Military History Monthly issue 36 – September 2013

2 mins read

001_MHM36_Cover_finalThe September issue of Military History Monthly, the British military history magazine, is on sale today.

In the latest issue we cover:

Gettysburg: Part 4 – The final day
For the final instalment of his in-depth study of the Battle of Gettysburg, Julian Brazier analyses the infamous infantry attack, Pickett’s Charge.

Grand Strategy 1943 – The bomber offensive
MHM editor Neil Faulkner evaluates the controversial RAF strategic bombing campaign of 1943 in the first of a three-part feature.

Poland 1939 – What really happened?
Ian Maycock rethinks the Nazi blitzkrieg that destroyed Poland in 1939.

Tripoli Trappola – Part 1: the Battle for Tripoli
Julian Spilsbury looks at the last big colonial war before 1914 – the Italo-Turkish War for control of Libya.

Aussies on horseback – WWI charge of the Australian Light Horse
Neil Dearberg revisits the First World War campaign that made the ALH a household name down under.

Also in this issue:

War on Film; Your Military History; Museum Review; War Zone; Back to the Drawing Board; Book Reviews; and much more.

 


 

From the editor

Neil Faulkner, Editor

The countdown to the centenary of the First World War has begun. Broadcasters have commissioned numerous documentaries and dramas. New books are in press, old classics are being reprinted, and newspapers and magazines are brainstorming coverage.

Museums, led by the Imperial War Museum, are revamping their displays. History and archaeology societies are planning research projects. The government is doling out millions, and arguments have erupted over whether it is for ‘celebration’ or ‘commemoration’.

What is it about the First World War? Why, a century later, does it have such significance?

It was the beginning of what Gabriel Kolko called ‘a century of war’. There had been no full-scale European war since 1815. Industrial capitalism was booming and living standards were rising. La belle époque Europe was a ‘never-had-it-so-good’ world of prosperity, self-confidence, and seeming tranquillity.

The explosion of 1914 obliterated that age of innocence. It turned the achievements of civilisation into a monstrous mechanism of destruction. It devoured 15 million people in four years of industrialised warfare only to produce ‘a peace to end all peace’ that led to a yet greater world war.

Over the next five years, with the support of a wide range of contributors, often with radically divergent views, Military History Monthly will be at the centre of the debates.

We begin with a series of articles examining the major regional wars that heralded the coming storm in the years leading up to 1914. First off, Julian Spilsbury analyses the little-known Italo-Turkish War in Libya in 1911-1912. Also in this issue with a First World War theme, Neil Dearberg pays homage to the Australian Light Horse.

Despite the growing First World War focus, MHM will remain broad-ranging. This issue, therefore, we have the concluding part of Julian Brazier’s series on Gettysburg, the first of three articles on British grand strategy in 1943, and a thought-provoking piece that questions the ‘blitzkrieg’ character of the 1939 invasion of Poland.

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