The June/July 2022 issue of Military History Matters, the British military history magazine, is out now.
The best way to access the magazine is to subscribe. Click here to find out more. To read the digital archive, click here. You can also access the magazine online (as well as exclusive extra content) at our new website, The Past.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Hitler’s airborne elite and the Battle for Crete
The German invasion of Crete – the first major operation undertaken wholly by airborne forces – was a leap into the unknown. It was a collision of two military elites and should have been an Allied victory. The Germans were outnumbered and outgunned, but the tactics of the Allied high command were static, sluggish, and lacked initiative. In our special this issue, Neil Faulkner offers a detailed commentary on the 13-day battle for the island.
‘England’s first great naval victory’: the battle of Sluys
Edmund West reports on a forgotten medieval naval battle of great significance
Conflict and consequences: the myth of decisive battle
Ashley Cooper and Stephen Cooper question the hallowed notion of decisive military engagements
The King’s Culprits: Irish prisoners of war
Patrick Mercer explores what became of the prisoners of the 1798 rebellion in Ireland
Sideshow: Black soldiers in the American West
Fred Chiaventone recalls the service of the US Army’s first black regiments
Also in this issue:
The latest in a new series on classic military history books, War Culture, Book Reviews, Museum Review, Back to the Drawing Board, Listings, Competitions, and more.
To subscribe to the magazine, click here. To subscribe to the digital archive, click here. You can also access the magazine online (as well as exclusive extra content) at our new website, The Past. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
From the publisher:
Crete should not have fallen to the Germans in 1941. The Allies outnumbered the Nazi invaders; they were better equipped with tanks and artillery; and they were surrounded by a local Cretan population who would fight to the death.
The waters around the island were brimming with Allied naval power. What, then, happened over those 13 days from 20 May to 1 June 1941? For his final article for the magazine, Neil Faulkner analysed this asymmetric battle, and he explains how a failure of nerve led to a dramatic German victory.
Next, Edmund West explains why the bloodiest medieval naval battle, which took place off the Flemish Coast at Sluys, was another unconventional contest. Often characterised as a ‘land battle fought at sea’, why is it less well known than other encounters between the English and the French during the Hundred Years War?
Elsewhere in this issue, Ashley Cooper and Stephen Cooper take a fresh look at 15 of history’s most celebrated military engagements – from Marathon to the Teutoburg Forest, from Hastings to Waterloo – and ask: is there really such a thing as a ‘decisive’ battle?
Patrick Mercer tells the extraordinary story of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 – which saw thousands rise up against British rule – and explains how serving British soldiers ended up fighting alongside revolutionaries against their own comrades.
And, finally, Fred Chiaventone reveals how the first black regiments of the United States Army, nicknamed ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ by their admiring Native American adversaries, came to be formed during the US Civil War.
Maria Earle
To subscribe to the magazine, click here. To subscribe to the digital archive, click here. You can also access the magazine online (as well as exclusive extra content) at our new website, The Past. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.