It was perhaps the most tactically brilliant operation by naval aviation in military history: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. But, as David Porter explains in our special this time, it was a desperate gamble. Like Hitler in Europe, the Japanese were betting on a short war, a blitzkrieg that would bring their enemies to the negotiating table, knowing they could not win a long war of attrition against the European colonial powers and the United States.<\/p>\n
They misjudged. The US aircraft carriers \u2013 the most important targets \u2013 were absent, and six months later they would win the Battle of Midway and turn the tide of war in the Pacific. Worse, Pearl Harbor enraged a sleeping giant that would wage a relentless war until the Japanese Empire was destroyed.<\/p>\n
The Tudor conquest of Ireland in the late 16th century is the focus of Tim Newark\u2019s article.\u00a0As well as offering a vivid narrative, he dispels some myths about the supposed \u2018backwardness\u2019 of the Irish military resistance.<\/p>\n
Also this issue we have\u00a0an account of the Battle of Tel el-Kebir in 1882, when a modern British expeditionary force crushed an Egyptian nationalist army; an analysis of the Rebel victory in the American Revolutionary War; and\u00a0a survey of the East Anglian memorials to the Mighty Eighth, the US bomber fleet stationed there during WWII.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In this issue:<\/strong><\/p>\n – Pearl Harbor: the start of the Japanese blitzkrieg Plus: War Classics, Behind the Image, Book Reviews, Museum Review, War on Film, War Culture, Back to the Drawing Board, Listings, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3252,"template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"","site-sidebar-style":"","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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this issue: - Pearl Harbor: the start of the Japanese blitzkrieg - Tel el-Kebir, 1882: how the British crushed a nationalist army - \u2018Luck and pluck\u2019: why the Americans won the Revolutionary War - Invading a \u2018frontier of Europe\u2019: the Tudor conquest of Ireland - Memorials of the Mighty Eighth, America\u2019s WWII bomber fleet…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1860"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1860"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currentpublishing.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– Tel el-Kebir, 1882: how the British crushed a nationalist army
\n– \u2018Luck and pluck\u2019: why the Americans won the Revolutionary War
\n– Invading a \u2018frontier of Europe\u2019: the Tudor conquest of Ireland
\n– Memorials of the Mighty Eighth, America\u2019s WWII bomber fleet<\/p>\n