MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History

By the time of the Second World War, “Field Artillery” almost felt like an antiquated concept. In a world with heavily-armored tanks, long-range shelling, and high altitude bombers, it felt almost quaint to wheel out a glorified cannon onto the battl

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On April 14, 1865, audiences gathered to watch the play “Our American Cousin” in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary to happen. It was Good Friday. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered to Union Lt.

A group of concealed German snipers opens machine gun fire on crowds taking part in the Parade of Liberation in Paris in August 1944 from a nest atop the Arc de Triomphe. American GIs below quickly dispatched the gunmen. ■

One of the most iconic paintings to depict the horrors of war is Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808, which depicts an incident during the Peninsular War against Napoleon in Spain. The nighttime scene of a group of Spanish civilians facing executi

Patented on Feb. 25, 1836, Samuel Colt’s five-shooter—the world’s first commercially practical revolver—took its name from the factory where it was mass produced, the Patent Arms Co. in Paterson, New Jersey. It met with a lukewarm reception until 183

When the devastating Pearl Harbor raid made the United States’ entry to World War II official, aircraft recognition became vital for home defense. Between the U.S. Army Air Force’s Ground Observer Corps and thousands of civilian volunteers, about 1,5

In 1942, British authorities in Cairo arrested an Egyptian dance superstar for espionage. Her name was Hekmet Fahmi. Allegedly a nationalist with connections to Anwar el-Sadat, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and members of the Egyptian revolutionary Free Office

Those who study warfare will inevitably run into the so-called “great man theory” of history. Simply put, it denotes the study of individual leaders and their abilities. In earlier times, scholars adhered to this school of thought as explaining the e

In late October 1917, a detachment of German mountain troopers weary from hard Alpine fighting on the Isonzo front were crossing the river Torre with a group of Italian prisoners. The ordinarily calm waters of the river had swollen into a raging floo

When it comes to George A. Custer and the June 25, 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, everyone seems to be an “expert”. Even those who may never have read a single book on the battle seem convinced they know exactly why Custer lost the western fronti

Throughout the afternoon of Saturday, April 8, 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, accompanied by his second in command, Lieut. Gen. James Longstreet, rode west along the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road amid Longstreet’s slow-moving trains. Behind th

Even though it officially lasted 116 years, the Hundred Years War was really just part of a long-running rivalry over land, power and inheritance between England and France that one may say, allowing for interruptions, raged from the Norman invasion

Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, Muslim Sultan of Egypt and Syria, known to the west as Saladin, is certainly one of the most durably famous historical figures from the period of the Crusades. His political and military skills won him the admiration of

This Japanese kawari-kabuto, or individualized helmet, dating from the 17th century sports the shape of a crouching rabbit forged from a single piece of iron. The helmet’s ear guards are shaped like ocean waves. Rabbits are commonly depicted with wav

Over the Christmas period in 1914, fraternization took place in No Man’s Land between British and German soldiers at St. Yvon in Belgium. Memorials in the Belgian villages of St. Yvon and Messines commemorate a football game played between the Britis

One of the finest, most revealing and genuinely authentic accounts of the French Army of Napoleon Bonaparte (from May 18, 1804, Emperor Napoleon I) are the memoirs written by an officer who served in it as an infantry captain through numerous campaig

By Erwin Rommel Translated & edited by Zita Steele Fletcher & Co. Publishers, 2023, 394 pgs, $35.99 Reviewed by Jerry Morelock “Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!” shouts a triumphant U.S. Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. (as played by

For more, visit HISTORYNET.COM/MAGAZINES/QUIZ HISTORYNET ANSWER: THE FAMED FLYING ACE, WHOSE REAL NAME WAS MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN, IS OFFICIALLY CREDITED WITH 80 AIR COMBAT VICTORIES BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 1916 AND APRIL 1918. HE ALSO HAD NUMEROUS UNCONFI

The Vietnam War was a controversial conflict, and if there was one person involved in it who attracted controversy, it was South Vietnamese First Lady Tran Le Xuan, known as Madame Nhu. The sister-in-law of South Vietnam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem, Nh