Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 147 i History of War

The Sudanese flag rose above the ornate arches of the People’s Palace in Khartoum on 1 January 1956. It replaced the British and Egyptian flags, symbolising that, after 57 years of colonial rule, the nation was finally free. But it wasn’t long before optimism was replaced with bloodshed – the new Republic of Sudan’s parliamentary system lasted just two years before General Ibrahim Abboud launched a military coup d’etat. Since then Sudan has suffered as many as 20 coups, depending on how you count them. Every government has risen to and fallen from power through insurrection. At least three civil wars have come from this instability, each with a staggering human cost. The current Sudan Civil War started in 2023 and so far over 150,000 have died. Sudan is “one…

Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe. This applies not only to organised states but to all representatives of that vile race of Quislings who make themselves the tools and agents of the Nazi regime against their fellow-countrymen…” Winston Churchill’s June 1941 address after the German invasion of the Soviet Union is one of the first instances of a new descriptor: Quisling. Synonymous with treason, the name in fact belonged to Norwegian fascist leader and Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling. Born in 1887, Quisling grew up during a period of intense change in Norway. In 1905, the nation’s nearly century-old union with Sweden came to an end and it was in that same year that Quisling enrolled in the military academy in Oslo, graduating at the top…

1945 POPULATION DEVASTATED With a substantial Nazi presence in parts of Russia under a second pact, thousands more young Russian men may have been subject to forced labour away from their homes and their families, adding to the tens of thousands who had already lost their lives fighting Germany. In addition to this, it is unlikely that Stalin would have stopped his policy of exile and imprisonment for those dissenting against his regime. Between the Stalags and the Gulags, the future for the Russian population could therefore have become bleak, adding more misery to the future of an already weakened nation. 1945 NO SEAT AT THE TABLE A possible pact would have diminished the Soviet Union’s role and image as victor against Nazi Germany and liberator of occupied Eastern Europe.…

WORTH OVER £59 In this issue, readers have the chance I to win two tickets to Tiger Day for the Autumn 2025 show, taking place on 20 September at The Tank Museum in Bovington. One lucky winner will receive a pair of tickets to see Tiger 131 in action, during one of only two of its annual appearances. Your Tiger Day tickets include a free Annual Pass, so you can visit The Tank Museum as many times as you like in a year. Standard Tickets include: ■ Explore The Tank Museum, the biggest collection of tanks in the world ■ Second World War tank display starring Tiger 131 ■ Talks in the arena, Tiger artefacts and much, much more! For your chance to win, simply visit www.historyanswers.co.uk or scan the QR code…

BATTLE OF BALIKPAPAN Operation Oboe, the Allied campaign to liberate Japanese-held Borneo, ended with the Battle of Balikpapan. The operation began with a naval bombardment that fired 17,250 shells at Japanese defences, assisted by 63 B-24 Liberator bombers. Amphibious landings involving 100 ships and 33,000 personnel followed on 1 July. Facing fewer than 4,000 Japanese combatants, the Allies quickly secured the city Balikpapan and its port before advancing into the hinterland. They captured two Japanese airfields and concluded major combat operations around 21 July, but mopping-up work continued until the end of the war. “THE OPERATION BEGAN WITH A NAVAL BOMBARDMENT THAT FIRED 17,250 SHELLS AT JAPANESE DEFENCES” KURE AND INLAND SEA BOMBING British and American naval aircraft launched an attack on the remaining Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) warships from…

IAIN MACGREGOR Iain is a publisher, historian and author of a number of books ranging from the 19th century to the Cold War. In this issue’s Great Battles, he recounts the US Civil War encounter at Cold Harbor, which saw Confederate general Robert E Lee achieve his final victory (p60). VLADISLAV ZUBOK With much discussion regarding the ‘New Cold War’, London School of Economics’ Professor Zubok offers a different view, contrasting the 20th century’s and today’s superpower rivalry. Read Louis Hardiman’s interview with the professor on page 16. ALEKSANDRA POMIECKO Dr Pomiecko is a lecturer in Modern History at King’s College London, with research focusing on 20th century Eastern Europe. Over on page 56 she discusses the possible outcome if the USSR and Nazi Germany had remained allies.…

