVER: A group of U.S. soldiers leaves a landing barge and swarms ashore in North Africa, November 26, 1942. Photo © Bettmann/CORBICOVER: “Confederate Officer with His Men.” Painting by Don Troiani, www.historicalartprints.com

Refugees file past an M48 Patton Tank supporting the 1st Marine Division during the Battle of Hue City on February 3, 1968.

Military Heritage

The Tet Offensive and the Battle of Hue

By Victor Kamenir

The old Imperial capital of Hue was ready for the Tet Festival, a joyous occasion celebrating the Vietnamese Lunar New Year on January 31, 1968. Read more

“Battle of Cedar Creek,” chromolithograph by Kurz & Allison of Chicago, December 12, 1890.

Military Heritage

‘A Bad Place for a Fight’

By Mike Phifer

In the early hours of October 19, 1864, fog blanketed the hills and fields along the meandering Cedar Creek in the northern Shenandoah Valley. Read more

American soldiers rush to cross the captured Ludendorff railroad bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany, captured largely intact, by Combat Command B from the 9th Armored Division. The German officers in charge of defending, then destroying, the bridge at Remagen were court martialed and shot.

Military Heritage

The Bridge at Remagen

By Victor Kamenir

By the end of January 1945, Hitler’s desperate Ardennes Offensive had ground to a halt. Though the last-ditch push to the west had inflicted heavy casualties on American forces, it was the German army that suffered irreplaceable losses in men, equipment, and materiel and was no longer capable of offensive operations. Read more

Portrait of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, painted c. 1618 by Peter Paul Rubens.

Military Heritage

The Battle of Grandson

By Eric Niderost

On Friday, September 28, 1473, Charles, Duke of Burgundy arrived at Trier to meet with the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. Read more

The “Alexander mosaic” on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy. From Pompeii, c.100 BCE, the floor mosaic is believed to be a copy of a lost Hellenistic Greek painting by Philoxenos of Eretria from the 4th century BCE , depicting Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia at the Battle of Issus (333 BCE).

Military Heritage

Alexander: What Made Him Great

By Kelly Bell

He was the first Caucasian many of his conquered subjects had ever seen. The empire he established during his short life stretched from Greece to the Indus River in modern Pakistan, an area of about 2 million square miles—more than twice the size of the Louisiana Purchase. Read more

Military Heritage

Roncesvalles and the Birth of Chivalry

By Don Hollway

The Age of Chivalry brings to mind knights in shining armor and damsels in distress, along with traveling troubadours and minstrels singing chansons de geste, “songs of deeds,” telling of feats of arms and labors of love. Read more

Israeli tanks led the lightning-fast thrust across the Sinai Peninsula to a point only 18 miles from the Suez Canal.

Military Heritage

Misadventure in the Sinai

By Eric Hammel

Many historians consider the Suez-Sinai campaign in the autumn of 1956 the last hurrah for British and French colonialist efforts in the Middle East. Read more

Military Heritage, Editorial

Arlington National Cemetery: A Nation’s Hallowed Ground

Millions of people travel to Washington, DC, to view famous icons of the United States. Mainly these are working institutions like the Congress and the White House or edifices such as the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Read more

A U.S. Navy River Patrol Boat (PBR) of River Patrol Force 116 moves at high speed down the Saigon River in Vietnam, November 1967.

Military Heritage, Valor

Navy Cross in Vietnam

By Kevin Seabrooke

As darkness fell along the upper Saigon River in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region, one of two River Patrol boats of the U.S. Read more

Military Heritage, Soldiers

Dominique Jean, Baron Larrey

By Eric Niderost

I t was late November, 1812, and the fate of Napoleon’s Grande Armee hung in the balance. Several Russian armies were closing in, but if the French crossed the 300-foot-wide Berezina River, the bedraggled survivors of a once great army might still manage to escape the trap. Read more

Military Heritage, Uniform

Noble Celtic Warrior, 1st Century, B.C.

The Gauls were Celtic people who lived in much of Europe from the 5th century BC. They were described by Greek and Roman historians as tall, muscular, fair-skinned, with long blonde, or reddish hair. Read more

A Sea Harrier takes off from the airfield at Port Stanley during Falklands war. In the background is a destroyed Argentinian Air Force IA 58 Pucará counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft.

Military Heritage, Weapons

The BAe Sea Harrier

By John E. Spindler

At 1:25 p.m. on May 1, 1982, the Sea Harrier naval jet fighter became the symbol of British resolve. Read more

Military Heritage, Books

Military History Book Reviews for Fall 2023

Full Reviews

Sign Here for Sacrifice: The Untold Story of the Third Battalion, 506th Airborne Vietnam 1968 (Ian Gardner, Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2023, 304 pp., Read more

Military Heritage, Games

Last Train Home

By Joseph Luster

When it comes to war games, there’s no situation that can truly be described as anything but bleak and unforgiving, though we often see all the shades imaginable in the various era-spanning depictions across many genres. Read more

Military Heritage, Games

Stronghold: Definitive Edition

By Joseph Luster

Those looking to relive—or try for the very first time—one of the more celebrated real-time strategy war games of the last couple decades will soon be able to do so in the form of Stronghold: Definitive Edition. Read more

April 2008

From Around the Network

The 1903 Springfield Rifle’s Storied Military History

University of Washington student senate rejects memorial to honor Pappy Boyington.

King Richard’s Chateau Gaillard

The Mechanization of War in the Desert