Military Heritage

December 2009

Volume 11, No. 3

COVER: Two German machine gunners wearing gas masks are ready for attack in France, 1916. © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

December 2009

Military Heritage

Island-Hopping at Tarawa

By John Walker

Rear Admiral Keiji Shibasaki, commander of the elite Japanese garrison entrenched on tiny Betio Island in the central Pacific Ocean, boasted in mid-1943 that his heavily fortified island redoubt could hold out “against a million Americans for a thousand years.” Read more

December 2009

Military Heritage

Clash of the Tyrants

By Louis Ciotola

In the early 15th century, the strongest military powers in the world resided in Asia. Arguably, no two were more powerful than the Ottoman Empire of Bayezid I and the Tartar Empire of Tamerlane (Timur the Lame). Read more

December 2009

Military Heritage

British Raid up the Potomac

By Gustav Person

In the summer of 1814, the residents of the District of Columbia and surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia had considerable cause for concern. Read more

December 2009

Military Heritage, Editorial

The Lucky Lit. Wit Daniel Defoe

By Roy Morris Jr.

When the Duke of Monmouth began his doomed, quixotic march across southern England in the summer of 1685, one of the few volunteers to join him from royal-dominated London was a 24-year-old hosiery merchant and trader named Daniel Defoe. Read more

December 2009

Military Heritage, Soldiers

From the Boroughs to the Trenches

 By Gregory Peduto

A hushed awe fell over the Army medical inspectors at New York’s National Guard Armory when William Delaney’s clothing hit the white tiled floor. Read more

First Lieutenant Rudolf Schutze of Wekusta 5 and his flight crew gather near a Heinkel He-111weather aircraft on the ice of Advent, Fjord.

December 2009

Military Heritage, Top Secret

Wekusta: Weathermen of the Wehrmacht

By William McPeak

The fundamental pillars of war—strategy and tactics— inevitably depend on an imponderable and uncontrollable factor: the weather. With the increasing sophistication of weather data gathering, analysis, and forecasting in the early 20th century, predicting the weather became an integral part of World War II. Read more

Launched during World War II, serving throughout the Cold War, and even as a base of operations during the 9/11 tragedy, the USS Intrepid is now part of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

December 2009

Military Heritage, Militaria

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

By Peter Suciu

During World War II, the American aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CVS-11) was known as “the Ghost Ship” to the Japanese Imperial Navy because every time they thought they had sunk her, “the Fighting I” came back for more. Read more

December 2009

Military Heritage, Books

Israel’s Assault on the USS Liberty

By Al Hemingway

On June 8, 1967, the USS Liberty, a cargo ship built at the end of World War II and converted to an electronic surveillance vessel in 1964, was patrolling 14 miles off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula. Read more

December 2009

Military Heritage, Games

Paradox Interactive’s East India Company

By Eric T. Baker

Not every war is a hot one. East India Company for the PC from Paradox Interactive is a strategic trading game with tactical combat elements set during the high age of European sail and exploration. Read more

December 2009

Military Heritage, Games

DICE’s Battlefield 1943

By Joseph Luster

Battlefield 1943, for all its back-to-the-shores World War II familiarity, is the type of online-only game that remains relevant well past its July debut. Read more