Explore a comprehensive collection of war history articles covering the battles, leaders, strategies, and weapons that shaped the world. From ancient warfare and medieval conflicts to modern global wars, WarHistory.org delivers in-depth, expertly researched content across all eras of military history. Discover detailed analysis of pivotal moments, influential commanders, and the evolution of warfare across nations and civilizations.
Askari soldiers at shooting practice in German East Africa.Africa was affected by the war in many spheres: military, political, economic, and social. The results were not the same everywhere. In areas where there had been actual fighting, notably in the German colonies, the people suffered greatly. In the French colonies, where the burden of conscription had been heavy, there were anti-colonial...
8 inches (204 mm) heavy guns in battery on the Somme in 1916.10.5cm leFH16 howitzer.21cm / 24cm Paris-Geschutz (Paris Gun) – Long-Range Super Heavy Railway Gun.Map showing rolling artillery barrage for advance at Vimy Ridge 1917. The ‘fire’ component of the Allies’ advantage in fire and movement came primarily from more traditional artillery technology, though much enhanced by wartime...
Field ArtilleryThe mission of the field artillery was to support the infantry. The objective was also to bring a superior number of guns into action at the decisive place and time. In German doctrine the priority of fire was directed against the targets that were most dangerous to the infantry. At the beginning of an engagement, priority of fire was normally given to counter-battery fire, to...
However, the theatre of war outside France and Belgium that had the gravest long-term consequences was that of Palestine and Mesopotamia. It is easy enough to see now why the Turco-German attempt to gain the Suez Canal, hold Palestine and Baghdad and retain the Turkish grip on Mesopotamia was doomed. Their lines of supply from the north were far too long, too shaky and critically affected by...
I have noticed a recent tendency to reduce the effect of this amazing feat both in written history and video-media. Here is a well-researched and in CONTEXT analysis.ON 1 JULY 1943, Edward Russell, of the Joint Liaison Committee in Washington, wrote to Flight Lieutenant William Teeling, an intelligence officer at the Air Ministry, quoting a comment from King Features, one of the biggest media...
Panzer III as Tauchpanzer III by dragon6877Tauchpanzer 3 crossing the River Bug at Patulin on 22nd June of 1941A Tauchpanzer III crossing the River Bug at Patulin on 22nd June of 1941Panzer III as Tauchpanzer IIIPanzerkampfwagen III Ausf H(U) – Tauchfahig (U-Panzer / Submersible Tank) on Naval LiftPanzerkampfwagen III Ausf H(U) – Tauchfahig (U-Panzer / Submersible Tank)This U-Panzer belonged to...
■ The Origin of the “Ohka”The only purpose-designed suicide aircraft to reach full operational status in World War II was the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka (“Cherry Blossom”), which the Allies called the Baka (“Idiot”) bomb. The weapon, a piloted missile, was also known in Japan as the Jinrai (“Divine Thunderbolt”).Credit for the origin of the Ohka is generally given to a junior...
Two major regions of Greece bordered on Macedonia to the south and south-west, of unequal importance: to the south was the rich and important territory of Thessaly; to the south-west the poor and mountainous region of Epirus. Relations with Epirus were relatively easily managed. Around the end of 358 or beginning of 357 the Epirote ruler Neoptolemus the Molossian died, leaving three children: two...
The fifth century BC witnessed a fascinating struggle between two radically different ways of war. The Persian Empire, stretching from what is now Pakistan to Egypt and the western coast of Asia Minor, based its power on a great military innovation – cavalry. They were opposed by a much more traditional force, Greek infantry fighting in close order, a phalanx. Greece was a mosaic of small...
The route the Athenian fleet took to SicilyMap of the siege showing walls and counter-wallsDisaster in SicilyThe last and most fateful chapter in Demosthenes’ career took place on the island of Sicily, and he himself was largely to blame for it. In 415, the Athenians sent a large fleet to Sicily and used it in the following summer to besiege Syracuse, the most powerful city on the island. This is...
