Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2016 i History of War

CHAUCHAT CARTRIDGE: 8×50MMR LEBEL LENGTH: 114CM WEIGHT: 9KG/20LBS FEED: 20-ROUND DETACHABLE MAGAZINE RATE OF FIRE: 250 ROUNDS PER MINUTE IN SERVICE: 1916-32 From the 18th century through to the 21st, when the stalemate of trench warfare set in, human ingenuity created a plethora of weapons and equipment to break the deadlock. These ranged from hastily built defences, like an abatis made of cut branches, to huge mortars capable of blowing a trench apart, or even a weapon as simple as a club. “THOUGH IT SUFFERED FROM SOME DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE FLAWS, WHEN IT WORKED IT PROVIDED VALUABLE FIREPOWER” WALKING FIRE: THE CHAUCHAT Deployed for the first time in 1916, the Chauchat automatic rifle was designed by the French to provide ‘walking fire’ to suppress the enemy during attacks. Though it…

According to the Lex Castrensis, a band of Jomsvikings formed the nucleus of Cnut’s housecarls, but who were these Vikings? According to Norse sagas, they were a brotherhood of pagan warriors who had their stronghold at Jomsborg in Pomerania, on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. To become a Jomsviking, a man (women and children were not admitted into their stronghold) who was aged between 18 and 50 had to prove himself, most often by besting a Jomsviking in a duel, fought according to rules of conduct. Once a Jomsviking, a man swore to avenge his brothers and to abide by the ruling of his officers in case of blood feud. Battle spoils were shared equally among the brotherhood and Jomsvikings could not spend more than three days away…

It was a cold September morning, hours from the first glimmers of dawn. Exhausted samurai huddled crouched in ditches and dugouts they had unearthed to protect themselves from the gunfire below. Their crude shelters formed an unsightly patchwork on the scenic hilltop of Shiroyama, which was perhaps Kagoshima’s best-known landmark after the majestic Mount Sakurajima across its harbour. These samurai camped in Shiroyama were led by a remarkable man, Saigo Takamori, who embodied the ideals of his class. He conducted himself with magnanimity and good breeding expected of a samurai and statesman, but he was also possessed by a deep-seated patriotism that manifested in dreams of waging war abroad. It was, admittedly, a characteristic lust for battle typical among his class. Posthumous accounts of his ordeal at Shiroyama report he…

16 FEBRUARY 1958 North Korean agents hijack a South Korean airliner during an internal flight and fly it to North Korea. Eight of the 27 passengers are never returned. 2 NOVEMBER 1966 One South Korean and six American soldiers are killed by KPA during an ambush south of the DMZ. Beginning of three-year border conflict. 17 JANUARY 1968 A 31-man North Korean detachment crosses the DMZ and attempts to assassinate South Korean President Park Chung-hee at the Blue House parliament building in Seoul. 11 DECEMBER 1969 A North Korean agent hijacks Korean Airlines Flight YS-11 with four crew and 47 passengers. 11 South Korean crew and passengers remain in North Korea today. 15 NOVEMBER 1974 The first of four (known) tunnels under the DMZ is inadvertently discovered by a South…

BLACKBURN BUCCANEER S2 CREW: 2 (PILOT AND OBSERVER) LENGTH: 63FT 5IN (19.33M) WINGSPAN: 44FT (13.41M) HEIGHT: 16FT 3IN (4.97M) POWERPLANT: 2 × ROLLS-ROYCE SPEY MK 101 TURBOFANS, 11,100LBF (49KN) EACH MAX SPEED: 645MPH (560KN, 1,074KM/H) AT 200FT (60M) RANGE: 2,300MI (2,000NMI, 3,700KM) HARDPOINTS: 4 × UNDER-WING PYLON STATIONS, 1× INTERNAL ROTATING BOMB BAY WITH A CAPACITY OF 12,000LB (5,443KG) AND PROVISIONS TO CARRY COMBINATIONS OF: ROCKETS: 4 × MATRA ROCKET PODS WITH 18 × SNEB 68MM ROCKETS EACH MISSILES: 2 × AIM-9 SIDEWINDERS FOR SELF-DEFENCE OR 2 × AS-37 MARTEL MISSILES OR 4 × SEA EAGLE MISSILES BOMBS: VARIOUS UNGUIDED BOMBS, LASER-GUIDED BOMBS, AS WELL AS THE RED BEARD OR WE.177 TACTICAL NUCLEAR BOMBS Originally designed as a low-level strike and reconnaissance aircraft for carrier-borne operations, the Blackburn Buccaneer served…

