Cover Story
Charlemagne: King, conqueror, emperor In the first part of our special feature for this issue, Stephen Roberts traces the life of this extraordinary individual; while in the second part, he looks in more detail at Charlemagne’s victory at Pavia, which helped him establish the… Features
The Siege of Pavia: Defeating the Lombards, 773-774 In the second part of our special, Stephen Roberts reveals how a key victory helped Charlemagne establish the foundations for the Holy Roman Empire. 
Charlemagne: From life to death, a timeline of events that defined the legendary king’s reign. Infographics: Amy Brunskill 
A world upside down: The American Revolution – Part 4: the final act In the concluding part of our series marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, Fred Chiaventone reveals how the Revolutionary War was won at last. 
The bridge that saved a city: The Iron Curtain fall – Part 5: the Berlin Airlift Continuing our series on the coming of the Cold War, Taylor Downing examines the first major confrontation with the Soviets. 
Judgement at Nuremberg Eighty years on, Ben Goodlad reveals how the trials of 24 high-ranking Nazis shaped modern attitudes to punishing war crimes. 
The Tsar’s last victory: The Brusilov Offensive, June-September 1916 It was the greatest Russian triumph of World War I – but the Brusilov Offensive also sowed the seeds of revolution, as David Porter reports. News
Military mass graves unearthed in the Czech Republic Archaeologists have discovered four military mass graves from the 18th and 19th centuries during rescue excavations in advance of the construction of the D11 highway between the towns of Jaroměř… 
Excavations at former concentration camp During World War II, a number of German armament factories were relocated underground as a result of Allied air raids. In August 1944, a work detail of the Buchenwald concentration… 
Richly furnished warrior burials discovered in Hungary The graves of three elite warriors, dating to the period of the Hungarian Conquest (AD 920s-930s), have been discovered near the village of Akasztó in southern Hungary. One of these… 
Project to preserve Second World War Devastator torpedo bomber When it first took to the skies in 1935, the Douglas TBD-1 Devastator represented a significant leap forward in aircraft design, with its all-metal construction and single low-mounted wing. It… Views
MHM 151 Competition Competitions Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition. 
Jeremy Black People The author and historian on childhood reading habits and new ways to look at the past. 
War Classics – With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa Comment With the Old Breed is a harrowing, visceral account of a US Marine’s combat experience fighting the Japanese in Peleliu and Okinawa in 1945. Together with Robert Leckie’s Helmet for… 
Reviews
War on Film – The American Revolution Taylor Downing reviews the latest film and television releases. 
Wolfpack: inside Hitler’s U-boat war As Roger Moorhouse suggests in the introduction to Wolfpack, it was natural that post-war English language books about the Battle of the Atlantic would largely ignore the German perspective on… 
The Spanish Civil War in the Air Volume 1: 1936-37 Under-funded and wracked by the hostility between political factions within its ranks, Spain’s military aviation was in a dire state in the period immediately before the Spanish Civil War. At… 
Germany’s First World War Aviators: the lives of fliers Since the late 1990s, the study of World War I has moved beyond the constraints of military history to embrace an increasingly multidisciplinary agenda. Not least in this has been… 
Tunisgrad: victory in Africa It is something of a cliché in the history of the Second World War to claim that Stalingrad, the graveyard of Germany’s Sixth Army in Russia, was the decisive turning… 
From the editor
Many centuries after his death, Charlemagne (c.742 814) has become a byword for modern notions of European harmony – lending his name to all manner of peaceful initiatives, and even to a prize awarded annually for ‘work done in the service of European unification’.
In reality, of course, his monumental achievement – in bringing together more than a million square kilometres of Western Europe and creating a Christian empire that would last a thousand years – came about largely not through peaceful means, but as a result of bold military leadership and the decisive use of force.
In our special feature for this issue, Stephen Roberts examines the life and career of this towering figure – an extraordinary commander who was a visionary man of culture, too – and reveals how a key victory over his Lombard rivals at the Siege of Pavia helped to establish the foundations of the Holy Roman Empire.
Elsewhere, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, Ben Goodlad explains how the 20th century’s most celebrated court case broke new ground in its approach to serving justice to 24 high ranking Nazis, and how it shaped modern attitudes to punishing war crimes.
Also in this issue: as Americans prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Fred Chiaventone concludes his fascinating series on the Revolutionary War by tracing the conflict’s final stages; and Taylor Downing continues his survey of the early days of the Cold War by looking at the Berlin Airlift, the dramatic first major confrontation between the Soviets and the West.
And finally, 110 years on, David Porter analyses the brutal 1916 advance known as the Brusilov Offensive, and outlines how the huge cost in human life of Tsarist Russia’s greatest victory of World War I sowed the seeds of the coming revolution.
We hope you enjoy the issue!
LAURENCE EARLE
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