Innholdsfortegnelse for No.31 i History of War

“In this age, in past ages, in any age, Napoleon!” – Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, on being asked whom he thought was the greatest soldier of the age He led Britain’s armies across the world, from India to the Iberian Peninsula, and dealt the final defeat to le petit caporal himself, Napoleon. However, was Wellington really the greatest general Britain has ever seen? This issue’s cover feature explores the full military career of the Iron Duke, from his origins serving in India and the Netherlands, to his gruelling campaign in Spain and Portugal. Starting on page 28, Dr Huw Davies and Dr Rory Muir discuss the strategic successes and fatal mistakes that helped shape the generalship of Wellington, and how his battlefield brilliance reaffirmed Britain as a force to…

FERDINAND OF BRUNSWICK 1721-1792 BRUNSWICK THE SAVIOUR OF HANOVER Ferdinand, Prince of Brunswick, started his military career in the Prussian Army in 1740 and became a friend of Frederick the Great. He got off to a flying start in the Seven Years’ War, commanding one of the Prussian columns during the pre-emptive invasion of Saxony in 1756, but it was in his role in the defence of Hanover that he really came to prominence. As Elector of Hanover, as well as the British monarch, George II understandably saw the defence of the small German state to be a matter of great importance, but it also had strategic significance, as French occupation of Hanover would threaten Prussia’s western flank. A composite army comprising troops from Hanover, Hesse, Brunswick, Prussia and Saxe-Gotha…

Warfare in the 18th century is usually characterised as limited, especially in the context of the war aims of the various belligerents. There is no doubt that the Seven Years’ War did not reach the intensity of the earlier Thirty Years’ War, but many historians have identified elements of ‘total war’ in the conflict. The impact of the conflict on civilians and the drain on the economies of the powers involved are often cited as moves towards a more modern mode of waging war. However, this was a conventional 18th century conflict in at least one respect – the manner in which it ended. With the combatants all nearing the point of exhaustion, the final manoeuvres took place not on the battlefield, but around negotiating tables, as a series of…

HUW DAVIES: He snatched victory from defeat. It was something of a surprise encounter and the victory at Assaye really goes back to the previous few weeks campaigning where Wellesley constantly underestimated his opponents, the Maratha Army. He had made the assumption that the Maratha Army was predominately a regular force, one based on predatory cavalry rather than well-trained European infantry. When he unexpectedly found them, he decided that he would attack. Only the previous day he had split his force into two because he didn’t expect to find them because of the difficult terrain. He decided to attack them with only half the force that he had. He could see there were about 40,000 troops, but the vast majority were camp followers and suppliers. A lot of the cavalry…

HUW DAVIES: He clearly understood how to defeat the French. He knew that he couldn’t defeat them in a pitched battle because they vastly outnumbered his forces in Spain. The French had close to 300,000 troops and he had 80,000 but only about 50,000 were any good in 1810. He stood no chance if he attempted to go on the offensive trying to achieve what the British government would term a ‘decisive victory’ and that’s what they wanted. They didn’t want a long campaign, but a short one that would decisively weaken or undermine Napoleonic France. Wellington decides that the strategy he has to apply in the Peninsula is to draw the French into a long attrition campaign where Britain has the greater resources to beat the French in the…

RORY MUIR: All generals make mistakes, and there has never been a campaign or a battle fought without mistakes being made on all sides, because waging war is extremely difficult. Probably the most important [mistake Wellington made] was that he was rather slow to react to news of the French advance. There had been many false alarms in the preceding weeks, and he believed that the greatest risk of defeat faced by the allies would be if he or Blücher made a false move at the outset; but he should have sent orders for his troops to prepare to march sooner than he did. Wellington’s initial orders to I Corps (Prince of Orange) to concentrate around Nivelles would have removed Perponcher’s division from the cross roads at Quatre Bras; and…

