The July 2012 issue of Military History Monthly, the British military history magazine, is on sale today.
In the latest issue we cover:
History of the British Army – Balaclava, 25 October 1845
The 1845 Army’s inadequacies shockingly exposed in the Crimea. MHM explores how.
The War of 1812 – Washington in Ruins
Mark Corby discovers that Britain and America’s ‘special relationship’ was not always so.
Antony Beevor – on the Second World War
MHM speaks to the leading military historian about his new book on WWII.
AD 1212 – Las Navas de Tolosa – the turning point in Spain’s long crusade
Jules Stewart recalls one of the most decisive battles of La Reconquista
At the Brink – 1983: a breath away from nuclear annihilation
Taylor Downing explains just how close we came to global nuclear Armageddon.
Also in this issue: War Culture, War Zone, WMD, and Book Reviews.
From the editor
Neil Faulkner, Editor/n
For every book on the Crimean War, there must be a hundred or more on the Napoleonic Wars, and perhaps as many on Waterloo alone. Why is this?
It is certainly not the case that other mid to late 19th century campaigns are neglected. Think of the number of books on the American Civil War or the Zulu War.
It was Britain’s only major war against a leading European power between 1815 and 1914. The serious fighting lasted a year and cost an estimated two-thirds of a million dead.
News coverage at the time was unprecedented for both its speed of delivery and graphic detail. The Charge of the Light Brigade is as famous as any event in British military history. And in Florence Nightingale the war produced an iconic heroine still known to every British schoolchild.
Why, then, is the Crimean War so little studied? It would be interesting to hear readers’ thoughts.
Whatever, Balaclava is the focus of our lead feature this issue as we investigate the woeful failures of a British Army rusted with disuse and no longer fit for purpose.
Also this issue we take a good hard look at Antony Beevor’s new history of the Second World War, with extended extract, author interview, and independent review, plus modern warfare expert Taylor Downing reveals the little-known Cold War crisis of 1983. Just how close were we to nuclear Armageddon at the height of the Reagan era?
We also mark two anniversaries one with a piece by Jules Stewart on the 1212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, the turning point in the 800-year long struggle between Crusader and Moor in medieval Spain, the other with a polemical article from Mark Corby analysing Britain’s victory over the USA in 1812.