History Guild publishes articles that provide interesting insights into history. These articles cover military history from across the world.

D-Day succeeded thanks to an ingenious design called the Mulberry Harbours

Reading time: 4 minutes When Allied troops stormed the beaches at Normandy, France on June 6, 1944 – a bold invasion of ...
Read More

The changing lessons of Vietnam

Reading time: 5 minutes The national effort at remembering should also revisit a series of 50-year anniversaries for Australia’s entry ...
Read More

How World War II spurred vaccine innovation

Reading time: 7 minutes War and disease have marched arm in arm for centuries. Wars magnify the spread and severity ...
Read More

America Fought Its Own Battle Over Books Before it Fought the Nazis

Reading time: 7 minutes When United States servicemen stormed the beaches in Normandy, most of them had an essential item ...
Read More

The other assassination of November 1963

Reading time: 5 minutes If you weren’t living as a hermit in the desert, you’d have been well aware that ...
Read More

‘Excessive severity’: Treason and the Grenadian Rebellion of 1795

Reading time: 9 minutes Late in the night of 2 March 1795, a rebellion broke out on the Caribbean island ...
Read More

Australia and the Vietnam War: Looking Back

Reading time: 10 minutes The period from the Tet offensive of early 1968 to the Moratorium demonstration of May 1970 ...
Read More

PUTIN’S PAST: The Return of Ideological History and the Strongman

Reading time: 8 minutes From Russian Constitutional Court chairman Valery Zorkin, to former Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, to presidential ...
Read More

German spies in South Africa during WWII – The enemy within

Reading time: 5 minutes The story of the intelligence war in South Africa during the Second World War is one ...
Read More

The absurd irony of Putin’s invocation of Stalingrad

Reading time: 5 minutes Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address in Volgograd on 2 February, in which he sought to draw ...
Read More

The debate on the origins of the First World War

Reading time: 5 minutes The way historians have viewed the causes of WWI has changed in the hundred years since ...
Read More

Ukraine: why supply of US and German tanks echoes cold war

Reading time: 5 minutes The decision that Germany and the US will allow the export of M1 Abrams and Leopard ...
Read More

‘Vietnam vanguard’—a unit history of lasting value

Reading time: 5 minutes Unit histories are usually written mainly for members of the unit and their descendants: only a ...
Read More

The role of Australian industrial power in the defeat of Japan in World War II

Reading time: 7 minutes Questions remain about what stopped the Japanese from invading Australia, and how it was that many ...
Read More

What Vietnam and Iraq should teach Canberra

Reading time: 7 minutes If we learn more from losses than wins, then the Canberra system has much to gain ...
Read More

What was The Schlieffen Plan?

Reading time: 5 minutes France to the west, Russia to the east; Germany had a strategic plan to prevent full-scale ...
Read More

Australia, Indonesia and Confrontation

Reading time: 5 minutes Perhaps an old-fashioned diplomatic historian might add to the valuable comments by Peter Jennings, Peter McCawley ...
Read More

Armenia-Azerbaijan: an intermittent war as a way of life

Reading time: 5 minutes Clashes in the border territories between Armenia and Azerbaijan around Nagorno-Karabakh have recurred in recent times, ...
Read More

Left to ruin: we must preserve our forgotten wartime defences

Reading time: 5 minutes Australia built a number of coastal defences to help protect the country from any enemy attack ...
Read More

Protecting country: Indigenous Australians in the defence of the north

Reading time: 5 minutes Notions of ‘protecting country’ have, anecdotally at least, been a key motivation for Indigenous people to ...
Read More

Sino-Vietnamese War

Reading time: 6 minutes The Sino-Vietnamese war was a short, nasty conflict fought between China and Vietnam in early 1979 ...
Read More

Women in the Second World War: Military service in East Africa

Reading time: 8 minutes Hundreds of women served with the British Army in East Africa, and their role in the ...
Read More

Reg Saunders, Australia’s first Aboriginal commissioned officer – Podcast

This podcast episode is by Warwick O’Neill from the Australian Military History podcast, which has an excellent range of podcast ...
Read More

America’s Favourite Fighting Frenchman: Marquis de Lafayette

Reading time: 8 minutes Hamilton: An American Musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda remains one of the best Broadway musicals of all ...
Read More

From the bookshelf: ‘The Scrap Iron Flotilla’

