Free Military History Resources

Maps, timelines, battlefield guides, campaign studies and source-led reference pieces from The Regimental Record. This page is built for readers who need the history without having to dig through the shop first.

Teachers, students, battlefield visitors, history bloggers and researchers are welcome to link to these resources. If you quote our text, please credit Iron Regiment and link back to the original article. Image rights vary by source and are stated where relevant.

Popular research routes

These are useful entry points if you are looking for how armies actually fought, or where new evidence changes an old battlefield story.

• Napoleonic Infantry Squares — how squares formed, why cavalry attacks failed against intact infantry, and what the formation did at Waterloo.
• The Anglo-Saxon Shield Wall — shields, spears, cohesion, terrain and what the evidence can actually support.
• Pike & Shot — how pikemen, musketeers and cavalry operated as a combined battlefield system.
• Stamford Bridge: New 2026 Battlefield Evidence — what has been found near the Derwent, what it may change and what still needs proving.
• What Actually Decided Waterloo? — Wellington, the Prussians, infantry squares, Ney, La Haye Sainte and the Imperial Guard tested against the wider campaign.

Maps, formations & battlefield references

These are the practical reference pieces: ground, formations, campaign routes and battlefield evidence.

• Waterloo 1815 — battlefield map, chronology, commanders and Prussian intervention.
• British square formation at Waterloo — how the formation worked and why cavalry struggled to break it.
• Anglo-Saxon shield wall — formation, weapons, cohesion and battlefield use.
• Pike & shot formation — pikemen, musketeers, cavalry and the combined battlefield system.
• Stamford Bridge battlefield evidence — the 2026 evidence, what it suggests and what remains unproven.
• Hastings 1066 battlefield study — location, armies, chronology and why William won.
• 1066 campaign route — the succession crisis, three claimants and the campaign before Hastings.

1066 & the Norman Conquest

• 1066: The Succession Crisis, Three Claimants and the Campaign for England — campaign context before Hastings.
• Stamford Bridge 1066 — the northern battle that came nineteen days before Hastings.
• Battle of Hastings 1066 — battlefield, armies, chronology, map, outcome and why William won.
• Bayeux Tapestry & the Battle of Hastings — what the embroidery shows and what it cannot prove.
• The Anglo-Saxon Shield Wall — how the system worked in battle.

Roman Britain

• Roman Britain AD 43 — the invasion and early campaign.
• When Did Roman Britain End? — why AD 410 is better understood as a process than a single evacuation date.
• Aulus Plautius, Caratacus and Claudius — key personalities.

English Civil War

• Pikemen & Musketeers in the English Civil War — weapons, formations, drill, cavalry and battlefield use.
• Marston Moor 1644 — battle study.
• Naseby 1645 — the battle and destruction of the Royalist field army.

Napoleonic Wars & Waterloo

• The Hundred Days 1815 — why Waterloo happened.
• Waterloo 1815 — map, commanders, opposing armies, chronology and Prussian intervention.
• The 1805 Naval Campaign — the road to Trafalgar.
• Trafalgar 1805 — Nelson and the battle.

Keep Iron Regiment visible in Google

If you use Google for military-history research, you can add Iron Regiment as a preferred source so Google knows you want to see our work more often when it is relevant.

Add Iron Regiment as a Preferred Source on Google →

External History Resources

World History Encyclopedia
A free, non-profit historical reference covering world history from antiquity onwards. Particularly useful for subjects, timelines and wider historical context.
Visit World History Encyclopedia →

How we handle evidence

We separate secure events from disputed detail, state uncertainty where the evidence does not support precision, and favour primary material, archives, museums, heritage bodies and established scholarship. Read our Editorial Team & Research Standards.

If you run a history site, teach the subject, manage a society or have better evidence for something we have published, get in touch.