The Siege of Pavia: Defeating the Lombards, 773-774
In the second part of our special, Stephen Roberts reveals how a key victory helped Charlemagne establish the foundations for the Holy Roman Empire.
Military History
Charlemagne: From life to death, a timeline of events that defined the legendary king’s reign.
Infographics: Amy Brunskill
In Brief
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
A world upside down: The American Revolution – Part 4: the final act
In the concluding part of our series marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, Fred Chiaventone reveals how the Revolutionary War was won at last.
War on Film – The American Revolution
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film and television releases.
The bridge that saved a city: The Iron Curtain fall – Part 5: the Berlin Airlift
Continuing our series on the coming of the Cold War, Taylor Downing examines the first major confrontation with the Soviets.
Judgement at Nuremberg
Eighty years on, Ben Goodlad reveals how the trials of 24 high-ranking Nazis shaped modern attitudes to punishing war crimes.
MHM 151 Letters – March
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
The Tsar’s last victory: The Brusilov Offensive, June-September 1916
It was the greatest Russian triumph of World War I – but the Brusilov Offensive also sowed the seeds of revolution, as David Porter reports.
MHM 151 Competition
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition.
Jeremy Black
The author and historian on childhood reading habits and
new ways to look at the past.
War Classics – With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
With the Old Breed is a harrowing, visceral account of a US Marine’s combat experience fighting the Japanese in Peleliu and Okinawa in 1945. Together with Robert Leckie’s Helmet for My Pillow, it provided the material for HBO’s acclaimed 2010 television series The Pacific. Excellent though the latter was, the book offers much more.
Wolfpack: inside Hitler’s U-boat war
As Roger Moorhouse suggests in the introduction to Wolfpack, it was natural that post-war English language books about the Battle of the Atlantic would largely ignore the German perspective on the conflict. After the horrors of war, a kind of…
The Spanish Civil War in the Air Volume 1: 1936-37
Under-funded and wracked by the hostility between political factions within its ranks, Spain’s military aviation was in a dire state in the period immediately before the Spanish Civil War. At this time, the air force was equipped with 60 Bréguet…
Germany’s First World War Aviators: the lives of fliers
Since the late 1990s, the study of World War I has moved beyond the constraints of military history to embrace an increasingly multidisciplinary agenda. Not least in this has been the adoption and incorporation of anthropological and archaeological perspectives, focusing…
Tunisgrad: victory in Africa
It is something of a cliché in the history of the Second World War to claim that Stalingrad, the graveyard of Germany’s Sixth Army in Russia, was the decisive turning point of the conflict: the moment when Hitler’s hopes of…
Samurai
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions, with Peter Popham.
Military mass graves unearthed in the Czech Republic
Archaeologists have discovered four military mass graves from the 18th and 19th centuries during rescue excavations in advance of the construction of the D11 highway between the towns of Jaroměř and Trutnov in the Czech Republic. The first mass grave…
Excavations at former concentration camp
During World War II, a number of German armament factories were relocated underground as a result of Allied air raids. In August 1944, a work detail of the Buchenwald concentration camp was established near the village of Walbeck, in the…
Richly furnished warrior burials discovered in Hungary
The graves of three elite warriors, dating to the period of the Hungarian Conquest (AD 920s-930s), have been discovered near the village of Akasztó in southern Hungary. One of these burials, belonging to a 17- or 18-year-old warrior, is among…
Project to preserve Second World War Devastator torpedo bomber
When it first took to the skies in 1935, the Douglas TBD-1 Devastator represented a significant leap forward in aircraft design, with its all-metal construction and single low-mounted wing. It was the first plane type in the US fleet with…
Export ban placed on flag from Battle of Trafalgar
A temporary export ban has been placed on a Union Flag that flew from HMS Royal Sovereign – the ship that led the British charge at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 – in order to allow time…
War of Words – ‘The World Wonders’
With Marc DeSantis
109 Roman mounts: Excavating a military horse cemetery
Investigating the environs of a Roman fort at Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, in south-west Germany, has revealed the remains of a remarkable number of cavalry horses. Sarah Roth explains what these can teach us about a key instrument of Roman power.
War on Film – Nuremberg
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film and television releases.
In Brief
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
Archaeo-anthropology of Conflicts in France: from the earlier Middle Ages to the Second World War
REVIEW BY NICHOLAS SAUNDERS The past 25 years have seen a revolution in our understanding of war (especially modern war), due partly to the shift from a solely military-history approach to an interdisciplinary one incorporating archaeology, anthropology, and scientific-technological advances.…
Those Who Are About to Die: a day in the life of a Roman gladiator
REVIEW BY MARC DeSANTIS Romans were hypocritical about gladiators. Typically slaves, criminals, or prisoners of war, they were seen by the upper crust as sitting squarely among the dregs of society. Yet they were admired, ogled, and cheered across the…
The White Lady: the story of two key British secret service networks behind German lines
REVIEW BY TAYLOR DOWNING Helen Fry has specialised in fascinating and revealing histories of wartime intelligence and espionage, especially of the role of women in these activities. Women in Intelligence, The Walls Have Ears, and Spymaster are a few of…
Redemption: MacArthur and the campaign for the Philippines
REVIEW BY GRAHAM GOODLAD General Douglas MacArthur is arguably the most controversial military leader in US history. His command career was bookended by two divisive episodes. As Army Chief of Staff in 1932, he earned notoriety for forcibly removing the…
MHM 150 Letters – January
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
MHM 150 Competition
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition.
Clare Mulley
The MHM award-winning author, historian, and broadcaster on overlooked stories and person-sized doorways to the past.
Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions, with Ben Goodlad.
Medieval spears recovered from Lake Lednica
Four well-preserved spears have been discovered during underwater investigations in Lake Lednica, west-central Poland. These discoveries are the latest additions to what may be the largest collection of European early medieval weaponry discovered at single site, comprising almost 300 military…
Roman soldiers found in mass grave in Croatia
In 2011, excavations at the site of the Roman-period city of Mursa (modern-day Osijek) in Croatia came across an ancient water well containing the complete skeletons of seven individuals. The results of analysis recently published in the journal PLOS One…