ARTILLERY Positioned up to ten kilometres from the front line, heavy artillery pounded enemy lines. Artillery was so important that by 1918, 40 per cent of all French troops on the Western Front were manning the guns. RESERVE TRENCH The reserve line was located 500 metres behind the front line and often had defensive strong points and hidden machine-gun nests to prevent breakthroughs if the frontline trench was overrun. MOTOR MOBILISATION World War I saw the first mass use of motor vehicles with troops ferried to the front in 1914 by wagons, buses and even Parisian taxis. By the end of the war, thousands of vehicles were being used to move men and supplies. MUD The morass of featureless mud made building defences, transporting supplies and launching offensives extremely difficult.…

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA 3 OCTOBER 1993 A single word began one of the most controversial and bloody battles involving United States special operations forces: “Irene”. It was a hot and humid Sunday afternoon in Mogadishu, Somalia, now almost a quarter of a century ago, and as the code word for launch was transmitted across the secure radio frequencies of Task Force Ranger, their heavily loaded helicopters lifted laboriously into the air, their noses pointed towards the sprawling city. On board the Little Bird and Black Hawk helicopters was an assault force of more than 60 elite Ranger light infantrymen from the 1st and 2nd Platoons of the 3rd Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment from Fort Benning, Georgia. Their brother Rangers in 3rd Platoon were at that moment mounting up in…

ENHANCED PERFORMANCE The twin General Electric engines produce 1,843 shaft horsepower each. Carrying only crew, the MH-60 can reach speeds of up to 193 knots at a height of up to 20,000 feet. With a full combat load of passengers of up to 18 personnel, the maximum speed is reduced to 160 knots. NAVIGATION Most helicopters used the Doppler but the MH-60 was equipped with AN/APQ-174B multi-mode terrain-following radar, giving the MH-60 the capacity to fly in all weather conditions. GPS fitted to the models flown in Somalia refused to work as they operated on the same frequency as the radar at the airfield. EXTENDED RANGE The MH-60 has a range of 440 nautical miles. A dismountable probe allows the MH-60L to be refuelled mid-air. The MH-60Ls deployed to Mogadishu…

Barely lasting eight months, Satsuma was the first great test of the original Imperial Japanese Army. After nearly a decade of being moulded by foreign advisers and the new tactics needed to fight modern wars, the conscript force was unprepared for the conflict with the Satsuma rebels. Worse, their samurai foes had firearms and artillery too. The deciding factor became mass. Having embraced the institutions of European states, – i.e. a police force, compulsory education, corporations and a parliament – Tokyo could afford levying as many fighting men as it could, peasant and samurai alike, and deploy them to Kyushu for battle. Another edge the Imperials had over the Satsuma rebels was command of the sea. Despite being a coastal domain, there were no indigenous warships in Satsuma and Kagoshima.…

Like many individuals who would survive the much photographed and filmed wars of the burgeoning 20th century, Daniel Daly cared little for the fame or legacy his actions brought him. He was, up until his death on 27 April 1937, a man who saw medals as “foolishness,” but his actions during the Siege of International Legations in China and a bloody battle in Haiti more than a decade later have made him a legend in the annals of the US Marine Corps. Born on 11 November 1873, Daniel Joseph Daly was raised in Glen Cove, New York. A city now, but a small village at the time, Glen Cove had blossomed from a diminutive port for English traders in the 1600s to a thriving holiday resort community for New York…

The war that erupted on the Korean peninsula in the summer of 1950 was technically known as a ‘police action’, the first major challenge to the newly formed United Nations. Today, it is a largely forgotten war, despite leaving more than 2 million soldiers and civilians dead. Certainly, compared to the United States’ other great East Asian conflict, where Cold War politics turned lethally hot, Korea’s cultural imprint seems negligible. While the Vietnam War inspired a slew of Hollywood blockbusters, the movie treatment of Korea is largely confined to The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and M*A*S*H (1970). Yet it can be argued that, after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the ‘forgotten war’ was the closest the world ever came to a nuclear war. The United States might have recognised the seeds of…

