Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 60 i History of War

One of the most famous turning points of the siege was the supposed miracle of the discovery of the Holy Lance within the city. The lance was reputedly the weapon that was used to pierce the side of Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross during his crucifixion. On 10 June 1098, a shabby French peasant called Peter Bartholomew claimed that he’d had a vision of Saint Andrew, who revealed that the lance was buried in Antioch’s cathedral. Raymond of Toulouse and the bishop of Le Puy ordered an excavation of the cathedral on 14 June, but nothing was found until Bartholomew leapt into the dug pit and triumphantly pulled out a rod of iron. This was claimed to be the Holy Lance, and when the Crusaders marched out…

On the morning of 18 June 1815, Napoleon realised that Wellington was holding his ground and was ready to give battle. Delighted to be given the opportunity to strike a fatal blow, the French emperor said to General Foy, “I will launch my cavalry and will send my Old Guard forward.” As always when positioning his forces, Napoleon ordered the Imperial Guard to remain in reserve. Before 4pm, Marshal Ney, who had been tasked with the capture of La Haye Sainte, mistook movements in British positions for the beginning of a retreat. Eager to exploit the situation, he ordered a cavalry charge to break Wellington’s centre. Despite its orders to stay put, the light cavalry of the Old Guard followed the charge. Captain de Brach, a lancer of the Guard,…

The battle of ‘Jisr Benat Yakub’ Bridge, today known as the ‘Daughters of Jacob Bridge’, was one of the major clashes of the Palestine campaign in 1918. The battle serves as an important link in the chain of historical events surrounding the bridge, and a vital part in the advance of the Allied forces in the Middle East during the war. On 26 September 1918, tidings of the victory against the Ottoman forces in Galilee arrived in Jerusalem. The news spurred Mordechai Ben-Hillel, a Jewish author, to joyously write in his diary about the delight that spread through the city as word got around. The general feeling across Jerusalem was that the war was over, the Ottoman and German forces were beaten and the victory celebrations could finally begin. The…

“THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE DAY UNTIL HE WAS KILLED THIS YOUNG N.C.O. SHOWED THE GREATEST VALOUR AND DEVOTION TO DUTY AND SET AN INSPIRING EXAMPLE TO ALL” – London Gazette, 26 November 1918 “CAPT. FRISBY REALISED AT ONCE THAT UNLESS THIS POST WAS CAPTURED THE WHOLE ADVANCE IN THIS AREA WOULD FAIL” – London Gazette, 26 November 1918 Following the German Spring Offensive in March 1918, the Allies launched a series of successful counterattacks from May to July 1918 that forced the Germans to fall back. These were followed by a series of Allied attacks, which have become known as the Hundred Days Offensive, beginning with the Battle of Amiens in early August. These campaigns drove the Germans out of France and contributed to bringing World War I to…

“DELTA WERE GIVEN RESPONSIBILITY FOR ELIMINATING THE LEADERS AND BOMB-MAKERS OF AL-QAEDA IN IRAQ” Delta Force’s first mission, the 1980 ‘Operation Eagle Claw’ to rescue the hostages being held in Tehran, ended in disaster when two aircraft collided at Desert One base. Missions in Grenada and Panama followed, before Delta joined the ‘Scud Hunt’ in 1991 in the Iraqi desert, tracking and destroying mobile ballistic missile launchers. In 1993, Delta deployed as part of Task Force Ranger and participated in the infamous Battle of Mogadishu. At the same time, Delta operators were assisting Colombian forces in the hunt for Pablo Escobar. The late 1990s saw the unit operating in the Balkans, targeting war criminals for capture. Delta operators were among the first into Afghanistan after 9/11 and came frustratingly close…

01 ROUT OF TURKS On 19 May, Mustafa Pasha’s soldiers attack the curtain wall protecting the suburb of Birgu on the south side of the Grand Harbour. Supported by two powerful batteries, the knights of the Castilian langue emerge from a sally port in the wall, routing the startled Ottomans. The Ottomans subsequently withdraw. 02 CHRISTIAN SORTIE AT ST. ELMO The Christians defending St. Elmo conduct a sortie on 29 May against the Ottoman trenches. In the face of the attack, Ottoman engineers and soldiers abandon their forward positions. Mustafa Pasha orders his janissaries to retake the lost ground. They sweep forward, driving back the Christians and capturing the outerworks of the fort. 03 CAVALRY RAID On 9 June the Christian cavalry detachment from Mdina in the centre of the…

