History of War

From the conquering legions of Ancient Rome to the thunderous tank battles of World War II and beyond, History of War takes you deeper inside the minds of history’s fighting men, further under the bonnets of some of the world’s most devastating war machines, and higher above the battlefield to see the broad sweep of conflict as it happened.

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WAR IN FOCUS

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY: MAY • In this issue’s Frontline, a spy’s guide to Cold War Berlin, how Truman built post-war peace, Britain tackles the Shell Crisis, Second World War drones and why there’s no endgame in sight in Ukraine

GUNS OR BUTTER? PART II • With British industry unable to produce munitions in sufficient quantity in the early years of WWI, radical measures were needed

“WE’RE STILL IN THE MIDDLEGAME” WHY THE WAR IN UKRAINE WON’T END • Lawrence Freedman explains how Russia’s strategic paralysis, wavering US commitment and Putin’s miscalculations have locked Ukraine and Russia in a war with no endgame

COLD WAR BERLIN A SPY’S GUIDE • Only the German capital can truly claim to be the ‘City of Spies’. Why? Because that’s where most of the action really happened

AMERICA’S WWII DRONES PART I • How grinding attrition in the South Pacific led to the first combat missions for unmanned US aircraft

BLUEPRINTS FOR PEACE • Two presidents, two visions. James Holland explains why Harry Truman’s charm and economic pragmatism outmatched Woodrow Wilson’s self-righteous political idealism to reconstruct a shattered post-war world

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CETSHWAYO FIGHTS BACK THE 1879 ANGLO-ZULU WAR • Inside the Zulu battlefield rituals, weapons and hunting formations that took on the Rorke’s Drift garrison and almost triumphed over the British Empire

INSIDE THE ZULU ARMY • Despite having no standing army, the Zulus could muster a vast force in days, and believed rituals would make their ancestors bring them victory

THE ZULU WAY OF WAR • Despite owning thousands of firearms, the Zulus hoped centuries-old hunting tactics and traditional weapons would fend off the British

NATAL NATIVE CONTINGENT • The British commander Chelmsford supplemented his column with African auxiliaries, but they were hampered by poor training, arms and morale

STAR-SPANGLED FASCISM • The rise and fall of Fritz Kuhn, the self-styled American Führer, reveals how extremist politics found a foothold in the United States before the Second World War

GREAT BATTLES BAILÉN • On a brutally hot day in July, outside a little town in southern Spain, the myth of French invincibility was smashed forever

GEORGE MARSHALL ORGANISER OF VICTORY • From engineering Operation Overlord to forging NATO, this American commander’s legacy looms large over history

THE MARSHALL PLAN • As secretary of state, he championed the rebuilding of Europe

OPERATION OVERLORD BY NUMBERS • The statistics involved in the D-Day landings were phenomenal

MACARTHUR VS TRUMAN • How Marshall was caught in the middle of a bitter showdown that transformed the United States

HEROES OF THE MEDAL OF HONOR DANIEL R EDWARDS • Severely wounded in WWI, this US soldier spent his post-war years telling scarcely believable tales of exotic adventure

BRITS IN SPAIN • While scores of foreign writers, radicals and revolutionaries signed up to fight against fascism, several also supported the nationalist quest to banish the Bolshevik menace

NIMITZ CLASS AIRCRAFT CARRIER • These enormous warships made up the backbone of the US Navy for decades

TAKE TD THE SKIES WITH THE HERDES OF THE AIR • The United States Air Force has been a decisive force in many of the major conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries. Discover its...