Reading time: 4 minutes Mike Carlton has emerged as a gifted historian of Australia’s outstanding naval contributions in two world ...
Read More

The Woman King is more than an action movie – it shines a light on the women warriors of Benin

Reading time: 6 minutes The Woman King is a big-budget Hollywood movie that has been anticipated since 2018, when US ...
Read More

The Battle of the Beachheads – Podcasts

These podcast episodes by Warwick O’Neill from the Australian Military History podcast was commissioned by History Guild as part of ...
Read More

The horse bit and bridle kicked off ancient empires – a new giant dataset tracks the societal factors that drove military technology

Reading time: 7 minutes Starting around 3,000 years ago, a wave of innovation began to sweep through human societies around ...
Read More

A TALE OF REMEMBRANCE, ADMONITION, AND DESPAIR: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Reading time: 5 minutes The vivid and graphic imagery of the First World War has indeed become a potent symbol ...
Read More

The UN’s Greatest Peacekeeper, Lieutenant General Robert Harold Nimmo CBE – Podcast

An Australian Staff Officer who served his nation for 54 years from 1912 to 1966. Robert Nimmo was in the ...
Read More

Battle of Stonne, France 1940

Reading time: 5 minutes The battle for France in 1940 is often portrayed as a rout: the German Wehrmacht simply ...
Read More

The Onna-Musha: Japan’s Fearsome Warrior Women 

Reading time: 6 minutes In pre-modern Japan, there existed a group of samurai warriors that defy the modern worldview of ...
Read More

The Scrap Iron Captain: Hector Waller DSO and Bar – Podcast

While serving within the Royal Australian Navy as a Signals Officer, Captain Hector MacDonald Laws Waller served with distinction aboard ...
Read More

Jamaica’s Morant Bay Rebellion and it’s brutal repression

Reading time: 11 minutes On 12 October 1865, John Davidson, a magistrate in the east of Jamaica, wrote to the ...
Read More

Siege warfare, polygamy and sacrilege: meet history’s most outrageous king, Demetrius the Besieger

Reading time: 5 minutes Alexander the Great was a successful conqueror, but a poor planner. He died without an acceptable ...
Read More

Recognising the warriors

Reading time: 7 minutes First Nations people please be advised this article speaks of racially discriminating moments in history, including ...
Read More

How the Peace of Westphalia Shaped Europe

Reading time: 5 minutes The Peace of Westphalia, sometimes known as the treaty of Westphalia, is the collective name for ...
Read More

Japan’s Pacific War – Podcast

This podcast episode was commissioned by History Guild as part of our support of THE BLOODY BEACHHEADS: THE BATTLES OF ...
Read More

The Australians who Captured Rommel’s Intelligence Unit, Company 621

Reading time: 5 minutes Though the North African campaigns of World War 2 have a reputation for mainly being fought ...
Read More

Women in the Second World War: The Palestinian Auxiliary Territorial Service

Reading time: 8 minutes As the women’s branch of the British Army during the Second World War, the Auxiliary Territorial ...
Read More

Saint Olga of Kyiv is Ukraine’s patron saint of both defiance and vengeance

Reading time: 5 minutes Ukrainians are used to adversity and they have a special medieval role model who personifies their ...
Read More

How the British navy hid the heroic voyage of crippled second world war submarine HMS Triumph

Reading time: 5 minutes In September 1941 the British press enthralled its readers with a story of naval heroism that ...
Read More

The Bloody Beachheads: The Battles Of Gona, Buna And Sanananda – One Day Conference

November 12 @ 8:30 am - 4:30 pm at the East Malvern RSL, Melbourne Register Here The Battle of the ...
Read More

Why Gorbachev’s legacy still threatens Putin

Reading time: 5 minutes Little remains of the legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader and one of the ...
Read More

How the Thirty Years War Affected Germany

Reading time: 4 minutes The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was a brutal conflict that saw most major European powers use ...
Read More

Vital Hasson, the Jew who worked for the Nazis, hunted down refugees and tore apart families in WWII Greece

Vital Hasson, the Jew who worked for the Nazis, hunted down refugees and tore apart families in WWII Greece Reading time: ...
Read More

The R1 – South African Bush Rifle

The R1 - South African Bush Rifle Reading time: 9 minutes In the wake of the rise of the Soviet ...
Read More

How the Thirty Years’ War Weakened Spain

How the Thirty Years' War Weakened Spain Reading time: 5 minutes The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) wasn’t a conflict as ...
Read More

