Military History Matters

Latest issue

Military History Matters magazine
December 2020/January 2021 is out now

The Franco-Prussian War

Often overlooked by history, the Franco-Prussian War had a profound impact on both France and Germany. Its military aspects also deserve study, for here was a clash of immense armies and their advanced weaponry, made possible by the industrial revolution. We take an in-depth look at the war that overturned the balance of power in Europe.

Latest features

Warlord discovery throws new light on Anglo-Saxon history

The ‘Marlow Warlord’ has been identified as a high-status figure from the 6th century, according to archaeologists from the University of Reading, who carried out the research ...

REVIEW – Crucible of Hell: Okinawa: the last great battle of the Second World War

In Crucible of Hell, David once again demonstrates his commanding power to hold the reader’s attention ...

Spies of WWII commemorated with blue plaques

Noor Inayat Khan and Christine Granville both came to Britain immediately before the war broke out and served in their adopted home country’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) ...

Wreck off Norwegian coast confirmed as long-lost German warship

Karlsruhe led the German attack on Kristiansand during Operation Weserübung on 9 April 1940, as part of the Nazi invasion of Norway ...

Communists spied on Orwell during Spanish Civil War, new book claims

The author of Nineteen Eighty-Four – whose real name was Eric Blair – and his wife Eileen were put under observation by Communist military intelligence in May 1937, when an internal conflict broke out within the Republican side ...

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: VE Day, 8 May 1945

Image: Imperial War Museum We are all familiar with photos depicting jubilant crowds of people celebrating the end of the Second World War. They are shown racing through the streets of Piccadilly or crammed together outside the balcony at Whitehall as Churchill waves, exultant relief on their faces, bottles and flags in their hands. Victory in Europe (VE) Day marked the official conclusion of the six-year world war against Hitler and his allies. Civilians and soldiers around the world had ...
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BEHIND THE IMAGE: U-Boat on Hastings beach, April 1919

Five months after the Armistice and with the Great War finally behind them, the last thing the townspeople of Hastings expected to see from their elegant promenade, just in front of the Queens Hotel and lying like a monstrous metallic whale, was a U-boat. But on the morning of 15 April 1919, after a storm had caused the submarine to break free from its tow, that is exactly what they saw. U-boat 118 had been launched in February 1918, and ...
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