Military History Monthly - December 2015
Military History Monthly - December 2015
Military History Monthly - December 2015
50
www.military-history.org
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Mark Corby
Military historian, lecturer, and
broadcaster
Paul Cornish
Curator, Imperial War Museum
Gary Gibbs
Assistant Curator, The Guards Museum
Angus Hay
Former Army Officer, military
historian, and lecturer
Nick Hewitt
Historian, National Museum of the
Royal Navy, Portsmouth
Nigel Jones
Historian, biographer, and journalist
Alastair Massie
Head of Archives, Photos, Film, and
Sound, National Army Museum
Gabriel Moshenska
Research Fellow, Institute
of Archaeology, UCL
Colin Pomeroy
Squadron Leader, Royal Air Force
(Ret.), and historian
Michael Prestwich
Emeritus Professor of History,
University of Durham
Nick Saunders
Senior Lecturer, University of Bristol
Guy Taylor
Julian Thompson
Major-General, Visiting Professor at
London University
Dominic Tweddle
NAPOLEONS
MASTERPIECE
The Battle
t of Austerlitz, 1805
MPERIAL
USSIAS
ARMY
U S
rimean
i n War
W to WWI
HAWKER
HA
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HUR IC
Forgotten
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t r of WWII
W
WHAT DO
YOU THINK?
Now you can have your opinions
on everything MHM heard online
as well as in print. Follow us on
Twitter @MilHistMonthly, or
take a look at our Facebook page
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updates at www.facebook.com/
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ADD US NOW
and have your say
Greg Bayne
President, American Civil War Table
of the UK
GRAHAM
GOODLAD
has taught and
written widely
on modern military and political
history. His most
recent book, Thatcher, will be published by Routledge in 2016.
IAN
MAYCOCK
is a freelance
writer living in
Warsaw, Poland.
His main area
of interest and
expertise is 20th-century central
European history.
STEPHEN ROBERTS
is an historian
and former
history teacher.
He has written
several times for
MHM in the past,
including cover stories on Edward III
and the Siege of Leningrad.
ON THE COVER
Austerlitz
This month MHM focuses
on Napoleons strategic
brilliance and explains how
he defeated the leading
figures of ancien rgime
Europe at Austerlitz in 1805,
establishing the hegemony
of France.
26
INCLUDES:
Background
The commanders
The armies
The battle
Battle map
Timeline
FEATURES
UPFRONT
Welcome
Letters
10
Conflict Scientists
12
44 Hawker Hurricane
Biography of a
battle-winning fighter
War Culture
14
14
52 Tudor Walls
The birth of artillery
fortification in England
David Flintham analyses the antiinvasion defences of Henry VIII and
Elizabeth I, exploring the greatest
programme of coastal fortification
since the Romans.
December 2015
EDITORIAL
Editor: Neil Faulkner
[email protected]
Assistant Editor: Hazel Blair
[email protected]
Books Editor: Keith Robinson
[email protected]
Editor-at-large: Andrew Selkirk
[email protected]
Sub Editor: Simon Coppock
Art Editor: Mark Edwards
[email protected]
Designer: Lauren Gamp
[email protected]
Managing Editor: Maria Earle
[email protected]
Managing Director: Rob Selkirk
COMMERCIAL
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THE DEBRIEF
60
BACK AT BASE | MHM REVIEWS
War on Film | 60
Taylor Downing reviews British
war film Dunkirk.
74
IN THE FIELD | MHM VISITS
Museum | 74
Richard Lucas travels to Genoa in Italy
to visit the Galata Maritime Museum.
Listings | 76
The best military history events.
Books | 67
John B Winterburn reviews Yanks and
Limeys: alliance warfare in the Second World
War by Niall Barr; Andre van Loon reviews
The Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926: ten
years that shook the world by Jonathan D
Smele; and Francesca Trowse reviews The
Cooler King: the true story of William Ash
Spitfire pilot, POW, and WWIIs greatest
escaper by Patrick Bishop.
www.military-history.org
Briefing Room | 82
All you need to know about
the British WWII Ordnance QF
25-pounder Mark II Artillery Piece.
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MHM CONTENTS
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Tel: 020 8819 5580
TWITTER
@MilHistMonthly
@MilHistMonthly
1 Oct 2015
Alexander the Great
defeated Darius III of
Persia #OnThisDay in 331
BC. But how great was he?
tinyurl.com/prbgdrz
@MilHistMonthly
MilitaryHistoryMonthly
L E T T ER OF T HE MON T H
@MilHistMonthly
14 Oct 2015
Just back from a sneak
peek at the Lee Miller
exhibition @I_W_M
LDN. What a fantastic
photographer. Opens
tomorrow. Highly
recommended!