Blimp Vs U-Boat, WW2 – Video

Blimp Vs U-Boat, WW2 - Video In July 1943 one of the most remarkable duels of the battle of the ...
Read More

The Story of the AK-47: The World’s Most Famous and Deadliest Rifle

Reading time: 7 minutes The AK-47 is perhaps one of the most recognizable automatic rifles in the world. This simple ...
Read More

Broodseinde Ridge – Podcast

Broodseinde Ridge - Podcast On the back of the victories of Menin Road and Polygon Wood, the 1st Anzac Corps ...
Read More

Polygon Wood – Podcast

Polygon Wood - Podcast Following on from the success of the Battle of Menin Road, the 4th and 5th Australian ...
Read More

HISTORY AT WEST POINT: TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING TO FUTURE ARMY OFFICERS

HISTORY AT WEST POINT: TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING TO FUTURE ARMY OFFICERS Reading time: 8 minutes A visit to the United ...
Read More

Menin Road – Podcast

Menin Road - Podcast In 1917, General Haig began what would become known as the Third Battle of Ypres, with ...
Read More

How Did Sweden Join the Thirty Years War? 

The Thirty Years War was a whirlwind in the centre of Europe that at some point between 1618 and 1648 ...
Read More

A Cuban Catastrophe: The Bay of Pigs Invasion

Reading time: 11 minutes The 1959 Cuban Revolution resulted in rule by a communist regime under Fidel Castro. This period ...
Read More

Women in the Second World War: The sinking of SS Khedive Ismail

Women in the Second World War: The sinking of SS Khedive Ismail Reading time: 7 minutes On the afternoon of ...
Read More

Finding ‘Forgotten’ Allies

Reading time: 7 minutes Although it is difficult to calculate exactly how many Burmese personnel were recruited by SOE for ...
Read More

History is Complicated – SOE in Burma

History is Complicated - SOE in Burma Reading time: 7 minutes It was estimated by Force 136 that they recruited ...
Read More

Australians in the Mediterranean during WW2 eBook

Thousands of Australian soldiers saw combat in a series of battles in the Mediterranean and North Africa. Their service is ...
Read More

X Troop – The Secret Jewish Commandos of WWII

X Troop: Image courtesy of Times Magazine. Reading time: 8 minutes When we hear ‘Jewish’ and ‘World War II’ in ...
Read More

39th Militia Battalion and the Kokoda Track – Part 2

Preparations for the recapture of Kokoda Reading time: 10 minutes By Warwick O'Neill Read Part 1 of the 39th Battalion’s ...
Read More

The Battle of Crete, WW2 – Video

The Battle of Crete, WW2 - Video The Battle of Crete saw around 40,000 Allied troops, including over 6,500 Australians, ...
Read More

39th Battalion at Kokoda – Part 1

The Militia and the AIF Reading time: 10 minutes By Warwick O'Neill Imagine you’re a young 20 year old bloke ...
Read More

Ruin Ridge – Podcast

Ruin Ridge - Podcast During the 1st Battle of El Alamein the 9th Australian Division was tasked with the capture ...
Read More

6th Australian Cavalry Reg in the Mediterranean, WW2 – Video

6th Australian Cavalry Reg in the Mediterranean, WW2 - Video The 6th Australian Cavalry Regiment were the first unit of ...
Read More

Cretan Resistance During WW2

Cretan Resistance During WW2 Reading time: 9 minutes One of the more impressive feats of arms during the second World ...
Read More

Project ‘44: Australia and future of Project ‘44

Project ‘44: Australia and future of Project ‘44 Reading time: 12 minutes The contribution of many countries to World War ...
Read More

The Story of the M1 Garand: The Iconic and Influential World War 2 Weapon

The Story of the M1 Garand: The Iconic and Influential World War 2 Weapon Reading time: 7 minutes The world ...
Read More

Twelve days at Anzac: the evacuation

TWELVE DAYS AT ANZAC: THE EVACUATION Reading time: 7 minutes Over one hundred years ago, one of the most remarkable ...
Read More

In their own words: letters from ANZACs during the Gallipoli evacuation

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Just five days before Christmas, in the early hours of Monday December 20, 1915, the ...
Read More

Who were we fighting at Gallipoli?

