british military history

Greene’s Gamble at Hobkirk’s Hill

In late March 1781, American Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene sought to make the best of a bad situation. Read more

british military history

Nick “Cooky” Kukich: Covert Operative in Albania

On the morning of April 7, 1939, Albania, the smallest of the Balkan countries, was invaded by Benito Mussolini’s Italian Fascist Army. Read more

british military history

British Paratrooper at Arnhem: An Interview With James Sims

Q: Could you give us a little personal background before we talk about your war experiences?

SIMS: I was born on April 29, 1925, at Sheffield in Yorkshire. Read more

british military history

Indian Rebellion of 1857: Two Years of Massacre and Reprisal

Three months before the Indian Rebellion of 1857, British East India Company officials manning outstations in the northwestern provinces of India began to notice the revival of a strange and disturbing local custom. Read more

british military history

Operation Jupiter: The Fight for the Key to Normandy

The Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, produced a bitter struggle for control of the invasion beachhead. Read more

british military history

RMS Queen Mary’s War Service: Voyages to Victory

The late summer of 1939 saw Great Britain teetering on the brink of war with Hitler’s Germany. The years of appeasement and vacillation, of meekly acquiescing to Hitler’s insatiable territorial demands, were over at last. Read more

british military history

Grand Mufti al-Husseini: Britain’s Deadliest Enemy?

Like all Palestinians and most Arabs, Haj Amin al-Hussaini not only looked forward to an Axis Pact victory in World War II but also saw it as a means of defeating what he believed was a joint British-Jewish conspiracy to foist an Israelite homeland on the Middle East that would be to the detriment of his own people. Read more

british military history

The Holland Submarine

By the 1870s, the agitation for Irish independence, already centuries old, had spread to America. The revolutionary Irish Republican Brotherhood, known as the Fenians, began organizing thousands of Irish immigrants trained on both sides during the recent Civil War into its own army. Read more

british military history

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor: A Dark Royal Secret?

One of the most interesting yet little known aspects of World War II was the role played by the Duke of Windsor, previously King Edward VIII of England, and his covert relationship with Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Read more

british military history

Battle of Omdurman: The Last British Cavalry Charge

It was the morning of September 1, 1898, the day before the Battle of Omdurman. Lieutenant Winston Churchill of the Queen’s 4th Hussars rode out with four squadrons of the 21st Lancers to scout the approaches to Omdurman, a Sudanese village on the west bank of the Nile opposite Khartoum, epicenter of a revolt that had rocked the very foundations of the British Empire. Read more

british military history

Monmouth: Longest Battle of the American Revolution

On June 19, 1778, Continental soldiers marched out of Valley Forge, happy to leave the rough wooden cabins where they had spent a miserable winter; cold, hunger, and disease had been their constant companions. Read more

british military history

Bovington Tank Museum

If armored vehicles are your interest, the Tank Museum at Bovington Camp, Dorset, is your holy grail. This cavernous museum, measuring 50,000 square feet, holds the world’s finest and most comprehensive collection of over 250 armored vehicles from 26 countries. Read more

british military history

Costly British Victory at Ferozeshah

A little over five centuries ago, a guru named Nanak founded a new faith among the Hindu communities that farmed the rich agricultural areas of northern India known as the Punjab, the Land of the Five Rivers. Read more

british military history

Cockleshell Heroes: Courageous Commandos in Canoes

Early in World War II, the British War Office and the Admiralty were shocked by daring small boat attacks, some of them suicidal, on Allied shipping in the Mediterranean Sea. Read more

british military history

Unholy Sabbath in Flanders

With his one good eye, French King Philip II looked east down the straight line of an old Roman road in the disputed county of Flanders on Sunday, July 27, 1214. Read more

british military history

William Alexander: Hero of the American Revolution

Of all the generals who fought on the Patriot side during the American Revolution, none was more renowned than New York City native William Alexander, better known to his contemporaries as “Lord Stirling.” Read more

british military history

Fort Necessity: George Washington’s First Defeat

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

british military history

Petropavlovsk: The Crimean War’s Forgotten Battle

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

british military history

How the Allies Used Captured German Tanks and Vehicles

Geijsteren Castle sits north of the Dutch town of Venlo on the banks of the Meuse River. In late 1944, the castle was a strongpoint in the local German defenses and under attack by elements of the British Sixth Guards Tank Brigade. Read more

british military history

Alexandria: Redcoats in the Land of the Pharaohs

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