Military

Amid the disasters of the first Afghan War, writes James Lunt, the successful defence of Jellalabad, beyond the Khyber Pass, stands out as a well-deserved battle-honour.

The circumstances in which the Emperor Nicholas decided to send troops into Hungary in 1849, writes Ian Young, were remarkably similar to those which brought Soviet tanks swarming over the Carpathians in November 1956.

Like all military dictators, Bonaparte understood the martial importance of well-designed uniforms.

Past services cannot determine future policy. But, writes Brian Bond, the record of the Territorial Army suggests that the force has always given returns out of all proportion to the small amount invested in it.

From Roman times to the present age of American dominance, writes Brian Bond, philosophers, jurists and men of state have tried to answer the question: ‘When is war just?’

Ill-fed, badly lodged, subject to ferocious discipline, once described by their leader as “fellows who have all enlisted for drink,” Wellington’s soldiers showed a solidity and courage in action that enabled him to “do the business”. By T.H. McGuffie.

I.F. Clarke offers a study of the “pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war” as foreseen by imaginative writers and artists.

The crossing of the Beresina alone cost Napoleon more than 20,000 men. But, writes Alan Collis, some fortunate survivors of the terrible retreat from Moscow struggled home to tell the tale.

John Terraine describes how the military policy of democracies evolved and how they attempted to carry out a grand strategy, 1861-1945.

Modern democratic war was the warfare of mass armies; the logical end, writes John Terraine, was a weapon of mass destruction.