@MilHistMonthly
16 Oct 2015
Marie Antoinette was
guillotined #OnThisDay
in 1793, during the
French Revolution.
GAS ATTACK
I read with interest the article on the use of poison gas
at Loos (MHM 61). In July, I visited the First World War
battlefields of north-east Italy, including Caporetto (now
Kobarid in Slovenia).
Two or three miles behind what had been the
Italian front-line is a sunken lane which, in 1917, was
being used by the Italians as a reserve area.
When the Germans launched their assault on
24 October, they shelled this lane with substantial
amounts of chlorine gas. The Italian gas masks proved quiteunequal to the task and, as a result, there
weresubstantial casualties. There is now this rather sad memorial to the disaster.
Incidentally, the area, almost forgotten, is well worth a visit. There are a number of museums of varying
size and quality, and well-maintained British, Italian, and Austrian military cemeteries and trench lines.
Richard Rathbone
FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/
MilitaryHistoryMonthly
12 Oct 2015
British nurse Edith
Cavell was executed by
German ring squad
#OnThisDayin 1915 for
helping Allied prisoners
escape from occupied
Belgium. #WWI
Kidderminster
STICKING POINT
14 Oct 2015
The Battle
of Hastings
was fought
#OnThisDay in
1066. But did Harold die
from an arrow to his eye?
19 Oct 2015
The Battle of Leipzig ended
#OnThisDay in 1813. It was
the largest battle in Europe
prior to WWI and saw one
of Napoleons greatest
defeats. Here, it features
in our list of the ve
bloodiest battles in history:
www.military-history.org/
articles/5-bloodiest-battlesin-history.htm
www.military-history.org
I understand that
the English archers
at Agincourt fought
stripped to the waist,
and that most were
suffering from dysentery.
So were they stripped up
or down? And could this
explain their up sticks
and move forward?
Have you heard anything
of the theory that Joan of
Arc survived the war, and
her burning was later French propaganda?
Pat McDonnell
Crosshaven
Please note: letters may be edited for length; views expressed here are those of our readers,
and do not necessarily reflect those of the magazine.
::,,6SLWUH
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A weeklong excavation to
unearth a Mark I Spitfire,
which crashed at Holme Lode in
the Great Fen on 22 November
1940, has uncovered the planes
December 2015
6HFUHWV
RQ VKRZ
England
DISCOVERY OF
HENRY VS HOLIGOST
The wreck of a 600-year-old warship, thought
to be the Holigost of Henry V, has been
discovered, buried in the mud of the River
Hamble, near Southampton.
The find was made by Dr Ian Friel, historian and
an expert adviser to Historic England. Friel first
spotted the wreck site in an aerial photograph of
the Bursledon stretch of the Hamble.
He made a connection with documentary
evidence that the Holigost had been laid up
there in 1426, and subsequent probing of the
site revealed a solid object under the mud.
GOT A STORY?
Let us know!
www.military-history.org
Image: IWM
:DU GLDULHV
Over 350 Army Headquarters war
diaries have been published online to
mark the centenary of the Battle of
Loos, the first major British offensive
of the First World War. The battle
began on 25 September 1915.
The diaries contain confidential
accounts of the battle, revealing tactics and
the high-level decisions taken by HQ commanding
officers. They also uncover strategies, such as a
carrier-pigeon messenger service for communicating the direction of artillery fire during the battle.
To view the diaries, visit www.nationalarchives.
gov.uk/first-world-war
1XUVLQJDUWLQZDU
MHM FRONTLINE
NEWS IN BRIEF
-XWODQG FRPPHPRUDWLRQV
The UK Government and
the National Museum
of the Royal Navy have
each announced plans to
commemorate the Battle of
Jutland, fought in the North
Sea during WWI.
Between 31 May and 1 June
,
Royal Navys Grand Fleet, under Admiral Sir John
Jellicoe, fought the Imperial German Navys High
Seas Fleet, under Admiral Reinhard Scheer.
Head of Heritage Development at the NMRN
Nick Hewitt said, The Battle of Jutland is the
Royal Navys defining moment in the Great War,
and perhaps the largest sea battle in history.
Commemorative events will start in 2016, and
plans include an exhibition titled 36 Hours: Jutland
1916, the battle that won the war; the opening of
the HMS Caroline, the last survivor of the battle;
and a service at St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney.
