Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 44 i History of War

 As a gunner in the Royal Artillery, Garth Wright assisted with the hasty defence of the BEF in the area around Dunkirk. His specific task was to act as a despatch rider between the British headquarters in Dunkirk and the outlying guns at Bray-Dunes, another important place of embarkation. His route ran along a canal, which was most likely the Canal de Furnes, and he would have had to travel around 10.62 kilometres (6.59 miles) each way. “IT WAS REALLY FRIGHTENING.IT WAS MEN AGAINST BOYS” Wright would have performed this dangerous task on motorcycles such as the Norton WD (War Department) Big 4 and Norton WD 16H. Initially designed between 1907 and 1911 respectively, the Big 4 and 16H were first supplied to the British Armed Forces during the 1930s…

Born in 1405, the fourth son of a local Albanian chieftain, Skanderbeg could have hoped at best to get his name recorded in history as one among many Balkan notables of the time. Instead, a combination of perilous circumstance and his military genius has turned him into a pan-European icon, military exemplar and national symbol of resistance. Many late renaissance and post-renaissance European artists celebrated his deeds, and British poets readily recognised his fame, calling him “the scourge of Turks, and plague of infidels” (Sir Edmund Spenser). General James Wolfe, the 18th century hero of Quebec, described him as a commander who “excels all the officers, ancient and modern, in the conduct of a small defensive army”. Even recent British biographers are full of respect and admiration. “His assets were…

“IF ATHENS HAD LOST THAT DAY, THE YOUNG DEMOCRACY WOULD HAVE BEEN DESTROYED AND, IN ITS PLACE, ATHENS WOULD HAVE BECOME A VASSAL STATE OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. HISTORY AS WE KNOW IT WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY DIFFERENT” OPPOSING FORCES PERSIANS LEADERS: Datis and Artaphernes (aided by ousted Athenian tyrant Hippias) INFANTRY: 24,000 CAVALRY: 1,000 ARCHERS: The majority of the Persian forces were archers VS GREEKS LEADERS: Ten generals (including Miltiades, Stesilaus and Callimachus) INFANTRY: 10,000 Athenians, 1,000 Plataeans CAVLARY: 0 ARCHERS: 0 THE DEME OF MARATHON, ATTICA, GREECE 10 SEPTEMBER 490 BCE As soon as the first Persian arrow struck the ground in front of them, the Greek army was ordered to advance at a run. 11,000 heavily armed hoplites surged forward across the empty plain, 200 yards towards…

“THE GERMANS REALISED RAPIDLY THAT THE T-34 OUTCLASSED THEIR EXISTING FRONTLINE TANKS” T-34 MEDIUM TANK SPECIFICATIONS COMMISSIONED: 1937 ORIGIN: SOVIET UNION CREW: 4 LENGTH: 6 METRES RANGE: 300 KILOMETRES ENGINE: 12-CYLINDER V-2-34 WATER-COOLED DIESEL PRIMARY WEAPON: 76.2MM L-11 OR 76.2MM F-34; LATER ZIS-S-53 85MM CANNON SECONDARY WEAPON: 2X 7.62MM DT MACHINE GUNS “Numerous Russian T-34s went into action and inflicted heavy losses on the German tanks at Mzensk in 1941. Up to that time we had enjoyed tank superiority, but from now on the situation was reversed. The prospect of rapid, decisive victories was fading in consequence,” so wrote German General Heinz Guderian, one of the world’s foremost experts on armoured warfare, in his post-World War II book Panzer Leader. Guderian realised that the introduction of the Soviet T-34 medium…

“THE CONFLICT HAS KILLED AROUND ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE, 829 OF THEM THE VICTIMS OF ETA. BUT SUPPORT FOR THE CAUSE OF AN INDEPENDENT STATE IS DWINDLING” In April 2017 the locations of the eight caches of weaponry were symbolically handed over to police in a town hall in the French city of Bayonne. The cashes included 130 handguns, two tons of explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition. Earlier the same year, the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), the Basque Country and Liberty, announced it was handing in its weapons, six years after the cessation of active hostilities. This potentially marks the end of Europe’s longest conflict, the ETA campaign having begun in 1959. However, there are still areas of contention that may arise in negotiations over a permanent peace, and…

“THE VILLAGE IS BURNED, CHIEF AMERICAN HORSE IS KILLED AND A RESCUE ATTEMPT BY CRAZY HORSE FAILS” 1 GRATTAN MASSACRE 19 AUGUST 1854 EAST OF FORT LARAMIE, NEBRASKA Second Lieutenant John Grattan effectively starts the Plains Wars when he and his platoon are killed by Lakota Sioux. The cause of the massacre is a dispute arising from the minor theft of a cow by a Native American. 2 BATTLE OF WHITESTONE HILL 3-5 SEPTEMBER 1863 DAKOTA TERRITORY, DICKEY COUNTY, NORTH DAKOTA Brigadier General Alfred Sully attacks a Sioux camp as part of a punitive mission to punish participants of the Dakota War. In the ensuing ‘battle’ hundreds of Native Americans are killed or captured, compared to light US Army casualties. 3 SAND CREEK MASSACRE 29 NOVEMBER 1864 COLORADO TERRITORY, KIOWA…