The fact that seven NATO nations lie with in range of a single battery of Russian missiles underlines the importance of Kaliningrad in the 21st century. But it was never intended to be so. Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden are all regretting the day when the former East Prussian city of Königsberg was absorbed into the Soviet Union, and subsequently Russia. It is a reminder that amid the unquiet tangle of East European states the shadow of the Second World War still looms large, with a sense of unfinished business, even 80 years after VE-Day. Kaliningrad began life as the minor East Prussian settlement of Twangste, where a castle and anchorage in a lagoon facilitated the supply westwards of valuable amber, pine resin and tar via Baltic…

The long and ruinous Chinese Civil War was supposed to have ended in 1949 with the Nationalists’ lasting defeat. Reality, as always, was far more complicated. The decision made by the US-backed dictator Chiang Kai-shek to retreat and make the island of Formosa his stronghold was a questionable attempt at resetting the war’s momentum. What happened instead was the Communists were victorious in southern China and the struggle shifted from the land to the sea. The defence of Formosa, whose Chinese name Taiwan was rarely used at the time, required a perimeter in the form of the offshore islands. Most precarious among these was the fishing community that inhabited Quemoy, or Kinmen. Encircled by a sandy shoreline and studded by rocks, the island had the unfortunate distinction of being 93…

The Tiger II was the largest and heaviest operational tank used by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. It was designed to break through enemy lines, smash their defences and knock out their armour with its powerful gun. By 1942, the Soviet Union was proving to be a far harder nut to crack than expected. Something had to be done to turn the tide on the battlefield. The decision? A tougher, larger and more powerful tank. German High Command wanted a deadlier Tiger, armed with a higher-velocity gun capable of penetrating new, thicker Soviet armour at longer distances. Two firms, Porsche and Henschel, were given the task of designing the new hull, while Krupp had the responsibility of creating the turrets for each design. When the Tiger II engaged…

Over ten days spanning June and July 1941, a European army suffered a defeat in the field which, at the time, was the greatest in the history of modern warfare. As many men were encircled in the woods, forests, clearings and small towns of eastern Poland and western Belarus as had been trapped between the Channel and German lines outside Dunkirk the previous summer. But while a ‘miracle of deliverance’ saved the bulk of the cut-off British and French troops, no such salvation awaited the men of the Red Army in the Białystok-Minsk pocket. Dunkirk is a household name in the English-speaking world. The idea of the ‘Dunkirk spirit’ is seared into the British national psychology and mythology, a defeat turned victory. Beyond the realm of military historians, Białystok-Minsk is…

HANCOCK’S NIGHT MARCH 2 JUNE 1864 Hancock’s men march all night to cover the 12 miles (19km). As a result, they are worn out and cannot be sent into action in the timeframe Meade and Grant envisaged. Grant postpones the attack until 5pm. He then changes his mind once more and orders Meade to begin the assaults at 4:30am the next day. He leaves the finer details to each of his corps commanders. CONFEDERATES DIG IN 2 JUNE 1864 Confederate engineers use this valuable lull in the fighting to construct barricades of earth and wood, and sight artillery to create lethal fields of fire. Lee orders for heavy skirmish lines to prevent the enemy discovering his formidable defences. ACTION ON 3 JUNE 1864, 4:30AM All three of Smith, Wright and…

What were the circumstances of Tiger 131’s capture in Tunisia in 1943? For many years, the capture was attributed to 48th Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) via an account by Lieutenant Peter Gudgin. This was challenged after a veteran’s account suggested the tank may have been disabled by a round fired from a captured anti-tank gun by 2nd Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters. Recent research has, however, shown that the rounds that disabled the Tiger were British six-pounder armour-piercing rounds, suggesting that Tiger 131 had after all been knocked out by fire from the Churchills of 48th RTR. Tiger 131 had received several hits, including a round that skimmed off the underside of the gun barrel and jammed the turret ring. It’s likely that at least some of the crew were wounded…