SURPRISE
ATTACK
INCHON LANDINGS,
KOREA, 1950
11
LOUIS
BRENNAN
Edward Stanhope
BIOGRAPHY
Born: 28 January 1852, Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland
Married: Anna Quinn in September 1892
Died: 17 January 1932, Montreux, Switzerland
Famous for: Brennan Torpedo
BREAKNECK SPEED
One afternoon, Louis Brennan was
toying with a cotton reel. The experience led directly to the creation of
the worlds first successful guided
12
December 2015
QUOTES
ABOUT
BRENNAN
One of the
most important
and far-reaching
steps yet made
in the history or
aeronautics.
New York Times,
1922
ABOVE A full-size version of
Brennans gyroscopic monorail,
carrying passengers.
IN CONTEXT: BRENNAN
Revolutionary designs
www.military-history.org
Sir, your
invention
promises to
revolutionise
the railway
systems of
the world.
Winston
Churchill
A cold, small,
and anonymous
resting place for
a man who made
such a mark on
the world.
Taoiseach
Enda Kenny
he convinced the Air Ministry to
allow him to develop the worlds
first working helicopter. In 1922,
the device actually flew a few feet
off the ground. Ultimately, it would
be unsuccessful; four years later
the project was cancelled.
On 26 December 1931, Louis
Brennan was struck by a car in
Montreux in Switzerland. He died
of his injuries on 17 January 1932.
MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY
13
14
December 2015
www.military-history.org
15
5
5. HARK! HARK! THE DOGS DO BARK!
1914. R Farmer & Son, London. Card and paper in wooden frame,
with glass and metal ball-bearing
One of many cartographic games, this map is the least geographically
accurate of our selection. It features German towns that must be
travelled through on the way to Berlin. The player was instructed to
direct a metal ball-bearing down the road to Berlin, avoiding a variety
of wartime dangers.
GO FURTHER
6
16
December 2015
God
Tsar
PEASANTS IN UNIFORM
One reason for Russias difficulties was the
sheer scale of the task facing its fighting forces.
Although able to mobilise the largest army in
Europe in the mid 19th century counting
reservists, it totalled more than
two million men it could not
deploy more than 320,000 in
the Crimea at any one time.
The year-long
defence of
Sevastopol began
with a religious
procession,
and icons and
lamps adorned
the defences.
This was partly because of the need to defend
the rest of its very extensive borders notably
in Poland and on the Baltic coast and partly
because the countrys primitive internal communications made it impossible to supply a larger
deployment on the Black Sea.
In 1914, Russia was able to mobilise just
over five million men, while Germany put
approximately four and a half million men in
the field, and these were supported by three
million Austro-Hungarians.
BELOW Russian soldiers kneel before the Tsar
and a holy icon during the First World War an
image of loyalty, piety, and tradition. But it was the
calm before the storm: revolution was imminent.
TSARIST ARMY
organised through a territorial system of military districts, which made service compulsory
for all males over the age of 20. Soldiers now
spent a total of five years on active service,
with a further nine in the reserve; these
figures were changed to three and 15 years
respectively by the time of the First World War.
Although numerous exemptions persisted,
Russia had started to come into line with the
rest of Europe in having a mass conscript army.
There were also some modest improvements
in the quality of troops, with elementary education made compulsory for recruits.
In the wake of the Crimean defeat, the
Russian Army made some uneven advances in
its adoption of new weaponry and equipment.
Progress in artillery was slow, with the characteristic weapon of the 1870s being a bronze
breech-loader that was far behind the rifled
steel guns then being introduced into the
German Army.
MODERN ARTILLERY
AND SMALL-ARMS
By the end of the century, however, Russia
had come to terms with the artillery revolution
caused by the invention of smokeless powder
and the appearance of workable recoil mechanisms. The army that confronted Japan in
1904 was armed with an effective quick-firing
76mm field-gun, which was to remain the standard light field-piece well into the Soviet era.
But the Russians proved slower than the
Japanese in adopting techniques of indirect
fire from concealed positions, where observers
used telephones to coordinate attacks on targets
not visible to the gun crews.
Another weakness was in the provision of
heavy artillery. In the run-up to the First World
War, the Russian high command tended
to concentrate its largest weapons in East
European border fortresses rather than issuing them to field armies. In the strongholds
21
TSARIST ARMY
It could still
take between
30 and 50 days to
make the journey
from Moscow to
Manchuria.