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes In the annual discussion of the Gallipoli campaign Australians are subjected to a variety of ...
Read More

Lemnos and Gallipoli Revealed – Podcast

Over the course of 1915, most of the 50,000 Australian personnel who served at Gallipoli passed through the island of ...
Read More

The Scrap Iron Flotilla – Australian Destroyers in the Mediterranean – Video

The Scrap Iron Flotilla - Australian Destroyers in the Mediterranean - Video To the Axis Powers, the Australian flotilla that fought ...
Read More

Australian VC’s in the Mediterranean, WW2 – Video

Australian VC's in the Mediterranean, WW2 - Video There were six Australian VC recipients during the Mediterranean and North African ...
Read More
Fort Khiam, Syria. Australian troops

When Australia Fought France, WW2 – Video

When Australia Fought France, WW2 - Video Operation Exporter was a little known, but very important campaign for the Australian ...
Read More

3 Squadron RAAF – Podcast

3 Squadron RAAF - Podcast As the Allied armies fought across North Africa, first against the Italians and then the ...
Read More

Tobruk – Podcast

Tobruk - Podcast Tobruk was one of the greatest Allied victories – and one of the worst Allied defeats – ...
Read More

Frederick Lanchester and why quantity has a quality all of its own

Frederick Lanchester and why quantity has a quality all of its own Reading time: 6 minutes FE2B Aircraft, WW1 In ...
Read More

The Battle for Crete: Hard Fought

The Battle for Crete: Hard Fought Reading time: 10 minutes Wherever they fought in the Second World War, Australian troops ...
Read More

What happened to the French army after Dunkirk

What happened to the French army after Dunkirk Reading time: 5 minutes French POWs being led away from the battlefield ...
Read More

Second Battle of El Alamein: Australia Forces a Breach

Second Battle of El Alamein: Australia Forces a Breach Reading time: 9 minutes The battle of El Alamein in late ...
Read More

North Africa in WW2: Total War with Honour?

North Africa in WW2: Total War with Honour? Reading time: 8 minutes The North African campaigns during the Second World ...
Read More
Flying WW1 Aeroplanes

The War in the Skies: How The First World War Changed Aviation

THE WAR IN THE SKIES: HOW THE FIRST WORLD WAR CHANGED AVIATION Reading time: 6 minutes When the first world ...
Read More

What lies behind the war in Tigray?

WHAT LIES BEHIND THE WAR IN TIGRAY? Reading time: 7 minutes Ethiopian soldiers in 2005 on a hilltop outpost overlooking ...
Read More

Tongerlongeter — the Tasmanian resistance fighter we should remember as a war hero

TONGERLONGETER — THE TASMANIAN RESISTANCE FIGHTER WE SHOULD REMEMBER AS A WAR HERO Reading time: 3 minutes Australians love their ...
Read More

Hard Fought: Australia In The Mediterranean Theatre 1940-1945 Conference

HARD FOUGHT: AUSTRALIA IN THE MEDITERRANEAN THEATRE 1940-1945 CONFERENCE Reading time: 2 minutes History Guild is supporting a conference examining ...
Read More

Britain’s obsession with the second world war and the debates that fuel it

BRITAIN’S OBSESSION WITH THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND THE DEBATES THAT FUEL IT Reading time: 5 minutes The COVID-19 pandemic ...
Read More
Sigulda Castle

Rewilding: lessons from the medieval Baltic crusades

REWILDING: LESSONS FROM THE MEDIEVAL BALTIC CRUSADES Reading time: 6 minutes The Forest of Białowieża, which straddles the border of ...
Read More

In Appreciation of Schindler’s List

IN APPRECIATION OF SCHINDLER'S LIST Reading time: 7 minutes Revisiting Steven Spielberg's harrowing Holocaust drama on the 28th anniversary of ...
Read More

The Beginning of the End: Napoleon’s Retreat from Russia

THE BEGINNING OF THE END: NAPOLEON’S RETREAT FROM RUSSIA Reading time: 6 minutes On 24 June 1812, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte ...
Read More

Domino Theory and U.S. Foreign Policy

DOMINO THEORY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY When looking at the cold war and the way the United States went about ...
Read More
NZ POWs being transported to Germany in 1943.

