It might sound a bit like a Sci-fi fantasy, but during the early 1930s the United States Navy actually operated two airships capable of launching biplanes. Ultimately, the experiment ended in disaster, with the catastrophic loss not only of both airships but of the admiral who had been the leading light of the project. Airships [...]

Next year not only marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, it also commemorates the centenary of the birth of the cartoonist David Langdon OBE, once described by the Evening Standard as ‘the greatest comic artist of our time’. Aged 97 when he died, he first came to prominence during [...]

The Dreyse Needle Gun   Daniel Sager examines this weapon’s limitations Introduced by the Prussian Army in the mid-19th century, the Dreyse Needle Gun was a revolutionary breach-loading rifle which proved decisive in its victory over the Austrians in 1866. However, when the Prussians marched into France four years later, they faced soldiers equipped with [...]

Marking the 70-year anniversary of the actual raid, Taylor Downing reviews the classic war movie The Dam Busters At 7.30am on 17 May 1943, Flying Officer Jerry Fray took off in his photo-reconnaissance Spitfire for a damage assessment sortie over Germany. At 30,000 feet and about 100 miles from the Ruhr, he could see what [...]

Clausewitz taught us that war is an extension of politics. No apology, then, for including a review of Steven Spielberg’s new biopic Lincoln in Military History Monthly, even though the only battle scene is a short, visceral hand-to-hand struggle in mud and rain between Confederate soldiers and black Union men determined to kill them all [...]

James Brett takes issue with our interpretation of the Somme. After my pleasant surprise at your refreshingly ‘revisionist’ editorial, I was disappointed with the lead article in the February issue concerning the Somme. An opportunity to reinvestigate the generally misunderstood Great War seems to have been missed. Instead we had the traditional view of ‘lions [...]

The Forgotten Theatre Meredith Graham looks through the scrapbook of her great uncle, a professional photographer who served in WWII and as a decoder in China during the Korean War. In late 1943, Alvin M Sievers set sail from Los Angeles, California, en route to India and, ultimately, China. As a member of the 12th [...]

Richard Lucas discovers an extraordinary museum devoted to contemporary conflict in the Middle East. After years of open conflict, and in the midst of continuing political strife, Lebanon nevertheless remains a prime tourist destination offering visitors some of the most splendid sites in the entire Middle East. From the extensive Roman ruins of Tyre in [...]