REVIEW BY CALUM HENDERSON When Tim Bouverie’s first book Appeasing Hitler appeared in 2019, it was generally considered to be something of a stunning debut: an eloquent and well-researched history of one of the most written-about periods in British history…
REVIEW BY DAVID PORTER In January 1945, the Red Army launched a powerful operation that was intended to go all the way to Berlin. The Vistula–Oder Offensive, as it was known, is the subject of this new book by Prit…
Underwater archaeological investigations have located the missing bow of the USS New Orleans in the Solomon Islands’ Iron Bottom Sound. The US Navy cruiser was heavily damaged during the Battle of Tassafaronga on 30 November 1942 when it was hit…
August 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which precipitated the unconditional surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War. What has become known as VJ (Victory over…
In a new book, Jonathan Glancey tells the inside story of Operation Bowler, the audacious WWII plan to destroy German strategic outposts around Venice’s port, while leaving the legendary city unscathed.
A trove of helmets dating from the First and Second World Wars has been discovered by archaeologists in Poland. Road-construction workers found more than 50 helmets lying just beneath the surface on Koszarowa Street in the city of Wrocław. The…
A new museum dedicated to the spies who uncovered many enemy secrets during the Second World War has appointed its first director. Giuseppe Albano was recently named as the head of Trent Park House of Secrets, which is due to…
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions with Simon Coppock.
• Endgame in Japan: World War II’s devastating final act
• Operation Downfall: the planned invasions of Japan, 1945-1946
• The last warrior monarch: William III and the Nine Years War
• What makes commanders switch sides? A traitorous history of military turncoats
• A new way of war: the road to Appomattox – a technological revolution
Rare photographs of Second World War filmmaking revealed To mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Historic England’s Archive has released a collection of photographs capturing behind-the-scenes stills of RAF film productions. The collection was put together by Dorothy ‘Knicky’…
In the last part of our series marking the 80th anniversary of World War II’s final months, Taylor Downing asks whether the Allies had any choice but to use their devastating new weapon to end the war.
What would have happened if Japan hadn’t surrendered? David Porter examines the Allied plans for the largest amphibious assault of all time.
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
A Second World War bomber which lay at the bottom of the Aegean Sea for more than 80 years has been rediscovered. The wreck was found last year by specialist divers off the Greek island of Antikythera, more than 60…
A new display of ceramic poppies has opened at the Tower of London to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The installation, which opened on 6 May, uses some 30,000 poppies from a similar…
REVIEW BY CALUM HENDERSON St Petersburg has an immensely dark history. Built largely by slave labour on the orders of Peter the Great in the early 1700s, it has endured more than its fair share of assassination, revolution, flooding, and…
REVIEW BY MARK DeSANTIS The Battle of Midway in early June 1942 is arguably the most significant naval encounter of the Second World War, and easily one of the most notable battles in all history. The three-day fight in the…
In this image, St Paul’s Cathedral is dramatically illuminated on the night of VE Day, 8 May 1945, which marked the end of the Second World War in Europe. Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece in central London had survived the war…
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
In the third part of our series marking the 80th anniversary of World War II’s final months, Taylor Downing asks whether the Allied Supreme Commander was correct in allowing the Russians to capture the German capital.
As Japan faced defeat in World War II, suicide attacks provided it with a deadly new weapon in the Pacific, says David Porter.
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film releases.
Younger readers might be forgiven for thinking that Enemy at the Gates is merely a novelisation of the 2001 film of the same name. But the movie – directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and starring Jude Law – in fact takes its title from William Craig’s groundbreaking 1973 history of Stalingrad, the first Western history to make extensive use of Russian sources.
Construction has begun on a new home for a rare German U-boat from the Second World War. The new Battle of the Atlantic U-boat Museum, which will house the vessel U-534, is expected to open in Birkenhead in 2026. The…
The award-winning author and documentary film-maker on the Nazis, neuroscience, and why he doesn’t really like war movies.
REVIEW JONATHAN EATON In reading about the Second World War, it is easy to lose sight of the brutal realities of the conflict, whether revealed through acts of unfathomable evil or deeds of immense personal courage. In The Last Days…
REVIEW BY ANDREW MULHOLLAND Most of us have an opinion about the two atomic attacks made by the United States on Japan in August 1945, which brought about the end of the Second World War, and most of us probably…
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film releases.
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition.
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
The George Cross that was awarded posthumously to a Second World War spy has gone on display in a new exhibition in London. Noor Inayat Khan served in occupied Paris with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) before ultimately giving…
With Marc DeSantis
In the second part of our series marking the 80th anniversary of the last months of World War II, Taylor Downing asks why crossing the Rhine in March 1945 was not the great obstacle that Allied commanders feared.
• Endgame WWII: could the Allies have defeated Hitler in 1944?
• Clive in India: a legacy of controversy
• Operation Hannibal: Germany’s ‘Little Dunkirk’
• Napoleon’s finest hour: the triumph of Austerlitz
• Unlocking victory: supplying the armies of the British Civil Wars
In the first part of a new series marking the 80th anniversary of World War II’s final months, Taylor Downing asks whether hopes of an early defeat of Nazi Germany were ever realistic.