22
ON THE MOVE
Russias gradual transition to the modern
world was achieved at the cost of severe
pressure on its military budget. Slowly
industrialising as the new century dawned, the
Tsars empire lacked the advanced economic
infrastructure which favoured its principal
opponent in Europe, the German Reich.
Of course, given its huge size, Russia was
never likely to be able to mobilise its armies
as swiftly as its opponents. Tsar Alexander IIs
government began to address this problem
after the Crimean War, recognising that the
empires lack of railways had been a key weakness. Its opponents had managed to resupply
their forces more rapidly by steamship, from
bases much further afield, than Russia had
been able to do overland.
Transport was a major weakness, too, in
the Russo-Japanese War. The critical link
was provided by the Trans-Siberian Railway,
a single-track link extending over 5,500
miles from European Russia to the Far East.
Long distances, combined with the lines low
December 2015
RAILWAY WARS
The situation was more favourable for the
empire in the European theatre ten years
later. On the outbreak of the First World War,
Russia proved able to move more quickly
against Germany than had been expected.
Railway construction in the preceding decade
had been boosted by French investment, and
in any case two-fifths of the Russian Army was
already stationed in the Polish borderlands.
Russian forces entered East Prussia in August
1914, less than two weeks after the declaration
of war, initially causing panic among the defending forces. The invaders further progress was
slowed, however, by a technical difficulty.
Russia had traditionally favoured a wider
gauge than that employed by most European
railway systems. This meant that on reaching
the frontier, soldiers had to continue on foot
or commandeer one of the few captured
German standard-gauge trains.
The Germans then made use of their rail
network to effect a rapid redeployment under
the bold leadership of Generals Hindenburg
and Ludendorff. They successfully concentrated their troops against the main invading
force under General Samsonov, while a
smaller force held the less formidable army
of General Rennenkampf further north. The
result was the decisive German victory of
Tannenberg at the end of August.
Technological deficiencies of another kind
played a part in this great defeat. The limited
availability of wireless sets, and the tendency of
operators to send unencrypted messages, was
a serious weakness, given the increasing size
of battlefields in the early 20th century. The
more prevalent telephone communications
suffered from their dependence on the laying
of lines, the vulnerability of these, and the
limited reach of most systems.
Cavalry, who still conceived of their role
primarily as one of assault rather than reconnaissance, were unable and unwilling to
provide the continuous flow of intelligence
that commanders required.
www.military-history.org
23
TSARIST ARMY
It was obligatory
for the side
commanded by the
Tsar on manoeuvres
to emerge as
the winner.
24
FURTHER READING
Richard Connaughton, Rising Sun
and Tumbling Bear: Russias War
with Japan (Phoenix, 2004).
Orlando Figes, Crimea: the Last Crusade
(Penguin, 2011).
Bruce Menning, Bayonets before Bullets:
the Russian Imperial Army, 1861-1914
(Indiana University Press, 1992).
December 2015
26
December 2015
Introduction
A
A
www.military-history.org
27
The Commanders
He sought to
equate personal
success and
national triumph.
28
Image: WIPL
The Commanders
A failed bomb plot left Napoleon believing
France was riddled with British and Royalist
agents. He ordered that prominent Bourbon
migr the Duc dEnghien (1772-1804),
who was living in Baden near the French
border, be kidnapped and bought back
to France.
The subsequent mock trial and execution
of the Duc hardened the growing antiBonapartist resolve around the salons of
Europe. Napoleon the upstart monarch,
the soldier of revolution, the standard-bearer
of anti-feudal and anti-clerical reform was
perceived as a threat to the European ancien
rgime as a whole.
The Peace of Amiens (1802) therefore
turned out to be the briefest of respites. It broke
down after barely a year, and Napoleon before
his programme of administrative and military
reforms was complete found himself again
at war with Britain. Before his newly formed
Grande Arme, massed on the Channel coast,
could attempt an invasion, he found himself
at war with Austria and Russia as well.
Napoleon, however, was at the height of
his powers, and was now in sole, undisputed
29
The Armies
Image: WIPL
30
December 2015
The Armies
RIGHT Marshal Joachim Murat (1767-1815) was
one of a generation of brilliant young men who
achieved high office in the service of the First
Empire. Murat commanded Napoleons cavalry
in the Ulm and Austerlitz campaigns. He later
became King of Naples.
BLITZKRIEG
In order to maximise speed and surprise,
the French Army was encouraged to live
off the land, dispensing with cumbersome
supply-trains. This enhanced speed but often
alienated host populations. It also meant
that once an area had been exhausted, it
was rendered useless if the army had to cross
it again (a major problem during the 1812
campaign in Russia).
