The BattlefieldTravels Newsletter began as a way to share updates from battlefield visits and new articles. It has since grown into an archive of the site’s development, tracing the evolution of ideas, research themes, and analytical approaches that underpin the battlefield studies published here.
Each entry reflects the ongoing exploration of historic battlefields and the broader effort to understand enduring patterns of conflict across different eras, environments, and military cultures. The archive also connects readers to key pages across the site, including new studies, thematic essays, and research resources.
Whether you are following new battlefield explorations, tracing the evolution of ideas such as micro-terrain and operational method, or simply browsing past updates, this page provides a chronological view of how BattlefieldTravels has grown as a research and battlefield study project. Scroll down to explore past updates and discover the latest additions to the site.
Resources and Reciprocal Links have now moved to the Links and Partnerships page
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August 2026 Update – Guadalcanal Campaign
I have just completed another round of deep research and granular-level battlefield explorations in the Solomon Islands. These battlefield studies go beyond the textbook: each one will blend primary sources, historic maps, GIS terrain analysis, and firsthand battlefield reconnaissance to bring the ground, and the decisions made upon it, vividly to life.
Here’s what we achieved:
- 1942 Guadalcanal: Red Beach landings
- 1942 Guadalcanal: Tulagi Blue Beach landings
- 1942 Guadalcanal: Battle for Gavutu & Tanambogo Islands
- 1942 Guadalcanal: Goettge Patrol
- 1942 Guadalcanal: 1st Battle of the Matanikau
- 1942 Guadalcanal: Battle of the Tenaru (Alligator Creek)
- 1942 Guadalcanal: Battle of Edson’s (Bloody Ridge)
- 1942 Guadalcanal: 2nd Battle of the Matanikau
- 1942 Guadalcanal: 3rd Battle of the Matanikau
- 1942 Guadalcanal: Battle of Henderson’s Field
- 1942 Guadalcanal: 4th Battle of the Matanikau
- 1942 Guadalcanal: Battle of Koli Point
- 1942 Guadalcanal: 5th Battle of the Matanikau
- 1942-43 Guadalcanal: Reduction of the Gifu
- 1943 Guadalcanal: Battle of Sea Horse Ridge
- 1943 Guadalcanal: Battle of Galloping Horse Ridge
- 1943 Guadalcanal: Final American Offensive
May 2026 Update
🎧 The BattlefieldTravels Podcast
260+ battlefields. 2,500 years of conflict. All of it walked, researched, and analysed — now in audio.
Featured episodes. Tip: If Podbean overlay appears after pausing, click the × in the top-right corner to return to the player controls.
May 2026 Research Dispatch
Research Dispatch— May 2026: Field Notes, Pike and Shot, and Coup d’Œil
Two new Research Hubs are now live on the site: Research Dispatches and Field Notes. Both are available exclusively to members.
As part of my PhD research, I am exploring battlefield cognition: how commanders perceive, interpret and exploit the small-scale terrain features they see around them on the battlefield. One of the key concepts from early theorists is coup d’œil—an eye for the ground.
April 2026 Update
From the Field: Field Notes and Research Dispatches
Behind every battlefield study there is a vast body of research: field notes from the ground, period and contemporary imagery, working maps, primary sources, and evolving interpretations.
Readers who would like to engage more deeply can access this material through premium content, including field notes, working maps, and behind-the-scenes research.
Recent field notes and research dispatches
Battle of Isurava, Kokoda Track (1942)
Field observations from one of the most remote battlefields on earth, explored from both the ground and air across the Owen Stanley Ranges.
Arnhem, 17 September 1944 — The Killing of General Kussin
On the ground at the exact intersection where the local German commander was ambushed and killed by 3 Para during the opening hours of Operation Market Garden.
Battle of Long Tan, South Vietnam (1966)
A visit to the prison compound outside Hanoi—site of a brilliantly executed raid that achieved everything except its primary objective.
Research Dispatch — April 2026
New work on Austerlitz, machine gun theory, and evolving observations from the war in Ukraine.
March 2026 update: Where BattlefieldTravels is being referenced (selected examples)
BattlefieldTravels is increasingly being cited and linked by museums, historians, specialist websites, and online communities around the world. Here are some examples I’ve discovered recently:
🤖 AI Search & Knowledge Engines
- Search engine results have been growing exponentially on platforms such as Google, Bing, Duckduckgo, Yandex, Ecosia and Baidu. Battlefieldtravels typically appears in more than 50,000 searches per day, and that is growing!
