REVIEW BY CALUM HENDERSON ‘The longer the war lasts the lesser my opinion of the generals.’ These were the words in April 1943 of Ulrich von Hassell, a German diplomat who was executed for his role in the 20 July…
• The Peloponnesian War: how conflict tore ancient Greece apart
• Imperial firefighters: Roberts, Kitchener, and the Anglo-Boer War
• Churchill’s American arsenal: the special relationship that won World War II
• How the Scots saved France: the Battle of Baugé, 1421
• The end: Vietnam, 1973
Open 10am-5pm daily (1 April to 30 October)Weybourne, Norfolk, NR25 7ERwww.muckleburgh.co.uk+ 44 (0)1263 588 210 The Muckleburgh Military Collection is the largest privately owned military museum in the United Kingdom. It was opened to the public in 1988 by Michael…
REVIEW by COLIN POMEROY A renowned writer on air combat in World War II, Professor Patrick Eriksson is well known for his detailed research, something he fully demonstrates in this new book, which takes its name from the fighter pilot’s…
He is, without doubt, the most quoted prime minister in British history. But even by his own standards, the speech that Winston Churchill made on 5 March 1946 stands out. Addressing an audience in Fulton, Missouri, he warned that an…
REVIEW by MARC DeSANTIS Popular memory of the Second World War is inconsistent. Certain events, such as the Battle of Britain, El Alamein, the Atlantic Campaign, D-Day, and Operation Market Garden, loom large in modern consciousness. Other events and fronts,…
In a new book, Larrie D Ferreiro explains how a special relationship between British and US combat scientists and engineers produced the innovations that won the Second World War.
Before the celebrated US paratroopers known as ‘Easy’ Company were deployed on D-Day, they were based at Aldbourne in Wiltshire. What have recent excavations revealed about their camp? Richard Osgood reports.
The discovery was made by the underwater archaeology team of Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC).
Panzer is a German word meaning ‘mail’ or ‘coat of mail’, with mail being body armour composed of interlocking metal rings. In the early 20th century, the word was applied to the tank, and thereafter entered English as a term…
• Clash in the Pacific: the fight for Guadalcanal
• Ignorance in war: from Balaclava to Vietnam
• The pirate menace: the dark side of privateering
• The Spanish Civil War: a country divided
• ‘For battle it was none’: the murder of Evesham, 1265
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine
The MHM Book Awards recognise the best military history titles, as voted for by you.
TAYLOR DOWNING reviews a classic war film.
Eighty years on, Graham Goodlad analyses the brutal battle that brought an end to Japanese expansion in the Far East.
DAVID PORTER ON MILITARY HISTORY’S DOOMED INVENTIONS
REVIEW BY GRAHAM GOODLAD This is not the first joint biography of George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and Erwin Rommel, arguably the three outstanding battlefield commanders of World War II. Terry Brighton led the way in 2009 with his acclaimed study…
This Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) Battery – located some 350m east of Decoy Farm, to the north of the River Bure, near Mautby, Norfolk – is believed to be the most-complete battery of its type in Britain, and one of only…
• The USSR at war: five battles that shaped a communist state
• The Mosquito men: the unsung heroes of 627 Squadron
• Born in blood: the fight for Irish independence
• Dunkirk: the German view
• The fight for Sweden: the Battle of Brunkeberg, 1471
This issue, we’re giving away two copies of Max Hastings’ classic book Bomber Command, courtesy of The Folio Society.
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
The Buffalo originated with a 1935 requirement for a carrier-based fighter to replace the US Navy’s Grumman F3F biplanes. Brewster’s XF2A-1 prototype was selected in June 1938 and the first production aircraft began to enter service as the F2A-1 in…
The events of late May and early June 1940 have long been the stuff of patriotic British legend, celebrated in classic war movies (most recently Christopher Nolan’s 2017 blockbuster), and hailed by Winston Churchill as a ‘miracle of deliverance’. For…
Which day in 1940 saw the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, bringing the so-called Phoney War to an end?
In a new book, Robert Kershaw argues that the lack of a German perspective means we have only a partial understanding of the events of May-June 1940. Here, he explains what his research tells us about a battle that changed the tide of the Second World War.
The elite Pathfinders of 627 Squadron may not have achieved the renown of their Dambusting comrades in 617 Squadron but, as David Price explains in a new book, their Second World War acts of valour were equally remarkable.
The bridge will be reserved for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as serving as a monument to victims of the war.
REVIEW BY TAYLOR DOWNING Ben Macintyre is well known for his books on spies and espionage, like Agent Zigzag, Double Cross, and Philby. Earlier this year, one of his other works, Operation Mincemeat, was adapted into a hugely successful movie…
REVIEW BY TOBY CLARK Anyone who enjoyed the HBO television series The Pacific or Eugene Sledge’s memoir With the Old Breed will want to read Saul David’s new book, Devil Dogs: first in, last out – King Company from Guadalcanal…
Graham Goodlad assesses the career of Britain’s best-known and most controversial general of the Second World War.
Graham Goodlad analyses Montgomery’s epic clash with Rommel’s forces, which signalled the end for Nazi Germany’s ambitions in the Middle East.
A besieged city, a hostile army enveloping on all sides, and a ruthless commander refusing to surrender – this was not 1942, but 1919, when the city in southern Russia then known as Tsaritsyn was on the verge of being…
REVIEW BY SIMON BAKER Anyone with more than a passing interest in the history of the SAS may well be familiar with the regiment’s genesis myth: in 1941, a tall Commando called David Stirling, in hospital after a nasty parachute…
Taylor Downing reviews a new documentary.
DAVID PORTER ON MILITARY HISTORY’S DOOMED INVENTIONS.
REVIEW BY TOBY CLARK. Sailing into Hong Kong in late August 1945, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Anson symbolised the Japanese defeat. Within a week of her arrival, the Anson hosted 500 recently freed ex-Prisoners of War (POWs) for afternoon…