18th & 19th Century

Below One of the giants in an age of giants: Nelson, here seen boarding the San Nicolas during the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797, brought the British way of war at sea to a peak of perfection.

When was Britain’s finest hour?

Chris Bambery takes issue with Churchill’s claim that 1940 was ‘the finest hour’, arguing that the true moment of imperial greatness was 1815.

War on Film: Zulu Dawn

Taylor Downing reviews the classic war film Zulu Dawn.

Rorke’s Drift Museum

Reviewing the Rorke's Drift Museum, with Taylor Downing.

LEFT The Charge of the Light Brigade and [inset] one of the men who charged: Cornet John Wilkin of the 11th Hussars, photographed by Roger Fenton.

Balaklava: a battle or three skirmishes?

In this second part of his special on Balaklava, Patrick Mercer analyses the events of 25/26 October 1854.

OPPOSITE An officer of the 11th Hussars c.1850 one of the two regiments commanded by Lord Cardigan before the Crimean War, and part of the Light Brigade in the famous charge at Balaklava.

The Battle of Balaklava in Perspective

Patrick Mercer, a Crimean War specialist, takes a critical look at the men in command at one of British history’s iconic battles.

Sister Janet Wells: the ‘Florence Nightingale’ of the Zulu War

Adrian Greaves reports on a Victorian nurse who served in the Russo-Turkish and Zulu Wars – earning both an Imperial Red Cross from Russia and a Royal Red Cross from Britain.

War on Film: Zulu

Taylor Downing reviews the classic war film Zulu.

War Reporters: Archibald Forbes

Seema Syeda on battlefield scoops through the ages.

War Reporters: William Howard Russell

Widely regarded as the first modern war correspondent, Russell was a globetrotter with a wide purview, reporting on the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the American Civil War, the coronation of Tsar Nicholas I, the Franco- Prussian War, and the Zulu War among many other key events of the tumultuous 19th century.

Below Wellesley’s army on the march in the Peninsula.

Wellington’s lessons in failure

‘The art of victory is learned in failures.’ It might have been said by Wellington (though in fact it was said by South American revolutionary leader Simón Bolívar). Stephen Roberts explains why.

All you need to know about iklwas

Weapon specifications Most African tribes use a form of assegai, a light throwing-spear used in both hunting and war, typically around 6-feet long with a 6-inch steel head. Some of the most aggressive Bantu tribes of southern Africa have developed…

The 17th Lancers Regiment at Ulundi, 4 July 1879

MHM Editor Neil Faulkner recalls a classic charge of British cavalry on a late 19th-century battlefield.

Native American leaders: Sitting Bull (1831 1890) [centre right], and Gall (c.1840 1894) [right].

The Battle of the Little Bighorn

25 June 1876. Fred Chiaventone reassesses that most-famous collision between US and Native American forces.

Conflict Scientists: John Philip Holland

Patrick Boniface considers the influence of science on warfare.

War comes to Kansas: ‘Vengeance is in my heart, and death in my hand’

Atrocities were mercifully few in America’s most bloody war. But the exceptions were grim. Frederick Chiaventone recalls the Lawrence Massacre.

WATERLOO RE-ENACTMENT

The bicentenary of what became known in Britain as the Battle of Waterloo has been marked by an outburst of commemorations, central to which was an enormous re-enactment that took place at the battlefield on 19 and 20 June 2015.

Left background The dead, dying, and wounded lay far thicker on the field of Waterloo on the evening of 18 June 1815 than on the Somme on the evening of 1 July 1916 around 55,000 of them across some four square miles. John Heaviside Clark’s famous depiction, based on sketches done on the battlefield, captures the scale of it. left FOREGROUND A British assistant surgeon of infantry in Waterloo period uniform.

The Darker Side of Victory: Wellington’s medical service at Waterloo

Historian of military medicine Mick Crumplin takes us into the grisly world of Napoleonic-era casualty treatment.

The Past

Nelson, Navy, Nation: the secret of victory

As the National Maritime Museum opens its new Nelson gallery, MHM Editor Neil Faulkner analyses the admiral’s legend.

Isandlwana, 1879: Humbling the Great White Queen

‘I can’t understand it!’ That was British commander Lord Chelmsford’s response. Isandlwana was perhaps the greatest defeat inflicted on British redcoats by native warriors in imperial history. Zulu War expert Ian Knight, who has published a major new study, tackles the key question: what went wrong for the British at Isandlwana?