Escape from Greece

Escape from Greece Reading time: 19 minutes It began, as it sometimes does, with an old photograph. Three men dressed ...
Read More

PEARL HARBOR AND AMERICA’s ENTRY TO WAR

PEARL HARBOR AND AMERICA'S ENTRY TO WAR The commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor also ...
Read More

The Black War

THE BLACK WAR Reading time: 10 minutes Nicholas Clements’ The Black War sheds new light on the long and bloody ...
Read More

How Cyprus Became Divided

HOW CYPRUS BECAME DIVIDED Reading time: 8 minutes Cyprus is a country that on paper is whole, but in reality ...
Read More

First Battle of El Alamein: Australia Holds the Line

FIRST BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN: AUSTRALIA HOLDS THE LINE Reading time: 10 minutes The North African campaigns of WW2 were ...
Read More
Dunkirk British soldier

Dunkirk: how British newspapers helped to turn defeat into a miracle

DUNKIRK: HOW BRITISH NEWSPAPERS HELPED TO TURN DEFEAT INTO A MIRACLE Reading time: 6 minutes Exhausted British troops on the ...
Read More
1742 map of Berbice River with plantations.

Reckoning with slavery: What a revolt’s archives tell us about who owns the past

RECKONING WITH SLAVERY: WHAT A REVOLT’S ARCHIVES TELL US ABOUT WHO OWNS THE PAST Reading time: 6 minutes Statue of ...
Read More

Losing the war in an afternoon: Jutland 1916

LOSING THE WAR IN AN AFTERNOON: JUTLAND 1916 Reading time: 15 minutes The Battle of Jutland. 1916 was the pivotal ...
Read More

How a Cyprus Museum Uses Tech to Make the Past Come Alive

HOW A CYPRUS MUSEUM USES TECH TO MAKE THE PAST COME ALIVE What do you do when a building important ...
Read More

The Anglo-Zanzibar War: The Shortest War in History

THE ANGLO-ZANZIBAR WAR: THE SHORTEST WAR IN HISTORY Reading time: 7 minutes The story of the shortest war in history ...
Read More

The Battle of Greece – Australia’s Textbook Rear-Guard Action

THE BATTLE OF GREECE - AUSTRALIA’S TEXTBOOK REAR-GUARD ACTION Reading time: 13 minutes Retreat doesn’t always mean defeat, sometimes it ...
Read More
Commonwealth troops captured on Crete

Escape from Greece – Podcast

ESCAPE FROM GREECE - PODCAST This podcast episode tells the story of Shanghai born John Robin Greaves, ‘Jack’, who emigrated ...
Read More

The Australian Flying Corps, 1917–18

THE AUSTRALIAN FLYING CORPS, 1917–18 Reading time: 8 minutes By 1917, the men of the Australian Flying Corps’ No. 1 ...
Read More

The fall of Singapore

THE FALL OF SINGAPORE Reading time: 14 minutes Japanese Soldiers enter Singapore. The Land Campaign Nothing in history is inevitable ...
Read More

The USAAF 49th Fighter Group over Darwin: a forgotten campaign

Reading time: 4 minutes USAAF 49TH Fighter Group P-40 Kittyhawk Fighters. Darwin, 1942 The prelude to the campaign of the ...
Read More

Book Review: ‘Pacific Crucible: war at sea in the Pacific 1941–42′

Reading time: 4 minutes With ANZUS in the news at the moment, this book is a good way to understand ...
Read More

Australia’s Great War in the air

AUSTRALIA’S GREAT WAR IN THE AIR Reading time: 5 minutes In January 1911, the Australian government announced its intention to ...
Read More

1917: our costliest year at war

1917: OUR COSTLIEST YEAR AT WAR Reading time: 5 minutes A century ago, in early 1917, Australian troops had already ...
Read More

SIX of the best WORLD WAR II FILMS

SIX OF THE BEST WORLD WAR II FILMS World War II (1939-1945) was and remains the greatest conflict that humanity ...
Read More

Walking with the Diggers

WALKING WITH THE DIGGERS Reading time: 5 minutes The Centenary Commemoration of the Great War continues to unearth real treasures ...
Read More

The Coral Sea, 1942: a nation-saving battle

THE CORAL SEA, 1942: A NATION-SAVING BATTLE Reading time: 5 minutes The Battle of the Coral Sea isn’t as iconic ...
Read More
AUSTRALIAN_FORCES_IN_LEBANON,_1941

Australia’s War with France

AUSTRALIA'S WAR WITH FRANCE Reading time: 12 minutes The Nahr al-Kalb, or ‘Dog River’, meets the Mediterranean Sea just north ...
Read More

