December 2008 Archives

Elements of the 71st Bomb Squadron, 38th Bomb Group, Fifth Air Force attack Japanese shipping in Simpson Harbor, Rabaul, November 2, 1943. The painting, entitled Bloody Tuesday, is by Jack Fellows.

Military Heritage

The Air War for Rabaul

By Allyn Vannoy

On February 23, 1942, one month after Rabaul had fallen to the Japanese, six B-17s of the U.S. Read more

“Push on, brave York volunteers,” urges the dying Major General Isaac Brock, in this 1896 painting by John David Kelly.

Military Heritage

In 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

Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, directs royalist troops at the Battle of the Dunes.

Military Heritage

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 Heritage

The Battle of Pea Ridge: Showdown in the Ozarks

By Joshua Van Dereck

For three weeks in February 1862, Union Brig. Gen. Samuel Curtis led his Army of the Southwest on a 200-mile advance southward across the Ozark plateau in Missouri and into northern Arkansas. Read more

British forces land at Salonika, Greece, on April 25, 1915, in this engraving by Charles Dixon. The Brits called the Allied backwater “the birdcage.”

Military Heritage

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 Heritage, Editorial

Michigan’s Ottawa Indians in the American Civil War

By Roy Morris Jr.

While many Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Indians threw in their lot with the Confederacy, fighting alongside southern troops at the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862, a more northern-based tribe—the Ottawa—chose to remain loyal to the Union, in the forlorn hope that its willingness to fight for the white men’s country would help preserve its increasingly imperiled way of life. Read more

An American-made MLRS at work during the first Gulf War, on Janaury 1, 1991. The “steel rain” terrified Iraqi opponents.

Military Heritage, Weapons

The Multiple Launch Rocket System

By Christopher Miskimon

On 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 Heritage, Soldiers

Battle of Camarón: Legendary Last Stand of the French Foreign Legion

By Robert Barr Smith

Near 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

Hitler speaks at the Burgerbraukeller three months before the nearly successful attempt on his life.

Military Heritage, Intelligence

Johann Georg Elser’s Treasonous Plot to Prevent World War II

By Blaine Taylor

At exactly 8 PM on November 8, 1939, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler strode briskly into Munich’s Burgerbraukeller beer hall at the head of his glowering entourage, brushing past a forest of hands raised in the Nazi salute. Read more

While the National Army Museum lacks the space for extensive display of vehicles or field guns, the outside is usually “protected” by an armored vehicle or two.

Military Heritage, Militaria

London’s National Army Museum

By Peter Suciu

The city of London practically overflows with military history. Predating the Romans, London has been the seat of government ever since it was fortified by William the Conqueror in the 11th century. Read more

Military Heritage, Books

Future Civil War generals on both sides received their professional baptism of fire on the killing fields of Mexico.

By Al Hemingway

When war with Mexico erupted in 1846, the United States was woefully unprepared. The regular army was well below its authorized numbers and could only field slightly more than 5,000 officers and soldiers. Read more

Military Heritage

Russians vs. Crusaders vs. Mongols in 3-D

By Eric T. Baker

The Golden Horde from WordForge for the PC is a real-time strategy game set during the 13th century, right after the death the Genghis Khan. Read more

December 2008

From Around the Network

Costly Victory in Hürtgen Forest

Reginald Earnshaw: The Youngest British Casualty

Fort Fisher: Last Bastion of the Confederacy

Piper Bill on the D-Day Beach