A Regulus missile being fired from the USS Halibut (SSGN-587). Until the advent of the Polaris missile, Regulus was the Navy’s primary at-sea contribution to strategic nuclear deterrence.

On Strategy

Highlighting 150 years of strategy in U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings.

By A. Denis Clift
December 2023
October 1983: The U.S. Marine Corps’ Battalion Landing Team headquarters at the Beirut International Airport has been reduced to a rockpile after a gargantuan explosion triggered by a suicide-crashed 19-ton truck laden with high explosives. It is the deadliest day for the Corps since World War II.

Beirut: A Remembrance

Early on a Sunday morning in October 1983, a suicide bomber in a truck delivered to the Marine Corps its largest single-day death toll since Iwo Jima. A look back ...

Lieutenant Commander Alan Ables, U.S. Navy (Retired)
December 2023
The Roman Empire’s invasion of Britain required organization and planning on a grand scale; it marked the beginning of four and a half decades of conquest, as Rome extended its reach ever farther inland and established the province of Britannia.

The Roman Amphibious Invasion of Britain

The Romans were masters of warfare, but they also were equally masters of large-scale logistics—as demonstrated by their massive assault on Brittania’s shores in 43 AD.

Steven Iacono
December 2023
Pilots and gunners of Bombing Squadron 16 (VB-16) climb out of their Douglas SBD-5 bombers onto the flight deck of the USS Lexington after returning from the Tarawa-Makin raid, 18 September 1943.

Fast-Carrier Attack Against Tarawa

With amphibious operations pending in the Gilberts, the Pacific Fleet’s Task Force 15, augmented by Army B-24s, launched a two-day air attack on target no. 1: Tarawa Atoll.

By Peter McQuarrie
December 2023
Forced to wade ashore by a tide too low for the landing craft, Marines take to the water to storm the beach at Tarawa’s Betio Island. Half of them will not survive the deadly, exposed crossing to make it to land.

Blood and Coral

It was the toughest amphibious landing yet for U.S. Marines in the Pacific, but the struggle for Tarawa’s Betio Island would yield “hard-bought lessons” that would facilitate the path to ...

December 2023
During the 26 December 1943 Battle of North Cape, the Scharnhorst, guns blazing, attempts to outrun Royal Navy pursuers, as depicted by artist Sub Lieutenant Joseph Reindler, Royal Navy.

When the Scharnhorst Took the Bait

On the day after Christmas in 1943, the elusive German battle cruiser’s legendary luck finally ran out at the Battle of North Cape.

December 2023
9 December 1950: Marines of the 1st Marine Division march through mountain terrain in subzero weather during the Korean War’s Battle of Chosin Reservoir—one of the deadliest of the war.

Semper Fidelis

Highlighting 150 years of the Marine Corps in the pages of Proceedings.

A. Denis Clift
November 2023