In 1805, Bernadottes corps en route to
fighting the Austrians marched through the
Prussian territory of Ansbach while foraging
for provisions an event that almost succeeded
in bringing Prussia into the war on the Coalition
side. Such lightning manoeuvres could also
leave an armys flank exposed.
Napoleon often achieved favourable
battlefield conditions by isolating enemy
armies that had strayed out of the supporting
range of their allies (Austerlitz being a case
in point). Utilising the French superiority in
manoeuvre, he would then attempt to pin
his victim against some natural barrier prior
to destroying him. Having dealt with one
enemy, he would then move onto the next,
while deploying a holding force to keep
any intervening force at bay.
In time, Napoleons enemies grew wise
to this method, and would either ignore his
presence on their flanks or would operate
with mutually supporting armies as at
Leipzig in 1813 and Waterloo in 1815.
If outnumbered, Napoleon employed
what he called the strategy of the central
position. Through carefully accumulated
field intelligence, he would plot where two
enemy armies converged. This hinge would
serve as the main focus of his attack, and
once the central point had been occupied,
opponents would then be forced onto
exterior lines, thus having greater distances
to march, while the French, holding interior
lines, would be able to strike at separate
enemy forces in turn.
www.military-history.org
31
Images: WIPL
AUSTRIAN REFORMS
AND RUSSIAN CONSCRIPTION
By 1805, the Austrians were beginning to
reform their multinational armies: drill was
truncated, fire control transferred to battalion
commanders, a double-step of 120 paces a
minute introduced, and the two-company division became the main manoeuvring formation
in battle. In addition, officers were encouraged
to reduce regimental and private transport, and
to live off the land to enhance speed.
December 2015
The Armies
BELOW RIGHT General Mikhail Kutusov (1745-1813).
Kutusov understood the vulnerability of Russias
army to the new Napoleonic way of war, but he was
overruled by the young Tsar, both in 1805 and 1812.
His strategy on both occasions was to use space to
exhaust his enemys resources.
RUSSIAN MOBILISATION
When the Prussians opted not to join the
Coalition, this plan had to be revised. In
response to Napoleons threat to northern
Germany, Alexander mustered an army of
several corps, ranged in a defensive posture
along the Prussian border and at BrestLitovsk, ready to move into Austria; while
another remained in Ukraine, ready to repel
a possible French invasion of the Balkans.
Russian mobilisation was similar to the
French in that armies of more than 100,000
men were formed into all-arms corps of
around 20,000 men each. The Russians had
recognised the value of the corps system
following Napoleons victories in Italy, and
by 1804 had gone some way towards incorporating it into their own.
But the Russian Army of 1805 was disadvantaged in a number of ways. Unlike the
French, the Russians had not previously been
www.military-history.org
33
Austerlitz
The Battle of
NAPOLEONS MASTERPIECE
Image: WIPL
MHM Editor Neil Faulkner analyses the Battle of the Three Emperors.
ABOVE The Battle of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805. The scene shows the French Emperor with his staff on a hilltop
surveying the battle. It is not immediately clear whether the vantage-point is meant to be the Zurlan Plateau or
the Pratzen Heights; nonetheless, the reconstruction gives a fair impression of the density of a Napoleonic battle.
34
December 2015
The Battle
LEFT General Mack surrenders to Napoleon at
Ulm in October 1805.
www.military-history.org
We used to have
the Army of Italy,
of the Rhine, of
Holland. There
was no French
Army. Now it exists,
and we shall see
it in action.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Image: WIPL
35
Battle Map
Battle
Map
A SCARECROW ARMY
The Grande Arme had been marching and
fighting for eight weeks. It was in dire need
of rest and resupply. An Austrian veteran
described its appearance at this time:
You now see many of them dressed in peasants
blouses, sheepskin cloaks, or wild-animal skins.
Some are laden down in the most signal fashion,
carrying long strips of lard, hams, or chunks
of meat dangling from their belts. Others march
all hung about with loaves of bread and bottles
of wine. Their penury, however does not
prevent them from lighting their pipes with
Viennese banknotes.
THE BAIT
He reconnoitred the ground on 21 November,
a small man in a grey topcoat at the head of
a large retinue of plumed and heavily laced
marshals and staff officers.
December 2015
The Battle
The battlefield of Austerlitz was dominated by
the Pratzen Heights. The village of Austerlitz
lay to the east, but it was the complex terrain
to the west that was focus of the French
Emperors reconnaissance. Here the ground
was broken by streams, marshes, and rugged
hills, with numerous small villages set among
them ground where an entire army corps
might lie hidden; ground where attackers
might be bogged down by small numbers
of well-placed defenders.
