All articles in Military
16th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Military
Embed: With the world’s armies in Afghanistan
In 2007, journalist Nick Allen quit a secure job in Pakistan as a news agency writer to experience the life of foreign troops battling the Taliban in Afghanistan. Over several years he journeyed as an embedded reporter with a dozen armies, working his way through placid backwater…
16th December, 2015 in Military
Operation Unthinkable – Churchill’s plans to invade the Soviet Union
If you thought the Cold War between East and West reached its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, then think again. 1945 was the year when Europe was the crucible for a Third World War. So concerned was the Prime Minister Winston Churchill, that in the spring of that year he ordered his…
16th December, 2015 in Military
Special Force: Legacy of the Chindits
In February 2015 the UK Ministry of Defence announced that 77 Brigade was to be reformed. The unit specialises in cyber warfare, social media and other unconventional tools in conflict situations. It also announced that the new unit will take its inspiration from the Chindit…
16th December, 2015 in History, Military
The Battle of Verneuil: A second Agincourt
2015 marked the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. Thanks to Shakespeare we remember this battle and heroism of Henry V and his tired army against the glorious might of France. But what is less well remembered is how this victory led to much longer lasting achievements…
16th December, 2015 in Military, Society & Culture
The boys who won the First World War
Officers of the line, many fresh from public school and the rugby and cricket fields, have not been given enough credit for their achievements in World War I – until now. Much recent writing on the Great War has veered between the highest-ranked and the humble: a determined rehab…
16th December, 2015 in Military, Society & Culture
Black servicemen: Unsung heroes of the First World War
The near-total exclusion from our history books of black servicemen in the First World War is shameful. One of the few exceptions has been Walter Tull (1888-1918). In recent years he has become the most celebrated black British soldier of the First World War. Walter Tull enlisted…
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Emily Hobhouse: Pacifist and patriot
On 4 August 1914, a surge of patriotic fervour swept the nation, Germany was marching through Belgium: young men rushed into war. But not everyone was happy. Emily Hobhouse believed in her country. She believed in it as the leader that had kept the peace in Europe for a hundred y…
15th December, 2015 in Military, Society & Culture
Knitting for Tommy
For anyone keen to embark on knitting for Tommy during the war, there was no shortage of ideas or instruction. Pamphlets or books dedicated to patterns for comforts were produced by yarn manufacturers, associations and charities, and simple patterns for much-needed items such as…
15th December, 2015 in Military, Women in History
The role of women in the First World War
The majority of writing about women during the First World War tends to focus on their roles as nurses or workers on the Home Front, but few look at the militarisation of women that took place during those four and a half years. In 1914 war was very much a man’s world and it was…
15th December, 2015 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
A nursing sister on the Western Front
Nurses cared for the casualties of the First World War in Europe (on the Western and Eastern Fronts and in the Eastern Mediterranean), in the Middle East (Egypt and Palestine) and in Mesopotamia, India and Africa. The British Military Nursing Service was aided by Voluntary Aid De…
15th December, 2015 in Military
Operation Goodwood and the Normandy campaign
As a student of armoured warfare in the Second World War for many years, I researched Operation Goodwood very early on as it was one of the largest tank battles of the war. What soon became clear were the discrepancies between various historians and the official accounts of the n…
15th December, 2015 in Military
Arnhem: Nine days of battle
The things that kick off an interest in a particular period or theme or process or a single event in history are not always easy to identify. I could reasonably say that my interest in the Arnhem battle stems from a family connection. My father was a Parachute Regiment chaplain j…