Military Heritage

July 2014

Volume 16, No. 1

COVER: British soldiers go over the top at night near Mory, France, during World War I. When American forces joined the fighting, AEF commander General “Black Jack” Pershing strived for aggressive, open warfare.

Photo: akg-images

July 2014

Military Heritage

Soldiers of God

By John Walker

In November 1177, Saladin launched his first significant military campaign against a crusader state. With 26,000 men, siege engines, a huge baggage train, and his own personal force of elite Mamluk bodyguards, Saladin marched his Ayyubid army across the Sinai Desert from Egypt into southern Palestine. Read more

Hard-fighting veterans of Lt. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s II Corps rush through the thick forest west of the Chancellorsville crossroads in the late afternoon of May 2, 1863, to fall on Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard’s unsuspecting XI Corps in Don Troiani’s painting.

July 2014

Military Heritage

“Like A Picture Of Hell”

By Chuck Lyons

The two Union generals faced each other on the afternoon of May 1, 1863, at the large house by the Orange Turnpike that had been chosen as the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac. Read more

July 2014

Military Heritage

Manstein’s Victorious Panzers

By William E. Welsh

Deep snow blanketed the steppes surrounding the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov on February 6, 1943. The soldiers of Major Kurt Meyer’s reconnaissance battalion of SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler shivered from the cold. Read more

General Jean Baptiste Kleber’s French infantry form squares to defend against superior numbers of mounted Mamelukes on April 16, 1799. Kleber’s night raid on Jazzar Pasha’s camp at the base of Mount Tabor backfired when he failed to estimate how long it would take to reach the camp, and his approach was discovered at dawn.

July 2014

Military Heritage

Napoleon’s Dramatic Rescue

By Robert Heege

On March 18, 1799, a strange thing happened in the Near East backwater that today is Israel. In the years that followed the birth of Jesus, the rise of Christianity, and the fall of Byzantium, things in the region had quieted down considerably since the Mohammedan conquests (apart from the Crusades). Read more

Marching south from Acre, Richard the Lionheart's army finally tired on September 7, 1191, of the constant harassment inflicted on it by Saladin's army. Against orders, Knights Hospitaller in the rear guard broke ranks and charged the Ayyubids. The Battle of Arsuf was a decisive crusader victory.

July 2014

Military Heritage, Editorial

Brother-Knights Held Vast Power

At the height of their power, the Levantine military-religious orders were a political and military force to be reckoned with not only in the Latin East where they were founded, but also in the Latin West where they had vast estates that funneled manpower and supplies east for the fight against the foes of Christendom. Read more

On December 17, 1939, just four days after the Battle of the River Plate, the crew of the Admiral Graf Spee set off explosives they had planted aboard the ship scuttling it in the mouth of the river.

July 2014

Military Heritage, Weapons

The German Cruiser Admiral Graf Spee

By Robert L. Willett

When the first shell hit in the dimly lit interior of the German ship, a subdued chorus came from the 29 ships’ officers held prisoner on board. Read more

July 2014

Military Heritage, Intelligence

The Confederate Secret Service

By Peter Kross

The night of April 14, 1865, was one of celebration in Washington, D.C. Just a few days earlier, on April 9, Confederate General Robert E. Read more

July 2014

Military Heritage, Books

The Angolan Civil War

By Christopher Miskimon

The Cold War was fought on every continent and hemisphere in thousands of battles, large and small. Americans are mostly familiar with those the nation was directly involved in, such as Korea and Vietnam. Read more

July 2014

Military Heritage, Games

Summer 2014 Military Games

By Joseph Luster

Company of Heroes 2 made a decent splash when it arrived in June of last year, placing players on the Eastern Front of World War II. Read more