The August 2015 issue of Military History Monthly, the leading British military history magazine, is on sale now.
IN THIS ISSUE WE COVER:
The Civil War sieges of Newark
For our special feature this month, we explore the evolving art of siege warfare and fortification during the English Civil War, with a focus on the three sieges of Newark.
– Battle map
– Timeline
– Warriors and weapons
– Siege-works
– Newark Civil War Centre
Zeppelin Hunter: where the Wild Hawk soars
Ian Castle reports on one remarkable pilot’s daring attack on a German airship in 1915.
Destroyer of Worlds: the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Stephen Roberts evaluates the arguments surrounding the atomic destruction of the two Japanese cities.
Bearing the Unbearable: how Japan experienced the nation’s greatest defeat
Ken Wright explores the reaction of the Japanese to the trauma of defeat in World War II.
Also in this issue: Behind the Image, Conflict Scientists, War Culture, War on Film, Book Reviews, Museum, Listings, Briefing Room, and Competitions
From the editor
Neil Faulkner, Editor
A new National Civil War Centre has just opened in Newark. Today the place is a relatively small market-town in Lincolnshire. In the 1640s, it was much more important: a major communications centre where the Fosse Way from the South-West met the Great North Road from London at a crossing of the River Trent.
Held by the Royalists throughout the Civil War, the town was heavily fortified. But it was besieged three times, and the last occasion saw the construction of massive works by some 16,000 Parliamentarian and Scots Covenanter soldiers. Many of these survive, leaving Newark with the best extant Civil War earthworks in Britain.
This issue we have a special focus on Newark, the defences around the town, and siege warfare during the English Civil War. David Flintham and David Porter are our expert guides.
Also this issue, marking the anniversary of victory over Japan in 1945, we have Stephen Roberts’ analysis of the momentous and highly controversial decision to drop the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and also Ken Wright’s discussion of the Japanese spirit of bushido and the traumatic impact on a deeply militaristic society of its greatest defeat.
Finally, Ian Castle returns to describe another turning point in the development of aerial warfare during World War I: the first shooting-down of an airborne Zeppelin by a fighter aircraft.