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