Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 135 i History of War

With the full support of the US Navy and diplomatic staff, upon his triumphant return to the Philippines on 19 May 1898 General Emilio Aguinaldo wasted no time raising an army and a government. On 12 June he arranged a declaration of Philippine independence in his hometown Kawit just south of Manila. Uncertainty about a future alliance with the United States and suspicion over their stranglehold on Manila compelled a relocation of the government to Malolos, a quiet town some 25 miles (40km) to the north. It helps to understand what the short-lived Malolos Republic, also known as the First Republic, achieved in its brief existence. Once a constitution was passed in January 1899, for the first time in more than 300 years the population of Luzon was nominally under…

Upon landing after ejecting, Nichol and his pilot JP realised how unprepared they were to survive in the desert, let alone evade the enemy. “There’d been a bit of a classroom lecture on desert survival… but almost nothing,” he recalls. “There was no training about what we now refer to as conduct after capture. That changed completely because of our experiences.” When the Iraqis found him, Nichol feared the worst: “I certainly thought I’d be murdered or tortured to death. We had no concept about the reality of what was going to happen.” Now a prisoner, Nichol was isolated, interrogated and tortured for days, before being paraded on Iraqi television. During his incarceration, he was completely cut off from the outside world. “For maybe for three or four weeks… I…

When Margaret of Anjou’s marriage to King Henry VI of England was arranged in 1445 in the name of peace, no one could have foreseen that it would contribute to the bloody civil war that would engulf England just ten years later. Born in 1430, Margaret was the bright and educated daughter of René, Duke of Anjou, and Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine. Through her paternal aunt, Marie of Anjou, she was also the niece of the king of France, Charles VII. Since the 14th century, the Hundred Years’ War had raged on between France and England over the succession to the French throne. Margaret and Henry’s marriage provided a much-needed break for the two countries, and the couple were married at Titchfield Abbey in Hampshire. Just 15, the new queen…

Spitfire pilots benefited from a host of competitive advantages during the Battle of Britain (1940). Fighting over home territory, they had uniquely strong intelligence via the Dowding System, a pioneering use of radar, and their Spitfires were a match for their main opposition, the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Still, the Spitfire pilots diced with death on every sortie, as shown by Sub Lieutenant Arthur Blake’s smashed windscreen. Blake was among the 50 Fleet Air Arm (FAA) pilots seconded to the RAF’s Fighter Command in June 1940 to help replace losses prior to the Battle of Britain. Following training at No 7 Operational Training Unit, he was assigned to the Spitfire-flying No 19 Squadron. This unit was drawn into fighting over London during the battle, each sortie as dangerous as the last.…

JOHN NICHOL John is a best-selling author, historian and retired RAF Tornado navigator. Over on page 48 he discusses his experience being shot down over Iraq, enduring captivity as a prisoner of war, and his reflections on the war over three decades later. ROGER MOORHOUSE Roger is an historian and author specialising in modern German history, Central Europe and the Second World War. On page 62 he discusses what might have transpired if the 20 July plot had succeeded in killing Hitler. MIGUEL MIRANDA This month History of War regular Miguel leapt at the chance to write about a hugely significant conflict in his nation’s history: the Philippine–American War. He recounts the heroic Filipino fight for freedom against the might of the US military (p12).…

Edging his midget submarine X-6 stealthily through the anti-torpedo netting in place in Kaafjord, Norway, in the wake of a small coaster, Lieutenant Donald Cameron, RNR, slowly guided his craft towards the German battleship Tirpitz at anchor in the fjord. Cameron had begun his sea service with the Merchant Fleet, joining in 1931 at the age of 17, and in August 1939 he was accepted into the Royal Naval Reserve as a commissioned officer. Cameron was appointed navigating officer of HMS Sturgeon, assigned to the Second Submarine Flotilla in November 1940, having recently married Eve Kilpatrick of the Women’s Royal Naval Service. Selected for ‘special service’ with X-craft, the Royal Navy’s new midget submarines, Cameron was appointed first lieutenant of XE3, the prototype in build at that time in Southampton.…

