MHM Letters – April/May
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
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Back to the Drawing Board: Heinkel He 177 GreIf
Frantic redesign efforts were made, but in 1942 the aircraft finally entered production still plagued with the same engine problems.
Museum – 1066 Battle of Hastings Abbey and Battlefield
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions with Calum Henderson.
Special Forces in World War II
Elite units played an essential if often obscure role during the Second World War. In this new illustrated book, with more than 120 colour and black-and-white images, Michael E Haskew charts units from across the globe, regardless of nation or…
Crusader strategy: a contradiction in terms?
Medieval warfare was not just a matter of crude feudal violence, argues Steve Tibble.
At Close Range: life and death in an artillery regiment, 1939-45
The direct experience of the gunners has long been a neglected aspect of World War II history. We have had plenty on life in a tank unit, or a fighter squadron, but there is a sense in which the role…
Blood and Iron: the rise and fall of the German Empire 1871-1918
Just over halfway through her excellent new book on Germany between the Franco-Prussian War and the First World War, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the ‘Captain of Köpenick’ incident. In 1906, an petty criminal called Wilhelm Voigt went around…
War of Words – ‘Grenade’
‘Grenade’ derives from the Old French pome grenate, on account of the bomblet’s similarity in shape to the pomegranate fruit.
The Spitfire Kids
Despite depictions of the Battle of Britain as a campaign waged by grown-up men and women, the average age of an RAF fighter pilot at the height of the Second World War was just 20 – with those involved in…
Barbarossa – the biggest invasion in history
David Porter analyses the tense relationship between the two most powerful dictators in Europe during the countdown to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.
The German invasion of Russia
David Porter analyses the largest military invasion in history.
Napoleon’s tomb
Finally completed in April 1861,Napoleon’s remains were transferred into this huge object of red aventurine quartzite from a quarry in northern Russia.
Jet Man: the making and breaking of Frank Whittle, genius of the jet revolution
This is a fine, deeply researched book, with Frank Whittle’s story beginning with a lad of humble origin who, aged just 16, entered the RAF as an apprentice fitter, already with strong views about the viability of gas-turbine aero engines…
Nuclear Folly: a new history of the Cuban Missile Crisis
A crisis over a small island south of the mainland United States in the autumn of 1962 was the closest the world ever came to a devastating nuclear war. Award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy, who recently chronicled the 1986 Chernobyl disaster,…
Chancellorsville, 1863: A case of nerves, the moon, and mistaken identity
John Lock looks at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863 in the first of a series of articles looking at the Butterfly Effect – where small incidents have significant consequences.
HARRIER 809: Britain’s legendary jump jet, and the untold story of the Falkands War
In 1982, Britain went to war in the Falklands, relying for the last time on an aircraft that was entirely made within the country: the Harrier Jump Jet. Not only this, but the head of the department that produced the…
Bid launched to secure Culloden battlefield as world heritage site
To coincide with the battle’s 275th anniversary, which fell earlier this year, the National Trust of Scotland (NTS) has published a manifesto, which it hopes the Scottish parliament will back, to grant the site UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
Facing the Mountain: the forgotten heroes of the Second World War
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor of 80 years ago not only brought the United States into a war, but provoked a wave of hostility to Japanese immigrants and their children across America. Daniel James Brown here explores the lives…
Why We Fight – The Battle of Russia
Like all the Why We Fight films, it is a highly charged, emotional account, always looking to create maximum impact.
Stalin’s War
‘I trust no one, not even myself.’ So the merciless dictator of the Soviet Union reportedly once said. In this new book, Sean McMeekin explores the Second World War from Joseph Stalin’s perspective. From his complex relations with both Winston…
Churchill and Son
What did the leaders of the ‘Big Three’ superpowers during the Second World War have in common? Well, Franklin Roosevelt’s five children went through 19 marriages between them. Meanwhile, Stalin laughed off his son’s suicide attempt and chronically neglected his…
Military History Events, Lectures, and Exhibitions – May
The best military history events, lectures, and exhibitions in May 2021, including an online course delving into the discovery of King Richard III in a car park, and an exhibit on Disney wartime propaganda.
Disney goes to war
More than 90% of the Disney company’s wartime output was dedicated to assisting in the struggle against Japan, Nazi Germany, and their allies.
Debacle in the wilderness: Braddock at Monongahela
‘A volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire.’ That was the judgement of Horace Walpole. Fred Chiaventone tells the story.
Legendary ‘Flying Sikh’ to be commemorated with statue
He became known as the ‘Flying Sikh’ because he wore a specially designed helmet that fitted over his turban.
The Shortest History of War
From slings and arrows to cyberwarfare, conflict is innate to human nature despite the peace much of the modern world now enjoys. In the latest addition to the bestselling ‘shortest history’ series, historian Gwynne Dyer summarises the story of conflict…
The Reckoning: the defeat of Army Group South, 1944
The Eastern Front remains the forgotten child of Western histories of the Second World War. Even the phrase ‘Eastern Front’ is a reflection of a Western-centric view that sees the struggle between the USSR and Germany as an afterthought compared…
War Classics – A Bridge Too Far
MHM Editor Neil Faulkner recalls one of the great works of military history.
Filming begins on new Spielberg WWII miniseries
The series is based on Donald L Miller’s non-fiction book of the same name on the American 8th Air Force.
Fishguard, February 1797: the last French invasion of Britain
Patrick Mercer begins an occasional series looking at some of history’s less well-known battles.
Exhibition on Nero promises to shed new light on Roman emperor
The British Museum claims it will present Nero, who was also widely admired for popular policies, extravagant games, and building projects, in a balanced light and allow visitors to make up their own minds.
World’s ‘deepest-known shipwreck’ surveyed in the Pacific Ocean
Heavily outnumbered and outgunned, she nonetheless fought valiantly against her larger opponents, allowing time for the escort carriers she was protecting to escape. Of the ship’s 327-man crew, only 141 survived the battle.