The German naval threat in the Indo-Pacific 1914–15

Reading time: 6 minutes British Navy officers approaching the wreck of the German Navy cruiser SMS Konigsberg in the Rufigi ...
Read More

Gough’s remaking of Defence policy

Reading time: 4 minutes Gough Whitlam was a physical giant with an intellect to match. His flaws were pretty sizeable, ...
Read More

Australia’s war with France: The Campaign in Syria and Lebanon, 1941 – Podcast

AUSTRALIA’S WAR WITH FRANCE: THE CAMPAIGN IN SYRIA AND LEBANON, 1941 - PODCAST Operation Exporter was a little known, but ...
Read More

The Benghazi Handicap and the Siege of Tobruk

THE BENGHAZI HANDICAP AND THE SIEGE OF TOBRUK The Benghazi handicap is the name Australian soldiers gave to their race ...
Read More

Warfare spurred on the welfare state in the 20th century – but it probably won’t in future

Reading time: 7 minutes A tank on its way to port for the Normandy landings in 1944. PA Archive The ...
Read More

Spark to Powder: Prague and the Thirty Years’ War

Reading time: 6 minutes The 30 Years’ War is remembered by few people except historians, but the conflict, which raged ...
Read More

Why we should remember the Battle of the Coral Sea

Reading time: 5 minutes The Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 has become the touchstone for the Australian-American ...
Read More

Early Raids Of the Pacific War

Reading time: 98 minutes Less than two months after the devastating surprise attack at Pearl Harbour, the US Navy was ...
Read More

The Iranian Revolution

Reading time: 9 minutes To understand what caused the Iranian Revolution, we must first consider the ongoing conflict between proponents ...
Read More

After Jutland: the North Sea operations of 18–19 August 1916

Reading time: 5 minutes HMAS Sydney at full speed in a heavy sea off Dogger Bank. AWM. One of the ...
Read More

Remembering the bombing of Darwin

Reading time: 5 minutes The bombing of Darwin, 1942. If sometimes it seems that governments rush to appoint inquiries or ...
Read More

The Franco-British Union: Genius, or Madness Born of Desperation?

Reading time: 6 minutes When crisis strikes, one imagines members of government or heads of state stoically dealing with the ...
Read More

The evidence for the Tasmanian genocide

Reading time: 7 minutes At a public meeting in Hobart in the late 1830s, Solicitor-General Alfred Stephen, later Chief Justice ...
Read More

51 years ago: Israel won an air battle, and lost the War of Attrition

The Israel Air Force drew the Soviet expeditionary force in Egypt into a perfect, successful ambush, but pride was the ...
Read More

DISASTER AT SAVO ISLAND, 1942

Reading time: 50 minutes The Battle of Savo Island The Battle of Savo Island occurred early in the morning on ...
Read More

Remembering the Victory at Bardia

Reading time: 8 minutes Just over 80 years ago, Australian forces fought their first major battle of World War II ...
Read More

Scrap Iron Flotilla: The Royal Australian Navy at its Best

Reading time: 11 minutes To the Axis Powers, the Australian flotilla that fought in the Mediterranean during the Second World ...
Read More

Five Great Historically Accurate Films: Part Three

Reading time: 6 minutes READ PART ONE AND PART TWO By Michael Vecchio Saving Private Ryan (1998) Dir. Steven Spielberg ...
Read More

The Battle of Cape Spada: The Australian Navy Proves Its Mettle

THE BATTLE OF CAPE SPADA: THE AUSTRALIAN NAVY PROVES ITS METTLE Reading time: 9 minutes The Battle of Cape Spada ...
Read More

Imperial Overconfidence: The Anglo-Zulu War

Reading time: 8 minutes For a fine example of overconfidence during the height of British Imperialism, look no further than ...
Read More

A program for peace: The founding of the United Nations

Reading time: 6 minutes Achieving the elusive dream of “world peace”, has long been an idealist and collectivist goal for ...
Read More

Venezuela’s Fight For Independence: The Battle of Carabobo

Reading time: 6 minutes This year marks the 200th anniversary of the battle of Carabobo, a major battle in Venezuela’s ...
Read More

The Siege of Haarlem, Kenau, and Creating a Heroine

Reading time: 5 minutes The Dutch Revolt, the conflict that created an independent Netherlands free from Spain, also created a ...
Read More

WERE SOVIET TANKS DEPLOYED IN EGYPT 50 YEARS AGO?