1939 IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED… Assassination attempts on the German dictator were nothing new and there had been numerous other failed plots to dispose of him, such as in 1939 in a beer hall in Munich. A timebomb was planted, and the explosion killed others but not Hitler because he had already left the event. Other attempts over years, and their subsequent failures, only served to increase a sense of invincibility, both in Hitler’s own eyes and in those of the millions who looked to him for leadership, inspiration and strength. JUNE 1944 ALLIES BACK IN EUROPE With Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944 – D-Day – the tide of the war changed dramatically in favour of the Allies. It became increasingly clear that it was not a…

Polish bomber squadrons heritage centre opens The culmination of 21 years of research, this new facility unearths the story of Poland’s bomber squadrons that flew alongside the RAF during the Second World War In 2003, Geoff Burton, founder of RAF Ingham Heritage Centre, moved to Fillingham and soon became immersed in the wartime history of this small village perched on the Lincoln Cliff, a sandstone escarpment that runs north to south through Lincolnshire. The RAF positioned airfields along the Cliff, benefiting from the natural updraft. One such airfield was RAF Ingham, which fell out of use in 1946 and soon became swallowed up by agriculture. Burton dedicated himself to discovering the history of this airfield, which had hosted two Polish squadrons (No 300 and 305) and the RAF’s No 199.…

Our pick of the latest military history books and films Director: Jordon Prince-Wright Production company: Kaleidoscope Entertainment Starring: Levi Miller, Travis Jeffery, Ed Oxenbould Released: Out now in cinemas. Available on streaming, Blu-ray and DVD from 2 September Jim Collins (Levi Miller) is a young Australian persuaded to fight in the Great War by friends working with him on his family’s sheep station. He is motivated by boredom in the suffocatingly small world of the Australian outback rather than a call of duty to Australia or the empire. Following typical fish-out-of-water war movie narrative, the naive young man is soon confronted by the mud, blood and horror of the Western Front. The men Collins has around him become brothers, but are slowly whittled away, falling to bullets, shells and shrapnel.…

For decades, rebellion in the Philippines was kept in check by the Spanish colonial government through the watchful gaze of the Catholic Church. It’s ironic, then, how the town of Kawit, located on a spit of land near a naval fort, became the centre of a full-blown revolution. In 1896, the youthful Emilio Aguinaldo and his father-in-law, both sworn members of the Katipunan (a masonic group plotting to overthrow the government) and known to be in good standing with the authorities, trounced the Guardia Civil and rallied the townsfolk. The Tagalog people of Cavite province rallied and armed themselves for a long struggle against the Spanish – just days prior a similar plot hatched in Manila had been bungled by the conspirators. The revolution of 1896 was a slog and,…

The Supermarine Spitfire Mk 1 entered service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1938. It was the RAF’s most modern fighter: sleek, fast, heavily armed and beautiful. Two years later, with the Hawker Hurricane, it formed the frontline of Britain’s defence against the German Luftwaffe, and while it proved arguably the most successful of the British or German fighters involved, it was only by a narrow margin. The Spitfire Mk 1 was short-ranged, its engine cut out for vital seconds at the start of a dive, its radios were limited in range and channels (a crucial factor in Britain’s advanced air defence system) and its eight .303in (7.7mm) machine guns lacked punch. It was, in short, a fighter with limitations and flaws, barely adequate to the task, and yet…

What do you remember about the buildup to Operation Desert Storm? When it all started back in August 1990 [with] the invasion of Kuwait… It was a lightning bolt out of the blue… The Tornado Force had never been used in anger and I think many of us didn’t think it ever would [be]. Because it was a tactical Nuclear Strike Force it was designed for the Cold War to stop the Soviets coming over what was then the East German border. So it was bloody exciting – the notion of doing the job for real. We were like firefighters who’d never been to a blaze, and suddenly somebody had lit a bloody great fire! Different parts of the Tornado Force were sent out at different times and so training…