“WHY DID HITLER – WHO WAS FIGHTING A GARGANTUAN, UNWINNABLE WAR AGAINST THE SOVIET UNION – COMMIT VITAL RESOURCES TO AN ATTACK ON A PLACE THAT WAS BETTER KNOWN FOR ITS TEA ROOMS THAN ITS MILITARY TARGETS?” On 13 May 2016, builders working at a former junior school in Bath were digging up what had once been a children’s playground when they came across something sinister. As they cleared the earth away from the metre-long metal cylinder it became clear that what they were looking at was a terrifying relic from a darker age: an unexploded, 250-kilogram German bomb that had been dropped in April 1942. A bomb that still had the potential to obliterate anything within a 50-metre radius. Army explosive experts dealt with the bomb safely, but its…

Writer: Paul Paillole Publisher: Casemate Publishers Price: £25 Released: Out now The truth about Alan Turing breaking the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park lay buried for decades after World War II ended. Today, it is recognised as one of the turning points of the war, a towering achievement that shortened the war and saved incalculable numbers of lives on both sides. What is less known is just how big a part a secret agent by the name of Hans-Thilo Schmidt played in all that. Schmidt was former German army officer who had been invalided out of World War I after being gassed. The economic crisis that had crippled Germany in the wake of Versailles treaty had left him impoverished and bitter. His brother Rudolf had survived the war and…

“THE FISHGUARD INVASION RATTLED THE BRITISH ESTABLISHMENT, WHO WERE TERRIFIED OF REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE AND CONSEQUENTLY THE FRENCH DEFEAT WAS WIDELY CELEBRATED” The last time foreign soldiers landed on British soil was during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1797. In fact, a triple French invasion of Britain was planned, with landings in Ireland, Newcastle and Wales but only the Welsh incursion came to fruition. On 22 February 1797, an Irish-American, Colonel William Tate, landed 1,400 French troops near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire with the aim of inspiring a Welsh revolution and marching on Bristol. However, the French pillaged local farms and the angry Welsh rose up with the British, assembling an improvised force of volunteers, reservists and sailors. Over two days there were skirmishes around Fishguard as the French occupied strong positions on…

TOM GARNER This issue Tom spoke with Korean War veteran Tommy Clough for his Great Battles feature on Imjin River(page 46). He also managed to track down two Napoleonic scholars for his cover feature on Old Nosey, aka the Duke of Wellington! (page 28). ROBIN SCHÄFER Back for another issue, this time researcher and historian Rob takes a look at Ludendorff’s final throw of the dice in the Spring Offensive, 1918. Discover just what made it so successful, but why it ultimately failed (page 40). NICK SOLDINGER Refusing to let the British summer depress him too much, this month Nick has been investigating the Baedeker Blitz, when Hitler’s Luftwaffe wrought destructive vengeance on Britain’s most picturesque cities (page 84).…

Of all the characters associated with the Seven Years’ War, and there are plenty of them, one stands above all others. Frederick II of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great, was the dominant figure of the conflict, and the one that emerged with the most formidable reputation. History, however, has not always been kind to Frederick, and he has been elevated to iconic status only to be brought crashing back to earth by revisionist interpretations. What cannot be denied is that he was the central figure in the drama that engulfed much of the world in bloody warfare in the middle of the 18th century. The contradictions apparent in this larger-than-life character are embodied in the fact that one historian could label him both a ‘cultured aesthete who loved music,…

RORY MUIR: The army Wellington commanded in 1808 was made up of excellent regiments in good condition, but not accustomed to the demands of campaigning or settled into higher commands: staff officers and the senior officers in the army were mostly inexperienced and had yet to learn how to work together. Nonetheless, Wellington took the offensive on the campaign and advanced boldly against the French, without waiting for the reinforcements that he knew were on the way. There were good strategic reasons for this; the campaign in Portugal was just a preliminary operation to a campaign in Spain. He infused the army with an offensive spirit that got a little out of hand at Roliça, and only stood on the defensive at Vimeiro because he was ordered to do so…

HUW DAVIES: The reason Wellington isn’t very good as that siege warfare is that it’s very difficult. Unless you’re going to do it over the course of many months it’s going to be costly. The traditional method is to invest the fortress, cut off its supplies and then let the garrison starve. Eventually, when you do attack many months later, they’re so weak that they can’t put up any resistance. That’s the usual way to do it but Wellington doesn’t have that time luxury. If he spends months laying siege to Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz or Burgos then the French will concentrate against him and force him out. He knows he’s got to take these citadels very quickly. The other complicating factor is these are enemy-held fortresses but they’re actually inhabited…

