Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 74 i History of War

1661-72 FRENCH AMBITIONS Upon beginning his personal rule, Louis XIV conducts an expansionist foreign policy with plans to annex the Habsburg Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of northern France, western Germany and the southern Netherlands). He also turns on his former ally, the Dutch Republic, and aims to defeat them. 1 June 1670 TREATY OF DOVER Charles II of England signs a secret treaty with France. He agrees to convert to Roman Catholicism and assist Louis XIV with ships and soldiers for his upcoming war against the Dutch Republic in exchange for substantial sums of money. Charles’s covert support gives Louis an impetus to begin the conflict but it also results in the simultaneous Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-74). 1672 ‘THE DISASTER YEAR’ The Dutch Republic is invaded by…

Tirpitz was launched on 1 April 1939, the second of two Bismarck-class battleships for the Kriegsmarine. By the time of its commissioning in February 1941, its sister-ship Bismarck was only three months from being hunted to extinction within the North Atlantic. Tirpitz, though built to the same dimensional specifications, bested its sister in size; displacing 51,800 long tons at full load due to modifications made after construction– notable were increased flak weaponry and torpedo tube installations. The largest battleship ever constructed by a European nation, Tirpitz had served briefly as flagship to a Baltic Fleet assembled to support Operation Barbarossa before despatch to Norway in November 1941. From there it could operate against Allied convoy traffic bound for the Soviet Union and serve as a ‘fleet in being’ requiring a…

The dramatic reversal of fortune that followed German General Erwin Rommel and the introduction of the vaunted Afrika Korps to the fighting in the North African desert brought the commander grudging respect from his British adversaries. By the autumn of 1941, the reputation of the ‘Desert Fox’ had grown substantially – and with it the desire to eliminate him. The fighting in the Western Desert during World War II was marked by the ebb and flow of offensives, tremendous distance, and one of the world’s harshest climates. Decisive action was destined to take place there and senior British commanders wanted Rommel out of the way. Intelligence reports suggested that the general’s headquarters were located at Beda Littoria, a remote village in northern Libya near the ancient city of Cyrene. To…

01 BEFORE THE BATTLE The Prussian Elbe Army and First Army make contact with the Austrians on 2 July. They prepare to attack the prepared Austrian defensive positions on 3 July and send word to the Second Army to join them with all haste. 02 PRUSSIAN DISPOSITIONS On the Prussian right, Moltke had the Elbe Army with 40,000 men in three divisions, between them and the First Army was the Prussian cavalry Corps. In the Prussian centre, the First Army had six divisions with 85,000 men. These faced the superior guns and prepared positions of the Austrians across the river Bistritz. The Prussian Second Army of 100,000 men in nine divisions was some 20 miles to the north. 03 AUSTRIAN DISPOSITIONS Benedek divided his army into four…

Director: David Michôd Distributor: Netflix Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Joel Edgerton, Sean Harris, Robert Pattinson Released: 1 November “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.” Henry V’s impassioned command, as written by William Shakespeare, is among the most rousing battle cries ever penned and a staple of previous movies about Henry V made by Laurence Olivier (1944) and Kenneth Branagh (1989), along with the St Crispin’s Day speech. But you’ll find neither here. Australian filmmaker David Michôd’s fresh take on the young king’s life and exploits in battle is potently spiked with an emphasis on English warmongering, chicanery and duplicity. This Henry V is a critique of mythology; one done in the guise of a coming-of-age story about a beloved and idealised ultimate-Englishman figure. A lot of interest in…

Created in 1881 the Royal Dublin Fusiliers was an Irish infantry regiment of the British Army. Following garrison duties in the United Kingdom and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) it was deployed to South Africa to participate in the Second Boer War (1899-1902). The fusiliers fought extensively in the conflict against the Boer republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. This included the first major engagement at Talana Hill, the battles of Colenso and Tugela Heights as well as the Siege of Ladysmith. Nevertheless their most famous action arguably occurred on 15 November 1899 when a regimental detachment was ambushed and captured while they were escorting an armoured train. A young war correspondent by the name of Winston Churchill was also taken prisoner and this episode, as well his subsequent…