“STONE CASTLES ARE THE MOST FORMIDABLE MILITARY SYMBOL OF NORMAN AUTHORITY” 1 BATTLE OF CIVITATE 18 JUNE 1053 FOGGIA, APULIA, ITALY Humphrey de Hauteville defeats a papal coalition and Pope Leo IX is taken prisoner. The battle is the culmination of years of Norman mercenary campaigning in southern Italy. 2 BATTLE OF MORTEMER 1054 MORTEMER, NORMANDY, FRANCE Henry I of France occupies the Norman town of Mortemer but is defeated when William the Bastard (later the 'Conqueror') sets the town alight. William’s victory enables him to secure his position as duke of Normandy. 3 BATTLE OF VARAVILLE AUGUST 1057 VARAVILLE, NORMANDY, FRANCE After Mortemer, Henry I of France decides to conquer Normandy, but Duke William surprises the French as they cross a ford. Many of Henry’s men drown, and the…

FOKKER EINDECKER COMMISSIONED: 1915 ORIGIN: GERMANY LENGTH: 7.2M (23FT 7IN) RANGE: 198KM (123MI) ENGINE: OBERURSEL U.1 9-CYLINDER, 100-HORSEPOWER RADIAL CREW: 1 ARMAMENT: 1X 7.92MM PARABELLUM MG 14 MACHINE GUN A notable monoplane that flew during an era dominated by the biplane, the Fokker Eindecker made history during World War I as the first fighter to mount a successful synchronisation system that allowed the pilot to fire a machine gun forward through the spinning propeller. Both the aircraft and the synchronisation system were developed by Dutch aircraft designer Anthony Fokker, who worked with the German military aviation establishment from 1911 and throughout the years of World War I. The Eindecker was the first German aircraft built as a fighter, and for a brief period the plane ruled the skies above the…

THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD THE OSCAR-WINNING FILMMAKER DISCUSSES HIS NEW FILM ABOUT WWI, WHICH USES RESTORED FOOTAGE AND VETERAN INTERVIEWS TO PRODUCE AN ASTONISHING NEW INTERPRETATION OF THE CONFLICT In collaboration with the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and 14-18 NOW, Sir Peter Jackson has directed and produced a new documentary about WWI called They Shall Not Grow Old. Using archive footage and extensive veteran testimony from the BBC and IWM, Jackson has used colourisation, 3D and other techniques to reveal the Western Front in unprecedented detail. How were you approached to make the film? The IWM approached me about three years ago and asked if I would be interested in doing a documentary for the centenary. They didn’t know what it would be, but they’ve got many hours of…

THE LAST WITNESS Q+A WITH DIRECTOR PIOTR SZKOPIAK NEW LIGHT IS PLACED UPON THE FORGOTTEN TRAGEDY OF THE KATYN MASSACRE OF 1940 IN THIS ANGLO-POLISH HISTORICAL THRILLER Based on true events, director Piotr Szkopiak’s new film The Last Witness is a historical thriller set in post-war England in 1947. It follows an ambitious British journalist, Stephen Underwood, as he uncovers a multi-layered conspiracy concerning the harrowing murder of 22,000 Polish officers, executed by Stalin’s secret police in 1940, and is today remembered as ‘The Katyn Massacre’. How did you set about adapting the real history, as well as the Paul Szambowski play, to the big screen? We’ve all watched that film where it’s ‘based on a true story’ and they have bastardised everything. Here, because it’s personal history, Polish history,…

OPERATION CEDAR FALLS Taken: January 1967 US armoured personnel carriers from the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry burn fields in the so-called Iron Triangle region of Vietnam. Not far north of Saigon, this region of thick jungle and grassland concealed a high number of Viet Minh forces, as well as a vast network of underground tunnels, many of which dated back to the French colonial conflict. Operation Cedar Falls was a huge operation of mainly US and South Vietnamese forces to drive the North Vietnamese from this region. FROM HULLUCH, WITH LOVE Taken: 24 August 1917 This picture postcard, dated 24 August 1917, was sent home by Josef vom Fernspreschtrupp, possibly identified with a small ‘X’ inscribed later on the front. In the note to his wife Henriette, he wrote, “I…

“IN SHORT, THE CITY WAS CONSIDERED IMPREGNABLE AND IT HAD ONLY FALLEN TO MUSLIM TURKS IN 1085 THROUGH TREACHERY” The First Crusade was the bloody beginning of a theologically based military movement that changed the course of history and whose effects we still live with today. When European Christian warriors launched campaigns to wrest control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim control, they had no idea they were sowing divisions that would poison East-West relations into the 21st century. That dark legacy hints at what a huge movement the Crusades were, and Norman knights spearheaded the first Crusaders into the Levant. The dramatic Siege of Antioch was the decisive engagement that marked the arrival of the First Crusade in the Holy Land. In October 1097, tens of thousands…

