Was Dunsterforce a Disaster?
At the end of the First World War a British force under Major-General Lionel Dunsterville launched a daring campaign to cut off Ottoman oil supplies at Baku.
Military
The Battle of Stamford Bridge
On 25 September 1066 the ‘Viking Age’ came to a close when Harold Hardrada was slain at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
The Ancient Greek World at War
For the ancient Greeks, the Peloponnesian War was a conflict involving the entire world. For Thucydides, it was a lesson in the realities of human nature
Ship Shape: British Naval Strategy After Napoleon
British military engagement in northwest Europe did not pause after Waterloo and resume in 1914. The intervening century saw fluctuations in French power – and the creation of a strategic system to control it.
Italian Emigrant Soldiers in the First World War
Italy’s entry into the Great War in 1915 prompted 300,000 men to return to their homeland to join the fight. Were they Italian enough for Italy?
Cannibal Crusaders
Reports from the First Crusade brought tales of victorious Christian soldiers eating dead bodies.
‘Hitler’s Deserters’ by Douglas Carl Peifer review
Hitler’s Deserters: Breaking Ranks with the Wehrmacht by Douglas Carl Peifer surfaces the stories of those who sought to sit out the Second World War.
The Fall of Saigon
The Vietnam War effectively ended on 30 April 1975 with the arrival of the North Vietnamese army in Saigon. Thousands fled the city, but many more were left behind.
Maiden Flight of the Spitfire
On 5 March 1936 the prototype Spitfire made its maiden flight. Its creator R.J. Mitchell would not live to see its finest hour.
‘The Great Siege of Malta’ by Marcus Bull review
The Great Siege of Malta by Marcus Bull upends the myth of the Knights of Malta and their last stand of 1565.