On the morning of 12 November 1944 Nazi Germany’s last remaining battleship finally keeled over and capsized, its hull crippled and decks flooded by a brace of Tallboy bombs. Although Bomber Command carried out this coup de grace on Tirpitz, the ship had been hunted down relentlessly for over a year. Throughout these operations the RAF, Fleet Air Arm and Royal Navy had relied on the crucial intelligence reports from Norwegian Resistance networks and reconnaissance flights. It was a truly momentous blow for the Kriegsmarine and another major propaganda victory for the Allies.…

2.59am: 617 Squadron Lancasters begin taking off from RAF Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, the last of the squadron’s 18 bombers airborne within 26 minutes. 3.00am: Eleven miles to the north at RAF Bardney, the first of 13 9-Squadron Lancasters take off; seven planned aircraft are unable to participate due to severe icing overnight. 3.24am: A single 463 RAAF Squadron Film Unit Lancaster takes off from RAF Waddington, carrying no bomb load. 3.25am: All Lancasters proceed over the North Sea individually, crossing the Norwegian coast near Namos in a plotted gap in German radar coverage. All but two successfully rendezvous over Torneträsk lake, Sweden, 138 kilometres south of Tirpitz. Two late arrivals abort their missions and return to base. Wing Commander ‘Willie’ Tait signals by flare gun the remainder to head to…

“THESE WOMEN FOUGHT IN HORRENDOUS CONDITIONS ACROSS THE EASTERN FRONT AND MANY WERE KILLED, EITHER IN COMBAT OR IN GRUESOME CIRCUMSTANCES IF THEY WERE CAPTURED” During WWII over 800,000 women served in the armed forces of the Soviet Union. Although most acted as medics or nurses, many also served as combatants. Their roles ranged from pilots, tank crew members and machine-gunners but female personnel were also formidable snipers. The most famous female sniper of the war, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, was credited with 309 kills in a relatively short period between August 1941-June 1942. This included 36 enemy snipers and her total tally made her one of the deadliest snipers in military history. As Pavlichenko explained, “We mowed down Hitlerites like ripe grain.” Because of the success of individual sharpshooters like Pavlichenko,…

“ON ENTERING SERVICE THE FAST AND HIGHLY MANOEUVRABLE ZERO QUICKLY GAINED A TRULY FORMIDABLE REPUTATION” LIMITED PUNCH The Zero’s light construction left it unable to carry heavy armament, although later models had a further machine-gun added to each wing. IMPRESSIVE FUEL TANKS Between the main fuel tank behind the engine, the tanks in either wing stub, and the optional drop tank, the Zero had a much longer range than other contemporary fighters. CARRIER TAILHOOK The Zero had a retractable tailhook for carrier landings. The tail wheel was also retractable. FOLDING WINGS Most Zero models had folding wing tips to facilitate movement and storage on cramped aircraft carriers. Work began on the Mitsubishi A6M in 1937 as a carrier-based fighter for the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service. It entered service in…

SANDHURST’S ASIAN COMMEMORATION Britain’s officer training academy has revamped its Indian Army Memorial Room in conjunction with the National Army Museum The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst is the British Army’s initial officer training centre. With its stated aim of being “the national centre of excellence for leadership” Sandhurst has been training officers in its current form since 1947 but has a rich lineage that goes back to 1741. Since 1950 the Indian Army Memorial Room (IAMR) has been a focal point for Sandhurst cadets, upon both arrival and commission. The significance of the shared history between Britain and South Asia remains of great importance to their training, as well as to their understanding of the British Army’s role today. The IAMR was initially dedicated as a museum to preserve the…

Director: Ross Clarke Distributor: Signature Entertainment Stars: August Diehl, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Jakob Cedergren, Laura Birn Norway-set WWII movies are generally few and far between. Among the most well-known is the ripping yarn The Heroes Of Telemark starring Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris. These films tend to hinge on acts of defiance, espionage or resistance, but the country’s complex relationship with fascism and the Third Reich’s occupation of the nation has become an increased focus for filmmakers. Compared to other countries under the jackboot heel of Hitler’s National Socialists, Jewish populations of Oslo and Trondheim were tiny. Still, citizens were vehemently persecuted and rounded up with hundreds sent to Auschwitz. In Ross Clarke’s British-Norwegian co-production, The Birdcatcher, a Jewish woman posing as man on a rural farm becomes the conduit through…

