MHM 140 Letters – May
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
Military History
Churchill and the scientists: Towards a new world
In the first of a new series to celebrate the 150th birthday of Winston Churchill, Taylor Downing examines his role in some of the incredible technological advances made during World War I.
A man of destiny
In the second part of our series on Britain’s rise as a naval power, Graham Goodlad explains how supremacy at sea became closely linked with the 18th-century career of Admiral Edward Vernon.
A cannon from HMS Tyger, sunk off the Florida coast
In this image, a diver surveys one of the five cannon found during an archaeological exploration in Dry Tortugas National Park, off the south-west coast of Florida. The cannon played a crucial role in confirming that a nearby wreck, first…
MHM 140 Competition
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition.
Back to the drawing board: The Savoia-Marchetti SM.85
David Porter on Military History's doomed inventions.
War on Film – The Zone of Interest
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film releases.
Into the Green Hell: The Chaco War, 1932-1935
Around 100,000 soldiers lost their lives when two of South America’s poorest countries went to war over a vast area of untamed wilderness. Edmund West goes in search of Paraguay’s heart of darkness.
Ranjit Singh: Sikh, Warrior, King
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions with Peter Popham.
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…
Warriors of Rome: From soldiers to citizens in service of the Empire
Rome’s military is renowned as one of the finest fighting forces of the ancient world. But what was life really like for the individuals who became career soldiers, and how much do we know about the tools of their trade? Richard Abdy told Matthew Symonds about the people who fought for Rome.
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.
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…