Military History Matters 153
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Hastings revisited
As the Bayeux Tapestry returns to England for a major new exhibition, Edmund West assesses the latest thinking about 1066 and all that.
From biplane to B-52
In the second part of our special feature, Graham Goodlad examines the changes in design and technology that underpinned the 20th-century transformation of US airpower.
US airpower
Onwards and upwards a timeline tracing the developing fortunes and many incarnations of America’s air force in the 2oth century.
American thunderbolt
In the first part of our special feature, Graham Goodlad charts the development of America’s air-arm from its earliest beginnings, while in our second article he focuses on the hardware deployed by American forces.
The Kaiser’s secret weapons
From ‘Big Bertha’ to exploding motor boats, Germany’s military engineers were the source of much innovation during the First World War, as David Porter explains.
Seizing the state: The curious history of the military coup
They were once a common method of changing governments around the world. But, as Nigel Jones explains, coups have fallen from fashion in the 21st century.
War Classics – Inherit the truth: The Cellist of Auschwitz
When Anita Lasker came to Britain in March 1946, 80 years ago, having survived Auschwitz and having been liberated at death’s door from Belsen, she found that no one wanted to hear about her terrible experiences in the camps. Britons wanted to move on from the horrors of the past and look to the promise of the future.
War on Film – World War II with Tom Hanks
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film and television releases.
‘Destroy the foreigners’: The Boxer Rebellion, November 1899-September 1901
At the turn of the 20th century, a violent uprising swept northern China, and an international expedition was sent to rescue those trapped in Peking’s diplomatic quarter. Stephen Roberts tells the story.
Sir Lawrence Freedman
The academic, historian, and author on war stories, shifting interests, and some memorable moments.
MHM 153 Competition
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition and crossword.
Hammer of the Gods
Don Hollway’s account of the life of the Norse warlord Olaf Tryggvason (king of Norway in the years c.995-1000) covers a period of momentous social and religious change in the lands bordering
Tojo: the rise and fall of Japan’s most controversial World War II general
Hideki Tojo was Japan’s most important policymaker of WWII. As detailed in Gary Bass’s 2023 study Judgment at Tokyo, he was the highest official to face the death penalty at the ensuing
SAS: Great Escapes 5
War correspondent, film producer, and writer: many MHM readers will already know Damien Lewis’s work. In his latest book about British Special Forces, he presents five more hair-raising accounts of WWII escapes.
Why Barbarossa Failed: Germany and Russia in the Second World War
On the face of it, Operation Barbarossa – Nazi Germany’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union – is straightforward to understand. Germany was at first strikingly successful, then faltered, and ultimately failed
Siege in Ireland 1641-53
Between 1639 and 1653, the whole of the British Isles was engulfed by civil war. Despite popular opinion, however, it was not pitched battles that dominated the fighting, but sieges. Not for
Beauty and Destruction: wartime London in art
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions, with Peter Popham.
New Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial at Brookwood cemetery
The newly constructed Brookwood 1914-1918 Memorial to the Missing was inaugurated by HRH The Princess Royal, President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), on 9 June 2026. This memorial replaces an
Cannons from the American Revolution go on display
A collection of large cannons from the American Revolutionary War has returned to Savannah, Georgia, after several years of conservation work, as part of a project led by the US Army Corps
Hidden coins discovered beneath foremast of HMS Victory
Six coins have been recovered from beneath the foremast of Nelson’s famous flagship during an ongoing conservation project. Over several nights in April, a 750-tonne crane was used to remove the Victory’s