Director: Joachim Lang Production company: Dazzler Media Starring: Robert Stadlober, Fritz Karl, Franziska Weisz, Dominik Maringer Released: Out now Chronicling the Nazi regime between the years 1938-45, Goebbels and the Führer focuses on the Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels as he scrambles to become the second man in Germany’s collapsing Third Reich. The setting of the drama is Adolf Hitler’s bizarre royal court-cum-bureaucracy, sometimes Wolf Hall, sometimes The Thick of It. Fritz Karl’s Hitler fails to reach the maniacal heights of Bruno Ganz’s iconic depiction in Downfall, which is unsurprising given the film’s focus. The best performances are from Robert Stadlober and Franziska Weisz as Joseph and Magda Goebbels. Stadlober’s Goebbels is deeply unsettling: slimy and ambitious, yet petulant, immature and adulterous. Weisz is the downtrodden wife, loyal to…

Author: Michael Napier Publisher: Osprey Price: £30 Released: Out now For 40 years, NATO and the Warsaw Pact faced off against each other across an Iron Curtain that ran down the length of mainland Europe. Massed armies and air forces prepared for conflict across the mountains of Norway and the plains and forests of Germany. Often overlooked is the fact that this face-off didn’t end at the clearly defined land borders and coastlines – it spilled over into the world’s seas and oceans. The Baltic, Arctic and Mediterranean Seas all sat on the flanks of the East-West confrontation, while the North Atlantic was a strategically crucial chasm down the middle of the NATO powers, and control of it would be vital to any major conflict. Even the Pacific was important,…

Author: Max Hastings Publisher: William Collis Price: £14.99 Released: Out now Coinciding with the 80th anniversary of VE Day, veteran war historian Max Hastings offers the reader an in-depth look into the experiences of a relatively small number of men, on a single day that was to become almost certainly the most memorable of their lives. It is the story of a baptism of fire, in which Hastings describes how 35,000 British soldiers played a critical role in the D-Day invasion of the beaches of Normandy. In his deeply researched account, the author reveals how these troops landed on Sword beach and in the soon-to-be adjoining Airborne Division perimeter, focusing on how the British Sword invaders dealt with what was for many their first taste of combat. The narrative in…

The modern world has returned to the East-West tensions of yesteryear. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s continued aggressive gesturing have angered the West, while the US government’s tariffs have escalated into a global trade war. Many of the world’s academic, political and media figures have named this era a ‘New Cold War’, but does this comparison stand up to scrutiny? According to Vladimir Zubok, not really: “Some elements [of the Cold War] are still here - apprehension and fears of military clash - but it’s a different era.” Zubok is professor of International History at the London School of Economics and a leading Cold War historian. Speaking with History of War, he stresses the importance of avoiding direct comparisons between the two eras. “During the Cold War, ideology mattered hugely,”…

The United States Navy (USN) is regarded as the most technologically advanced and capable naval service in the world. History has shown that whenever a global crisis occurs, one of the US president’s first questions is: “Where are the carriers?” This is especially true if an armed response is deemed necessary. It is a position that has seen America’s Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs) dominate the world’s maritime regions. Since the end of the Cold War, the USN has enjoyed over three decades of unchallenged supremacy on the world’s oceans and has become accustomed to deploying warships in support of its national interests. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the Middle East, where CSGs have established their presence since the 1980s, and with skirmishes with Libya over Muammar Gaddafi’s…

“HIS HEROISM HAD SAVED AN UGLY SITUATION WHICH WOULD – BUT FOR HIS PERSONAL BRAVERY – HAVE CAUSED THE BATTALION A LARGE NUMBER OF CASUALTIES AT A CRITICAL TIME”HAIDAR’S VC CITATION For three days, Pashtun Sepoy Ali Haidar waited under the clear blue skies of northern Italy. He knew the order to attack across the Senio River would come soon. The rumble of Allied artillery, a constant during the build-up, was beginning to reach a crescendo as gunners worked around the clock to crack the robust German defences on both banks of the river. The bombardment reached its peak during the afternoon and evening of 9 April: 825 heavy bombers dropped fragmentation ordnance behind the main defences, shells screamed across the Senio from every artillery piece in the sector and…

