Britannia: the real story
The TV series Britannia (2017) is a historical fantasy along the lines of Game of Thrones. Though set at the time of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43, it makes no great claim to historical authenticity. It reflects enduring interest in the Celts, the druids, and, above all, Queen Boudicca of the Iceni. But what was warfare really like during the Roman conquest of Britain between AD 43 and 84?
Latest features
Afghanistan: graveyard of armies
A huge, mountainous, landlocked Central Asian state, Afghanistan has defied invaders for 2,500 years. Jules Stewart takes a look at the country's military longue durée. Taken in historical context, the 13-year presence of NATO combat troops in Afghanistan amounted to ...
Britannia: the real story
The TV series Britannia (2017) is a historical fantasy along the lines of Game of Thrones. Though set at the time of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43, it makes no great claim to historical authenticity. It reflects ...
MHM 92 Caption Competition
Think of something appropriately witty for this photograph from our special feature on ancient Britannia. Leave your caption as a comment below. The best caption will be judged by the editorial team and published online! ...
MHM 92 Quiz
This month, three lucky winners have the chance to win a copy of The RAF at 100: a century in photographs. The Royal Air Force was formed in 1918 to defend the skies over Britain during the First World ...
The Somme’s forgotten history
Film-maker Ross Barnwell is crowdfunding for a new documentary drama based on Geoffrey Malins, the cameraman who famously shot footage of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Here's a sneak preview of the stories Barnwell uncovered while filming ...
Behind the Image
BEHIND THE IMAGE: Wind tunnel testing, Messerschmitt Bf 109, 1940
It may look like a scene from a movie shoot – Germany’s answer to The Dam Busters, perhaps – but this strikingly modern photograph from 1940 offers instead a real-life glimpse behind the scenes of a top-secret aeronautical project. The state-of-the-art wind tunnel at the Herman Goering Aviation Research Institute, near Braunschweig (or Brunswick) in Lower Saxony, was one of Germany’s most closely shrouded military sites. Spread over 1,000 acres, the Institute’s 60 buildings were low-rise, nestling under the treeline, and well camouflaged from the air. As a result, until the end ...
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BEHIND THE IMAGE: North Vietnam
North Vietnamese Radio Team, 1970 The radio team of a North Vietnamese attack group photographed during the offensive on the city of Quang Tri in 1970. An explosion has just gone off in the background, and three troops advance through the smoke. A soldier takes aim to provide covering fire, while the two men in the foreground, with stoic concentration on their faces, attempt to use the radio amid the chaos of battle. When Quang Tri was still the South’s border with North Vietnam, it suffered a major attack ...
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BEHIND THE IMAGE: Charge of the Royal Naval Division, 1915
This photograph shows infantry from the British Royal Naval Division climbing out of the trenches as if for a charge at the Battle of Gallipoli during 1915. Every man grasps their rifle with bayonet fitted, ready for the kind of close-quarters encounter with the enemy that it was expected – wrongly – would decide the war. The hills in the background are typical of the Gallipoli peninsula, making the terrain that had to be covered by the Allied forces uneven and difficult to negotiate. This photograph was taken by ...
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MHM Fact files
Winston Churchill: 10 little-known facts
Winston Churchill, the emblematic British wartime leader is instantly recognisable by his ...
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TOP FIVE: Gladiators
MHM introduces the most fearsome warriors of the Roman arena. 5. Marcus Attilius Free-Born ...
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TOP FIVE: Female Spies
MHM rounds up the most daring and decorated female agents in history ...
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10 ways to mark the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings
The best known date in English history may be 1066, but how much do you really know ...
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Hitler Facts: 10 little-known facts
Many strange, contradictory and often largely unsubstantiated rumours have arisen about Hitler, both in life ...
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5 Myths about the Wars of the Roses
We examine 5 myths surrounding the Wars of the Roses, as part of our 17-page ...
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9 Kings Who Lost Their Thrones
Taken from the MHM34 feature, here are 9 deposed monarchs, some of whom were quite ...
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Battle maps
The Battle of Wakefield: 1460
It was the culmination of ten years of increasingly violent unrest between supporters of King Henry VI and his cousin Richard, ...
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D-Day: Plan of Operations on 6 June, 1944
How were tens of thousands of infantry landed on the Normandy beaches on 6 June 1944? How was the supply ...
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Falklands – troop manoeuvres
To help you visualize the action in Major General Julian Thompson's lead feature for MHM on the Royal Navy's triumph during ...
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Battle of Naseby, 14th June 1645
Two years of amateur warfare had changed nothing.The English Civil War remained in the balance. Then, in February 1645, Parliament created ...
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The Battle of Marathon- 490 BC
The Battle of Marathon saw wo entirely antithetical military and political traditions: cavalry, archery, and light-armed troops versus heavy infantry; ...
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