In 1941, it was necessary to disable the Italian navy to ensure Britain’s naval supremacy in the Mediterranean. In November 1940, the British had successfully taken out three Italian battleships at Taranto, Italy. In March 1941, there were signs of increased Italian naval activity around Cape Matapan, southern Greece; intelligence... More
When the northern press celebrated the ‘great victory’ at Ivy Mountain (8 November 1861), the Cincinnati Gazette observed that it would have ‘no more permanent effect than the passage of a showman’s caravan’. So it proved. Within a few weeks, the Confederates were back in eastern Kentucky, General Humphrey Marshall’s... More
As the carrier strike group of Admiral Chuichi Nagumo neared Midway early on 4 June, the first wave of aircraft was launched from the carriers for an attack against the island, although it was not sufficient to disable the airfield. Nagumo was left with a difficult choice between committing the... More
After their Salamis defeat, the Persian fleet sailed towards Asia Minor in 479 BCE. En route they ‘rested’ off Samos island in Persian-occupied Ionia (modern Turkey). However, the tyrant ruler of Samos, Theomestor, who had fought against the Persians at Salamis, alerted the Greek fleet, still stationed at Salamis, to... More
Naseby would be the acid test of the product of Oliver Cromwell’s military reforms: the New Model Army. After an increasingly rare success in taking Leicester, King Charles faced the Parliamentarian forces stationed on Naseby Ridge in Northamptonshire on 14 June. Taking the offensive, the outnumbered Royalists drove the Parliamentarian... More
In October 1346, Scottish forces invaded England to honour a treaty with France, but also to loot and pillage the northern towns. The Scots’ 12,000-strong army sacked their way southwards towards Durham, in the false belief that the ongoing war in France had taken most of the English troops. On... More
The grandiosely styled ‘Athens of the South’, New Bern was founded by Swiss colonists. By the outbreak of war, it was a prosperous port, and logical target for the Union’s increasingly confident and aggressive deployment of amphibious warfare. In the previous six months, such operations had seized Pamlico Sound, Elizabeth... More
Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931 led to border disputes with Soviet-allied Mongolia. The Mongolia–Manchuria border became a highly contentious issue, with the Japanese considering it to be demarcated by the Khalkin-Gol River, whilst the Mongolians and Soviets maintained that it ran east of the village of Nomonhan. When a... More
Key to Union Commander-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant’s Virginia offensive was man-to-man marking of his opposite number, the talismanic Robert E. Lee. President Lincoln agreed with Grant that if Lee’s Army of North Virginia could be destroyed, whether in open battle or by attrition, the Confederacy would fall. At North Anna,... More
The tactics and technology of the Mughal emperor Babur at Panipat, 55 miles (90 km) north of Delhi, were cutting edge. He was invited to invade by disaffected relatives of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, of the Afghan Lodhi dynasty, which ruled northern India at the time. He faced a much larger... More
During the first months of 1862, Union forces under General Curtis steadily drove Van Dorn’s Confederate Army out of Missouri. Crossing into Arkansas, Van Dorn resolved to counterattack with a sweeping flanking manoeuvre following the Bentonville and Cross Timber roads, leaving his supply train behind for speed. As his army... More
On 27 September 1864, one of the bloodiest battles of the US Civil War was fought at Fort Davidson in the foothills of Pilot Knob Mountain. Although it resulted in a Union retreat, Confederate casualties were so high that it could not be considered a victory. This battle was the... More