Reading time: 6 minutes On February 3, 2018, Russian Air Force Maj. Roman Filipov’s jet was shot down while attacking ...
Read More

WA’s first governor James Stirling had links to slavery, as well as directing a massacre. Should he be honoured?

Reading time: 5 minutes Today, councillors in Perth’s City of Stirling will vote to decide whether to change their city’s ...
Read More

The Cold War Ignites: The Berlin Blockade and Airlift

Reading time: 6 minutes Once the centre of Nazi ideology and power, the German capital of Berlin was extremely important ...
Read More
Dutch Ships Sail Off a Rocky Shore

How War with Spain Created the Dutch Colonial Empire

Reading time: 8 minutes The Dutch colonial empire was a large collection of territories that spanned the globe from the ...
Read More

Constructing Oppression: The Berlin Wall and the Literal Iron Curtain

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes 60 years after its initial construction, the memory of the Berlin Wall remains a potent ...
Read More

The Two Countries That ‘Escaped’ The Scramble for Africa

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes The Scramble for Africa is often recognized as the beginning of colonialism and European Imperialism ...
Read More

‘Cheese-eating surrender monkeys’? It’s time to give the French Army the credit it deserves

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes When marking the centenary of the terrible events of 1917, some of the most devastating ...
Read More

Wounded Knee: Shame or Honour?

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes On 29 December 1890, between 150-300 Sioux Lakota men, women, and children, most of whom ...
Read More

Africa’s World War: The Congo War

Africa’s World War: The Congo War Reading time: 5 minutes 5.4 million people died in the deadliest war in modern ...
Read More

Brilliant and Flawed: The Enduring Legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes The 200th anniversary of his death (1821-2021) renews discussion on how the former Emperor should ...
Read More
Hudson Bombers, 1SQN RAAF

Australia’s first action in the Pacific in World War II a valiant catastrophe

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Just before midnight on 7 December 1941, Flying Officer Peter Gibbes stepped off the train ...
Read More

Leaving Afghanistan and why America doesn’t win wars

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Since World War II, the United States has lost just about every war that it ...
Read More

‘I want to scream and scream’: Australian nurses on the Western Front were also victims of war

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes The revival of interest in Anzac since the 1980s has depended in part on the ...
Read More

Peter Weir’s Gallipoli 40 years on: deftly directed and still devastating

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes With the release of the first-world-war film Gallipoli in 1981, director Peter Weir could finally ...
Read More

How The Napoleonic Wars Entrenched British Rule In 19th Century South Africa

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes The battles between Britain and France following the French Revolution and into the Napoleonic Wars ...
Read More

Who will have us? Jewish Refugees before WW2

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes The plight of Jewish refugees after the outbreak of World War II in 1939 is ...
Read More

Hero and Villain: Robert Clive of the East India Company

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes Robert Clive, a general of the East India Company, was despised by his contemporaries – ...
Read More

Northern Ireland, born of strife 100 years ago, again erupts in political violence

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes Sectarian rioting has returned to the streets of Northern Ireland, just weeks shy of its ...
Read More

Taking back the Homeland – Ethiopian Guerrillas in World War II

Reading time: 6 minutes Guerrilla warfare played a huge role in World War II. Partisans in France, Yugoslavia, the Eastern ...
Read More

Highland Clearances: Changing a Culture

HIGHLAND CLEARANCES: CHANGING A CULTURE Reading time: 5 minutes Cultures, customs and traditions change as time passes on, but sometimes ...
Read More

Hubris and Miscalculation: The failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion

HUBRIS AND MISCALCULATION: THE FAILURE OF THE BAY OF PIGS INVASION Estimated reading time: 6 minutes By Michael Vecchio The ...
Read More

Could the Charge of the Light Brigade have worked?