Amongst the new arrivals had been the 45th US Infantry Division commanded by Major General William W. Eagles, and 1st US Armored Division commanded by Major General Ernest N. Harmon. Eagles according to Lucas, was a ‘quiet, determined soldier, with broad experience’ whilst Harmon, although also determined and experienced, was far from quiet. Born into poverty in New England and orphaned at the...
Last Defence before BerlinBy early April the situation for Army Group North, now renamed Army of East Prussia, deteriorated further. Its forces were now hemmed in around the Bay of Danzig from Samland and Konigsberg to the mouth of the Vistula. The remnants of two corps were given the task of holding positions north of Gotenhafen on the Hel peninsula. Hitler demanded that it be held and all...
The carnage was frightful. Although the French army published no formal casualty lists, its official history, Les armées françaises dans la grande guerre, set losses for August at 206,515 men and for September at 213,445; those for the ten days at the Marne surely must have approached 40 percent of the latter figure. The chapel of the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, before its destruction...
General Henry Maitland “Jumbo” Wilson was appointed commander in chief of the Middle East and, under orders from Winston Churchill, mounted an expedition to occupy the small Greek islands of Kos, Leros, and Samos in September 1943 with the object of creating a diversion during the Italian Campaign. The expedition was a bad idea, and Wilson’s forces sustained heavy casualties, for which Wilson was...
To be sure, the German army’s defeat before Moscow meant that Hitler’s belief in the fragility of the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union had been proved decisively wrong. Operation Barbarossa had signally failed to achieve the aims with which it had set out in the confident days of June 1941. After stemming the German tide before Moscow, the Red Army had gone on to the offensive and forced the...
Unmolested and apparently undetected, Kent Hewitt’s armada of 642 ships steamed north in a thousand-square-mile swatch of the Mediterranean, bound for HARPSICHORD, as the Gulf of Salerno was now code-named. If the sea remained calm, the sun was searing. Little ventilation penetrated the packed troop holds, and few were as lucky as those aboard the converted Polish liner Sobieski, which had a...
General Sir George Giffard GCB DSO (1886–1964) was a British military officer, who had a distinguished career in command of African troops in World War I, rising to command an Army Group in South East Asia in World War II.Giffard served in World War II initially as Military Secretary at the War Office and then, from 1940, as General Officer Commanding Palestine & Trans-Jordan.In 1941 he...
Panzerkampfwagen IV ausf D commanded by Oberleutnant (1st Lieutenant) Karl Hanke and assigned to the 25th Panzer Regiment, 7th Panzer Division under Major General Erwin Rommel during the Battle of France. This propaganda photo appeared in Signal magazine in 1940. Hanke was employed by the Ministry for Propaganda until he had an affair with Magda Goebbels.In July 1939, Hanke was called up for...
The PBM Mariner was one of the Navy’s most important patrol bombers in WWII. The Mariner carried out anti-submarine warfare patrols and rescue missions for downed pilots and ship-wreaked sailors, by Jim Tomlinson EAST CHINA SEAAPRIL 7, 1945Their call signs were “Dog Eight” and “Dog Ten.” Lieutenants Dick Simms and Jim Young were the pilots of the two Martin PBM Mariners of VPB-21 that had been...
Swedish plan on the battle of HolowczynTHE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN IN 1707As always, there is some disagreement in the sources as to the number of Swedes who participated in the invasion of Russia. The army which moved against the tsar is traditionally numbered at 33,000 to 43,000. Hatton concludes that the strength of the Swedish main army was not far from 44,000.More troops were on their way from...
Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé at the The Battle of Rocroi, May 19th, 1643. Painted by François-Joseph Heim.Changing of the Guard in Spain and FranceThe success did little to help Olivares who had become the scapegoat for Spain’s mounting problems. His fall from grace demonstrates how the exercise of power in early modern Europe rested as much on personal relationships as policy. Olivares had...
It is tempting to argue, based on the difficulties that U.S. forces have encountered in Iraq (and the similar problems of the Israeli Defense Forces in Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip), that the effect of the Information Revolution on warfare has been overstated by some enthusiasts. There is some truth to this—there has been an awful lot of hype—but it would be a mistake to go too far in...
