February 2008

Volume 9, No. 4

COVER: A German machine gun crew poses for the camera early in World War I. Another innovative weapon on the Western Front was the French 75mm cannon. See story page 12. Photo © Bettman/Corbis.

Hotspur had as good a claim to the throne as Henry Bolingbroke, but a well-aimed arrow fatally struck him in the face when he raised his visor.

Military Heritage

Like Apples Fallen In Autumn: The Battle of Shrewsbury

By Al Hemingway

By the middle of July 1403, a series of seemingly inevitable events had led two armies to a field near the small and hitherto unheralded village of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, approximately 150 miles northwest of London. Read more

Military Heritage

Freedom or Death: The Hungarian Uprising of 1956

By Todd Avery Raffensperger

“To the Great Stalin, from the grateful Hungarian People,” read the inscription on a 24-foot-high bronze statue of Joseph Stalin on the grounds of Budapest City Park, erected in 1951 to honor the tyrant of the Soviet Union. Read more

A young George Washington, mounted at right, accompanied his Virginia militia onto the field at Great Meadows, exposing everyone to the French and Indians concealed in the woods. From the Robert Griffing mural, A Charming Field for an Encounter.

Military Heritage

Fort Necessity: George Washington’s First Defeat

By Kevin M. Hymel

George Washington looked down at the surrender documents. They were soaked from pouring rain and the ink was splotched. Read more

A joint English and French naval force launches an assault on the Russian-held port of Petropavlovsk on August 29, 1854. Attacking ships, left right, include Obligado, Virago, Eurydice, and Pique.

Military Heritage

Petropavlovsk: The Crimean War’s Forgotten Battle

By Mark N. Lardas

The Crimean War is usually considered a Black Sea conflict, but it actually took place on several frontiers of the Russian empire, including the Baltic and White Seas. Read more

A hard-bitten Prussian recruiting officer dragoons a reluctant peasant into the service in Louis Joseph Watteau’s 1770 painting, The Unwilling Recruit.

Military Heritage

To Field an Army: A Short History of the Draft

By Mike Haskew

The call of a nation on its civilian population either to create a military force or to augment a standing army is virtually as old as civilization itself. Read more

Burly bluejackets from the Royal Navy muscle the landing craft to shore during the British amphibious landing at Aboukir Bay, Egypt, on March 8, 1801, in this contemporary oil painting by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg.

Military Heritage

Alexandria: Redcoats in the Land of the Pharaohs

By Eric Niderost

It was a spectacle never to be forgotten by those few who were lucky enough to witness it. Read more

Military Heritage, Editorial

The Conscription Act and Abraham Lincoln’s Civil War Substitute

By Roy Morris Jr.

When Abraham Lincoln signed into law the first conscription act in American history in March 1863, one of the most unpopular parts of the widely unpopular act was the provision allowing draft-eligible males to hire substitutes to take their place in the army. Read more

Kaiser Wilhelm I, standing on the dais, proclaims a new German empire in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on January 18, 1871. He is flanked by Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm and the Grand Duke of Baden. Otto von Bismarck stands at the base of the steps in a white uniform.

Military Heritage, Soldiers

Wilhelm I, Accidental King of Prussia

By Blaine Taylor

In mid-October 1806, four days after Napoleon had crushed the Royal Prussian Army at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstädt, a distraught Queen Louise sat down with her two sons at the royal castle in Schwedt. Read more

French artillerymen efficiently handle a 75mm cannon and caisson at the First Battle of the Marne, September 1914. French artillery was key to holding off the rampaging German Army and keeping it out of Paris.

Military Heritage, Weapons

The French 75 Gun: The Secret Cannon Used for Over Half a Century

By Christopher Miskimon

A regiment of Bavarian infantry advanced quietly in the dark, rising from its own trenches and moving toward the French lines across the desolate no-man’s-land in between. Read more

A provost marshal’s office at Aquia Creek, Virginia, in February 1863 draws a desultory crowd. Some soldiers used provost duty to avoid combat.

Military Heritage, Intelligence

Military Intelligence: The Civil War Provost Guard

By John Wenner

With the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861, the Civil War began in earnest. The first recruits, on both sides, were completely uninitiated in the ways of military life. Read more

A mannequin wearing the uniform of a technical sergeant in the American 359th Infantry Regiment mans the equipment in the Hoffmann Museum’s “radio corner.”

Military Heritage, Militaria

Luxembourg’s Hoffman Museum

By Raymond E. Bell, Jr.

You won’t find the familiar little triangular signs, “Warnung Minen!” hanging on barbed wire today in Western Europe, with one exception. Read more

Military Heritage, Books

Manipulated intelligence, faulty equipment, and inept leadership caused one of America’s worst military defeats during the Korean War.

By Al Hemingway

It was dubbed “the century’s nastiest little war” by celebrated military historian S.L.A. Marshall. The conflict to which he was referring was the Korean War, a war fought, as Secretary of State Dean Acheson observed, in the worst possible location. Read more

Military Heritage

Experience modern warfare on the ground and in the air in three new games.

By Eric T. Baker

A new entry in the Call of Duty series of games usually gets reviewed in WWII History, but this time Infinity Ward and Activison have changed the time period of their popular franchise. Read more

February 2008

From Around the Network

Surviving France’s Shame: French General Maxime Weygand in WWII

Revelations from Japanese records shed new light on the epic Battle of Midway.

The Makin Island Raid: What Really Happened to the Marines?

A BDM Girl Comes to America