June 2004 Archives

A Coast Guard crewman aboard a landing craft is shown at lower right as his human cargo of combat troops exits toward the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day. This photo was taken while the Americans were under tremendous German fire from the bluffs visible in the distance.

Military Heritage

Omaha Beach H-Hour D-Day June 6, 1944

By Joseph Balkoski

Editor’s Note: The following is excerpted from Omaha Beach: D-Day June 6, 1944 by Joseph Balkoski (Stackpole Books, 2004; www.stackpolebooks.com). Read more

His horse crippled, Simon de Montfort nevertheless fights on against the Royalists closing in on him. Simon had united the barons against the royal authority and he made reforms to the government, but some barons grew embittered of his rule and turned against him.

Military Heritage

The Battle of Evesham: The King Fights Back

by Terry Gore

The Battle of Lewes was over, and with it the end of the actual power of the English king, Henry III. Read more

Determined to defend the Mohawk Valley, patriots under General Nicholas Herkimer fight back at Indians and Tories ambushing them in the wilderness. The wounded Herkimer commanded from under a tree as the battle raged hour after hour.

Military Heritage

The Battle of Oriskany: Into the Trap

By Donald Roberts II

The year 1776 ended on a high note for Washington’s Continental Army despite its earlier devastating defeats on Long Island and Manhattan. Read more

Prussians storm the cemetery at Saint Privat on the 18th of August. The French put up a fierce resistance and the Prussians lost 8,000 men in 20 minutes. However, the tide of fortune was already favoring the Kaiser’s efforts.

Military Heritage

The Battle of Sedan: Napoleon III’s Empire in the Balance

By Robert Heege

Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew and namesake of the great Napoleon, once said, “March at the head of the ideas of your century, and these ideas follow you and support you. Read more

Major Burton and officers of the 5th Dragoon Guards.

Military Heritage

Roger Fenton, Crimean War Photographer

By Peter Harrington

In the annals of war photography, Roger Fenton stands with Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardener, and James Robertson as one of the pioneering spirits. Read more

Turks storm Constantinople from the water side in this encompassing, if fanciful, 16th-century rendering by Tintoretto. The besieged were greatly outnumbered and fought with determination.

Military Heritage

Death of an Empire: The Fall of Constantinople

By Jonathan North

Early in the morning of Tuesday, May 29, 1453, they came swarming like hungry wolves over the plain between the Turkish palisades and the battered walls of Byzantium. Read more

Robert Capa’s famous blurry image of the 1st Infantry Division’s amphibious landings at the Easy Red/Fox Green sectors of Omaha Beach indelibly captures the fear and chaos of the D-Day invasion. Four rolls of Capa’s film were rushed back to LIFE magazine’s London office, where a darkroom mistake ruined all but 11 images.

Military Heritage, Editorial

D-Day’s 60th Anniversary

Imagine for a moment what now only people of advanced age can: Nazi-occupied northern Europe poised for invasion by Allied armies. Read more

Military Heritage, Communique

Winfield Scott Hancock’s Presidential Run

Dear Editor,

Let me express my congratulations on your excellent article in your April 2004 issue, “Hancock the Superb.” History has unfortunately not been kind to Maj. Read more

Romans end their march of the day by building a fortified camp surrounded by a ditch. No camp was ever overwhelmed in the Gallic or Civil Wars.

Military Heritage, Weapons

Roman Marching Camps: An Essential Element in Rome’s Empire-Building

By Arnold Blumberg

From the late 3rd century bc to the 3rd century ad, Roman troops on campaign built a defended camp at their resting place each night. Read more

The CSS Virginia blasts the USS Cumberland. John Wood was a major factor in the Virginia’s success. Throughout the war he used scarce resources to advantage for the Confederate cause.

Military Heritage, Soldiers

John Taylor Wood, Hero of the Confederate Navy

By James M. Powles

The epic battle between the Virginia (Merrimack) and Monitor might never have taken place because, as strange as it may seem, the Confederates did not have enough experienced men to man their ship. Read more

Military Heritage, Intelligence

Colonel Hans Oster

By Brooke C. Stoddard

Adolf Hitler won victory after victory in the late 1930s: the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936, the incorporation of Austria into the Reich in 1938, the acquisition of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia in 1938 followed by the control over much of the remainder of Czechoslovakia six months later, and then the conquest of Poland in September 1939. Read more

A Soviet admiral—medals at his left breast—kneels in tribute to a fallen heroic Soviet sailor of World War II. Many Soviet medals were adaptations of Czarist medals.

Military Heritage, Militaria

Soviet Memorabilia

By Peter Suciu

In 1917, after almost three years of hard fighting in World War I, the Romanov dynasty came to an end with the abdication of Czar Nicolas II of Russia. Read more