The recovery of the Mary Rose 30 years ago this month was an archaeological sensation. A third of a Tudor warship, complete with 26,000 artefacts and the remains of 179 seamen, was suddenly available for intimate study. This extraordinary time-capsule of data, representing the origins of modern British seapower, is of unparalleled academic significance. It sheds light not just on naval warfare at the time, but land warfare too, since the ship was packed with soldiers, their equipment, and their weapons.

In this issue, our lead article focuses on Henry VIII’s fleet, the reasons for its development, and the revolution in naval warfare during the 16th century. A key conclusion is that the Mary Rose was an unwieldy hybrid, and that antiquated design was almost certainly responsible for her sudden accidental sinking.

We also have a feature on the little-known Battle of Nomonhan (or Khalkin Gol) between the Russians and the Japanese in 1939 -a battle that may have determined the outcome of the entire Second World War in the Far East.

Matt Leonard takes us into the tunnels, caverns, and mine-galleries that lay beneath the Western Front in the First World War. Ian Castle sifts the evidence for the famous Last of the Mohicans massacre at Fort William Henry in 1757. And in our continuing ‘History of the British Army’ series, we analyse the mechanised mass killing represented by the Battle of Omdurman in 1898.