KN-08 MISSILE Also known as the Nodong-C and Hwasong-13, this is a road-mobile Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, although it is not known if it has the capacity to carry a nuclear warhead yet. On 10 October, a newer version was believed to have been paraded through Pyongyang. The shortened nosecone may be indicative of a guidance system based on Russian technology. KOKSAN ARTILLERY PIECE A 170mm self-propelled howitzer, the Koksan can fire four rounds in the first one minute and then one round every three minutes thereafter. With a 37-mile range, it would be capable of hitting Seoul from the DMZ and causing massive casualties in an all-out attack. SANG-O MIDGET SUBMARINE Capable of ambushing southern naval vessels, the Sang-O is equipped with four torpedo tubes and can carry up to…

BATTLE OF OHAEAWAI ENTRENCHED MAORI REBELS MAKE THE BRITISH SUFFER 1845 New Zealand During the Flagstaff War, the British suffered heavy casualties while attacking Maori hill forts called ‘pa’. These consisted of wooden palisades mounting cannon surrounded by ditches, bunkers and trenches. At Ohaeawai, the British were forced to make a frontal attack on the pa, suffering 100 casualties in just five minutes. SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR BITTER FIGHTING IN MANCHURIA SEES THE BIRTH OF MODERN TRENCH WARFARE 1904-05 China The Japanese initially relied on disastrous frontal assaults against Russian positions, but fast-firing heavy artillery, barbed wire, machine guns and modern bolt-action rifles took a horrific toll. Almost 60,000 Japanese troops died taking the Russian-held port in a battle that foreshadowed the horrors of the Western Front. SIEGE OF PETERSBURG…

TRENCH FORTIFICATIONS MATERIALS: WOOD, EARTH AND CONCRETE DIMENSIONS: ON AVERAGE 3-4 METRES DEEP AND 1-2 METRES WIDE WHEN CONSTRUCTED: SEPTEMBER 1914 – NOVEMBER 1918 LOCATION: WESTERN, EASTERN AND ITALIAN FRONTS AND GALLIPOLI LANDINGS DEFENSIVE FEATURES: BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS, DITCHES, ENFILADING MACHINE GUN KILL ZONES ARMAMENT: MACHINE GUNS AND TRENCH MORTARS REVETMENT SHORING UP THE TRENCH’S SIDES Revetments made from timber, gabions or sandbags strengthened the trench walls preventing the earth from collapsing inward. In sections like the Somme, it was not uncommon for human remains to inadvertently become part of the trench walls. DUGOUT Dugouts began as small spaces for one or two men to sleep but quickly evolved into more sophisticated trench dwellings and command posts. The Germans were renowned for constructing large dugouts deep underground made from reinforced…

Colonel DiTomasso served in the army for 20 years, leading soldiers in combat and training. His assignments included the 10th Mountain Division, 1st Infantry Division and the 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment where he earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart as a member of Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. Some of his exploits were later depicted in the movie Black Hawk Down. In 1998, he was selected and assigned to the United States Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg. He has taken part in multiple combat deployments to Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. During his last assignment, LTC Di Tomasso served as a Joint Special Operations Task Force commander in Iraq responsible for more than 1,200 special operations forces and government agency personnel. Selected…

Almost everyone knows 1066. But how many people know that England was conquered 50 years earlier, in 1016? The invader then was Cnut – the king now known for vainly trying to turn back the tide. His victory marked the culmination of a century and a half of Viking attacks on England. However, having conquered the country, the Danes left England pretty much as it was. Their main innovation was the introduction of a new class of warrior – the housecarl. When the Normans landed in 1066, the spine of the army that faced William was composed of King Harold’s own housecarls. In one of history’s great ironies, this meant one set of Viking-derived warriors faced another: the knights of Normandy. The Normans were descendants of Vikings too, and so…