“HORSES WERE ALSO TRAINED TO FIGHT FOR THEMSELVES, EITHER BY BITING OPPONENTS OR KICKING” The Norman approach to warfare was tough, disciplined and required years of training. Although they were not invincible, the armies that sprang from Normandy and conquered many parts of Europe were extremely formidable. Historians know a surprising amount about the Normans’ military techniques from rich contemporary documents. The best pictorial evidence of their arms and armour comes from the Bayeux Tapestry, which was completed in the 1080s. 201 armed soldiers are depicted, 79 of which are wearing some kind of armour. This shows that the Normans were not just a people but also a military machine. CHAIN MAIL The hauberk was a knee-length mail shirt of interlocking metal that was both strong and allowed a warrior…

“CHRONICLERS WROTE THAT LOCAL PEOPLE WERE REDUCED TO CANNIBALISM AND TENS OF THOUSANDS DIED OF FAMINE” For the English, the Norman conquest of 1066 was a catastrophe. Anglo-Saxon England had already suffered brutal invasions and occupations by Vikings for centuries, but the Normans were different. While their Norse ancestors had only temporarily ruled at various times in England, the Normans were more organised and combined martial prowess with a military occupation that was brutally enforced. The Harrying of the North Although Wales, Scotland and Ireland later felt the wrath of the Normans to different degrees, England was the most direct victim of their oppression. William the Conqueror was crowned king but the English resisted his rule. In the late 1060s William consolidated his conquest by building castles in major towns,…

For 200 years, historians and amateurs have been debating what General Pierre Cambronne (1770-1842), who was commanding the last of the Old Guard at the Battle of Waterloo, might have replied to the British invitation to surrender. The officer had had a long career when he fought this battle. Born on 26 December 1770, he volunteered to join the armies of the revolution in 1792. A colonel in 1806, he became the commander of the Voltigeurs of the Guard in 1810 as well as being made a baron. Cambronne then fought with the Guard in Spain, Russia and in Germany. When Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, Cambronne followed as military commander. His fidelity was rewarded by the emperor, who made him a count. He was seriously wounded…

“BRITISH PILOTS BEGAN REFERRING TO THEIR PLANES AS ‘FOKKER FODDER’ SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY HAD NO ADEQUATE MEANS OF FIGHTING BACK AGAINST THE MARAUDING GERMAN AIRCRAFT” On 24 June 1915, Lieutenant Oswald Boelcke, the leader of the first generation of German fighter pilots, took to the air in the Fokker Eindecker, the initial operational flight of the new aircraft. It was innovative for its single-wing construction and its synchronisation gear that allowed the forward-firing machine gun to shoot through the propeller arc. Boelcke, fellow ace Max Immelmann and other German pilots soon made the Eindecker dominant in the skies over the Western Front. During the dark months of the ‘Fokker Scourge’, British pilots began referring to their planes as ‘Fokker fodder’ simply because they had no adequate means of fighting back…

“OPERATION GOTHIC SERPENT CULMINATED IN WHAT HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS THE ‘LONGEST FIREFIGHT INVOLVING AMERICAN TROOPS SINCE VIETNAM’” 3 October 1993 will forever be remembered as the date of the Battle of Mogadishu. Filmed as the Hollywood blockbuster Black Hawk Down and based on Mark Bowden’s best-selling book of the same title, ‘Operation Gothic Serpent’ culminated in what has been described as the “longest firefight involving American troops since Vietnam”. A small force of US special operations forces, principally drawn from the Rangers and Delta Force, battled several thousand armed Somalis as they attempted to recover the bodies of their fallen comrades. For Delta, the Mogadishu mission began months earlier, as they were warned of a possible upcoming operation to capture Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aideed. He had become a…

“THE ORDER’S STRATEGIC POSITION AT MALTA AS A BULWARK FOR LATIN CHRISTENDOM IN THE CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN ULTIMATELY WOULD PROVE FAR MORE SIGNIFICANT THAN THEIR POSITION AT RHODES” CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN SEA MAY-SEPTEMBER 1565 A squadron of seven galleys flying the eight-pointed cross of the Order of Saint John swarmed a heavily laden Ottoman merchant galley in the Ionian Sea in 1564. After a sharp struggle in which the knights overwhelmed the janissaries guarding its precious cargo, Admiral Mathurin Romegas netted plunder worth 80,000 ducats. The presence of the janissaries was a clue that the cargo did not belong to any ordinary Ottoman merchantman, but rather to Sultan Suleiman I. The vessel was carrying goods from Venice to Istanbul. The cargo belonged to Kustir-Aga, chief eunuch of the imperial harem, who was…