british military history
Amphibious Landing at Anzio
By Mike HaskewAs the last days of 1943 slipped away, World War II in Italy ground to a miserable stalemate. Read more
british military history
A Burmese Jungle Masterstroke: Commonwealth Troops in Meiktila
by Jon LatimerThe battles of Kohima, Imphal, and the Admin Box saw the comprehensive defeat of the Japanese armies seeking to invade India during 1944 and sent them reeling back into Burma in early 1945, pursued by the revitalized British 14th Army under Lt. Read more
british military history
All Alone: The HMS Glowworm
By Robert Barr SmithThe great waves were huge and black, greedy tentacles of the North Sea clawing and snatching at the battered ships struggling in the icy dark. Read more
british military history
The Wehrmacht in France: Decisions in a Time of Debacle
By Brooke C. StoddardMay 10, 1940, marked the beginning of the war in western Europe. Nazi-controlled Germany invaded Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Read more
british military history
The Battle of Narvik: Crippling the Kriegsmarine
By David H. LippmanThe Germans could not believe it. Without suffering the loss of a single soldier or sailor, the German Army and Navy had sailed 1,500 miles through waters dominated by the British Royal Navy and captured Narvik without firing a shot, bagged nearly 500 Norwegian soldiers, seized one of Norway’s major military depots, and even taken five armed British merchant ships and their crews. Read more
british military history
Eric Dorman-Smith: Churchill’s Scapegoat in North Africa
By Jon DiamondWhen one gazes upon the bookshelves in the Military History section of a well-endowed library, one cannot help but notice the number of volumes dedicated to the battles for North Africa during World War II and particularly to the Battle of El Alamein in October 1942. Read more
british military history
The Indian Ocean Raid: Disaster for the Royal Navy
By David H. Lippman“So this is the Eastern Fleet,” ran Vice Admiral Sir James Fownes Somerville’s signal. “Never mind. Many a good tune is played on an old fiddle.” Read more
british military history
George Beurling: Canadian Fighter Ace Known as “The Falcon of Malta”
By Herb KugelIn September 1943, Canada’s top air ace, the “Falcon of Malta,” Flying Officer George Beurling, was faced with two problems. Read more
british military history
Commando Kidnapping: Capturing General Kreipe on Crete
By John W. Osborn Jr.Several Allied operations targeted a single enemy commander: the unsuccessful raid on General Erwin Rommel’s headquarters in North Africa to kill the Desert Fox; the assassination of the Butcher of Prague, SS Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia Reinhard Heydrich; and the shooting down of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s plane in the sky above Rabaul in 1943. Read more
british military history
The First Day of World War II
By Michael D. HullJust after midnight on September 3, 1939, a stylish young former socialite from Boston, Massachusetts, made her way toward London aboard the Harwich boat train after crossing the English Channel. Read more
british military history
Easter Victory at Tobruk
By Christopher MiskimonIn April 1941, things were going quite well for the German armed forces. In a series of earlier campaigns, they had conquered Poland, the Low Countries, Norway, and France. Read more
british military history
Project Habakkuk’s Iceberg Aircraft Carrier
By Stephen D. LutzDuring World War II British and American aircraft carriers, serviced and ready for naval combat, averaged 20,000 to 30,000 tons. Read more
british military history
D-Day Funnies: No Joke to the Nazis
By Michael D. HullGerman defenders hunkered in their concrete and steel bunkers along the Normandy coast were in for two major shocks on Tuesday, June 6, 1944. Read more
british military history
Taking Out the Tirpitz
By Richard RuleBy mid-1942, the towering German battleship Tirpitz stood alone as the largest, most powerful warship in the world. Read more
british military history
Seizing the Altmark
By Joseph M. HorodyskiOn 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
british military history
Operation Compass: Masterstroke in the Desert
By John DiamondEstablished in the summer of 1939, Field Marshal Sir Archibald Wavell’s Middle East Command encompassed nine countries and parts of two continents, an area of 1,700 miles by 2,000 miles. Read more
british military history
Operation Willi: The Nazi Plot to Kidnap the Duke of Windsor
By Eric NiderostIt was around noon, June 19, 1940, when a small caravan of cars set out from Antibes in southern France en route to the Spanish border. Read more
british military history
Nick “Cooky” Kukich: Covert Operative in Albania
By John ManciniOn 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
Battle of Alma: First Blood in the Crimea
By Eric NiderostOn the morning of September 14, 1854, an Anglo-French fleet arrived off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea. Read more
british military history
Battle of Omdurman: The Last British Cavalry Charge
By Eric NiderostIt 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