HUW DAVIES: The problem at Vitoria isn’t really the soldiers but the officers. Wellington blames the young officers for failing to keep control of the soldiers. His view is the captains and lieutenants should have been keeping the soldiers under control and in fact some of them take part in the plundering. The amount of baggage they find is a huge treasure trove, which includes the whole French treasury from Spain and other booty. For a young officer who is facing reasonably excessive costs for maintaining their lifestyle this is an extremely enticing opportunity and they get drawn into it as well. It’s a little unfair of Wellington as the British Army still tells its young officers to not challenge drunken soldiers because they might assault the officer and the…

“THE EARLIEST DESCENDANTS OF THE MODERN-DAY SEAL WERE NAVY DIVERS TRAINED TO CONDUCT SOME OF THE MOST DANGEROUS MISSIONS OF THE WAR” From the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, to the rescuing of aid workers in Somalia, the SEALs typify the cutting edge of modern special operations. Their very name hints at their capabilities (SEa, Air and Land), with operators capable of covertly inserting by parachute, ground vehicle, small boat or sub. They are best known as a direct action force, rescuing hostages and capturing or killing ‘high value targets’. However, this role has evolved over a storied history dating back to World War II. The earliest descendants of the modern-day SEAL were Navy divers trained to conduct some of the most dangerous missions of the war. They…

“CONDUCTING SUCH A MISSION RELIES UPON A PERFECT STORM OF ACCURATE INTELLIGENCE, SURGICAL FIREPOWER AND A STRONG DOSE OF LUCK” Rescue missions to recover prisoners of war are rare. Conducting such a mission relies upon a perfect storm of accurate intelligence, surgical firepower and a strong dose of luck. Whiskey Platoon of SEAL Team One managed such a feat in November 1970, just hours after the far more famous but far less successful Son Tây rescue attempt in North Vietnam. The SEAL mission became one of the only successful rescues of Allied personnel since the famous Cabanatuan raid in 1945 in which US Army Rangers rescued more than 500 prisoners from certain execution by their Japanese captors. The SEALs of Detachment Golf of Whiskey Platoon had received intelligence from a…

Writer: Rory Muir Publisher: Yale University Press Price: £16.99 Released: Out now Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, is one of Britain’s greatest generals who rose from a relatively obscure Anglo-Irish background to become a legendary soldier and statesman whose military career ranged from successes in India, Spain and Portugal to the titanic clash at Waterloo where he defeated his most deadly foe Napoleon Bonaparte. Wellington’s defeated of the French emperor sealed the fate of Europe and changed the course of history. It is largely thanks to Wellington that Britain retained a unique pre-eminence for the rest of the 19th century. There have been many biographies and histories written about the Iron Duke but none have been quite so detailed and precise as Rory Muir’s Wellington: The Path to Victory…

24 HOURS ON THE SOMME: MY EXPERIENCES OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE SOMME 1 JULY 1916 Leading his platoon of 50 men over the top, 20-year-old Edward Liveing would become one of the lucky ones who survived the carnage on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme. This book is his vivid recounting of one man caught up in one of history’s most famous battles and, unlike many others, lived to tell the tale. Presented in a simple easy-to-read layout, this is a must for anyone interested in learning about the true horrors of the Western Front. KLEINKRIEG: THE GERMAN EXPERIENCE WITH GUERRILLA WARFARE, FROM CLAUSEWITZ TO HITLER The concept of guerrilla warfare has been around for millennia, although the term has only been in use since…

Writer: Andrew Roberts Publisher: Head Zeus Price: £8.99 Released: Out now With the centenary of the greatest disaster in British military history upon us, it’s no surprise that the history book market would start filling up with accounts of the Battle of the Somme. This one by Andrew Roberts focuses on the battle’s opening day, which saw the British army suffer a staggering 57,471 casualties with nearly a third of those killed in action. As one might expect, it makes for highly emotive reading and Roberts does a decent enough job of weaving the various strands of his narrative together from numerous secondary sources that include the particularly effective use of written testimonies from the archive at the Imperial War Museum. The story is, of course very well known: The…

