The December 2023/January 2024 issue of Military History Matters, the British military history magazine, is out now.
The best way to access the magazine is to subscribe. Click here to find out more. To read the digital archive, click here. You can also access the magazine online (as well as exclusive extra content) at our new website, The Past.
IN THIS ISSUE:
The Thirty Years’ War
It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history, but the Thirty Years’ War was also horrific for the manner in which it was conducted, with atrocities and massacres such as that which occurred during the Sack of Magdeburg. What had begun as a local dispute over the anti-Protestant policies of a future Holy Roman Emperor escalated into Europe’s apocalypse: part of the wars of religion between Catholic and Protestant, but also part of a more complex struggle involving most of the continent’s great powers. This issue, we offer an analysis of the war, then take a detailed look at the crucial Battle of Lützen.
The corpse that fooled Hitler
In the second part of our series on the use of deception in WWII, Taylor Downing tells the extraordinary story of Operation Mincemeat
Cromwell’s ‘general at sea’: the making of Britain’s imperial navy
Graham Goodlad profiles Robert Blake, the republican commander who laid the foundations of sea power after the Civil Wars
They’re coming! The invasion scares of 1805 & 1940
Napoleon and Hitler both drew up detailed plans for the invasion of Britain. David Porter compares the threats they posed
Dark shadows: Nathan Bedford Forrest
Edmund West traces the life of the Confederate cavalry officer responsible for one the worst atrocities of the American Civil War.
Also in this issue:
The latest in our series on classic military history books, War Culture, Book Reviews, Museum Review, Back to the Drawing Board, Listings, Competitions, and more.
To subscribe to the magazine, click here. To subscribe to the digital archive, click here. You can also access the magazine online (as well as exclusive extra content) at our new website, The Past. Find us on Facebook, Twitter (X), and Instagram.
From the editor:
From a British perspective, the two World Wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45 cast such a long shadow over Europe’s past that it can often obscure a third cataclysm, which for nearly three centuries had the dubious honour of being the deadliest conflict in the continent’s history.
In Germany and the Czech Republic, however, the Thirty Years’ War of 1618-48 still haunts the collective memory – as a uniquely painful national trauma that resulted in the deaths of anywhere between five and eight million soldiers and civilians from battle, famine, and disease.
In our cover story for this issue, Stephen Roberts takes us back to this terrible period to understand why the Thirty Years’ War is often known as the first ‘modern’ conflict, and to analyse the crucial battle that cost the life of a king.
Elsewhere, Graham Goodlad begins a new occasional series on the making of Britain’s imperial navy with a profile of Robert Blake, Cromwell’s ‘general at sea’ who laid the foundations of sea power after the Civil Wars.
Also in the issue, David Porter looks into the ‘invasion scares’ of 1805 and 1940, and compares the cross-Channel threats posed by Napoleon and Hitler; while Edmund West delves into the troubling legacy of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the brilliant Confederate cavalry officer who was also responsible for one of the American Civil War’s worst atrocities.
And finally, in the second part of his series on the use of deception during World War II, Taylor Downing tells the extraordinary true story of Operation Mincemeat and the 1943 invasion of Sicily.
We hope you enjoy the issue!
Laurence Earle
To subscribe to the magazine, click here. To subscribe to the digital archive, click here. You can also access the magazine online (as well as exclusive extra content) at our new website, The Past. Find us on Facebook, Twitter (X), and Instagram.
Winston Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty in 1939