Evolution of the 1939 iron cross

In the early 2000s, I bought the beautiful, but anonymous, ribbon bar of a Saxon officer that is the subject of this article. In this feature, I will detail how I went about identifying the original o

Three months after German forces captured Fort Douaumont in February 1916 (see issue 1 of Iron Cross) a calamity befell the occupiers, predominantly comprising troops from the Prussian Brandenburg reg

We ended last month looking at the soldier’s pocket books of the 19th century. Sadly very few of these documents survive. They are NOT included in any Army papers that have been stored over the years.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, German troops faced an unexpected threat. The French Army used hot-air balloons, or Montgolfiers, for the first time for reconnaissance and intelligence purp

How the Red Army pushed back German forces and what they discovered in their wake as WWII turned

The forced landing of a shot-up Junkers Ju 88A bomber of Kampfgeschwader (KG) 77 on the north Kent coast in late September 1940, during one of the bloodiest days of the Battle of Britain, gave rise to