Suddenly, the reconnaissance at an end,
Napoleon turned to his followers and told
them: Gentlemen, examine this ground
carefully. It will be a field of battle, upon
which you will all have a part to play.
To make it so, the French leader now did
everything he could to persuade his enemies
that he was weak and eager to avoid battle.
He kept the corps of Bernadotte and Davout
at a distance, probing forwards with an army
of just 53,000 men, tempting the Coalition to
seize the apparent opportunity to fight a battle
at almost two-to-one advantage. And when the
Coalition host advanced, he ordered Marshal
Soult to abandon the Pratzen Heights with
every indication of haste and confusion, so as
to confirm the impression of French weakness.
Napoleon also opened channels to his
enemies, discussing an armistice with the
Austrian Emperor, then seeking a personal
interview with Tsar Alexander. The Tsar
sent an arrogant young firebrand, Count
Dolgorouki, to negotiate, and Napoleon playacted a man hesitant, uncertain, and fearful.
This young man, who wielded a strong influence with the Tsar, the French Emperor later
reported, returned full of the notion that the
French Army was on the eve of its doom.
Dolgoroukis report merely confirmed the
Tsar in his decision. He had already overcome
the doubts of Emperor Francis and overruled
his own General Kutusov: the Coalition army
was marching towards Austerlitz. Accordingly,
from the French camp at Brnn, orders went
out to Bernadotte and Davout to march with
all speed to join Napoleon.
Everything goes
well here. The
Austrians are in the
Black Forest defiles.
God will it that
they stay there!
Napoleon Bonaparte
BELOW The fighting on both flanks was ferocious.
Under heavy attack, the French sometimes lost
ground and would then counterattack to regain it,
waging a see-saw struggle through the long hours
of 2 December. The battle on the flanks, especially
that on the French right, was crucial in fixing the
great mass of the Coalition army, so that a decisive
breakthrough could be achieved in the centre.
THE TRAP
www.military-history.org
Images: WIPL
39
1802
Peace of Amiens between
France and Britain.
25 October
French begin to advance east
from Ulm.
1 November
French invade Austria.
12 November
French enter Vienna.
1803
15 November
1804
Napoleon crowned Emperor
of the First French Empire.
1805
31 August
Having received orders on
26 August, the Grande Arme
begins march to Rhine.
2 September
Austrians invade Bavaria
(allied with France).
26 September
French begin to cross
upper Rhine.
21 November
Napoleon reconnoitres
the prospective battlefield
of Austerlitz.
28 November
Coalition army begins to advance
towards Napoleons army based
at Brnn.
1 December
Coalition army reaches
Austerlitz.
2 December
Battle of Austerlitz.
4 December
Austrian capitulation.
26 December
Treaty of Pressburg.
6 October
THE ASSAULT ON
THE PRATZEN HEIGHTS
20 October
Capitulation of Macks army
at Ulm.
40
Image: WIPL
The Battle
Gentlemen,
examine this
ground carefully.
It will be a field of
battle, upon which
you will all have
a part to play.
Napoleon Bonaparte
41
Image: WIPL
VICTORY
But, in fact, the crisis was more dramatic
than dangerous. The imbalance in the
distribution of force across the battlefield
was now decisive. In the final struggle for
the Heights, the Russian Imperial Guard
was outnumbered four-to-one.
December 2015
Hawker
Hurrica
44
CAMMS DESIGN
The design of the Hurricane, directed by
Berkshires Sydney Camm, was the outcome
of discussions with the high-sounding
Directorate of Technical Development
towards the close of 1933. The aim was to
break the biplane stranglehold on British
fighter design.
Camm outlined a monoplane, based
on his Fury biplane, using proposed new
Rolls-Royce PV 12 engines (later to become
the Merlin) and ultimately incorporating a
retractable undercarriage and enclosed cockpit, both firsts in an RAF monoplane fighter.
A four-gun battery was proposed, but this
was upgraded to eight, mounted in the wings,
Image: WIPL
COUNTDOWN TO WAR
In 1938, come Munich, neither the RAF
nor, for that matter, the Luftwaffe wa
ready for war. The RAF had just 93
monoplane fighters (all Hurricanes)
out of a total of 759 aircraft.
Munich bought time. When war
came, the RAF still needed more, but
the potential was there. A typical
fighter station scene during air exercises in the late 1930s might have
shown pilots beside Gloster Gladiators,
a biplane that first flew in 1934.
