Military Heritage

Winter 2011

Volume 12, No. 4

COVER: Scots Guards Saving the Colours at Alma, 1854, 1899 (oil on canvas) by Lady Butler (Elizabeth Southerden Thompson) (1846-1933). Chelsea Barracks, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library.

HMS 'Cossack' and the store ship 'Altmark', 16 February 1940 ? National Maritime Museum, London / The Image Works NOTE: The copyright notice must include "The Image Works" DO NOT SHORTEN THE NAME OF THE COMPANY

Winter 2011

Military Heritage

Seizing the Altmark

By Joseph M. Horodyski

On Sunday, September 3, 1939, the day that Great Britain and France formally declared war on Germany after the Nazis’ invasion of Poland, the German supply ship Altmark concluded her stay at the refinery center of Port Arthur, Texas, where she had taken on a full cargo of diesel oil, and returned to sea. Read more

Winter 2011

Military Heritage, Editorial

The Death of Union “Boy General” Elon Farnsworth

While newly minted Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer was leading his Michigan cavalry brigade to glory at Gettysburg, fellow brigadier Elon Farnsworth, himself a native Wolverine, confronted a very different fate. Read more

Winter 2011

Military Heritage, Soldiers

Miyamoto Mushashi: Samurai Legend

By O’Brien Brown

The samurai warrior sat in the middle of the dueling grounds in the village of Hirafuku, Japan, glaring at the spectators who had gathered around him. Read more

Winter 2011

Military Heritage, Intelligence

South African Paratroopers’ Raid on Cassinga

By Thomas B. Blevins

South Africa in the spring of 1978 was a country besieged. The apartheid state was increasingly unpopular with its neighbors and unable to control its own restive black population. Read more

A tongue-in-cheek British cartoon from 1819 lampoons the idea of adapting the newly invented bicycle for military use.

Winter 2011

Military Heritage, Militaria

Military Bicycles

By Peter Suciu

Anyone who has ever visited Europe—particularly France, Italy, and the Netherlands—knows that the people in those countries love their bicycles. Read more

A romantic painting by Henryck Siemiradski shows Nero watching as Christians are burned in retaliation for their supposed torching of Rome.

Winter 2011

Military Heritage, Books

Nero’s Blame in the Great Fire of Rome

By Al Hemingway

The image most people have of the Roman emperor Nero is of him perched at the summit of the Palatine hills, strumming his lyre while Rome is engulfed in flames. Read more

Winter 2011

Military Heritage, Games

Ace Combat: Joint Assault

by Joseph Luster

Ace Combat games aren’t exactly known for being precision flight sims, or sims of any kind, for that matter. Read more