The highlight of my trip to Vienna was a visit to the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, one of the finest military museums in the world. I managed a quick visit some 20 years ago, but this is a museum that deserves plenty of time.  The museum building was designed as the centrepiece of the Vienna Arsenal, built just outside the old fortifications after the 1848 revolution. The building is a work of art in itself, with paintings on the walls and ceilings that represent key moments in Austrian military history. The exhibit halls take you through Austrian military history from the 17th ce ..read more

The Imperial Armoury in Vienna houses an extensive collection of arms and armour. Located within the Hofburg Palace complex, the collection includes suits of armour worn by knights, ceremonial armour of emperors and kings, and weaponry ranging from swords and firearms to cannons. The collection is on the top floor of the Weltsmuseum. The floor below has an eclectic collection of items the Hapsburgs collected worldwide. Many were collected by Maximilian, whose travels ended up on the Mexican throne and a sticky end! The collection is vast, so I will give a flavour. I was naturally attracte ..read more

I am in Vienna this week. It is not my first visit, but my wife has never been. There are lots of Balkan links, of course, but one battlefield I have never visited is Aspern-Essling. It was fought on 21-22 May 1809, during the War of the Fifth Coalition. I wasn't originally planning to go because the volunteer museums are only open on Sundays. However, the previous day's visit had worn my wife's sprained ankle, so I got a morning pass. Aspern and Essling were two small villages on the banks of the Danube River near Vienna. Napoleon chose this area for his river crossing, led by Marshal Jean La ..read more

 This is the second book in Nigel Tranter's version of the Montrose story. It covers his later victories in the civil wars, including Kilsyth. Then, the defeat at Philipaugh, followed by exile and the final ill-fated campaign that led to the scaffold in Edinburgh. As with the first book, Tranter has not overly focused on the well-known Civil War campaign. He devotes considerable space to Montrose's travels across Europe, seeking to build support for the Royalist cause. Then, the less well-known final campaign, when he landed with a core of mercenaries on Orkney and invaded the mainland ..read more

 I have reached the last stage of my research into HMS Ambuscade for the book that should be out this summer. My summary of the ships is on the Clyde Naval Heritage website, which plans to bring the Type 21 frigate back to the Clyde. The book's final section covers the period when Ambuscade was sold to Pakistan in 1993 and renamed PNS Tariq. This name comes from Tariq bin Ziyad, the commander who led the Umayyad conquest of Visigothic Spain in 711–718 A.D. I have read and reviewed several books on the Indo-Pakistan conflicts, but these include very little about the Pakistan Navy. There we ..read more

 My library pick this month was Alistair Moffat's look at the lost kingdoms of Scotland during the late Roman, Dark Ages, and early medieval periods. They are 'lost' because we know very little about them. What we do know is based on a handful of unreliable written sources and archaeology.  The problem with writing about lost kingdoms is that without sources, you either have to give extensive context or speculate extensively. Moffat mainly goes for the former. This book was written in 2010, and there have been some developments since then. The History Hit podcast 'Gone Medieval' re ..read more

Today's visits included another of those wonderful small regimental museums that we should nurture—along with the volunteers who keep them going. Today's was the Royal Lancers Museum in Nottinghamshire, near Sherwood Forest. It's in what I assume used to be the stables of the nearby Hall, now a hotel. There is also a nice cafe (fantastic Bakewell tart) and a few shops. That's a Conqueror heavy tank outside. They also have a Ferret armoured car. These exhibits reflect the cavalry regiments covered by the museum, which dates back to the 16th and 17th Light Dragoons. Although the first ..read more

My current research focus is on naval matters, so Alexander Hill's new Osprey, Soviet Cruisers 1917-45, was an easy choice from this month's pick of Osprey books. The Russian Navy was never really a Blue Sea fleet, with the traditional role for cruisers involving the attack and defence of maritime communications on the high seas and scouting for a fleet. After the revolution, there was an internal debate about the role of cruisers between Stalin's vision for power projection and the immediate need for coastal protection. Plans for heavier cruisers had to be shelved in the face of competing cl ..read more

 I have jumped ahead a few volumes in my chronological re-read of Nigel Tranter's novels to get to the two Montrose books as they fit my current wargame project. The first is The Young Montrose, which covers his early campaigns. I have the 1974 Coronet edition, which has a different cover from the current edition. The Earl of Montrose, also known as James Graham, was a significant figure in the civil wars of the mid-17th century. His early career was marked by loyalty to the Scottish Covenanters, who opposed King Charles I's attempts to impose religious uniformity in Scotland. Montrose ..read more

 This week's gaming has involved a two-day multiplayer game using the Blucher rules in 15mm. Eight of us came together in Glasgow to play a scenario loosely based on Kutuzov's 1811 campaign. In my book, The Frontier Sea, I outline the war between the Russians and Ottomans from 1806-12. However, you can read more about this campaign in Alexander Mikaberidze's new biography of the Russian commander. We also used his translation of the official Russian history. When Kutuzov arrived in Bucharest in April 1811, the Russian army consisted of four divisions plus Cossacks and the Danube ..read more