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 this time, the air force was equipped with 60 Bréguet…
Nick Spenceley reconsiders Bugles and a Tiger by John Masters.
Infographics: Calum Henderson / Images: WIPL/Wikimedia Commons
REVIEW BY STEVE TIBBLE Writing a major new popular history about the Great Siege of Malta of 1565, in which the Knights Hospitaller – a Catholic military order – saw off a four-month assault by the Ottoman Empire, is no…
The great military encounters of the British Civil Wars have been well documented. But, as David Flintham reveals, issues beyond the battlefield would also prove crucial.
A rare Japanese sword dating from the 17th century – thought to have been a diplomatic gift – has been uncovered during excavations in Berlin. The wakizashi, a short sword carried by samurai in feudal Japan, was found in the…
Marshal Turenne’s bold Winter Campaign of 1674-1675 defied the norms of 17th-century warfare, says William E Welsh. It also sealed his reputation as one of France’s greatest commanders.
• Europe’s apocalypse: the horror of the Thirty Years’ War
• Cromwell’s admiral: how Robert Blake remade the navy
• They’re coming! The invasion scares of 1805 and 1940
• The corpse that fooled Hitler: Operation Mincemeat
• Dark shadows: Nathan Bedford Forrest & Fort Pillow, 1864
Stephen Roberts analyses the crucial battle that cost the life of the Swedish king.
Stephen Roberts traces the history of the Thirty Years’ War, Europe’s most destructive conflict prior to the First World War.
When the army of Europe’s most powerful monarch besieged the Tuscan city in 1554, it took terror and hunger to achieve what cannon and arquebus could not, as William E Welsh explains.
The roots of the current war in Ukraine are deeply entwined with the nation’s turbulent military history. Here, David Porter examines some of the most important episodes and events.
Chris Bambery traces the history of the Spanish Civil War and sets the scene for the conflict’s bloodiest battle.
Chris Bambery examines how the deadliest engagement of the Spanish Civil War paved the way for Republican defeat.
• The Spanish Armada: what really happened in 1588?
• Flawed genius: Monty at Alamein
• The Cuban Missile Crisis
• The Battle of Mohács, 1526
• Hell and high water: submarine warfare
In an extract from a new book, John Medhurst traces the history of the submarine in warfare, from the earliest experiments to the First World War.
With 130 ships, 2,431 guns, and 30,000 men, Philip II’s invasion force was, according to one English admiral, ‘the greatest and strongest combination that was ever gathered in all Christendom’. If it had been successful, the history of the past…
It was one of the greatest disasters in Spain’s history, yet it came within hours of success. Here, Geoffrey Parker, co-author of a major new history, draws on unseen archives and vital new evidence from Armada shipwrecks to explain what really happened in 1588.
REVIEW BY DAVID FLINTHAM. Created in 1645, the New Model Army was a truly formidable fighting force: in the first six years of its existence, it crushed Royalist resistance in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and brought about the execution of…
• Churchill’s darkest hour: the military disasters of 1942
• Waterloo uncovered: veterans, archaeology, and the battlefield
• Renaissance warfare: a military revolution
• The charge of the Iron Fleet: Charleston, 1863
• The accident that triggered the Blitz
What is immediately striking reading Oman is the depth of his scholarship... These are works of exceptional length and detail.
The English Tudors were determined to crush Irish independence, but Gaelic warriors fought back. Tim Newark describes the Irish warlords who took on the armies of Elizabeth I.
Review of 'The English Civil War:
An Atlas and Concise History of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, 1639–51' and 'English Civil War: Operations Manual'.
Poltava is more famous, but, explains historian Magnus Olofsson, Kircholm was probably the greatest defeat in Swedish history.