MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History

History quite often hinges on “ifs.” If the Continental Army and militia troops had not defeated the British and their allied German troops under Gen. John Burgoyne at the Second Battle of Saratoga (aka the Battle of Bemis Heights) on October 7, 1777

With all due respect Mark (DePue), I don’t know how the following battle films did not make your list (“War List: 10 Accurate Battle Films,” Summer 2022, MHQ) or at least honorable mention: Battle of Britain (1969); 12 O’Clock High (1949); The Cruel

Naval history is made when the Union Navy’s USS Monitor battles the Confederacy’s CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac) to a tactical stand-off draw in the waters of Virginia’s Hampton Roads. TODAY: Sunk during a storm off Cape Hatteras on December 31

Hollywood legend Marlene Dietrich was 43—and glamorous as ever—when a U.S. Army Signal Corps photographer snapped this March 13, 1945 photo as the 82nd Airborne Division executed a training jump near Soissons, France. The German-born actress enthusia

In international conflict, most belligerents have long recognized the tangible benefit that exists in mutually recognizing and adhering to the idea that certain persons should be immune from attack or molestation, even when those people are official

Three Hood brothers (Arthur, Alexander, and Samuel) all served in the Royal Navy in the latter half of the 18th century. They were the second generation of the Hood family to go to sea; two of them did not survive to retire from the service. Arthur

On August 3, 1914, Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, said to a friend, “The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” The so-called Great War lasted more than four years at the cost of an estimat

The United States’ victory in the April–August 1898 Spanish-American War made the democratic republic an “imperial power,” acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines from Spain, and annexing Hawaii during the war. Spain’s European neighbors paid

Did President Franklin D. Roosevelt, via presumed foreknowledge—and in collusion with Britain’s embattled wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill—“allow” Japan to attack Pearl Harbor in 1941, thereby dragging the U.S. into World War II? When Lee Ha

For decades since General George S. Patton’s untimely death in December 1945 there have arisen all manner of conspiracy theories regarding it. They range from the improbable plot of Brass Target, a 1978 film starring George Kennedy as an overweight P

Years later, reflecting on the weeks he spent in the summer of 1704 travelling through New England to visit and worship with his coreligionists, Quaker Thomas Story remembered, “it was a dismal time in those parts; for no man knew, in an ordinary way

The cap badge is a special part of British army headdress intended to represent the emblems of unique regiments. Regimental insignia derives from military traditions in the Middle Ages, and thus cap badge designs are a type of heraldry. Cap badges we

It was early on July, 21, 1861, the morning of the First Battle of Manassas (First Bull Run in the North), and Confederate Colonel Nathan G. Evans was already in a tough spot. In command of a small 1,100-man brigade, Evans was posted behind the Stone

Steel plate armor is commonly associated with medieval times. However, studies reveal that the production of plate armor fully encasing the human body dates back to the early 15th century and reached its zenith a century later during the Renaissance.

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, beginning the largest conventional military campaign in Europe since World War II. In the northern area of operations, the primary target was Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv. The first Russian shells explo

Francis McCullaugh (1874-1956), born a British subject in Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland, was a prolific journalist, author, and war correspondent, principally but not exclusively for James Gordon Bennett Jr.’s New York Herald. Active during the first

Via artifacts and displays, The Mexican American Military Experience exhibit at the First Infantry Division Museum at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Illinois, west of Chicago, reveals “Through all the conflicts in our nation’s history, Mexican Americans w

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., a trailblazing warrior and combat fighter pilot and commander in World War II and Korea, became the U.S. Air Force’s first African-American brigadier general in 1954. His father, a “Buffalo Soldier,” overcame racial prejudice

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is universally acclaimed as the English language’s most famous writer and greatest dramatist, authoring 39 plays and 157 poems (overwhelmingly sonnets). England’s acknowledged national poet, even his plays are judged p

Art has chronicled wars about as long as they have been fought. Usually created by the winners, war art generally focused on the genius of the country’s military leaders or the heroism of its fighting men. Accuracy in depicting the experience of war

By Philip Gioia 376 pages. Stackpole Books, 2022. $29.95 Reviewed by Jerry Morelock Ever since the Continental Army came into being on June 14, 1775, America (the United States of America after July 4, 1776) has been protected and defended by countle

“My God, where are you going with our Eiffel Tower?” pleads a tiny French soldier in this circa 1914–18 morale-boosting German postcard. The giant smiling German replies, “I want to plant it at the Brandenburg Gate!” ■