All articles in Military
17th December, 2015 in Military, Society & Culture
Civilians in Palestine and Syria in the First World War
Today the attention of the world is focused on the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, and the appalling conditions faced by those caught up in the fighting that is spreading across the region. However, for the most part the suffering of those same peoples has large…
17th December, 2015 in Military
Somme timeline
A timeline of the events leading up to, and during, the Battle of the Somme 1916 1914 28 June — Assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo 28 July — Austria declares war on Serbia 29 July — Russia mobilises 1 August — Germany declares war on R…
17th December, 2015 in Military
How the First World War changed combat forever
Today people talk about a development being a ‘game-changer’. The First World War could certainly lay claim to that, and indeed there was not a single development but many. It is also important to bear in mind that not everything that is associated with the First World War was re…
17th December, 2015 in Military, True Crime
The Kalahari Killings
In a conflict that claimed the lives of more than half a million young servicemen from every corner of the commonwealth, very few individual deaths in the Second World War merited worldwide media coverage. The murders of Gordon Edwards and Walter Adamson created a press sensation…
17th December, 2015 in Military
Weaponry in World War I
In terms of weaponry, by 1914 all European armies had a magazine-fed bolt action rifle. The British Army had the Short Magazine Lee–Enfield Mk III Rifle more commonly known as the SMLE; it was the standard infantry rifle in the First World War and would be for much of the Second…
17th December, 2015 in Military, Sport
Compelling and contradictive: The real Western Front
Today, many biographers, historians and film-makers have a chilling certainty in the correctness of their judgments on the First World War. It wasn’t only an appalling tragicomedy in its making, they agree, but for the poor front-line soldier life in the trenches was one of unrel…
17th December, 2015 in Military
The historical background to the Battle of Waterloo
In seeking to understand the Allies’ motives for wishing to defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo one must examine, if only in brief, the wars spawned by the French Revolution in 1792 which, apart from a short period of peace between March 1802 and May 1803, finally came to a…
17th December, 2015 in Military
Napoleon and the creation of an empire 1799 -1804
When Napoleon returned to France in October 1799, the Directory was on its last legs. Its corruption and incompetence had thoroughly alienated the French people, and it could only retain power if it enjoyed the support of the army. With a charismatic general like Napoleon busy in…
17th December, 2015 in Military
Waterloo: The Great War
I have been studying Waterloo, the final battle of the Great War, in great detail for some forty years. This opening statement will cause some bewilderment to many who have grown up with the appellation of the Great War firmly applied to the 1914-18 First World War. But to anyone…
16th December, 2015 in Local & Family History, Military, Women in History
Essex Land Girls
I am on a mission to make it happen for Essex girls who have become the butt of so much sexist and patronising humour. So choosing to write about women who, in both wars, contributed to women’s history and the history of wartime agriculture as well as Essex history and twent…
16th December, 2015 in Military
Cold War Allied aerial espionage
30 September 2015 saw the 25th anniversary of the cessation of the clandestine aerial reconnaissance campaigns conducted by Britain, France and the United States (US) in the Berlin Air Corridors and Control Zone (BCZ) during the Cold War. In 1945, the Russians established two air…
16th December, 2015 in Military, Society & Culture
The ninja or samurai myth
Next to the modern concept that ninjutsu (arts of the ninja) is a specific form of martial art, the ninja versus samurai myth is the second most popular misconception concerning the Japanese spy-commandos known as the shinobi. Throughout popular thought and modern media, the idea…