The winning blogs in the Military Blogging category receive awards for successfully conveying their message to the Tripbase judges, who've hand-picked the finest examples of the genre from a long list of contenders.

The goings-on of the military, whether at home or abroad, have generally been shrouded in a hush-hush air of mystery. Military installations are protected from prying eyes by impenetrable fences and armed guards, and the tactics and intelligence remain safe behind the Official Secrets Act and documents marked ‘For your eyes only'.

Now, though, the internet allows soldiers at all levels of the military to talk about what they're doing anonymously. Obviously they can't reveal extremely sensitive information, but they can give an insight into the privileges, responsibilities and occasionally the incompetencies of our brave boys and girls. The era of instant, anonymous publishing has created a generation of whistleblowers, not to mention plenty of sardonic commentators who should know better - the Afghanistan Without a Clue blog, for example.

This category was particularly difficult to judge, partly because of the huge variety of styles and the obvious difficulties in reporting certain information. Some of these blogs are retrospective, some of them are current, and some of them are being written from the theatre of war itself. All of them provide a level of insight into the activities of the armed forces of their respective countries, and this is why we have given them the award.