MHM 146 Letters – May
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
Military History
Notorious Swedish Warship Vasa gets new support structure
A project has begun to preserve the 400-year-old Swedish warship Vasa, which notoriously sank on her maiden voyage. A new metal structure is being installed to support the hull of the ship, which has its own museum in Stockholm and…
Wreck of Second World War bomber discovered off Greek coast
A Second World War bomber which lay at the bottom of the Aegean Sea for more than 80 years has been rediscovered. The wreck was found last year by specialist divers off the Greek island of Antikythera, more than 60…
Tower of London poppies return to mark VE Day anniversary
A new display of ceramic poppies has opened at the Tower of London to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The installation, which opened on 6 May, uses some 30,000 poppies from a similar…
Mass grave of Roman soldiers found in Vienna linked to ‘catastrophic event’
An ‘unprecedented’ mass grave of Roman soldiers has been uncovered in Vienna. The find was made last autumn by construction workers who were renovating a football pitch in the Simmering district of the city. In April, experts at the Vienna…
Jersey exhibition on ‘life after liberation’
A new exhibition is exploring how Jersey recovered after five years of Nazi occupation. Life after Liberation: the road to recovery is part of the island’s celebrations to mark 80 years since the war’s end. It runs until December. Jersey…
Newhaven Fort
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions with Carly Jones.
Saint Petersburg: sacrifice and redemption in the city that defied Hitler
REVIEW BY CALUM HENDERSON St Petersburg has an immensely dark history. Built largely by slave labour on the orders of Peter the Great in the early 1700s, it has endured more than its fair share of assassination, revolution, flooding, and…
Ring of Fire: a new global history of the outbreak of the First World War
REVIEW BY JONATHAN EATON In recent years, historians have increasingly sought to understand major conflicts from a genuinely global perspective. While this approach has perhaps always been synonymous with the Second World War, where the shape of the conflict was…
Chain of Fire: campaigning in Egypt and the Sudan, 1882-1898
REVIEW BY PATRICK MERCER If, as a youngster, you enjoyed those wonderful films Khartoum, The Four Feathers and Young Winston, you were not alone. I sat as transfixed as the spear that skewered General Gordon, as the bayonets that shimmered…
Midway: the Pacific War’s most famous battle
REVIEW BY MARK DeSANTIS The Battle of Midway in early June 1942 is arguably the most significant naval encounter of the Second World War, and easily one of the most notable battles in all history. The three-day fight in the…
Celebrations at St Paul’s, VE Day, 8 May 1945
In this image, St Paul’s Cathedral is dramatically illuminated on the night of VE Day, 8 May 1945, which marked the end of the Second World War in Europe. Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece in central London had survived the war…
War of Words – ‘Constable’
With Marc DeSantis
In Brief
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
Fortress Study Group
Formed in 1975 (and thus celebrating its first half-century this year), the Fortress Study Group (FSG) is devoted to the study and preservation of artillery fortifications. While early examples of these structures are found in Norwich and Southampton, it was…
Rare Civil War defences uncovered at Sheffield Castle
During the English Civil War, Sheffield Castle – a Royalist stronghold – was besieged for ten days by Parliamentary forces who ultimately seized control of the fortifications. Traces of this conflict have now been uncovered during Wessex Archaeology’s ongoing excavations…
Forgotten voices of conflict: Examining the fate of First World War graffiti
Traces of the First World War are often seen in terms of trenches, battlefields, and cemeteries, but the soldiers caught up in this conflict left more subtle testimonies to their presence. Graffiti ranging from pencilled names to patriotic artistry provide powerful and personal glimpses of the combatants, as David Crossland reveals.
The Battle of Poltava: 8 July 1709
Stephen Roberts analyses the battle that established Russia as a major European power.
The making of Russia
In our special feature, Stephen Roberts examines first the life of Peter the Great, a pivotal figure in Russian history, then looks in detail at the Battle of Poltava that established Russia for the first time as a major power on the European stage.
The Story of St Petersburg 1703-1991
Infographics: Calum Henderson / Images: WIPL/Wikimedia Commons
MHM 145 Competition
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition.
A long shadow: The road to Appomattox – Part 3: 1864-1865
In the third part of our series on the American Civil War, Fred Chiaventone traces the conflict’s bloody final months.
Endgame WWII – The key questions: Was Eisenhower right to leave Berlin to the Soviets?
In the third part of our series marking the 80th anniversary of World War II’s final months, Taylor Downing asks whether the Allied Supreme Commander was correct in allowing the Russians to capture the German capital.
MHM 145 Letters – March
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
Gladiators of Britain
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions with MHM.
Master and commander
In the final part of our occasional series on the rise of Britain’s imperial navy, Graham Goodlad reviews the remarkable career of Admiral George Anson.
Kamikaze: Fire from the sky
As Japan faced defeat in World War II, suicide attacks provided it with a deadly new weapon in the Pacific, says David Porter.
War on Film – Number 24
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film releases.
War Classics – Enemy at the Gates
Younger readers might be forgiven for thinking that Enemy at the Gates is merely a novelisation of the 2001 film of the same name. But the movie – directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and starring Jude Law – in fact takes its title from William Craig’s groundbreaking 1973 history of Stalingrad, the first Western history to make extensive use of Russian sources.
Storming the Presidential Palace, Saigon, 1975
In this dramatic photograph – taken on 30 April 1975, 50 years ago this spring – a North Vietnamese tank is pictured at the climactic moment, as it smashes through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon. The fall…
Site of King Harold’s lost palace identified by archaeologists
Archaeologists have confirmed ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ the site of the long-lost home of Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England – thanks in part to a medieval toilet. Harold ruled as the English monarch for only nine months…
Veterans uncover Iron Age treasures at RAF airfield in Anglesey
Iron Age artefacts that were discovered beneath an airfield in Wales have been declared national treasure. Parts of a Celtic chariot, believed to be around 2,000 years old, were found on the site of RAF Valley in Anglesey in April…
Memorial commemorating South African war dead inaugurated in Cape Town
A new memorial honouring the contribution of South African military labourers in the First World War has been inaugurated in Cape Town. The monument, which was funded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and is called the Labour Corps…
Researchers turn to AI to investigate lives of Civil War sailors
A new research project is using artificial intelligence to uncover the stories of Union sailors, or ‘bluejackets’, during the American Civil War. The study is the result of a collaboration between the universities of Sheffield and Northumbria. It aims to…
WWII German U-boat to find new home in Birkenhead
Construction has begun on a new home for a rare German U-boat from the Second World War. The new Battle of the Atlantic U-boat Museum, which will house the vessel U-534, is expected to open in Birkenhead in 2026. The…
War of Words – ‘A chip on his shoulder’
With Marc DeSantis