What set the housecarls of late Anglo-Saxon England apart from their warrior predecessors was their weapon of choice – the Dane axe – and their increasing use of the teardrop-shaped ‘Norman’ shield. As with all Anglo-Saxon warriors, they fought on foot, although as high-status warriors they rode to battle, forming up as the front rank of the shield wall and the personal bodyguard of the king and earls. The Dane axe was a formidable weapon. Its haft, usually between three and four feet long (although display weapons had longer hafts), was held in both hands. The axe head was light and forged to be thin, with a reinforced, carbon-steel cutting edge. As wielding the Dane axe required both hands, the housecarl had to step out from the line of the…

In Spring 1944, Skorzeny’s unit was assigned to Operation Knight’s Move, a raid intended to capture Yugoslav partisan leader Josip Tito. The leader was based in the fortified Bosnian mountain town of Drvar. Skorzeny was tasked with planning the raid, and after obtaining information from a partisan deserter that pinpointed Tito’s headquarters in a cave outside the town, proposed he infiltrate Drvar with a small team and assassinate Tito. Skorzeny’s plan, however, was compromised by a security breach, and instead a combined airborne and ground assault was ordered that Skorzeny refused to endorse. The subsequent raid on Drvar was a disaster. 1. INITIAL BOMBING RAID 25 May 1944. 6.35am. Five Luftwaffe bomber squadrons, including Ju 87 dive bombers, begin hitting targets in and around Drvar. A total of 440 sorties…

MIDDLE EASTERN POWER BROKER Skorzeny was reportedly involved in organising mercenary groups made up of former SS men throughout the Middle East. Some place him in Egypt around the time of the country’s standoff with Britain over the 1952 Suez crisis, while others credit him with helping Gaddafi establish his grip on Libya in 1969. THE PALADIN GROUP Skorzeny, who died in 1975, spent much of his later life under the protection of Spain’s General Franco. Based in Alicante, he established the Paladin Group, an international outfit that specialised in guerrilla training. His clients included the South African government, the Greek Military Junta of 1967-74, as well as Franco’s regime. DIE SPINNE While hiding out on a Bavarian farm in the late 1940s, Skorzeny set up the secret organisation Die…

THE PERILOUS PEAK With just 400 samurai left, Saigo trekked to Kagoshima, moving through hills and mountain trails. The Satsuma capital was once again vulnerable to attack, garrisoned by just 1,000 poorly trained conscripts. However, Imperial reinforcements from land and sea caught up with the rebels, who were forced to nearby Shiroyama. THE ENCIRCLEMENT From Mounsey’s account: “The Imperials had completed their lines about the 10th of September, and they then proceeded to erect mortar-barriers, to arm their earthworks with 50-pound guns from the ships, and to shell the rebel position from them and from their men-of-war. The bombardment was carried on day and night, causing a loss of about 200 men in the rebel ranks.” THE FINAL ASSAULT After 22 days of siege by 30,000 Imperial troops, the rebel…

Even without the destruction of the hospital in an air strike, the turn of events in Kunduz in late September 2015 would have been a disaster. For the first time since their expulsion by a US-led coalition in 2001, the Taliban were able to capture, albeit temporarily, a large urban area. That the Afghan National Army (ANA) quickly called in US Special Forces, culminating in the bomb strike on the hospital and 22 deaths, hardly bodes well for the future of Afghanistan. The International Security Assistance Force ceased combat operations in late 2014. The vast, dust-blown sprawl of Camp Bastion, Helmand Province, home to UK forces since 2006, witnessed the lowering of the Union Jack on 26 October. Simultaneously, the United States Marine Corps relinquished command of the adjacent Camp…

War zones are not usually good for nature conservation, but the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) – a 250 kilometres long by four kilometres wide buffer zone between the Koreas – is an exception. There has been so little human activity there over the past few decades that endangered plant and animals have found a haven. Elsewhere in the DMZ, however, the land is topped by barbed wire, watchtowers and antitank traps. Innumerable land mines lie under it and a ferocious concentration of artillery is pointed at it. On either side are the 490,000 troops of the southern Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) and the more than 1.2 million troops of the northern Korean Peoples’ Army (KPA). Incidents between the two regularly take place near the DMZ and its maritime equivalent, the…