Cover Story
Burma ’44: From disaster to triumph In our two-part special for this issue, Graham Goodlad first profiles Slim and then looks in detail at Imphal and Kohima. Features
Imphal & Kohima: Turning point in Burma Graham Goodlad analyses Slim’s crucial victory, which dispelled the myth of Japanese invincibility. 
The spies who never were In the third part of our series on deception in World War II, Taylor Downing uncovers the true story of double agents Brutus and Garbo. 
1385 and all that: The failed French conquest of England The Norman Conquest of 1066 remains one of the best-known events in English history – but French attempts to invade three centuries later have now largely been forgotten, as Duncan… 
The last charge: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour and Von Bredow’s ‘Death Ride’, 16 August 1870 One of the crucial battles of the Franco-Prussian War was also the scene of perhaps the last successful cavalry charge in Western European warfare, as William E Welsh explains. 
The Kaiser’s U-boats At the outbreak of the First World War, a terrible new weapon changed the rules of naval warfare. One hundred and ten years on, David Porter takes a deep dive… News
Research sheds new light on WWI U-boat’s final moments A U-boat that sank off the coast of Germany at the end of the First World War was most likely scuttled, according to new research. Scientists from the University of… 
French love letters from the Seven Years War opened 265 years later More than a hundred letters that were sent to imprisoned French sailors during the Seven Years War have been opened for the first time. The messages were seized by the… 
Remains of WWII bomber crew identified in the Netherlands, 80 years after they vanished The remains of three British airmen who went missing during the Second World War have been identified more than 80 years after they disappeared. Arthur Smart, Raymond Moore, and Charles… 
Civil War weapons recovered from South Carolina river Hundreds of relics from the American Civil War have been recovered from the Congaree River in Columbia, South Carolina. The artefacts, which included some live ordnance, were removed during an… Views
MHM 138 Competition Competitions Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition. 
Back to the drawing board: The M551 Sheridan Ideas David Porter on Military History's doomed inventions. 
Fort Stanwix National Monument Museum, What's on Reviewing the best Military History Exhibitions with Christopher Warner 
War Classics: The Cruel Sea Comment Nick Spenceley recalls one of the great works of military history. 
Remains of a radar station, Craster, Northumberland The Picture Desk More than 200 radar stations were dotted throughout Britain during the Second World War, although very few survive intact today. A number of these were Chain Home Low, or CHL… Reviews
Fort Stanwix National Monument Reviewing the best Military History Exhibitions with Christopher Warner 
Luck of the Draw: My story of the air war in Europe REVIEW BY COLIN POMEROY Luck of the Draw, which has just been adapted by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks into the new television series Masters of the Air, is in… 
Mirrors of Greatness: Churchill and the leaders who shaped him REVIEW BY PATRICK MERCER I thought I knew a fair bit about Winston Churchill, but I have just discovered that he had skin ‘about the size of a shilling’ taken… 
Warriors in Scarlet: The Life and Times of the Last Redcoats REVIEW BY GRAHAM GOODLAD Ian Knight has gained a deserved reputation as an expert on the Anglo-Zulu War. In Warriors in Scarlet, he turns his attention to a broader canvas.… 
A Nasty Little War: The West’s fight to reverse the Russian Revolution REVIEW BY CALUM HENDERSON Throughout the Cold War, various American presidents liked to say that the West and the Soviet Union had never fought one another directly, with the obvious… 
From the editor
Over the year to come, MHM will be marking the 80th anniversaries of some of the epic battles – from D-Day onwards – which together made 1944 the decisive year of the Second World War in the West.
In this issue, however, we are reminded of the conflict’s global reach, as we look back on another crucial engagement in that year, which would also change the course of the war – but which took place thousands of miles from the Western Front.
In our two-part special feature for this issue, Graham Goodlad analyses the Battle of Imphal and Kohima – considered by many to be the ‘Stalingrad of the East’ – and profiles Bill Slim, the inspirational commander who led his ‘Forgotten Army’ of British and Commonwealth troops to victory on the India–Burma border.
Elsewhere, our military technology expert David Porter investigates the development of the Kaiser’s U-boats during World War I, and reveals how this new submarine threat changed the rules of naval warfare.
Also in this issue, Duncan Cameron travels further back in time to understand how repeated attempts by France to invade England at the end of the 14th century came to end in failure; while William E Welsh examines the 1870 Battle of Mars-la-Tour, famous as the site of perhaps the last successful cavalry charge in Western European warfare.
And finally, Taylor Downing continues his fascinating series on the use of deception in World War II by telling the extraordinary story of the double agents Brutus and Garbo, and MI5’s top-secret XX Committee.
We hope you enjoy the issue!
LAURENCE EARLE
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