Hurricanes would soon replace them.
People disagree as to whether
Hitler or the Allies gained most
in the year following Munich, but
many in Britain, who understood the
weakness at the time, felt relief as the
RAF developed, the Hurricanes and Sp
came out of the factories, and the number of
formed squadrons grew.
In September 1938, there were only five
squadrons remounted on Hurricanes; the
Germans were well ahead in terms of modern
fighter types. Throughout 1939, however,
Britains position improved. By July, there
were 26 squadrons of modern eight-gun
fighters. A year later, there were 47. By the
outbreak of war, there were 497 completed
Hurricanes ready for action. During the Battle
of Britain, Rolls-Royces Glasshouse factory
in Derby would be churning out 100 engines
in a 72-hour week.
At around this time, the Gloster Aircraft
Company started to subcontract manufacture
of the Mark I. As well as metal wings and
three-blade variable pitch propellers, a final
refinement before battle commenced was the
Rotol Constant-Speed Propeller, allowing the
pilot to select an optimum pitch for take-off,
climb, cruise, and combat, and helping to
prevent engine overheat in a dive.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
45
Image: WIPL
HAWKER HURRICANE
AERIAL ANTICS
On 15 September 1940, Ray Holmes,
piloting a Hurricane, but out of ammo,
deliberately crashed into a Dornier to take
out an enemy bomber. Holmes parachuted to
safety, but the Dornier pilot was less fortunate,
coming down in Kennington, where locals,
suffering from German bombs, set about
him, beating him to death.
Fighter-instructor Witold Urbanowicz
fled Poland in 1939, set off for Romania
on a bus, and almost a year later was flying
a Hurricane. He was destined to become
one of the RAFs finest aces.
The first Czech squadron in the RAF
(310) was formed with Hurricanes on
10 July 1940, and fought its first action as
early as 26 August. The highest-scoring
Allied pilot of the battle, Sergeant Josef
Frantisek, who had 17 kills, was Czech
and flew a Hurricane.
TECHNO-WAR
To win victories in the air required skill as
well as courage. A glimpse inside a Hurricane
cockpit reveals 40 things to keep an eye
on levers, switches, push buttons, buzzers,
lamps, regulators, indicators, compass, gauges,
altimeter, rudder pedal, clock, adjusters,
Photo: WIPL
To win victories in
the air required
skill as well as
courage.
www.military-history.org
47
Images: WIPL
HAWKER HURRICANE
HURRICANE TIMELINE
1893
December 1937
1934
1923
June 1935
1925
Camm becomes Chief Designer
at Hawker.
1933
Outline design of Hurricane agreed.
1934
Camm learns of Rolls-Royces work
on the powerful new PV-12 engine
(which became the Merlin C).
48
1934
1938
Hurricanes delivered to 3 and
56 Squadrons.
1938
Spitfires delivered to 19 Squadron.
November 1935
September 1938
Munich Agreement.
March 1936
September 1938
June 1936
July 1939
September 1939
October 1940
September 1939
October 1941
1966
January 1940
1942
1940
Launch of Spitfire Fund.
July 1940
47 Squadrons converted to eight-gun
monoplane fighters.
July 1940
Battle of Britain begins.
August 1940
251 Hurricanes and 163 Spitfires
manufactured (476 fighters total).
www.military-history.org
March 1943
Mark IV uses Merlin 24 or 27, giving
1,620hp for take-off.
September 1943
Rocket-carrying Hurricanes appear.
August 1944
Last Hurricane built.
1951
49
HAWKER HURRICANE
RAF FIGHTER
COMMAND
ORDER OF BATTLE
15 September 1940
(Hurricane squadrons)
THE DESIGNER
And what of Hurricane designer Sydney
Camm? Unlike R J Mitchell, the Spitfires
designer, who died in 1937, Camm lived
into the jet age. He was responsible not
only for the Hurricanes design, but also
such iconic planes as the Hawker Harrier, in
the process becoming a pioneer of vertical
flight, prompting some to claim him as the
Isambard Kingdom Brunel of Aeronautical
Engineering. He eventually designed more
than 50 aircraft, resulting in over 26,000
actual planes.
Camms role in the Second World War,
when 80% of RAF planes were attributable
50
Photos: WIPL
Usworth 43
Acklington 32
Turnhouse 3
Drem 111
Prestwick 615
Dyce 145 (B Flight)
Montrose 145 (A Flight)
Sumburgh 232
Aldegrove 245
December 2015
Tudor Walls
52
December 2015
Images: WIPL
53
TUDOR FORTIFICATIONS
Deal Castles
armament was
equally impressive:
a total of 66
guns arranged
in four tiers.
