Hitler’s Fortress Europe: Planning for defeat?
D-Day, 80 years on: Graham Goodlad examines Germany’s flawed preparations to resist an Allied invasion of North-West Europe.
mhm139
D-Day: Before the storm
The decisive victory of World War II in Western Europe took place 80 years ago this summer. On 6 June 1944, after months of planning, around 150,000 men from five divisions – two American, two British, and one Canadian —…
Dressing for battle: Arms and armour in the Roman Empire
A new exhibition at the British Museum looks at a soldier’s life at the height of the Roman Empire. Here, the show’s lead curator Richard Abdy considers some of the extraordinary objects on view, and reveals how they helped turn the Roman Army into such a formidable fighting force.
MHM 139 Letters – March
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
MHM 139 Competition
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition.
The ghost of Genghis Khan
After the Russian Revolution, one young officer forged a career so strange that it went down in legend. Tim Newark examines the short and bloody life of Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, and recalls his bizarre mission to create his own barbarian empire in the Russian far east.
Looking death in the face: The battle for Beecher Island, September 1868
Amid the turmoil of the American Indian wars, a tiny band of US Army irregulars held out against a far larger force of Native American warriors. Fred Chiaventone tells the remarkable story of Major George Forsyth’s desperate last stand on an island in the Arikaree River.
Orford Ness national nature reserve
Reviewing the best Military History Exhibitions with Ben Goodlad.
War of Words – ‘Javelin’
With Marc DeSantis
Back to the drawing board: HMS Captain
David Porter on Military History's doomed inventions.
The Lionheart in winter: Richard I’s last campaign, 1194-1199
He was the ‘Crusader King’, whose exploits made him a national hero. But does Richard I deserve his reputation as a martial genius? Stephen Roberts studies his final campaign in search of clues.
The Eastern Front: A history of the First World War
REVIEW BY JONATHAN EATON The Eastern Front: a history of the First World War is the second instalment in Nick Lloyd’s trilogy exploring the experiences and history of the conflict through an intensive focus on individual combat theatres. Lloyd is…
Arctic Convoys: Bletchley Park and the war for the seas
REVIEW BY ANDREW MULHOLLAND The Arctic campaign, fought between 1941 and 1945, saw Allied convoys battling through icy seas to deliver supplies to northern Russia. It was the stuff of legend. Yet more than 90 per cent of the cargo…
Battle for the Island Kingdom
REVIEW BY JEFFREY JAMES This new book by Don Hollway ambitiously sets out to describe the complex interplay between competing European royal houses during what academics call ‘The Second Viking Age’. Hollway does so by examining the motivations and ambitions…
Soldiers and Civilians, Transport and Provisions: Early Modern Military Logistics and Supply System during the British Civil Wars, 1638-1653
REVIEW BY DAVID FLINTHAM History knows many more armies ruined by want and disorder than by the efforts of their enemies, and I have witnessed how all the enterprises which were embarked on in my day were lacking for that…
The Fatal Alliance: A century of war on film
REVIEW BY TAYLOR DOWNING Film critic David Thomson grew up in south London in the late 1940s and ’50s on a diet of British war films. He has since moved to San Francisco, and has written 30 books about cinema,…
In View
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history titles.
War On Film – Masters of the Air
TAYLOR DOWNING reviews a major new television series
Creating havoc, 1942
In this image, the newly constructed glass noses of several dozen A-20 ‘Havoc’ bombers shimmer under the factory lights at the Douglas Aircraft Company’s production plant in Long Beach, California. The picture was taken in October 1942 by Alfred Palmer,…
War Classics – Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War
Graham Goodlad recalls one of the great works of military history.
First World War soldier’s remarkable survival story told in new display
A First World War soldier was saved when a pocketbook he was carrying stopped a sniper’s bullet. The remarkable story of Private Sydney ‘Syd’ Cross is part of a new display at Knightshayes Court, a Victorian mansion in Devon which…
Museum plans lodged for WWII landing craft dug up by volunteers
The volunteers who excavated a World War II landing craft in Lincolnshire three years ago have now applied for it to be given a permanent home. The Buffalo LVT (Landing Vehicle, Tracked) was dug up in Crowland, north-east of Peterborough,…
Rare early medieval burials uncovered near Fonmon Castle in south Wales
A rare early medieval cemetery containing the remains of several women has been found near Fonmon Castle in South Wales. The remains, estimated to be of roughly 80 individuals, were buried around 1,500 years ago and are believed to have…
New exhibition explores ‘great escapes’ during World War II
To mark the 80th anniversary of the legendary Allied breakout from a German concentration camp in March 1944, a new exhibition is exploring other ‘great escapes’ that took place during the Second World War. The exhibition, which opened last month…