Culture
History of War
THE BARBARY CRUSADE
The pirates were building on a rich tradition when they started to prowl the Mediterranean, but their attacks drew a fierce response
3 min |
Issue 141
History of War
END OF THE PIRATES
The corsairs' reign lasted into the 19th century, until Europe's superpowers sought to end it permanently through conquest
3 min |
Issue 141
History of War
NAUMACHIA TRUTH BEHIND ROME'S GLADIATOR SEA BATTLES
In their quest for evermore novel and bloody entertainment, the Romans staged enormous naval fights on artificial lakes
6 min |
Issue 138
History of War
OPERATION MANNA
In late April 1945, millions of Dutch civilians were starving as Nazi retribution for the failed Operation Market Garden cut off supplies. eet as In response, Allied bombers launched a risky mission to air-drop food
10+ min |
Issue 138
History of War
GASSING HITLER
Just a month before the end of WWI, the future Fuhrer was blinded by a British shell and invalided away from the frontline. Over a century later, has the artillery brigade that launched the fateful attack finally been identified?
8 min |
Issue 138
History of War
SALAMANCA
After years of largely defensive campaigning, Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley went on the offensive against a French invasion of Andalusia
8 min |
Issue 138
History of War
HUMBERT 'ROCKY'VERSACE
Early in the Vietnam War, a dedicated US Special Forces officer defied his merciless Viet Cong captors and inspired his fellow POWs to survive
7 min |
Issue 138
History of War
LEYTE 1944 SINKING THE RISING SUN
One of the more difficult island campaigns in WWII's Pacific Theatre saw a brutal months-long fight that exhausted Japan’s military strength
10+ min |
Issue 138
History of War
MAD DAWN
How technology transformed strategic thinking and military doctrine from the Cold War to the current day
3 min |
Issue 138
History of War
BRUSHES WITH ARMAGEDDON
Humanity came close to self-annihilation with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Broken Arrows’ and other nuclear near misses
3 min |
Issue 138
History of War
THE DEADLY RACE
How the road to peace led to an arms contest between the USA and USSR, with prototypes, proliferation and the world’s biggest bomb
3 min |
Issue 138
History of War
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Einstein, Oppenheimer and the race to beat Hitler to the bomb. How a science project in the desert helped win a war
3 min |
Issue 138
History of War
COUPS & CHAOS
How the French armed forces lost the war in Algeria and almost destroyed French democracy in the process
3 min |
Issue 137
History of War
BATTLE OF ALGIERS
When the Front de libération nationale FLN) took its war to the streets of the capital, France’s military responded with merciless wrath
3 min |
Issue 137
History of War
THE RISE OF ALGERIAN RESISTANCE
How the anti-colonialist struggle around the globe helped inspire Algeria’s liberation movement to organise and fight back
3 min |
Issue 137
History of War
ROOTS OF REVOLUTION
A century of French occupation led to a genocide in Algeria that provoked one of the bloodiest showdowns of the modern age
3 min |
Issue 137
History of War
DWIGHT W BIRDWELL
In the opening hours of the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive, this Specialist Five led his armoured cavalry detachment in repulsing a fierce communist assault against Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon
6 min |
Issue 137
History of War
THE FIVE STRATEGY AND LEADERSHIP
Phillips O’Brien discusses how this quintet of national leaders impacted the course of the Second World War
9 min |
Issue 137
History of War
Great Battles FLODDEN
On the morning of 9 September 1513, King James lV of Scotland stood atop Flodden Hill with what seemed an insurmountable advantage over the English. Yet by the day's end he would lay slain and his army shattered
10+ min |
Issue 137
History of War
FERDINAND 'THE BLOODY'
Known for his brutal martial punishment and execution of his own men, Ferdinand Schérner’s ruthlessness was matched only by his devotion to Nazi ideology
10+ min |
Issue 137
History of War
AIRBORNE UNDER SIEGE ARNHEM
For nine days the heroic 1st Airborne fought desperately, waiting vainly for relief that never came
10+ min |
Issue 137
History of War
SCANDINAVIA UNDER ATTACK
Hitler’s forces smash through Denmark and Norway ina grim foretaste of the terrible fate awaiting the rest of Western Europe
3 min |
Issue 136
History of War
DEFEAT & OCCUPATION
Nazi victory in the north ushered in five years of occupation characterised by collaboration and brutal retribution
4 min |
Issue 136
History of War
ALLIED FIGHTBACK
Britain and France race to Norway’s aid as the two nations suffer their first defeats and score their earliest victories of the war
3 min |
Issue 136
History of War
PLOTTING THE STRIKE NORTH
Ahead of his push west, Hitler launched a pre-emptive assault on neutral Scandinavia to secure iron ore supplies and Nazi control of the North Sea
3 min |
Issue 136
History of War
RUSSIAN ROULETTE Q&A WITH ANNA REID
As WWI reached its bloody crescendo, a foolhardy intervention was launched into Russia's civil war -a move that descended into sinister complicity and defeat
10+ min |
Issue 136
History of War
The FIRST BATTLE
At the end of the 7th century, a battle you've probably never heard of took place between two emerging nations, soon to be historic rivals. The fighting settled a border that still endures over 1,300 years later
7 min |
Issue 136
History of War
BRITS BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN
At the beginning of the Cold War, a peculiar military mission began its work officially, and unofficially, gathering intelligence inside Soviet-occupied East Germany
10+ min |
Issue 136
History of War
TALI-IHANTALAI
Outnumbered and outgunned, the Finns’ spirited defence of a natural choke point turned back the Red Army during the largest battle in the region's history
10+ min |
Issue 136
History of War
Heroes of the Medal of Honor LUCIAN ADAMS
Armed with a Browning Automatic Rifle and hand grenades, this lone sergeant silenced three enemy machine gun emplacements in the mountains of northeastern France
6 min |