The huge, multi-national Austro-Hungarian army was a major factor in mid-19th century European politics. Sharing borders with ramshackle Ottoman Turkey and volatile Italy, the Empire was threatened both internally - by growing nationalist esentments - and externally by the ambitions of France and Pr[...]
In the mid-19th century, Austria comprised a heterogeneous, multi-ethnic empire consisting of the Austrian or 'German' area; the Hungarian area; the Military Border; and the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. The diverse nature of the empire made it difficult to create a unified and up-to-date military sy[...]
There have been few military formations in history which have elicited such mixed reactions as the U-Boat Waffe of Hitler's Kriegsmarine. Often seen by those seamen who suffered the predations of Grossadmiral Donitz's "Grey Wolfs" as some sort of sadistic monsters, the men of the U-boat arm in fact [...]
Hungary was the home of the elite Hussar. These skilled, daring and flamboyant light cavalrymen were first drawn for Hapsburg service from what is now northern Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia and Hungary in the late 17th century. It was not long before most nations in Europe adopted both Hussar formations[...]
The Austro-Hungarian forces were of central importance in World War I; it was Austria's crisis in the Balkans that began the war. Austria put huge armies into the field against the Russians, and against Italy on the Alpine front, leading to some of the greatest battles of the war (Caporetto, the Iso[...]
The Austro-Hungarian forces were of central importance in World War I; it was Austria's crisis in the Balkans that began the war. Austria put huge armies into the field against the Russians, and against Italy on the Alpine front, leading to some of the greatest battles of the war (Caporetto, the Iso[...]
German daylight raids on Britain began in the summer of 1940. They were expected and the country had been preparing for quite some time. Searchlights were in place, Fighter Command had been expanded, and anti-aircraft guns were being manufactured. It was from these first preparations that Britain de[...]