Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 98 i History of War

In September 1941, the second city of the Soviet Union, Leningrad, became encircled by German and Finnish forces, trapping some 2.5 million people. The ensuing siege lasted for nearly 900 days, during which time around 800,000 civilians were killed as a result of relentless bombardment and starvation after the Germans cut off nearly all supply routes to the city. The siege remains among the longest and bloodiest in military history, and an horrific example of the scale and barbarity of the war on the Eastern Front – starting on page 24 Jon Trigg recounts how it began.…

Although it was an internal conflict, the Spanish Civil War was a cauldron for global politics. Split down highly complex ideological lines, the war was never a straightforward clash between Franco’s right-wing Nationalists and the left-wing government of the Second Spanish Republic. The tense politics of the 1930s meant that the Nationalists received substantial military support from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Official foreign support for the Republic was far more subdued but the state was bolstered by the informal assistance of often inexperienced volunteers: the International Brigades. Ragtag battalions From September 1936, the Soviet-controlled Communist International (Comintern) set up a system of recruiting foreign volunteers to fight for the Republic. While the Soviet Union did not fully commit to supporting the Republicans, what became known as the International Brigades…

1 More than the cherry blossoms Inviting a wind to blow them away, I am wondering what to do With the remaining springtime 2 Like a fossil tree From which we gather no flowers, Sad has been my life Fated no fruit to produce. 3 I have a feeling I will not be returning, So among the names Of those who died by the bow I inscribe my own 4 The Master of the world Has passed away – And after him, Eager to serve my lord Go I 5 Had I not known That I was dead Already, I would have mourned The loss of my life 6 Tightening my abdomen Against the pain. The caw of a morning crow…

The 6 December 1917 started like any other day for Vincent Coleman, a telegraph dispatcher for the Canadian Government Railways, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He left his wife, Frances, and children at home in the morning and walked the few blocks downhill to his workplace at Richmond Station. His job was to control traffic flow in and out of the maritime city, directing the incoming cargoladen trains to their correct wharf. Pier 6 stood only a short distance away, a site that, in a matter of hours, would become the epicentre of the greatest man-made explosion before the 1945 atomic bomb detonations. Coleman had seen his family for the last time, though his legacy would live on. At the time there was little concern other than the crisp cold…

“SUDDENLY THERE CAME A MOMENT WHEN BOTH GUNS CEASED SIMULTANEOUSLY. IT MEANT BOTH CREWS WERE RELOADING AT THE SAME MOMENT. BY NOW HOLMES WAS WITHIN BOMBING DISTANCE. HE PULLED THE PIN OF THE GRENADE AND HURLED IT…” Lieutenant-Colonel GF McFarland Thomas William Holmes braved another glance from the relative safety of his cover. He saw the boggy mud surrounding his shell hole, the rain pelting down to turn the ridge to sludge, and the Germans on either side of the pillbox, who, having seen him, twisted their machine guns to fire a burst in his direction. He ducked in time, but only just. The bullets flew over his head as he lay prone once more, the boys from the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles (4th CMR) around him all wearing the…

PETER JOHNSTON Currently Head of Collections and Research at The Royal Air Force Museum, Peter was also formerly Head of Collections at the National Army Museum, London. This issue he spoke with Tom Garner, reflecting on the historical legacy of the War in Afghanistan (page 52). ALEX BOWERS New to History of War, Alex is an expert on Canadian military history, and this issue recounts the 1917 Halifax explosion – at the time the biggest detonation ever seen (p.46) – and on page 60 tells the story of a teenage Victoria Cross hero. DAVID SMITH History of War regular David turned his attention to the Siege of Paris for this month’s Great Battles, detailing how the Prussian army surrounded the French capital and eventually ground its defenders into submission (page…

JUAN NEGRÍN THE PRIME MINISTER WHO OVERSAW THE FINAL DAYS OF THE REPUBLIC 1892 – 1956 A professor of psychology, Juan Negrín took over as prime minister of the Republic on 18 May 1937. Previously he had served in Largo Caballero’s government under the presidency of Manuel Azaña, but strongly resisted his predecessor’s policies. He spent his final years in exile in both England and France, and would die in the latter in 1956. Increasingly his weakening government came to rely on the Soviet Union for support, a factor for which Negrín found himself continuously criticised, and he was often referred to as nothing but a puppet. During his career as minister of finance he had controversially transferred all of Spain’s gold reserves to the USSR in return for weapons,…

In July 1938, Spain’s Republican forces launched an attack across the Ebro River, ending in defeat and heavy losses. Following the battle, Prime Minister Juan Negrin repatriated all members of the International Brigades, while the main force of the Republican Army was all but destroyed. The Republicans retreated into Catalonia and the cities of Barcelona and Madrid. The Nationalist rebels had attempted to take Barcelona as early as 1936 in a swift, sharp attack. On 19 July, street fighting broke out as militias, civil troops and a handful of soldiers loyal to the Republic defended the city. The city fell under the control of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour) – a trade union movement – and remained a Republican stronghold. By June 1937, though the Nationalist…

The Japanese tea ceremony, known as cha-noyu, is inextricably linked to Buddhism. The first reference to the ceremony comes from the 9th century when a monk called Eichu brought tea to Japan from China. After preparing tea for Emperor Saga, it was ordered that tea plantations should be set up. Other Buddhist monks refined both the cultivation and serving of tea. Tea remained a luxury available only to the court and samurai classes, and the ceremony surrounding it became complex. In the Letter of the Heart, written in 1488, Murata Juko codified the philosophy and actions performed at the tea ceremony. The tea was to be central to the event, and gaudy or gilded vessels were abandoned for simple pottery. The 16th-century Zen tea master Sen no Rikyu used the…