- The battlefieldtravels image library of more than 5,500 images, most of which are wholly original, is approaching 100,000 image search appearances every day.
- BattlefieldTravels is now being cited by AI systems (including tools such as Chat GPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot) as a top-ranked reference source for specialist battles and campaigns
- Grokipedia – BattlefieldTravels is referenced across 300+ linked articles, with coverage expanding as new topics are indexed
Wikipedia
Citation of the Battle of Chotusitz study on the Hebrew Wikipedia page for the First Silesian War
World History Encyclopedia on the Battle of Rorke’s Drift – cites the BattlefieldTravels Rorke’s Drift article- Libguide link to BattlefieldTravels Seven Years War hub as a student study resource
🏛️ Museums & Heritage Organisations
Some museums around the world cite BattlefieldTravels articles as their definitive long-form battle studies:
Talana Museum (South Africa) – Isandlwana / Rorke’s Drift- Dundee Tourism (South Africa) – Isandlwana / Rorke’s Drift
- KwaZulu-Natal Battlefields Route (South Africa) – Isandlwana / Rorke’s Drift
Patay Victory Museum (France) – Battle of Patay study and visit coverage
🎥 Documentaries & Video Features
- PCN-TV (Pennsylvania Cable Network) – Battle of Bushy Run (with BattlefieldTravels 3D visualisations)
Finnish-language YouTube documentary (Finland) – Raate Road / Winter War (BattlefieldTravels listed as a source)
📰 News & Media Mentions
- La République (Orléans, France) – News article on BattlefieldTravels and coverage of my Patay visit
- Educational sites
Vietnamese University cites BattlefieldTravels Dien Bien Phu article as a primary source
📚 Articles, Blogs & Specialist History Sites
- Obscure Battles – Partnership link and reference to several BattlefieldTravels articles
- Battlefield Anomalies – Partnership link and reference to several BattlefieldTravels articles
- Medium article (France) – “Memoirs of a French Lieutenant” (RC4 / Indochina content)
- Molten Brain article on Rorke’s Drift (USA) – link to the BattlefieldTravels Rorke’s Drift article
Thuppahi’s Blog (Sri Lanka) – link to the BattlefieldTravels Elephant Pass article- Vietnamese blog (Vietnam) – link to the BattlefieldTravels Son Tay Raid article
- WW2 Missions website (USA) – link to the BattlefieldTravels Operation Anthropoid article
- Small Wars Journal (USA) – link to the BattlefieldTravels Dien Bien Phu article
- Nineteen45 website (USA) – link to the BattlefieldTravels Panmunjom / JSA article
- Foreign Legion Info site (France) – link to the BattlefieldTravels Foreign Legion landing page
- Wargame Design Studio (USA) – link to the BattlefieldTravels article on the Battle of Rocroi (1643)
Notes article on Saudi Arabia history (Japan) – link to the BattlefieldTravels article on the Battle of Riyadh (1902)
Spanish language article on visiting Kaesong Dong – link to the BattlefieldTravels Panmunjom / JSA article
Arab Language YouTube video on Kerak Siege – link to the BattlefieldTravels Siege of Kerak article
🌍 Military / Institutional Publications
Lithuanian Army booklet/brochure (2025) – Winter War / Raate Road section cites BattlefieldTravels as a source- Society for Military History (USA) – BattlefieldTravels referenced on the home page
💬 Forums & Online Communities
- Reddit – Siege of Alesia engineering video referencing BattlefieldTravels Siege of Alesia article
- Together We Served Little Bighorn article citing BattlefieldTravels Little Bighorn article
- Treasure Valley Metal Detecting Club – references to several BattlefieldTravels articles:
Czech Medium article on the Dalton Raid – references BattlefieldTravels Dalton Gang article
February 2026 update: New ‘Micro-terrain and Battlefield Decision-Making’ page added to the site
As I explored and researched historic battles, some ideas started to crystallise for me around the way certain commanders used small, almost impercetible terrain features to surprise, outflank, penetrate, defend, and defeat their enemies. Examples include: Frederick the Great’s concealed assembly area at Chotusitz (1742), ‘Stonewall’ Jackson’s flank march at Chancellorsville (1863), Louis Botha’s control of dominant terrain at Spion Kop (1900), and Norman Cota’s use of micro-terrain to break out from Omaha Beach (1944) on D-Day. I have now captured these ideas in the new page:
Explore the Micro-Terrain and Battlefield Decision-Making page ->
January 2026 update: New ‘Research Hub’ added to the site
The Hub leverages categories and tags to allow deep research into campaigns and battles across centuries of conflict. Users can interrogate the database on Operational Methods such as airborne, amphibious, ambush, or Operating Environment such as mountain, desert, arctic. Users can also interrogate by conflict, army, commander or any combination of these variables.
