The Recapture of Constantinople
The Latin Empire, Empire of Nicaea, Empire of Trebizond, and the Despotate of Epirus. The borders are very uncertain. Between 1254 and 1261, the Latin Empire comes to an end, and the Byzantine Empire is restored Half a century before, Byzantium had splintered into four mini-kingdoms and faded from sight. For a little less than a millennium, Constantinople had been…
Blocking a Blitzkrieg: the battle of Vevi, 10–13 April 1941 Part II
The well-equipped and highly motivated fanatics of the SS descended on Vevi with great speed. In countering them, Vasey’s problems at Vevi were prodigious: the Allied position lacked both depth and fixed defences, the weather was poor, and many of his units were tired from the route marches needed to get to the front. A regular soldier, George Alan Vasey…
The Evolution of the Roman Imperial Fleets
 D. B. Saddington Introduction Like the ancient Israelis, who felt concern for those “who went down to the sea…
Periscope Spies II
All of this was the prelude to the First Battle of the Philippine Sea, in which Admiral Mitscher s airmen…
The siege of Rouen, July 1418–January 1419 Part II
By October 1418 the English army was securely established around Rouen. The whole of the lower reach of the Seine…
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Ceylon 1942
IJN AKAGI by dugazm This island and British colony off the southeast tip of India was most significant during the Pacific war because of Japanese raids on and near it in April 1942. These raids accomplished little tactically or operationally; what they failed to do, however, was of critical strategic…
Charles P. Kindleberger’s Account of the Battle of Manila, 1898
When we left our anchorage at Hong Kong for Mirs Bay we passed close to an English army hospital-ship lying in the stream. The patients gathered on the port-side, and, with the doctors and nurses, gave three hearty cheers as we steamed slowly by. It did our hearts good, and…
USS Earle Attacks U-boats
USS Earle (DD-635), January 1943 at New York Navy Yard. 1/3/43 German radio reported attack on Casablanca the night after we left the area. The supply convoy of 35 ships was probably packed like sardines in the harbor. No dope on damage. Could have been murderous. Apparently we picked the…
The Raid on the Son Tay
Reconnaissance photo of Son Tay prison camp near Hanoi, Vietnam. Five ARRS members of the assault force were awarded the Air Force Cross and twenty three other helicopter crewmen received the Silver Star for their actions in the raid. On the night of 20 November 1970 at 2300 hours, five…
Search and Destroy
It was 15 May 1951 and I was a 1st Lt. assigned to the 12th Sqdn, 18th FBW flying F-51Ds. This was my 44th mission. Assigned as element lead (no. 3) in a flight of four. Flight commander was Capt. AE Rice. His wingman was Lt. Forrest Strange. My wingman…
A Highland Battalion at Loos
By C.S.M. Thomas McCall, 44th Highland Brigade, 15th Scottish Division For a whole week before the Battle of Loos, the artillery of our Division were bombarding the German trenches night and day, smashing up the barbed wire. On September 24th, 1915, my battalion, a Highland one, was moved up into…
Verdeja 1 tank
Verdeja was the name of a series of light tanks developed in Spain between 1938 and 1954 in an attempt to replace German Panzer I and Soviet T-26 tanks in Spanish service. The program was headed by Captain FĂ©lix Verdeja Bardales and led to the development of four prototype vehicles,…
DAK
The German forces in Africa developed a renown for their fighting qualities. Many of British whom they fought against were under the impression that it was an elite force, but the Afrika Korps was made up of common German soldiers from the Wehrmacht. They had no special training prior to…
Ritual War in Japan
Foreign powers, domestic lawbreakers, and personal enemies were not the only antagonists against whom early bushi and their institutional forebears directed their martial power. For not all adversaries of the state or the throne were human. Under the ritsuryo polity and its antecedents, the Japanese emperor emerged as a sacerdotal…
The loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse
HMS Repulse by Jaap Pluimgraaff Prince of Wales under Attack The Japanese strategists had a single-mindedness that included the assumption that the enemy would respond the way they, themselves would. The blunting of the American battlefleet at Pearl was considered in the plans as protecting the left flank of the…