Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 103 i History of War

657 BCE FOUNDATION OF BYZANTION 01 The colony of Byzantion is founded by colonists from the Greek city of Megara (40km from Athens). Legend has it that the name of the leader of the colonists is Byzas, hence the name of the new city, although it may have been built on an existing Thracian settlement. May, 330 CE FOUNDATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE The Roman Emperor Constantine I (r.306-337 CE) moves the capital of the empire to a new city founded on the site of Byzantion, calling it Constantinople. The new city is ideally sited on several trade routes, is more central to the vast lands of the empire, and is able to be designed and built to suit the empire’s needs. 337 CE THE COMING OF CHRISTIANITY On his deathbed, Constantine…

When Justinian ascended the throne in 527, the eastern Romans had lost control over the founding city of Rome over 50 years before. Since the Byzantines always considered themselves as Romans even from their new capital at Constantinople, it was a top priority to reclaim not just Rome but also the other former territories in the west. To accomplish this vital goal, Justinian turned to the most talented and trusted generals under his command, Belisarius and Narses. After Belisarius won a massive victory against the Sassanid Persians at Dara in 530, he was the most logical choice for the Byzantines’ first campaign to conquer North Africa from the Vandal Kingdom. The young general quickly proved his worth once again since only a year after leaving with his forces in 533,…

When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, General John J Pershing was given command of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) that deployed to France. His protégé Patton arrived in Europe ahead of Pershing to tend to administrative duties and oversee initial troop training. During this period the young officer developed an interest in a formidable new weapon of war: the tank. As a result Patton was detailed to observe French armoured training as well as the manufacture of the machines. He was then charged with establishing the AEF Tank School at Langres, responsible for training the first US tank soldiers. The US Army had no tanks of its own and the Americans utilised Renault models purchased from the French. Patton soon led the American 304th Tank…

We will, without fail, hold Moscow.” Marshal Georgy Zhukov was resolute in the autumn of 1941 when asked by the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, if they could realistically defend the Soviet capital. Zhukov’s confidence may have come as a comfort to Stalin, but the Soviet situation looked dire. Since June of that year the Soviet Union had lost vast swathes of territory, suffering crushing defeat after crushing defeat, following a surprise invasion by Nazi Germany. By the beginning of October the Germans’ eastern army, the Ostheer, had once again set its sights on Moscow and devised a plan of conquest under the moniker Operation Typhoon. Army Group Centre – the division of the Ostheer tasked with driving straight at the heart of Soviet Russia – had secured…

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NIEUPORT 17 COMMISSIONED: 1916 ORIGIN: FRANCE LENGTH: 5.8M (19FT) WINGSPAN: 8.16M (26FT 9IN) ENGINE: 82 KW (110HP) LE RHONE 9J CREW: 1 PRIMARY WEAPON: 1 X 7.7MM (0.303IN) VICKERS OR LEWIS MACHINE GUN SECONDARY WEAPON: 8 LE PRIEUR ANTI-BALLOON ROCKETS The Nieuport 17 entered service in the spring of 1916, when the Entente air forces were on the back foot. The ‘Fokker Scourge’ had been ongoing for months, with the German Fokker Eindecker holding air superiority over the Western Front. Together with the British de Havilland DH2, the Nieuport 17 put an end to this domination, winning back air superiority for the British and French just in time for their flying services to play important roles in the Battle of the Somme over the summer. With speeds of up to…

The conquests during the reign of Justinian reclaimed large swathes of territory lost after the fall of the western half of the empire, but control over these lands and the rest of the Byzantine Empire was no longer based on the domination of roads by land forces like the legionaries. After the sixth century in particular, the imperial capital of Constantinople had to project its power through supremacy at sea. Byzantine territory may not have extended far inland over much of the empire, but their ability to quickly bring military support and supplies to any of their coastal lands was a huge advantage. One major reason why the Byzantine navy was generally better than that of its enemies was the introduction of new types of war galleys called dromons. At…

Throughout its history of over 1000 years, the Byzantine Empire waxed and waned. It reached its greatest extent under Justinian I (r.527-565), and over the ensuing centuries the territory it controlled throughout the Mediterranean Sea fluctuated. By the middle of the 15th century, however, the empire had experienced centuries of decline, especially after the defeat of the Byzantines to the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1070. That battle saw the loss of large tracts of the Levant and Anatolia. It also saw the Byzantine emperor, Romanus IV, captured and the empire plunged into a decade of civil war. The aftermath of that civil conflict also saw the new Byzantine emperor, Alexius I Comnenus (r.1080-1118), appeal for help from the rulers of western Europe. This appeal led to…