Little about Dr Clement Ligoure’s life has been preserved in records. All that remains clear is that he originated from Trinidad, lived in New York City for a short while and was divorced there, and graduated from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, in 1916, two years before the 47-year-ban on Black medical students. He had moved to Halifax to help recruit members for the No. 2 Construction Battalion, the country’s only all-Black battalion. Authorities had initially promised him the position of the unit’s chief medical officer, only to later tell him that he’d failed his medical exam by one point and, therefore, could not join, despite Dr Ligoure having bought his uniform. He has no known death certificate, nor does his passing appear in any newspaper of the time.…

Authors: Francis Pulham and Will Kerrs Publisher: Fonthill Price: £40 The Soviet T-34 medium tank needs no introduction. It remains a perennial source of fascination and is hugely popular with readers and publishers alike. This engrossing study by two self-confessed T-34 nerds really deserves the subtitle ‘definitive guide’; instead ‘The Soviet Legend in Pictures’ rather undersells it. Clearly a labour of love, the book is lavishly illustrated with excellent photos, colour plates and scale drawings. The authors meticulously catalogue every type of T-34-76 and T-34-85 ever built, including the post-war foreign copies. Interestingly, they discuss in some detail whether China actually built the T-34 as the Type 58 in the 1950s or simply repaired-Soviet supplied ones. Their conclusion is the latter. They expertly guide us through the myriad of variants…

By 1607, the Dutch Republic had been fighting Spain for almost 40 years and the conflict was only halfway through what would become known as the Eighty Years’ War. After being defeated at the Siege of Ostend in 1604, the Dutch increased their naval campaign by disrupting Spanish shipping, particularly along the southern coast of Spain. On 25 April 1607, a Dutch fleet of 26 warships commanded by Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck attacked 22 anchored Spanish ships (including ten galleons) in the Bay of Gibraltar. Van Heemskerck commanded the Dutch flagship Aeolus and targeted his opposite number in the Spanish vessel San Augustin. As the two ships engaged, a cannonball smashed through Van Heemskerck’s left leg while he was wearing this suit of armour, killing him. His second-in-command, Pieter Verhoeff,…

In 1936, Eric Arthur Blair (better known by his pen name George Orwell) was 33 years old and an established journalist and author, with four books already published. However, after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Orwell decided to join the Republican cause, arriving in Barcelona on 26 December 1936, five months after Francisco Franco launched his military uprising. In the same year, some 35,000 volunteers from 80 countries flocked to Spain to assist the Republican forces in the fight against fascism. The Workers Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) had been formed during the Second Republic and it was this group who organised the militia that Orwell joined. Quite how Orwell found himself in a militia is another story. Originally he had intended to join the International Brigades, but…

On 22 June 1941, Sepp de Giampietro was waiting in the darkness of an East Prussian forest: “We checked our weapons and ammunition, one last warm meal was being dished out… we ate it without really tasting it, our throats were so tight… then all of a sudden fire erupted everywhere… the clock read 0305hrs.” Barbarossa – the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union – had begun. In the south the Germans aimed to capture Ukraine – the breadbasket of the Soviet Union – in the centre the targets were Belarus and then Moscow, and it was Army Group North’s objective to take Leningrad. The man tasked with capturing the city was a devout Bavarian Catholic, Wilhelm von Leeb, and to do it he commanded the infantrymen of 16th and…

Roughly translated as a ‘farewell poem to life’, a jisei is a poem traditionally composed in preparation for one’s death. Drawn from a mixture of Zen Buddhism, Chinese Confucianism and Shinto traditions, jisei poems frequently contain natural imagery as the writer reflects on their life, their place in the world and their transition to the afterlife. Often in the tanka form – 31 syllables over five lines – jisei were written by scholars, poets and monks, and also samurai, whose poems frequently reflected on duty, clan loyalty and the core tenets of bushido. Centuries ago, samurai would compose their jisei and carry it with them into battle, but they were also written as part of ritual suicide, or seppuku. One famous jisei comes from Asano Naganori, lord of the 47…

Author: Jill Rose Publisher: Amberley Price: £9.99 Released: 15 September “The patient is all he is cracked up to be.” So wrote Doris Miles to her husband, who was serving in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. It was February 1943, with the outcome ome of the war still very much in the balance, and the patient in question was none other than Winston Churchill, who had returned from a whirlwind month of visits to Morocco, Egypt, Turkey and Cyprus. As he dined privately with his wife, the Prime Minister was taken ill with a high temperature, which was diagnosed by his doctor or Sir Charles Wilson as pneumonia. Wilson hired Dorothy Pugh and Doris Miles, two staff nurses from the private wing of St Mary’s Hospital, to…

Author: Mark Edele Publisher: Bloomsbury Price: £25 Released: 23 September Mass murderer, saviour of the fatherland, merciless tyrant, war hero -- there can be little doubt that Joseph Stalin ranks as the most controversial political figure of the 20th century. As late as 1950, at the height of the Cold War, even the USA’s Columbia Encyclopedia spoke of the “public worship” bestowed on this retiring figure of “conciliatory aloofness”, a champion of peace in the run up to the Second World War. Mark Edele offers a fascinating account of the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1949, focusing on the key role played by Stalin in propelling the Allies to victory over Germany and Japan. Stalin’s forces faced the largest number of German troops and killed more of them than any…