Although at first glance the fighting between the United States Army and the Native American tribes was hopelessly one-sided, decades of trading and plunder meant that Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa warriors were well-armed, and sometimes carried more sophisticated weaponry than their opponents. At the same time, traditional Native American weapons still had their role to play. “BRITISH LIGHT INFANTRY UNITS IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR WERE OFTEN EQUIPPED WITH TOMAHAWKS, AND THE DESIGN IS STILL ACTIVE TODAY” MODEL 1873 SPRINGFIELD CARBINE This shortened version of the Model 1873 Springfield Rifle was standard issue among cavalry regiments for the latter portion of the 19th century. It emerged from a trial of 99 different models as the US Army searched for a new weapon in the post-Civil War era. RATE OF…

The tale of Skanderbeg’s alleged Islamisation and childhood at the Ottoman court exemplifies how far a well-told story with good marketing can reach. The narrative, as told by his contemporary biographer Marin(us) Barleti(us) and adopted by classical historians from Gibbons to Toynbee, certainly has dramatic merits. It talks about a boy, Georg Castrioti, taken to the then capital Adrianople as “blood levy” by the Turks alongside his older brothers; three of them are then poisoned, while the youngest is circumcised and Islamized. He becomes the favourite of the sultan, who gives him the nickname Iskender Bay, or Skanderbeg – as “an indelible memorial of his glory and his servitude” (Gibbon) – meaning Lord Alexander and reminiscing Alexander the Great. Skanderbeg, we are told, is raised on the sultan’s luxurious court…

01 THE PERSIANS LAND The Persian force of 600 ships lands, beaching their fleet on the north-eastern end of Marathon Bay, the Schoenia. The swampy ground provides some protection for the fleet. The Persians make their camp in-land of the swamp. 02 THE ATHENIANS MARCH The Athenians march to Marathon and encamp at the opposite end of the bay, in the precinct of Heracles. They are joined there by 1,000 men from Plataea, arriving from the Vrana road. 03 BATTLE LINES ARE DRAWN After a delay, the Greeks offer battle. The Persians and Greeks draw up their battle lines; the Persians with their backs to the sea, the Greeks a mile inland on the first slopes of Mt Kotroni. 04 PACKED WINGS AND WEAKENED CENTRE The Greek line of 11,000…

More than 57,000 examples of the T-34 and its variants were manufactured during World War II, making it the most highly produced tank of the conflict. The T-34 became a lasting symbol of the Soviet victory on the Eastern Front and enabled the Red Army to counter the might of Nazi panzer divisions during its resurgence and relentless westward advance towards the German capital of Berlin. When the T-34 reached the battlefield in the autumn of 1941, it came as a nasty surprise to German armoured units, whose tanks had enjoyed a significant qualitative advantage over earlier Soviet designs. The T-34, with its 76.2mm gun, brought some parity to tank versus tank encounters. More than a match for the earlier German PzKpfw. III and IV tanks, the T-34 spurred German…

Author: Sasha Maslov Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press Price: £19.99 (Hardcover) Released: Out now The importance and legacy of the Second World War has cast a long shadow, and we still live with its consequences in a myriad of different ways today. Put simply, the modern world as we know it would not exist without the most destructive war in human history, and the people that fought and experienced it were the crucial factor in its outcome and subsequent effects. 72 years after the war ended there are now relatively few veterans left, and so Ukrainian-born photographer Sasha Maslov has compiled a new pictorial book out of, in his own words, “a sense of urgency – a sense that the stories of a generation and conflict that have indelibly shaped our…

LETHAL LYNX Taken: March 2003 A British Lynx helicopter from the Joint Helicopter Force (JHF) picks up troops from 51 Squadron Royal Air Force (RAF) Regiment as a Chinook comes in for a landing on March 11, 2003, in the Kuwaiti desert near the Iraqi border. The Squadron contributed to Operation Telic in Iraq before redeploying to Afghanistan as part of Operation Herrick. BACK TO CAEN Taken: June 2017 British paratrooper veterans return to Caen, Normandy, 73 years after they faced heavy fighting in the region in the days following D-Day. They are (back L-R): Gordon Newton 9th Para, Cecil Jeffcoate 2nd Ox & Bucks, Jim Beasant 13th Para, George Talbot 2nd Ox & Bucks, Geoff Paterson 9th Para, (front L-R) Bill Bray, Nick Archdale and Ernie Stringer all 7th…