Although the outcome for Moscow was not quite as precarious as the closeness of the German army suggested it to be, the battle between the Germans and Soviets in 1941 was a brutal affair. Ideologically the two sides were staunchly opposed, with the German soldiers killing thousands of ‘Bolshevists’ and ‘partisans’ – of which many were unarmed citizens – in cold blood. Most Soviet soldiers were fiercely motivated to avenge their fallen comrades and protect their motherland, and the Red Army was a formidable force. But despite this some soldiers, especially those with little or no combat experience, sought to flee. Stalin would simply not allow this and turned to his trusted NKVD officers to ensure the threat of death lay behind his men as well as in front of…

Before its annexation by the Yamato court, northern Honshu was called Michinoku, meaning 'beyond where the road ends'. In the 7th century, the court’s meaningful sphere of control extended as far as Shirakawa Barrier (Shirakawa no seki), a government outpost in modern-day Fukushima prefecture. Shirakawa Barrier was so far from central Japan that even in later poetry, 'Shirakawa Barrier' survived as a euphemism evoking distance. Beyond Shirakawa Barrier in the mountains to the north and east lived the people whom the Yamato state collectively called Emishi – barbarians. They were a people who stubbornly refused to submit to the Yamato aegis. There’s some debate as to whether or not the Emishi had a state or states like the Yamato court, but from the Yamato perspective, theirs was foreign land regardless.…

PHANTOMS IN THE AIR 1965 Three US Navy McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II aircraft, in flight during the Vietnam War. The Phantom was capable of hitting twice the speed of sound and upon its service debut in the early 1960s had the highest flight ceiling of all US Navy aircraft, at around 56,000 feet. The fighter was incredibly flexible, capable of carrying almost 16,000lb of weapons systems, and was tasked with multiple roles during the course of the Vietnam War. A RUHR DEAL 1923 French soldiers and an armoured vehicle are pictured in the centre of Essen, in the industrial Ruhr region of Germany. The occupation of the Ruhr area began after the Weimar government defaulted on its reparation debts, agreed in the Treaty of Versailles. French and Belgian troops…

When Alexius Comnenus ascended the throne on 4 April 1081 at 24 years old he was already a proven general – since his first battle at 14 he had not yet seen defeat. But the capable young military commander inherited an empire that was a shadow of its former self. The defeat at Manzikert a decade before had dealt a savage blow that the Byzantines would never truly recover from. Across the Adriatic Sea, Robert Guiscard smelled blood in the water like a predatory shark. The Norman duke may have known of the martial prowess of the new emperor, but it would not deter him in the slightest. Well aware of the chaos within the borders of the empire prior to Comnenus’ ascension, Guiscard felt that Constantinople was ripe for…

In the spring of 1945, Nazi Germany was in its death throes. As the last weeks of World War II in Europe played to their inevitable end, the US Third Army continued slashing across the German frontier and deep into the Reich. At times, German troops mounted stiff resistance, and on 1 March the Third Army commander, General George S Patton Jr, received an order to bypass the city of Trier. It was too stoutly defended, the communication read, and would require four divisions to capture. A swift reply, more of a riposte, went out immediately. “Have taken Trier with two divisions. Do you want me to give it back?” The witty barb was vintage Patton. Since activating Third Army on 1 August, 1944, the general had conducted a lightning…

OPPOSING FORCES By the time they faced each other on the sun-scorched sands of Zama the Mediterranean powerhouses of Rome and Carthage had been at war with one another for 62 years (although there were stretches of ‘peace’). Yet while tensions in the region had always made a decisive encounter between these two titans inevitable, the timing of this one in 202 BCE was accelerated by flagrant Carthaginian opportunism. Since audaciously crossing the Alps and descending into northern Italy in 218 BCE, Hannibal’s army had terrorised the peninsular relentlessly, inflicting a series of catastrophic defeats upon a dumbstruck Rome that saw Carthage gain the advantage in the early years of the Second Punic War. Yet Rome refused to surrender in the face of these crushing setbacks, somehow holding its nerve…

Price: £14.99 On sale: Out now The hasty and, it might be argued, shameful abandonment of Afghanistan by Western troops in August 2021 turned back the clock on a nation that was gradually emerging from the darkness of Muslim fundamentalist tyranny. NATO’s ousting of the Taliban in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US helped to open new horizons for the country in long-neglected and suppressed areas like social justice, equality for women, education and healthcare. Whatever progress was achieved in those 20 years was dismantled, in fact demolished almost overnight, by the return to power of the Taliban. David Kilcullen and Greg Mills are two names that will resonate with anyone who has followed the Afghan saga of the past two decades. Both authors are eminently…