Operation Sea Lion, Germany’s plan to invade Britain during the Second World War, never came to fruition. Britain was able to defend itself on the sea and in the air, and Hitler’s divide and dominate strategy over his own generals and armed forces meant a joined-up, effective plan to subjugate the island was never likely to materialise. Some argue that Hitler never even had any intention to invade at all, but with barges being collected in the newly captured Channel ports and Britain having witnessed the German forces speed through and defeat all in front of them on mainland Europe, invasion seemed very likely indeed. Britain’s defences have been portrayed since the war as a combination of old men and bumbling inefficiency, and even now, what appear to be lonely…

AUGUST 1939 STAYING ON THE SIDELINES The meeting of German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop and his Soviet counterpart, Vyacheslav Molotov, would result in two agreements. Firstly, economic, in which the Soviets would supply food and raw materials to Germany, thereby bypassing the British blockade of sea ports at the start of the war. In return, Russia would receive German machinery. The second agreement – the non-aggression pact – would have significant influence on how Hitler implemented his plans. With Russia agreeing to stay out of the conflict, the Nazi war machine could throw everything at the West. The Soviets would gain more territory in Poland and the Baltic states in recognition of their compliance. The agreement was for ten years. It lasted two. JUNE 1941 BETRAYAL Agreements for Hitler were…

THE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN 5-7 MAY 1864 The Overland Campaign begins as Grant’s Army of the Potomac encounters Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in the Wilderness, a dense forest with few traversable roads, making communication and resupply very difficult. The Union suffers over 17,000 casualties. BATTLE OF SPOTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE 8-21 MAY 1864 Lee recognises what Grant is trying to do and knows he cannot allow the Army of the Potomac to outflank him and march on Richmond. He anticipates Grant’s next move southeast towards Spotsylvania Court House and gets there before him to set up yet more defensive lines. A series of battles commences for almost two weeks. Grant then decides to detach his army from the fight and continues his march south, forcing Lee to chase him. BATTLE OF…

ACCESS OVER 80 ISSUES! FULL DIGITAL ACCESS SUBSCRIBE NOW Visit www.magazinesdirect.com/WAR for more information Terms and Conditions: Please allow up to six weeks for delivery of your first subscription issue (up to eight weeks overseas). *Access to the digital library will end with your subscription. For full terms and conditions, visit www.magazinesdirect.com/terms. For enquiries please call: +44 (0) 330 333 1113. Lines are open Monday-Friday 8:30am-7pm, and Saturday 10am-3pm UK time (excluding Bank Holidays) or email: help@magazinesdirect.com. Calls to 0330 numbers will be charged at no more than a national landline call, and may be included in your phone provider’s call bundle.…

UKRAINE WAR EXHIBITION OPENS The Tank Museum has launched the UK’s largest exhibition on the War in Ukraine Ukraine: Armoured Warfare in the Modern World is now on at Dorset’s award-winning mechanised warfare museum and is set to run for two years. Visitors can see examples of fighting vehicles used by both sides in the conflict, including a Russian T-72 tank daubed with a ‘Z’ and a British Challenger 2. The British Government has donated 14 Challenger 2s to the Ukrainian Army. Alongside the vehicles are accounts from Ukrainian refugees who have moved to Dorset to escape the ongoing conflict. The Boiko family, who participated in the exhibition, has loaned personal items for display; a poignant example is the set of keys for the family’s apartment in Mariupol, which was…

On 2 December 1981, divers at the wreck of the Mary Rose found a convex circular object 22in (56cm) in diameter, formed of two layers of wooden laths, each 0.1-0.2in (3-5mm) thick. Copper strips decorated with an oak-leaf pattern radiated from a hole at the centre, and staining around the hole suggested that a metal boss would have originally been present. After the artefact had been taken ashore, further excavation of the site revealed a coiled copper alloy spring and a small leather drawstring pouch used for carrying shot. These finds confirmed that the object was a gun-shield, known as a ‘target’, combining a shield with a centrally mounted breech-loading matchlock gun. A small square hole above the boss, thought to be used as a sight, supported this conclusion. In…