“HIS INFLUENCE WAS WANING AND THE HOT-HEADED YOUNG WARRIORS OF HIS TRIBE PROVED DIFFICULT TO CONTROL” The Plains Wars were punctuated more by skirmishes and small-scale actions than by traditional pitched battles. The Native American way of warfare did not lend itself to large-scale confrontations, and when sizeable opposing forces did meet, the results were usually predictable. The Battle of Washita River came at the end of a period of increasing tension and hostility between the Southern Cheyenne and white settlers in the Colorado Territory. Despite the regular signing of peace treaties, relations were fractious in the 1860s. Even the presence of a chief, Black Kettle, who recognised the futility of fighting the US Government, was not enough to stop the endless raiding of Cheyenne war parties. It could only…

“WHILE AN OBVIOUSLY CATASTROPHIC PERSONAL SETBACK FOR THE MAN HIMSELF, CUSTER’S DEATH IS NOT THE HALLMARK OF VICTORY OR DEFEAT” In 1876, the United States marked its 100th birthday – the blood had washed out of the Potomac, and the nation was celebrating. A bright future seemed just ahead for the young country. However, further west a much older nation felt very differently. The Sioux had owned the northern plains until the coming of the white man. They lived a nomadic life in pursuit of the buffalo that provided essentials of food, clothing and shelter. They claimed their territory by right of force. Western expansion brought settlers into conflict with this way of life. In 1868, the United States signed a treaty setting aside the Black Hills “for the absolute…

“IT WAS HELL ON EARTH ON THE BEACH ITSELF. I DUG OUT MY SLIT TRENCH WITH MY HELMET” “AT NIGHT THERE WAS A RED GLOW IN THE SKY. BY DAY THE OIL TANKS WERE ONE OF THE GERMANS’ FIRST TARGETS & THERE WAS A BLACK POOL OF SMOKE A MILE HIGH DRIFTING ALONG” Summer, 1940, and on a beach in northern France hundreds of thousands of Allied troops are stranded – literally squeezed into the sea by the German Blitzkrieg. Among the sand dunes is a 20-year-old despatch rider of the British Expeditionary Force who attempts to shelter from the relentless bombardment of Luftwaffe air attacks. His only defence is a mere slit trench that he has dug out with his own tin helmet. Sand is blown high in…

The Mi-17 came with Klimov TV3-117MT engines whereas the Mi-8 (civil version) had the Klimov TV3-117MTV. In the Cold War epoch there were also sensors for chemical and nuclear warfare. Nowadays, the MT seems to have fallen out of favour and the helicopters are currently fitted with the MTV engine, which is far better suited for ‘hot and high’ operation. The earlier version of the Hip was also designated the Mi-8, but had the lesser powered Klimov TV2-117 engines, whereas the TV3 series engines allowed for a substantial increase in power and was originally developed for the Russian military during the latter stages of their war in Afghanistan. On armaments carried by these helicopters, fired from the cargo space behind the cockpit, the mercenary air wing in Angola were using…

 The League of Albanian Princes is a rather excessive name Albanian historiography uses for the coalition of Albanian chieftains established in St Nicholas Cathedral in Lezhë on March 2, 1444. The instigator of the league was Skanderbeg himself, who in the preceding months denied allegiance to the sultan and now sought to unite the local forces that would meet the imminent invasion. “AT BEST, THE COALITION COULD PUT UP TO 18,000 ARMED MEN ON THE BATTLEFIELD, OUT OF WHICH ONLY 3,500 WERE DIRECTLY UNDER SKANDERBEG’S CONTROL” As Skanderbeg’s father Gjon cleverly married all five daughters to neighbouring dignitaries, the crux of the coalition comprised his five brother-in-laws: Musachi, Balša, Arianiti, Thopia and the Crnojevis from Montenegro. The other four were Dukagjini, Zaharia, Spani and Dushmani. One could ponder if this…

“HALL, WITH UTTER DISREGARD FOR LIFE, KEPT LOADING AND FIRING THE GUN UNTIL THE WALL HAD BEEN BREACHED AND THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW HAD BEEN ASSURED” William Hall’s mother and father, both born into servitude, fled from the United States in the early 19th century, crossing into Canada and forging a new beginning in Nova Scotia. Hall escaped a life of bondage and arrived into the world on 25 April 1829. Having been raised on the maritime coast, Hall worked as a merchant for a short stint before crossing into the United States and arriving at Boston, enlisting in the United States Navy in 1847. Under the alias of William Harvey, the black Nova Scotian served aboard both the USS Franklin and the USS Savannah, concluding his American naval service…