Ranjit Singh: Sikh, Warrior, King
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions with Peter Popham.
military history matters
War of Words – ‘Ballistic’
With Marc DeSantis
New trail marking the Battle of Bosworth field to be launched next year
It was one of the most significant battles in English history. Now a new trail will reveal the ‘lost’ stories of the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The trail will be launched in Leicestershire in spring next year. A crowdfunding…
Work begins on major restoration of ‘innovative’ Sussex coastal fort
A major new restoration project is under way at the 150-year-old Newhaven Fort, which is one of the largest defensive works ever built in Sussex. The £7.5 million project aims to open up previously inaccessible areas of the fort, such…
‘Vast’ air raid shelter found by schoolchildren in Northamptonshire
A forgotten air raid shelter, buried for more than 80 years, was found recently by a group of schoolchildren. Pupils at St Peter’s Independent School in Kettering, Northamptonshire, made the discovery during a clear-up of the school grounds earlier this…
New memorial to commemorate the forgotten South African dead of World War I
A new memorial is being constructed to commemorate the forgotten sacrifice of 1,700 black South African servicemen who died during the First World War. The monument, funded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), will be known as the Cape…
MHM Book Awards 2024
Sponsored by: The ballots have been cast, the votes have been counted – and now we are delighted finally to announce the winners of the MHM Book Awards. Earlier this year, we curated a list of the best military history…
War Classics – Wellington in the Peninsula
Nick Spenceley recalls one of the great works of military history.
In View
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history titles.
Agent Zo: the untold story of fearless WWII resistance fighter Elżbieta Zawacka
REVIEW BY ANDREW MULHOLLAND This latest book from biographer Clare Mulley goes way beyond the astonishing life story of Elżbieta Zawacka. For it also provides an important overview of 20th-century Poland, as well as a reminder of the horrors of…
Normandy: the Sailors’ Story – A naval history of D-Day and the battle for France
REVIEW BY CALUM HENDERSON The Battle of Normandy has been covered extensively in the 80 years since it took place. But less well remembered is the naval campaign that accompanied it, the subject of this new book by Nick Hewitt,…
1217: The battles that saved England
REVIEW BY DUNCAN CAMERON The reign of King John is a period of immense significance in English history, comparable to the events of 1066 and the Norman Conquest a century and a half previously. John’s signing of the Magna Carta…
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.
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.
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.
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.
Imphal & Kohima: Turning point in Burma
Graham Goodlad analyses Slim’s crucial victory, which dispelled the myth of Japanese invincibility.
Burma ’44: From disaster to triumph
In our two-part special for this issue, Graham Goodlad first profiles Slim and then looks in detail at Imphal and Kohima.
MHM 138 Letters – January
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
MHM 138 Competition
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition.
The spies who never were
In the third part of our series on deception in World War II, Taylor Downing uncovers the true story of double agents Brutus and Garbo.
The last charge: The Battle of Mars-la-Tour and Von Bredow’s ‘Death Ride’, 16 August 1870
One of the crucial battles of the Franco-Prussian War was also the scene of perhaps the last successful cavalry charge in Western European warfare, as William E Welsh explains.
1385 and all that: The failed French conquest of England
The Norman Conquest of 1066 remains one of the best-known events in English history – but French attempts to invade three centuries later have now largely been forgotten, as Duncan Cameron explains.
War on Film – Napoleon
TAYLOR DOWNING reviews the latest film releases.
Back to the drawing board: The M551 Sheridan
David Porter on Military History's doomed inventions.
Fort Stanwix National Monument
Reviewing the best Military History Exhibitions with Christopher Warner
In View
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history titles.
Warriors in Scarlet: The Life and Times of the Last Redcoats
REVIEW BY GRAHAM GOODLAD Ian Knight has gained a deserved reputation as an expert on the Anglo-Zulu War. In Warriors in Scarlet, he turns his attention to a broader canvas. His subject is the British army in the first half…
Mirrors of Greatness: Churchill and the leaders who shaped him
REVIEW BY PATRICK MERCER I thought I knew a fair bit about Winston Churchill, but I have just discovered that he had skin ‘about the size of a shilling’ taken from his arm and grafted on to a brother officer…
Luck of the Draw: My story of the air war in Europe
REVIEW BY COLIN POMEROY Luck of the Draw, which has just been adapted by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks into the new television series Masters of the Air, is in effect the autobiography of the late Frank Murphy. It tells…
A Nasty Little War: The West’s fight to reverse the Russian Revolution
REVIEW BY CALUM HENDERSON Throughout the Cold War, various American presidents liked to say that the West and the Soviet Union had never fought one another directly, with the obvious implication being that they wanted to keep it that way.…
The Kaiser’s U-boats
At the outbreak of the First World War, a terrible new weapon changed the rules of naval warfare. One hundred and ten years on, David Porter takes a deep dive into Germany’s submarine threat.
Research sheds new light on WWI U-boat’s final moments
A U-boat that sank off the coast of Germany at the end of the First World War was most likely scuttled, according to new research. Scientists from the University of Dundee believe they have established what happened to UC-71, which…
War Classics: The Cruel Sea
Nick Spenceley recalls one of the great works of military history.