tactics

640px Sylvestre Ducar decapite Flaminius (Trasimene)

The Past

Roman Battles Quiz

Which notable battle, named after one of Italy's largest lakes, was won by the Carthaginian general Hannibal in 217 BC?

Military History Matters Letters 133 – March

Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.

Military History Matters Crossword 133

Across 5 Soviet general instrumental in the defeat of Finland in 1940 (10) 7 Battle of WWI fought in August 1914 (4) 9 Battle fought in Castile in April 1367 (6) 10 Country invaded by Japan in December 1941 (8)…

Win a copy of Angus Konstam’s ‘100 Greatest Battles’!

Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition, and win a copy of '100 Greatest Battles'!

Tally-Ho: RAF tactical leadership in the Battle of Britain, July 1940

REVIEW by COLIN POMEROY A renowned writer on air combat in World War II, Professor Patrick Eriksson is well known for his detailed research, something he fully demonstrates in this new book, which takes its name from the fighter pilot’s…

Right Kitchener [on the left] and Roberts [right] had a proven record of success in colonial warfare, but the two had not campaigned together before arriving in South Africa.

Imperial firefighters: Roberts, Kitchener, and the Anglo-Boer War

Graham Goodlad reveals how two late-Victorian commanders forged a winning partnership in South Africa – but left controversy in their wake.

MHM 132 Letters – January

Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine

The Last Stand by William Barnes Wollen 1898

The Past

This week: Military disasters

It is hard to disagree with the observation, made by the distinguished military historian John Keegan (1934-2012), that ‘all battles are in some degree… disasters’. But if the brutal nature of warfare means that all such conflicts end in calamity,…

The Past

Military Disasters Quiz

At which battle in 216 BC did Hannibal lure a much larger Roman army into a deadly trap?

ABOVE The disastrous charge of the British light cavalry into the 'Valley of Death' at the Battle of Balaclava, as depicted here in 1897 by the artist Richard Caton Woodville, was apparently the result of the misunderstanding of an order.

Ignorance in war: from Balaclava to Vietnam

In his latest book, the distinguished historian Peter Burke considers the many ways that misunderstandings, arrogance, and lack of knowledge can affect events on the battlefield.

Back to the Drawing Board: the M11/39 Medium Tank

DAVID PORTER ON MILITARY HISTORY’S DOOMED INVENTIONS

Left Men of the 4th Indian Infantry Division during the battle. Alamein was an international effort: along with Indians, Australian, New Zealand, South African, and Free French troops fought beside the British.

El Alamein: turning point in the desert

Graham Goodlad analyses Montgomery’s epic clash with Rommel’s forces, which signalled the end for Nazi Germany’s ambitions in the Middle East.

Above A captured Type 36A Zerstörer off Boston, September 1945. Although seemingly impressive, significant problems were encountered as the ships came into service.

German Second World War Destroyers

DAVID PORTER ON MILITARY HISTORY’S DOOMED INVENTIONS.

Below A StuG III assault gun waits amid ruined buildings outside Kharkov.

Case Blue: the Eastern Front between Barbarossa and Stalingrad

Eighty years on, David Porter analyses Germany’s plan to launch another great offensive in the summer of 1942.

MHM 129 Crossword

Put you military history knowledge to the test!

War Classics: On War (Vom Kriege)

Patrick Mercer recalls one of the great works of military history.

Below The Battle of Marathon, ‘the battle that saved Greek civilisation’, 490 BC. Some 26 miles from Athens, heavily armoured Athenian hoplites broke the Persian line to defeat a numerically superior army.

The myth of decisive battle

Ashley Cooper and Stephen Cooper question the hallowed notion of decisive battle.

LEFT German mountain infantry gather by their aircraft, before their flight to Crete, 1941.

The Battle for Crete: 20 May-1 June 1941

Neil Faulkner analyses one of the Second World War’s most curiously asymmetrical battles.

BELOW Company of 107th infantry, photographed by Alexander Gardner in 1865 at Fort Woodbury.

‘I never saw braver men’: black soldiers in the American West

Fred Chiaventone recalls the service of the US Army’s first black regiments.

The King’s culprits: what became of the prisoners of 1798?

