SPANISH DISASTER AT ROCROI
By William Welsh
A confident Spanish army invaded France in May 1643 to take advantage of Louis XIVÕs extreme youth. It hardly expected to meet an army led by as gifted a commander as the Duke of Enghien on the high ground outside of Rocroi.

BLOODBATH AT MUKDEN
By Louis Ciotola
When the Russian and Japanese armies faced off at Mukden, Manchuria, in February 1905, both nations understood what was at stake. The Russians faced revolution at home, while the Japanese were reaching the end of their tether.

MONMOUTH: LONGEST BATTLE OF THE REVOLUTION
By Eric Niderost
Eager to end the agony at Valley Forge, General George Washington broke camp in the spring of 1778 and began following the British army from Philadelphia into New Jersey. It was a near disaster for the Patriots.

STONEWALLÕS VICTORIOUS DEFEAT
By Lawrence Weber
In March 1862, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson moved north through the Shenandoah Valley to prevent Union reinforcements from heading to the Virginia Peninsula. At Kernstown, he attacked what he thought was the enemy rear guard. He was wrong.

ALAMO IN THE PACIFIC
By Kelly Bell
The day after Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces assaulted the small American-held atoll of Wake Island, 2,300 miles west of Hawaii. The defenders numbered fewer than 1,800 Marines, sailors, soldiers, and civilian contractors.

EDITORIAL
Turner AshbyÕs career as a Confederate cavalier was short but memorable. He almost fought a duel with Stonewall Jackson.

SOLDIERS
In 1541, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V launched an armada to seize Algiers and crush the ÒKing of Evil.Ó

WEAPONS
From their first battlefield use in India 3,000 years ago, war elephants functioned as living tanks.

INTELLIGENCE
The humiliating seizure of the USS Pueblo by North Korean gunboats in 1968 provided a searing indictment of AmericaÕs Cold War policy.

MILITARIA
Following the first poison gas attack by German forces at Ypres in 1915, gas masks became vital equipment for Allied forces during World War I.

GAMES
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3; another shining example of how to craft a major, crowd-pleasing game release.

BOOKS
The sinking of the Lusitania pushed the United States to the brink of war with Germany. But was the ship carrying war matŽriel as the Germans claimed?