Winter 2022

Volume 23, No. 5

Cover: A Marine from K Company, Ninth Marines goes “over the top” to
assault a Japanese pillbox on Iwo Jima’s Airfield Number Two, February 1945. Photo: Naval History and Heritage Command

U.S. Marines cautiously advance after landing on February 19, 1945. U.S. forces needed the tiny island as a stepping stone for a possible invasion of Japan.

Military Heritage

The Grinding Horror of Iwo Jima

By Joshua Shepherd

For the men of the 28th Marine Regiment, the morning of February 19, 1945, brought a sobering moment of truth. Read more

Jean Baptiste Jourdan astride a white horse launches his reserves in a decisive counterattack against the Allied center at Fleurus.

Military Heritage

Revolutionary France’s Opening Salvo

By Victor Kamenir

The French Revolution of 1789, which began as a peaceful process of social and financial reform, rapidly descended into internal strife and violence. Read more

Military Heritage

Forrest’s Finest Hour

By Mike Phifer

Confederate Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s fighting blood was up. It was mid-morning on June 10, 1864, and the Tennessean cavalry commander had just hurried Colonel Hylan Lyon’s brigade of Kentuckians from along the muddy Baldwyn road toward Brice’s Crossroads in northern Mississippi. Read more

Cortes and his Spanish conquistadors defeated a mighty Aztec army at Otumba in July 1520. The victory occurred one week after the Night of Sorrows, when the Spanish suffered heavy casualties while fleeing the Aztec capital.

Military Heritage

Cortés Exacts His Revenge

By John Walker

As the year 1520 drew to a close, the half-starved inhabitants of Tenochtitlan, the magnificent capital city of the most powerful city-state in the Aztec Empire, found that they were threatened by a massive host of enemies, both foreign and indigenous, which was led by Spanish Captain-General Hernán Cortés and his small band of conquistadors. Read more

Marines of the British Royal Naval Division go over the top in an assault against Ottoman positions on the strategic high ground of Achi Baba at the base of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Military Heritage

Senseless Slaughter at Gallipoli

By William E. Welsh

The crash of the heavy guns from a dozen British and French capital ships, one of which was the super-dreadnought the HMS Queen Elizabeth, reverberated against the shoreline of the Dardanelles on February 19, 1915. Read more

The tragic death of Continental Army Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery in an assault on the south end of Quebec's Lower Town is vividly, albeit romantically, portrayed in John Trumbell’s period painting. A partial siege of the town that followed the failed assault ended when a British fleet arrived in spring 1776.

Military Heritage

Arnold’s Flawed Invasion of Quebec

By Eric Niderost

On November 9, 1775, a British resident of Quebec wrote a letter back home, a missive that he knew might not even reach England, because the Canadian fortress city would soon be under a state of siege. Read more

Yermak’s Cossack brigade drives a wedge into Khan Kuchum’s Tatar horde in the climactic Battle of Chuvash Cape on the Irtysh River in 1582.

Military Heritage

Russia’s Conquest of Siberia

By Victor Kamenir

Russian historical documents dating back to 1095 speak of an unknown people living beyond the Ural Mountains in Siberia who spoke an incomprehensible language and traded furs for iron knives and axes. Read more

Surviving veterans of Forrest’s cavalry command posed for a photo during a reunion in 1917. Forrest died in 1877 at the age of 56.

Military Heritage, Editorial

Hell Hath No Fury Like Nathan Bedford Forrest

Confederate Cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest’s finest hour came in a bloody clash on the muddy roads of Northern Mississippi on June 10, 1864, at a place called Brice’s Crossroads. Read more

The A-10 Thunderbolt II’s seven-barrel, 30mm autocannon fires a round made of depleted uranium encased in an aluminum shell with a muzzle velocity of 3,500 feet per second.

Military Heritage, Weapons

Weapons: The A-10 Warthog Attack Aircraft

By Christopher Miskimon

Smoke and haze clouded the skies over Kuwait on February 25, 1991. It was the second day of Operation Desert Storm, the ground operation to eject the Iraqi military from its smaller neighbor. Read more

Military Heritage, Uniform

Greek Hoplite (8th – 4th century B.C)

By William E. Welsh

Illustration by Peter Connolly

The Greek hoplite was a heavily armored infantryman who fought in a phalanx formation. Read more

Military Heritage, Valor

Second Lieutenant Ernest “Red Eagle” Childers

By William F. Floyd, Jr.

After three years of brutal warfare in World War II, the Italians in July 1943 overthrew fascist leader Benito Mussolini in the hope of obtaining a separate armistice with the Allies. Read more

Pompey led troops to victory in a series of battles and actions that neutralized threats to Rome’s interests in Asia Minor.

Military Heritage, Soldiers

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus

By Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

Gnaeus Pompey was one of the pivotal Roman leaders during the last decades of the Republic. He was born into an old and wealthy provincial family from Picenum on September 29, 106 BC. Read more

A Mig-15 follows an F-86F Sabre at an air show in California in 2014. These two aircraft ushered in the age of jet fighter warfare during the Korean War.

Military Heritage, Books

Michael Napier’s Korean Air War

By Christopher Miskimon

A B-29 crew’s worst nightmare was a MiG-15 fighter boring in on them with its 23mm cannon blazing. Read more

Military Heritage, Games

Tactical Combat Department

By Joseph Luster

Taking plenty of inspiration from SWAT games with turn-based tactics, the aptly titled Tactical Combat Department recently entered Early Access to give players a taste of its unique brand of strategy. Read more

Winter 2022

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Alex Kershaw’s ‘Patton’s Prayer’