Jean Lannes met Napoleon in 1796 while he was a chef de brigade. They won countless battles together, becoming close friends. Their bond was secured when Lannes stuck by Napoleon’s side during the Coup of 18 Brumaire (1799), for which he was rewarded with the rank of marshal of the Empire. After being made duke of Montebellow in 1808, Lannes was given command of Napoleon’s advance guard during the War of the Fifth Coalition and was among the first across the Danube at Aspern-Essling. Lannes was injured while leading rearguard action at the end of the second day. All his horses had been killed and only 300 grenadiers remained at his disposal. In a moment of relative calm, Lannes sat cross-legged on a wall, hands over his face as he…

1944 FROM FOE TO FRIEND Had the plot succeeded, it’s possible (however remote) that the Germans may have surrendered and struck a deal with the Western Allies. From bitter experience the Germans knew just what kind of adversary the Russians could be, and they knew the terrible suffering inflicted by the Nazis would never be forgiven. If the Germans could somehow play on any doubts the West had about their Russian partners – and what they intended to gain from the war – then the Western Allies might, just might, have been tempted to ally with Germany to keep the Russians out of Europe. 1945 – PRESENT NOT-SO-COLD WAR If the West had helped Germany escape the clutches of the Russian advance, perhaps persuaded by the inevitable division of territories…

TIGER SPOTTED July 1944 saw the deployment of multiple innovative pieces of advanced weaponry for the first time on both sides. The primary Axis debutante was the heavy Tiger II tank, combining the Tiger I’s thick armour with the sloped plating of the Panther medium tank. A less successful development was the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, the first and last rocket-powered fighter. It was one of Hitler’s Wunderwaffe, a programme of innovative weapons he hoped would turn the tide of battle. Meanwhile, the RAF introduced the Gloster Meteor, the Allies’ only operational jet aircraft of the war. RAF Command wanted this aircraft to replace the de Havilland Mosquito as its primary night fighter. OPERATION CHARNWOOD A month after D-Day, Anglo-Canadian forces launched an offensive aimed at capturing Caen, nine miles…

Author: Amin Saikal Publisher: Yale University Press Price: £18.99 (Hardback) Released: June 2024 Less than a month after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, President George W Bush ordered the first bombings of Afghanistan, prior to the full-scale invasion by US and NATO forces. At the time, a US Senator remarked: “Are we not bombing the wrong country?” His comment reflected the fact that none of the Islamist fanatics involved in the deadly plot were from Afghanistan. The US-led coalition succeeded in ousting the Taliban but failed to comprehend that Afghanistan, while having been conquered by successive invaders from Alexander the Great onwards, cannot be held for a prolonged length of time. Amin Saikal provides a detailed and authoritative analysis of how,…

Author: John Kiszely Publisher: Hurst Publishers Price: £35 (Hardback) Released: Out now During the Second World War, General ‘Pug’ Ismay came to be known as Winston Churchill’s khaki eminence. A lesser known military leader in those years of European conflict than Bernard Montgomery, Harold Alexander or Archibald Wavell, Ismay’s key role in events during and after the war are now brought to light in John Kiszely’s authoritative biography. Politician, diplomat and general, Ismay was military secretary to Churchill’s war cabinet and appointed, albeit reluctantly, the first secretary general of NATO. By the end of his tenure, however, Ismay had become the biggest advocate of the organisation he had once famously said was created to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in and the Germans down”. Ismay’s career was a…

Author: Barbara Emerson Publisher: Hurst Publishers Price: £35 (Hardback) Released: Out now The ‘Great Game’ was the 19th century rivalry between Britain and Russia for influence in Central Asia, from Turkey to Tibet and Persia to Afghanistan. The two great colonial empires of the day resorted to military interventions in these countries to acquire and redefine territories in each region. This conflict played out as an ongoing battle of intrigue, threats and diplomatic manoeuvring which, however, did not erupt into open warfare between the two contenders. Instead, as Barbara Emerson explains in her skilfully documented book, it was a crucial moment in what she has defined as the First Cold War. By the time this saga came to an end in the early 20th century, a series of independent states…