Military

Emperor Hirohito's War

What did Hirohito really think of Pearl Harbor? On the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack that brought the US into the Second World War, Herbert Bix offers a provocative reassessment of the Showa Emperor's responsibility for the conflict, drawing on his translations from diaries and memoirs of Hirohito and his court circle.

Summing Up The Somme

Lions led by donkeys? Britain's most traumatic land offensive of the First World War drew to its conclusion in November 1916. Trevor Wilson and Robin Prior reassess the campaign, the wisdom of its strategy and tactics, and the reputation of its C-in-C, Douglas Haig.

The Navajo Code Talkers and the Pacific War

During the Second World War, Navajo soldiers drafted into the Marines were much like ordinary recruits, with one exception: they were to create and use an unbreakable military code using their native language.

The Pity of War

John Crossland uncovers a conspiracy of silence from the records of Britain's First World War court-martial victims.

French Resistance and the Algerian War

During the 1950s the Algerian struggle against France and its white settlers for independence inflamed passions and hatreds in both countries – while a small number of French men and women helped the Algerian liberation movement in defiance of their government and the sentiments of the majority. What made them do it?

Henry VIII as Military Commander

Top gun? Alexander McKee assesses Henry VIII's prowess as a commander by land and sea in the light of his 1545 campaigns against the French.

America's 'Civil' Wars

Hugh Purcell examines the impact on either side of the Atlantic of Ken Burns’s tour de force, The Civil War.

Churchill and his War Rivals

David Day argues that deft footwork, personal PR and skilful use of both patronage and rhetoric were key elements in sustaining Britain's wartime PM in a position intrinsically far weaker than has often been supposed.