WHEN DISCIPLINE TRUMPS EXPERIENCE The first official light infantry unit in the British Army, the 80th Foot, was raised by Colonel Thomas Gage at the end of 1757. The unit’s most famous commanding officer, George Augustus Howe, was the oldest brother of Richard and William Howe who later commanded British forces in the American War of Independence. The elder Howe was a recognised light infantry expert who lost his life during the assault on Fort Ticonderoga, in July 1758, while William, also a light infantry specialist, was conspicuous at Québec the following year. BRITISH LIGHT INFANTRYMAN YEARS IN OPERATION: 1757-1763 LOYALTY: GREAT BRITAIN EXPERIENCE Light infantry units were only formed after the start of the war, and the converted regulars were initially at a disadvantage in terms of experience –…

“IT IS TIME TO REASSESS THE ‘IRON DUKE’ AND REVISIT KEY MOMENTS WHERE WELLINGTON WON, BUT ALMOST FELL BY THE SWORD” The military career of Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington, is one the most impressive of any British general. After rising to become one of the most significant captains of his age, he won successive victories in India, Portugal, Spain, France and finally Belgium where he defeated the ‘Master of Europe’ Napoleon Bonaparte. Despite his undistinguished career as British Prime Minister, Wellington was lionised in his own lifetime and ever since. However, towering figure though he may be, Wellington did make mistakes in his career and his reputation as a man who ‘never lost a battle’ is somewhat misleading. It is time to reassess the ‘Iron Duke’ and revisit…

RORY MUIR: Both. After driving Soult from Oporto in the spring of 1809 Wellington saw an opportunity to advance into central Spain in partnership with the Spanish armies commanded by Cuesta and Venegas. The French had more and better troops in the Peninsula overall, but a large part of their force was stuck in the remote wilds of Galicia, and Wellington believed that the Anglo-Spanish forces could overwhelm the relatively weak French armies in central Spain, capture Madrid, and perhaps even drive them back to the Ebro, before the troops from Galicia and those tied up in the siege of Saragossa could intervene. It was a bold plan, but it had a reasonable chance of success. Wellington advanced towards Madrid in concert with Cuesta; the French forces in central Spain,…

RORY MUIR: Wellington’s victory at Salamanca was an accomplished and decided victory, which destroyed the morale and cohesion of Marmont’s French army and opened the road to Madrid. However, Marmont commanded only one of five French armies in Spain in 1812, and Wellington’s advance compelled the other French commanders to concentrate their greatly superior forces against him. Soult abandoned the siege of Cádiz and evacuated the whole of southern Spain, while the French Army of the North collected many of its garrisons and gave up its operations against the Spanish guerrillas in order to resist Wellington’s advance on Burgos. These French forces compelled Wellington to withdraw back to Portugal, but the French never re-occupied southern Spain, while the loosening of their grip on northern Spain was followed by it bursting…

“PATIENCE DID NOT COME NATURALLY TO HIM AND HIS INSTINCTS WERE AGGRESSIVE, TO TAKE THE INITIATIVE, SEEK OUT THE ENEMY AND GIVE BATTLE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE” RORY MUIR: Comparisons between generals of different eras and countries are good fun, but waging war is so dependent on context and circumstance that it is impossible to come to any firm conclusions. Certainly Wellington’s record is immensely impressive. The success he achieved in India, the Peninsula and at Waterloo is hard to rival, and for much of the time he was facing confident and tough opponents. He could be both extremely bold and immensely restrained – although contrary to legend, patience did not come naturally to him and his instincts were aggressive, to take the initiative, seek out the enemy…

The first official German stormtroop unit was authorised on 2 March 1915 when the Supreme Command of the field army ordered VIII Corps to form a detachment for the testing of experimental weapons and the development of approximate tactics that could break the deadlock on the Western Front. It was founded by Major Calsow (Calsow Assault Detachment) and later commanded and refined by Hauptmann Willy Rohr (Sturmabteilung Rohr). The methods Rohr developed are the basis of all modern small-unit infantry tactics. By the end of 1916, 30 German divisions had established a Sturmbataillon (battalion of shock troops). Even the navy had formed a detachment. By 1918 a textbook Stormtroop attack would be opened by a short but intense artillery barrage, employing high-explosive and shrapnel shells mixed with a large number…