November 2025 update: New ‘Reading Room’ page added, listing the best military history books and resources
The hub includes links to more than 200 books covering the theory of war, strategy, and individual campaigns and battles. I have read them all, and own about 90% of them. They are my ‘go-to resources’ for writing battle studies. I have also included links to online primary sources from all over the world – this is where original documents, orders, memoirs, maps, and letters can be found.
Belgium/Netherlands/Germany 2025
I have just completed another round of granular-level battlefield explorations in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. These battlefield studies go beyond the textbook: each one will blend primary sources, historic maps, GIS terrain analysis, and firsthand battlefield reconnaissance to bring the ground, and the decisions made upon it, vividly to life.
Here’s what we achieved:
Over the coming months, I’ll be fusing imagery, GIS mapping, tactical doctrine, weapons data, and terrain reconstruction into comprehensive battlefield studies.
👉 There is no other resource online quite like BattlefieldTravels.com
September 2025 update: BattlefieldTravels.com is now recognised across the major AI reference platforms as a primary reference source
BattlefieldTravels.com is now cited by ChatGPT browser, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity AI, and Google Gemini AI as a primary reference for significant but often overlooked battles such as the Tonkin Campaign, Phu Tong Hoa, RC4, Raate Road, Brecourt Manor, Elephant Pass, Operation Hirondelle, the Bac Le Ambush, Black Jack, Bloody Gulch, Bazeilles, Patay, Kerak, Al Masmak etc — appearing alongside, and in some cases above, Wikipedia and Britannica. This recognition reflects the site’s role in providing authoritative, English-language studies on campaigns and engagements rarely covered elsewhere, grounded in primary sources, terrain analysis, and firsthand battlefield exploration.
August 2025 update: New conflict landing pages added
As the numbers of battle studies increased, I felt they now needed to be organised under their war or conflict. Many of the battlefields I have explored are in remote regions of the world, and the wars are sometimes obscure to those who haven’t spent their entir lives studing military history. At first I tried doing this with ‘Category pages’ but the category pages were thin on content. So, I bit the bullet and created ~30 new conflict landing pages that link to the relevant battle studies, recommended reading, and weapons and equipment pages.
July 2025 update: BattlefieldTravels Methodology Page added
Many readers have sought advice on how I plan and prepare for battlefield exploration. So, I have put together a new page that describes the type of research and preparation I undertak, how I apply that research using modern digital systems, and how I synthesise it all when I get on the ground, walking battlefields!
June 2025 update: BattlefieldTravels 3D terrain flythroughs page added.
Many battlefield studies include a full 3D terrain flythrough to show how the battle unfolded in full terrain detail, including battle graphics, captioning, and battle-appropriate music! All these 3D flythoughs live inside the relevant battle study. I have now created a page where all the 3D terrain flythroughs are gathered in one place. Enjoy!
⚔️ Go deeper — Members get exclusive access to the Deep Research Collection, Field Notes, and monthly Research Dispatches. Try membership free for 7 days, cancel anytime. From $9/month.
Northern Vietnam, April 2025!!
I have just returned from several weeks in the most remote regions of northern Vietnam, exploring battlefields of the Sino-French War 1883-85, the French Indo-China War 1946-54, and the second Vietnam War 1954-75. Lots of work to do!
France and Belgium October-November 2024!!
A massive 2500km trip through northern France and Belgium cvoveirng the D-Day battlefields, including garanular coverage of the Easy COmpany ‘Band of Brothers’ D-Day battles. Plus 100 Years War, Napoleonic, Duke of Marlborough, War of the Austrian Succession, Franco-Prussian War and many more.
May 2024 update: www.BattlefieldTravels.com is created
I am writing this in retrospect so it is recorded somewhere. BattlefieldTravels was created in May 2024, while I was deployed on a military support activity (as a contractor these days). I had a couple of days to spare so started writing down my experiences of 40 years of military service, and 30+ years of walking battlefields all over the world. I had to learn how to create a website, even how to create titles, add images, and format text. I have leaned a lot since then!
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