During the winter of 1944-45, some 55,000 soldiers from Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks’ XXX Corps, a formation then equal to the size of the entire pre-war regular British Army, battled with the Germans in the Ardennes. Though a predominantly Amer

In March 1857, four months before the first Victoria Crosses were given out, The Daily Telegraph made the following claims about the new medal: “The decoration consists of a Maltese Cross formed from a cannon captured from the Russians.” The report,

Late in the night of 27 June 2005, two MH-47 Chinooks flew into the Afghan mountains. While one performed decoy drops, the other inserted Lieutenant Michael P Murphy’s four-man Navy SEAL reconnaissance team. Gripping the rope, Murphy expertly descend

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Author: Ant Middleton Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Price: £22 (Hardback) Released: Out now Ant Middleton is best known as the tough-but-fair instructor from Channel 4’s show SAS: Who Dares Wins. But he is also a best-selling author and his latest wo

After their defeat in the Vietnam War, the US Army began to study ways to better realign their organisational capabilities in response to real-world conflicts. It also studied other contemporary conflicts, such as the 1973 Yom Kippur War, where speed

At the end of the Crimean War in 1856 the British public was seething with rage. The country had emerged on the winning side but, at home, the campaign was considered a debacle, one that had provoked anti-war protests, a riot in central London and br

What was the background to the US dropping two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945? We defeated Germany in the spring of 1945 and then started to really focus on Japan. That became the main theatre of war. As the summer continued, it became clear th

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Initially commissioned in 1938 as a day air-superiority fighter for the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, at first the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (‘Peregrine Falcon’) suffered considerable technical difficulties and very poor performance. A significant

Otto the First’s East Francian kingdom was in the grips of a three-year domestic crisis, wrestling for power with troublesome nobles and a Slavic revolt in the north. The nomadic Hungarian Magyar raiders viewed Otto’s eastern territories with envy an

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National Museums Scotland’s latest exhibition shows the central position of Scotland in the Cold War. NATO’s military and research teams sought out the country’s unique geographical and topographical characteristics in their efforts to get ahead of t

Being decorated with a Victoria Cross today also sees the recipient granted a tax-free annuity of £10,000 from the British government (not to mention turning them into a minor celebrity). But life was very different for the earliest VC heroes. The or

Inside the changing technology, tactics and strategy of the Luftwaffe’s bombing campaigns ON SALE 3 JANUARY■

Author: Stephen Keoghane Publisher: Fonthill Media Price: £40 (Hardback) Released: Out now As recently published histories of British Army units go, this is up there with the very best of the best. The Essex Yeomanry’s history is a rich tapestry of B

The Victoria Cross officially came into being when Queen Victoria signed its royal warrant on 29 January 1856. The document was essentially an instruction manual designed to clarify the nature of the award and its presentation. It has been amended an

Britain goes to war in Crimea in 1854 and modern reporting brings acts of bravery to the British public for the first time, sparking calls for a standardised medal for gallantry that doesn’t discriminate based on rank. Queen Victoria’s order for such

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Author: Peter Hart and Gary Bain Publisher: Pen & Sword Price: £25 (Hardback) Released: Out now Described on the dust jacket blurb as “a rip-roaring gallop through the lives of Royal Flying Corps air crew in the Great War”, this book does exactly wha

When American and German forces clashed in the Belgian city Bastogne during the winter of 1944-45, in the most inhumanely freezing conditions, both sides incurred high losses. The fight was a bitter struggle, a desperate slogging match of attrition a

After almost three years in German prisoner of war camps, Flight Lieutenant Bertram ‘Jimmy’ James was itching to escape and return to the war effort. A previous attempt to tunnel out of Stalag Luft I had been unsuccessful, and when Squadron Leader Ro

Author: Abigail G Mullen Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Price: £45.50 (Hardback) Released: Out Now When the United States was finding its way as an independent nation, it was forced to navigate the perilous waters of international relation