Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 105 i History of War

While the History of War team has been putting the final touches to this issue, like the rest of the world we have been following the horrific invasion of Ukraine. Sirens wailing through deserted cities, tanks rolling down streets, and civilians sheltering underground or else taking up arms to defend their country – these are scenes we thought were consigned to Europe’s history. This kind of total war is shocking enough to read about in history books, but it’s now the brutal reality of the present day. As we witness this new conflict unfold, the lessons we can learn from the past are more important than ever. FOLLOW THE HISTORY OF WAR TEAM /HISTORYOFWARMAG @HISTORYOFWARMAG…

BATTLE OF IKI ISLAND After leaving Tsushima in flames, Kublai’s fleet moves on to Iki Island, to the south, as a stepping stone en route to Kyushu. Taira Kagetaka, the island’s governor, mounts another valiant but doomed defence of the island, which is sacked by the Khan’s forces. Meanwhile, the shogun’s samurai army gathers in preparation to resist the invasion. RISE OF KUBLAI KHAN 01 After the Mongol Emperor Möngke Khan dies in battle, his brother Kublai eventually becomes the Great Khan after a brief civil war with his younger brother Arik Böke. Kublai continues his predecessor’s conquest of China and makes the city of Yanjing – today Beijing – his capital. Kublai next conquers the Korean peninsula, which is ruled by the Koryo dynasty. This gives the Mongols ready…

After the disaster on his force wrought by the kamikaze, the Khan ordered a third invasion almost immediately in a last-ditch attempt to crush the Japanese. “Kublai believed his advisers when they said that the Japanese were tough fighters but sure to be defeated, like little venomous snakes,” says historian Jonathan Clements. “There were plenty of people to blame for the disaster, so the possibility remained in his mind that the Japanese had been lucky.” However, the first two failed attacks had so badly drained material and manpower from Korea and the Yangtze delta that the Mongols needed time to rebuild their forces again. Clements says: “In 1283 an attack force of over 600 ships was assembled under a Mongol leader, but that was called off because Kublai had been…

The United States Navy (USN) Fighter Weapons School was established in 1969 in an attempt to stem US losses in the air war over Vietnam. Soon dubbed ‘Top Gun’, the school taught dogfighting skills to a generation of pilots who were reliant on missiles and technology, and the training turned the tide of the air war. From 1965 to 1968 the US mounted Operation Rolling Thunder, part of its war with the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). The US was supporting the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in its campaign to stem a North Vietnamese invasion, a conflict that was all part of the wider Cold War. A bombing campaign was started in an attempt to undermine the North’s military capabilities and political will, but the supposedly primitive…

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When design of the F-14 started in 1967, it was already clear that US airpower had taken a step backwards since the Korean War. US fighters over Vietnam were struggling for air superiority against a foe that was (on paper) far inferior. Recent focus had been on shooting missiles at Soviet nuclear bombers rather than engaging in air-to-air combat, and the US had lost the skills, experience and equipment needed to dogfight. The F-14 was built to fill that gap. Primarily a long-range fleet defence interceptor, it was also an excellent air superiority fighter. The design could handle any fighter operations, with state of the art radar, variable geometry wings, up to eight air-to-air missiles, and also a 20mm cannon for good old-fashioned close-range dogfighting. Shooting to fame and glamour…

The United States Air Force (USAF) reacted more slowly than the United States Navy (USN) to the difficulties in the skies over North Vietnam. A USAF Fighter Weapons School already existed, but it was slow to adapt to the new challenges. Dissimilar air combat training (ie flying against smaller and more MiG-like aircraft, rather than just other fighters of the same type) started in the early 1970s. In 1975, the USAF took the concept a step further: Exercise Red Flag. The event was held with aircraft from the USAF, USN and US Marine Corps. Flying across 12,000 square miles of Nevada, the exercise included a full range of air-to-air and ground-to-air threats, allowing a realistically warlike experience to be simulated. Over time, the size of the exercise has grown, and…

Director: Nicholas Dimitropoulos Cast: Max von Sydow, Alice Krige Released: Out now Echoes of the Past presents a fictionalised wartime tale inspired by real events in Kalavryta, Greece, in December 1943, when in response to the execution of almost 80 German prisoners by Greek guerrillas, German troops murdered 700 villagers. After the war the Greek government demanded compensation, and the film follows a lawyer Caroline Martin (Astrid Roos) who’s sent from the Federal Republic of Germany to investigate the massacre and assess the merits of German war reparations. She tracks down Nikolas Andreou (Max von Sydow), an elderly, frail man who witnessed the killings as a young boy. At times the pace is rather glacial and unfolding the story through continual flashbacks feels all too conventional. Furthermore, the slightly uneasy…