FASCIST MARCH ON LONDON Taken: 1929 Members of the Fascio di Londra, the London Fascist Organisation, give the Fascist salute at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. After Mussolini’s March on Rome in 1922, Fascist movements gained attention around the word, and right-wing groups adopted the salutes and stylings of Italian fascism, including the British Union of Fascists, founded by Oswald Mosley in 1932. “DEUS VULT” Taken: 23 November, 2000 A US Army Crusader Advanced Field Artillery System test-fires on a range in Arizona. The 155mm self-propelled gun was designed to replace the military’s incumbent system, the M109A6 Paladin. In 2002 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cancelled the Crusader project. During tests, the system was capable of firing eight to ten rounds per minute. BERET BATTER UP Taken: 31 May, 1981 A British…

Operating in the very heart of the so-called ‘military revolution’, Henri de La Tour was perhaps the finest general of his era. Unusually, while most generals peak early and then fade, the Viscount Turenne improved throughout his 50-year career and his greatest triumph, the Battle of Turckheim, came right at the end of his life. Six months later he died at the Battle of Sasbach. Having fought alongside the Dutch in the Eighty Years’ War, and then distinguishing himself in the Thirty Years’ War, he was made a Marshal of France in 1643 and Marshal General of France (the highest rank in Louis XIV’s army) in 1660. His unconventional thinking was not always welcomed. He had petitioned to mount an autumn campaign in 1672, but had been denied permission by…

Major Heinrich Ehrler, commander of JG 5, was accused of dereliction of duty in protecting Tirpitz. He and Oberleutnant Franz Dörr (Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 5) were subsequently charged and tried for cowardice before the enemy. Ehler, furthermore, was accused of possessing ‘abnormal ambition’ – false allegations that he had abandoned his command to claim his 200th aerial victory rather than flying protection over Tirpitz. While Dörr was acquitted, Ehrler was found guilty, initially sentenced to death, commuted on appeal to three years Festungshaft (confinement in a fortress). He was also demoted, and an imminent award of Swords to his Knight’s Cross cancelled. Ehrler provided a Luftwaffe scapegoat. Starved of many resources, fighter strength in northern Norway was negligible and unwieldy communication between Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe due to petty jurisdictional squabbles…

Known in the West as the ‘Mosin-Nagant’, Zhukova’s principal weapon was the Obr. 1891/30-type infantry rifle. By WWII, the Mosin-Nagant was an old design that had been first adopted in 1891. It was updated by the Soviets to include a telescopic sight for snipers from 1931 and gained a reputation for its simplicity and high reliability. Other rifles, such as the Mauser Kar. 98k, would seize up in the often freezing conditions of the Eastern Front. By contrast the Mosin-Nagant would always work even in temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius. Snipers also benefitted from the PU telescope sight, which had higher quality lenses than the Germans whose sight adjuster drums could jam in the extreme cold. Zhukova largely praises the Mosin-Nagant although she reveals that it was not…

The battle of Königgrätz (also known as the battle of Sadowa or the battle of Chlum) was the most decisive clash between the armies of Prussia and those of Austria and her allies during the short, seven-week long, Austro-Prussian War in 1866. The war itself is also known under several different titles. Königgrätz was one of the largest battles of the age with almost half a million men fighting on the field. Rivalry of Austria and Prussia “IT IS STILL DEBATED WHETHER THE PRUSSIAN MINISTER PRESIDENT AND FOREIGN MINISTER, OTTO VON BISMARCK, ORCHESTRATED ALL THESE EVENTS IN ORDER TO BRING ABOUT A WAR WITH AUSTRIA” The context of the Austro-Prussian War was one of nationalism and the unification of German states. At the time, the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom…

“MANY FORMER WEHRMACHT GENERALS TOOK PART IN TRAINING EXERCISES WITH NATO OFFICERS, WHERE THEY REPEATEDLY EMPHASISED SOVIET RELIANCE ON WEIGHT OF NUMBERS OVER SKILL” It is a widely held view that history is written largely by the victors. In this context the historiography of the Eastern Front in the Second World War is an interesting exception. English language books about the Second World War began to appear within a few years of the end of the conflict. Inevitably they concentrated at first on those theatres where English-speaking soldiers had been heavily involved – the war in North Africa and Italy, the Battles of Britain and the Atlantic, the Normandy Landings, and the war in the Pacific and Asia against Japan. Equally inevitably they initially focused on the campaigns in which…