MHM Book Awards 2026
The ballots have been cast, the votes counted, and we are delighted to announce the winners of the MHM Book Awards. We curated a list of 2025’s best military history titles, and asked you, our readers, to vote for your…
siege warfare
MHM 153 Letters – July
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
Siege in Ireland 1641-53
Between 1639 and 1653, the whole of the British Isles was engulfed by civil war. Despite popular opinion, however, it was not pitched battles that dominated the fighting, but sieges. Not for nothing did one veteran of the conflict comment:…
Grim devastation: Roman Republican sieges in Hispania and Gaul
Roman sieges could come with serious consequences for besieged and besiegers alike. Mike Dobson examines the evidence for such warfare in Hispania and Gaul.
The Mill on the Meuse
In the second part of our special feature, Graham Goodlad examines the epic French defence of the fortress of Verdun in the longest battle of World War I.
Assault on Shaizar: How the Assassins met their match
They were the world’s most feared killers. But, in 1114, the Assassins were thwarted – not by elite bodyguards, but by a group of middle-aged women who weren’t prepared to be pushed around. Steve Tibble reveals all.
Trove of helmets from World Wars I and II uncovered on site of former German barracks
A trove of helmets dating from the First and Second World Wars has been discovered by archaeologists in Poland. Road-construction workers found more than 50 helmets lying just beneath the surface on Koszarowa Street in the city of Wrocław. The…
The Siege of Tyre: Alexander the Great and the gateway to empire
REVIEW BY MARC DeSANTIS Alexander the Great of Macedonia is one of the best-known figures of ancient history. Comparatively large amounts of written material concerning his short but extraordinarily eventful life have survived from ancient times. This is a boon…
The Great Siege of Malta
REVIEW BY STEVE TIBBLE Writing a major new popular history about the Great Siege of Malta of 1565, in which the Knights Hospitaller – a Catholic military order – saw off a four-month assault by the Ottoman Empire, is no…
A conflict reimagined: Creating a digital model of the Roman assault on Burnswark Hill
Advances in digital technology are opening up ever-more realistic ways to depict archaeological sites and events from the past. John Reid describes how excavated evidence has been used to create a detailed and dramatic model of a Roman attack on a hillfort in Dumfriesshire.
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.
Fort Stanwix National Monument
Reviewing the best Military History Exhibitions with Christopher Warner
If walls could talk: Tracing the lost defences of Beaumaris
Excavations in Beaumaris, Anglesey, have uncovered elements of the town’s medieval defences that were thought to have been demolished half a century ago, as well as providing vivid insight into the lives of the people who lived beside them for hundreds of years. Matthew Jones and Catherine Rees report.
CA 403 Letters – September
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
The cruel siege of Siena
When the army of Europe’s most powerful monarch besieged the Tuscan city in 1554, it took terror and hunger to achieve what cannon and arquebus could not, as William E Welsh explains.
The ancient world’s largest fortresses: Persia’s northern defences in late antiquity
In the 4th to 6th centuries AD, Persia was under attack from the north by the ‘White Huns’ and other powerful groups of steppe warriors. Persia’s response was to create a massive fortification belt – unsurpassed in scale anywhere in the ancient and medieval world, with only the possible exception of China. Eberhard Sauer, Jebrael Nokandeh, Hamid Omrani Rekavandi, Mohammadreza Nemati, and Mehdi Mousavinia have explored the backbone of the system: the densest concentration of mega-fortresses in the late antique world, in the Gorgan and Tehran Plains of Iran.
This week: Roman battles
As any Asterix fan will tell you, the siege of Alésia occupies a special place in the French psyche. The climactic action of Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul took place in September 52 BC – two years before the adventures…
Dictionary of Fortifications
REVIEW by DAVID FLINTHAM Until relatively recently, there were more terms relating to fortifications than to probably any other area of military history. Confusion is easy, especially since many of the words and phrases come directly from languages other than…
Dictionary of Fortifications: an illustrated glossary
Review by David Flintham From Iron Age hillforts to Second World War pillboxes, fortifications are all around us. Yet there are probably more terms relating to fortifications than anything else in military history. Author Jean-Denis Lepage has challenged himself to…
The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: the hidden truth at the centre of WWII’s greatest battle
A besieged city, a hostile army enveloping on all sides, and a ruthless commander refusing to surrender – this was not 1942, but 1919, when the city in southern Russia then known as Tsaritsyn was on the verge of being…
Ancient ceramic vessels were used as hand grenades, analysis suggests
Four pot sherds found between 1961 and 1967 in the Armenian Garden, located within the walled Old City of Jerusalem, were studied as part of the research.
War of words – ‘SIEGE’
‘Siege’ derives from the Old French sege and had appeared in English by the 14th century.
Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors
The story of Alexander the Great, the dashing young prince who conquered vast swathes of the world before his mysterious death at the age of just 32, is a familiar one. It has fascinated historians for over two millennia, but…