Taking sailors and turning them into SEALs, the gruelling BUD/S (or Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL selection) course is regarded as one of the toughest in the world. Hell Week is a five and a half day test of a SEAL candidate’s mental and physical toughness. Many mistakenly believe that Hell Week is the culmination of BUD/S, but it actually takes place in the third of the seven-week Phase One of the course. It’s designed to weed out those who will not make the grade and be awarded the SEAL trident. Statistically, three quarters of SEAL trainees fail Hell Week, deciding to ring the famous brass ship’s bell that signifies that they can no longer continue, typically from injury and exhaustion. It was developed by the ‘father of the SEALs’, the late…

1576 The Portuguese explorer, Paulo Dias de Novais, founds the settlement St Paul of Luanda. In ten years it becomes the precarious fortress outpost for Dutch commerce and slaving. 1915 After 30 years of harsh colonial rule by Germany, the Great War engulfing Europe leads to a British-led South African force invading and occupying Namibia, which is annexed as South-West Africa. 1955 Blocks of offshore oil are discovered beyond Luanda’s beaches. The following year the Cabinda Protectorate is brought under Angola’s jurisdiction and more offshore deposits are found in its waters. 1961 Multiple uprisings by left-leaning nationalist groups erupt in northern and central Angola. The MPLA’s activities near Luanda compel the deployment of 50,000 Portuguese soldiers to suppress the rebel threat. 1964 Disenchanted by the ethnic politics of the FNLA,…

 Writers: Peter Doyle and Chris Foster Publisher: The History Press Price: £25 Released: Out now “THE RESULT IS A BIT LIKE WANDERING THROUGH A SPECTACULARLY WELL PUT-TOGETHER EXHIBITION. TRULY FASCINATING STUFF” At the outbreak of World War I the British army numbered around 400,000. By its end, 5,704,416 men had passed through its ranks – the equivalent to 22 per cent of the UK’s male population at the time. Incredibly, around 2.5 million of these were volunteers – men who answered their country’s call, often joining up enthusiastically with work mates and family members before marching off to the meat grinder of the Western Front’s trenches. Kitchener’s Mob is a superbly presented book that seeks to explain that phenomenon through a variety of sources. The book’s structure is quite simple.…

Author: Susan Williams Publisher: C Hurst and Co Price: £25 Released: Out now One of the real pleasures of history is the fact that there are always new stories to be discovered. Susan Williams has pieced together the details of a story so enormous it seems incredible that most people will have heard nothing about it before. During the race to build the first atomic bomb, it was quickly recognised that a good supply or Uranium was needed. It was also recognised that the best deposits were to be found in the Congo. In fact, simply saying that these were the best deposits does not do them justice – they were so far superior to other known deposits as to approach fantasy levels. The problem was that the Congo was…

 Author: David Perry Publisher: Casemate Price: £19.99 Released: Out now “THE SITUATION FOR THE UNION WAS ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS BECAUSE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S TOTAL LACK OF DIPLOMATIC EXPERIENCE” David Perry’s book delves inside an important story — the foreign policy decisions of the Lincoln administration during the American Civil War. The Union faced multiple challenges, including the obvious threat of a permanent breakaway by the seceding southern states. More than this, foreign powers including Great Britain, France, Russia and Japan were keeping a watchful eye on the situation, ready to intervene if it appeared to suit their interests. The situation for the Union was especially dangerous because of Abraham Lincoln’s total lack of diplomatic experience. He left matters largely in the hands of his Secretary of State, William Henry Seward, a…

Author: Nicholas Stargardt Publisher: The Bodley Head Price: £30 Released: Out now Few would now cling to the old propaganda story of a German nation united in its lust for war, but Oxford professor Nicholas Stargardt’s compelling work reveals just how far removed it was from the truth. The book jumps in with both feet at the start of mobilisation and presents us with a broad look at German society as a whole alongside penetrating insights into individual experiences. Soldiers, girlfriends left at home, farmers, the terrified husband of a Jewish wife – the snapshots are many and vivid. Stargardt weaves the story of the war through these personal experiences, depicting a nation in a state of dread at the oncoming conflict. Matters deteriorated almost instantly for the common German…