Author: Hugo Slim Publisher: Hurst & Co Price: £16.99 Released: Out now The Battle of Solferino (1859) was more than just a defeat for the Austrians at the hands of the French and Sardinians. Napoleon III was so shocked by the huge number of casualties, estimated at 30,000 dead and wounded, that he met Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria to arrange a preliminary peace. Swiss humanitarian and social activist Jean-Henri Dunant, who toured the bloody battlefield after the conflict, was moved to write a short book which served to inspire the foundation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in 1863. Hugo Slim uses Solferino as the starting point for his well-researched narrative about war and humanitarian aid in contemporary times and how we should prepare for what the…

Louis XIV, king of France between 1643 and 1715, is perhaps best known for the splendour and pageantry with which he presented both himself and his court. This passion for pomp did not stop at his servants, and certainly not for his royal guard. This polearm, known as a partisan, belonged to a member of the king’s Gardes de la Manche (Guards of the Sleeve), who were the bodyguards of the French monarch. Elegantly designed with the fleur de lis, this decorative piece also features the Greek god Apollo being crowned with laurel leaves. The king’s royal motto “Nec Pluribus Impar” (not equaled by many) is also etched above his own Sun King emblem – a symbol often used in royal regalia as part of Louis’ obsession with projecting his…

ARMY GIRLS 13 August 1941 Members of the Women’s Land Army (WLA), Britain’s wartime home front organisation, help bring in crops on the Sussex Downs. Created to fill the roles vacated by male farm labourers and maintain Britain’s food supplies, the WLA was made up of over 20,000 women, almost a third of whom came from towns and cities to work in the countryside. As well as bringing in crops, a large number of WLA members worked on dairy farms, and a separate Women’s Timber Corps was set up to help supply the nation’s factories. A REAL ‘ROSIE’ 1943 A factory riveter at work on an A-31 Vengeance, Vultee-Nashville, Tennessee. The iconic ‘We Can Do It!’ poster, designed by J Howard Miller for the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, was…

In 1274, with China’s Southern Song on the verge of defeat and their Korean fleet finally ready, the Mongols set sail with 23,000 Mongol, Korean and Chinese soldiers, plus 7,000 sailors. Landing at the island of Tsushima, the Mongols were bewildered to find the local samurai lord mounting a suicidal defence backed by just 80 cavalrymen. The highly skilled samurai archers were able to pick off scores of enemy soldiers before being surrounded and defeated. Determined to break this unfathomably bold warrior spirit, the Mongols resorted to terror tactics, burning down all the island’s buildings and slaughtering its residents, before pressing on via Iki Island to Kyushu, the southernmost of the main Japanese islands. Contemporary historian Nichiren Shonin Chu-gassan describes how, as the Mongol armada approached Hakata Bay on Kyushu,…

“THE OPENING BOMBARDMENT CAUSED BRUSH FIRES THAT SO TERRIFIED THE FILIPINOS THE ENTIRE BATAAN FRONT FELL TO PIECES” Four terrible months of combat and privation left the defeated sick with misery. Their commanders lied to them by insisting help would arrive, but it never did. These were the Americans and Filipinos who used to be part of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), and they once boasted airfields crowded with planes, intimidating tank columns, and loyal if poorly trained conscripts who always followed orders. It was an overseas army trained and led by Americans but committed to defending the Philippine Commonwealth. But the USAFFE failed to halt the Japanese invasion of Luzon from 8 December onward. In a last bid to hold out against the enemy…

Happy birthday, Hadrian’s Wall English Heritage’s 2022 Roman Season will host a series of events to mark 1,900 years since the Romans began building the iconic structure The 1,900th anniversary of Hadrian’s Wall is to be recognised by English Heritage with a series of Roman Britain commemorative events and art installations. In Kent, southeast England, where the legions first landed in 43 CE, a major presentation at Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre will see the unveiling of a reconstructed timber gateway and rampart alongside refurbishments to the museum. From Autumn 2022, visitors will be able to view several previously unseen artefacts, including a gold hair pin head and a weight in the form of the goddess Minerva. Additionally, after excavations to the amphitheatre in 2021, those exploring the site can…