COULD THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE HAVE WORKED? Reading time: 6 minutes Middle East tensions. Russian soldiers in Crimea ...
Read More
Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg Gate (Image)

Remembering Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg

REMEMBERING SACHSENHAUSEN-ORANIENBURG Estimated reading time: 3 minutes By Rachel Horne. 35 kilometres north of Berlin, you will find the Nazi ...
Read More
Battle Plan of Operation Sea Lion (Map)

Deceptive Ineptitude: German Spies in WW2 Britain

DECEPTIVE INEPTITUDE: GERMAN SPIES IN WW2 BRITAIN Estimated reading time: 6 minutes Operation Lena, the German espionage operation in Britain, ...
Read More

The Somme: The German perspective

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes By Dr Robert T. Foley. How do Germans view the Battle of The Somme? This ...
Read More
First World War, tableau, men, uniform, woods, fun Fortepan 25063.jpg

The Long Tail of the First World War

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes Fallen Empires and Civil War By Caitlan Hester The popular view of the First World ...
Read More

Jutland: Why World War I’s only sea battle was so crucial to Britain’s victory

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes By Andrew Lambert, King's College London. Modern understanding of World War I is dominated by ...
Read More

Blood and Pepper: The Aceh Wars

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes The history of the Dutch East Indies is a blood-soaked tale of war and subjugation ...
Read More

How the National Guard became the go-to military force for riots and civil disturbances

Reading time: 6 minutes The Pentagon has approved leaving 5,000 troops deployed indefinitely to protect the U.S. Capitol from domestic ...
Read More

It’s time for a new museum dedicated to the fighters of the frontier wars

Estimated reading time: 19 minutes Historical research of the last 20 years has confirmed the central importance of the killing ...
Read More

Rising Sun, Complacent Bear: The Russo-Japanese War

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes The Russo-Japanese War resulted in one of Russia’s greatest military upsets, and one of Japan’s ...
Read More

A short, sharp history of the bayonet

Estimated reading time: 14 minutes By Peter Monteath, Flinders University. Even the sound of a bayonet could be frightening. The ...
Read More

Battle of 42nd Street – Anzacs Proving Germany Could be Beaten

Reading time: 5 minutes Morale can make all the difference on the battlefield. On the 27th May 1941, with the ...
Read More

Why the Legions Beat the Phalanx

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes The societies of ancient Greece and Rome valued brawn as well as brains. Philosophers fulfilled ...
Read More

Quantity Becomes a Quality All of Its Own

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes In the history of warfare, there have been mismatched conflicts where skilled forces have been ...
Read More

The Battle of Kadesh and the World’s First Peace Treaty

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes For a shining example of ancient warfare and the cause of the world's first recorded ...
Read More

The Battle for Hong Kong – London’s Lost Cause?

Reading time: 6 minutes Within 12 hours of Pearl Harbour being bombed by the Japanese at the outset of their ...
Read More

Fake News, Misinformation and Propaganda Throughout History

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes By Madison Moulton Fake news has become a popular buzzword. However, the phenomenon is not ...
Read More

Neutrality At All Costs: The Netherlands in WW1

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes By Fergus O'Sullivan World War 1 was a conflict that engulfed entire continents and swallowed ...
Read More

Explainer: what is radiocarbon dating and how does it work?

Rachel Wood, Australian National University Radiocarbon dating has transformed our understanding of the past 50,000 years. Professor Willard Libby produced ...
Read More

Best Historical Films 2010-2020

There may be many historically based films, but only a few can be rightfully called striking, emotional, and informative. As ...
Read More

A Period of Change: Global Events in the Lead Up to WWI

Reading time: 6 minutes The history of the lead up to WWI is undoubtedly dominated by Europe. European powers understandably ...
Read More

The History of Games: Rome 2

By Fergus O'Sullivan. Here at the History Guild we like video games, especially ones with a historical setting. Of course, ...
Read More

Five Great Historically Accurate Films

By Michael Vecchio. Most history enthusiasts will eye the release of a new film on a historical topic somewhat sceptically, ...
Read More

Five of the Most Historically Accurate PC Games

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Plenty of video games are marketed as being historically accurate, but few truly are. In ...
Read More

‘Australia’s smallest peacekeeping force’ in the unknown prelude to the Korean War

Reading time: 4 minutes In the years leading up to the Korean War, the two future combatants were already fighting ...
Read More

Battle of One Tree Hill, Australian Frontier Wars

Battle of One Tree Hill, Australian Frontier Wars Reading time: 7 minutes The Battle of One Tree Hill in 1843 ...
Read More

Military Marine Mammals

It has recently emerged that the Russian Navy used specially trained marine mammals, probably seals, for harbour defence in Syria ...
Read More

Nike Missile Site, San Francisco

The Nike missile was one of the first successful anti-aircraft missiles, developed by Bell Labs and put into service by ...
Read More

Defences of Australia – 19th Century

Modern Australia is relatively unique in it's position occupying an entire continent, having no land borders with another country. While ...
Read More