The December issue of Military History Monthly, the British military history magazine, is now on sale.
In this issue we cover:
Mao’s Red Army
Tom Farrell charts the origins, history, and final victory of the Chinese Communists, and, using Mao’s own words, we summarise the strategy and tactics of the Chinese insurgency in the 1930s and ’40s.
This 17-page special feature includes:
– Background
– The Chinese Revolution
– Mao’s Little Red Book
– The Civil War
– Maps
The Sea Eagles
Simon Elliot explores the Roman navy’s role in the Empire’s campaigns of conquest.
Sumner’s Charge
MHM Editor Neil Faulkner recalls a forgotten assault during the American Civil War.
Regiment: The 5th Dragoon Guards
Patrick Mercer investigates the role of the 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s) Dragoon Guards at Balaklava in 1854.
The real African Queen
James Stejskal uncovers the story behind the famous film.
Also in this issue: Behind the Image; War Culture; War Composers; War on Film; Book of the Month; Book Reviews; Museum Review; Event Listings; Competitions; and much more.
From the editor
China has emerged as the Number Two global superpower alongside the United States. Indeed, all the signs are that the Chinese economy is set to overtake the US, and when this happens, sooner or later, military supremacy is bound to follow.
Not that such shifts in global power are ever simple. The rising power and the declining power often come to blows. Tension between China and the US and its western Pacific allies is already high. We have entered a danger zone in world geopolitics.
In this issue we look at the historic roots of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Tom Farrell charts the defeat of the Communists in the cities, Mao’s Long March to remote Yan’an, and the development of a rural insurgency by peasant guerrillas under Maoist command. He looks at how the Red Army was forged in war against the conventional armies of both Japanese invaders and Chinese Nationalists.
Also in this issue, Simon Elliott reports on the forgotten history of the Roman Navy, focusing on the Classis Britannica, the ‘British Fleet’, and I report on the Union infantry attack at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, which ought to be as famous as Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg the following year, but is in fact little remembered.
Patrick Mercer, meantime, continues his Regiment series with a focus on the 5th Dragoon Guards at Balaklava, while James Stejskal launches a new Sideshows series by revealing the real-life story behind
the famous novel and film The African Queen.