Inspired by the American and French revolutions, the Irish Rebellion of 1798 saw thousands take up arms against against British rule. But though it would inspire future generations of republicans, the rising was quickly crushed and many of the rebels were taken prisoner. Patrick Mercer looks at what happened next.

War of words – ‘SIEGE’

‘Siege’ derives from the Old French sege and had appeared in English by the 14th century.

War on Film: The Forgotten Battle

TAYLOR DOWNING reviews the latest film releases.

BELOW Tapestry depicting the Battle of Pavia in northern Italy in 1525. On the left, German Landsknechts clash with Swiss pikemen. On the right, a formidable field fortification bristles with cannon.

Renaissance warfare: a military revolution

Neil Faulkner analyses the changing nature of warfare in early 16th-century Europe.

OPPOSITE This depiction of the Battle of Pavia in 1525 gives a sense of what the fighting at Bicocca three years earlier was like. Note the close terrain, the dense formations, and the combination of horse and foot, pike and shot, and entrenched cannon.

The Battle of Bicocca, 27 April 1522

Neil Faulkner analyses a typical battle of the Italian Wars, a clash between a French and an Imperialist army near the northern Italian city of Milan, fought 500 years ago this spring.

The Past

Waterloo Quiz

From which island did the exiled Napoleon escape in February 1815, setting off the chain of events which led to the Battle of Waterloo?

The Battle of Crécy, 26 August 1346

Neil Faulkner analyses the first great victory of Edward III’s new tactical system in the Hundred Years War.

OPPOSITE British Redcoats drive off Rebel militia at Lexington in 1775. Few at the time would have put money on an American victory over the British Empire.

How the Americans defeated the British in the Revolutionary War

William V Wenger offers a forensic analysis of the American victory, apparently against the odds, in the war of 1775-1783.

1200px Elizabeth Southerden Butler Lady Butler 1846 1933 The Defence of Rorkes Drift RCIN 405897 Royal Collection

The Past

This week: Rorke’s Drift

The Defence of Rorke's Drift remains one of the most celebrated engagements in UK military history. On the night of 22 January 1879, a force of just over 150 British and colonial troops held off an estimated 3-4,000 Zulu warriors during more than 12 hours of bitter, hand-to-hand fighting that would result in the award of 11 Victoria Crosses.

The Past

This week: Alexander the Great

He inherited the kingdom of Macedonia (in modern-day Greece) at the age of 20. By the time of his death, just 13 years later, he had created an empire that covered two million square miles – stretching across three continents, from the Danube and the Nile to the Himalayas – and all without losing a battle.

BELOW The famous Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun in Pompeii. It depicts the encounter between Alexander (on the left) and Darius (on the right) on the battlefield of either Issus or Gaugamela. Like virtually all our source material for Alexander, it is mythologising propaganda that offers no real clues as to what actually happened.

The Battle of Gaugamela, 1 October 331 BC

Neil Faulkner analyses one of history’s greatest tactical triumphs.

BELOW British infantry fight against the French heavies at Corunna. Moore recognised the need for an agreed and coherent light infantry system across the whole British Army.

Sir John Moore and the Battle of Corunna

Andrew Mulholland analyses a masterful tactical defence by one of the finest British commanders of the Napoleonic Wars.

Nelson and Trafalgar

Graham Goodlad concludes our series on naval leadership with a look at the legendary figure of Horatio Nelson.

OPPOSITE The Battle of Trafalgar (1836) by Clarkson Frederick Stanfield. The artist has chosen to depict the duel between HMS Victory, HMS Temeraire, and, between them, the French ship Redoubtable.

Britain’s greatest naval victory

Military History Matters' Neil Faulkner analyses Nelson’s culminating tactical masterpiece.

The Past

This week: Nelson

Who is Britain's greatest military hero? In a poll of the general public, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, came in third place on 11%. In second, on 19%, was Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. But the clear leader – with 27% of the vote – was Horatio Nelson, the inspirational admiral whose victory at Trafalgar is often regarded as Britain's greatest naval triumph.

War of Words: ‘PAWN’

Pawn emerges etymologically from the Anglo-Norman poun, which itself comes from the medieval Latin pedo (‘footsoldier’), derived from the Latin pes (‘foot’).

Operation Bagration

Which was more important, D-Day or Operation Bagration? Chris Bambery argues that it was on the Eastern Front that the fate of Nazi Germany was sealed.