This second modification produced a
design that was less circular and more angular,
and which has been described as an early
attempt to build an Italian-inspired artillery
fortification in England.
Although the Device fortifications were
sophisticated by English standards, they seemed
somewhat anachronistic compared with most
European practice, where the circular form
had been superseded by the angular. But there
were exceptions. Semi-circular roundels or
towers were still favoured by Albrecht Drer.
Although Drers influence was limited, it
did extend to the Bohemian architect Stevan
van Haschenperg, and he was one of the
first of many foreign military architects to
find service in England. Van Haschenperg is
known to have worked on Sandgate Castle
(Folkestone), the modifications to Camber
Castle, and the citadel of Carlisle. He probably
also influenced the designs of the castles at
Deal, Walmer, and St Mawes.
54
December 2015
The focus of
centuries of AngloScottish conflict,
Berwick would be
on the frontline.
THE 1550s
www.military-history.org
55
TUDOR FORTIFICATIONS
LEFT Upnor Castle, opposite Chatham Dockyard,
stands guard over the Medway estuary.
BELOW LEFT Berwick-upon-Tweed: the defences
along the River Tweed.
THE ARMADA
In 1588, English support for the Dutch provoked Spain into launching the first of several
armadas, and England was put in a state of
readiness to resist invasion. Elizabeths speech
to her troops at Tilbury in August is a famous
part of the legend surrounding the defeat
of the 1588 armada, but 50 years after their
construction, the Thames defences themselves
were in a poor condition.
Reconstruction focused on the Tilbury and
Gravesend/Milton blockhouses. Federigo
Giambelli, best known for the infernal
machines that had destroyed the Spanish
boom at Antwerp in 1585, attempted, unsuccessfully, to construct a boom between Tilbury
and Gravesend.
Fortifications were hurriedly constructed
elsewhere. On the Isle of Wight, for instance,
the medieval defences of Carisbrooke Castle
were strengthened, although it was not
until 1597 that the castles defences were
completely revised, with Giambelli enclosing
the castle in a circuit of ramparts and ditch,
a mile in length, and including five bastions
(the eastern and south-west bastions including
two-storey flanker batteries). In 1593, Francis
Godolphin built the Star Castle, an eightpointed star-shaped fort on the Hugh, the
headland to the west of St Marys harbour.
The later Elizabethan period is dominated
by two engineers: Robert Adams and Paul
Ive. Adams was involved in the redesign of
Portsmouths defences and designed Star
Castle. But his most significant works were
at Plymouth, where he designed the first fort
on the Hoe in 1592.
Ive was employed in the Channel Islands
in 1593-1595, and then carried out improvements to Pendennis Castle. But he is best
remembered for his treatise The Practice
of Fortification (1589), the first by a native
engineer. While his designs still showed
some Italian influence, he drew heavily on
56
December 2015
Image: WIPL
www.military-history.org
Most of these
works saw action
only against
other Britons.
The 16th century represents a watershed in
the history of the English fortress: not only
because the concept of the artillery fortification became fully embedded in English military
theory, but also because it marks the moment
when the purpose of the fortress changed. No
longer was it for local subjugation, but now for
national defence.
And although these Tudor fortifications
may not have been at the cutting-edge of
European fortress design, they were developed
in a scientific and planned manner. Not since
the reign of Edward I, or perhaps even the
Norman Conquest, had there been such a
programme of fortress construction as that
undertaken by the Tudors.
David Flintham is a military historian specialising
in 16th- and 17th-century European fortifications.
He is a member of the Fortress Study Group.
FURTHER READING
Peter Harrington, The Castles of
Henry VIII (Oxford, 2007).
Andrew Saunders, Fortress Britain
(Liphook, 1989).
Also see www.fsgfort.com, website
of the Fortress Study Group, the
international society of artillery
fortification and military architecture.
57
I 12/15
TA
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TH
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M
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MILI
DECEMBER Each month, the Debrief brings you the very best in film and
book reviews, along with suggested historical events and must-see museums.
Whether you plan to be at home or out in the field, our team of expert reviewers
deliver the best recommendations to keep military-history enthusiasts entertained.
com me
MHM REVIEWS
Yanks and Limeys: alliance warfare
in the Second World War by Niall Barr,
The Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926: ten
years that shook the world by Jonathan
D Smele, and The Cooler King: the
RECOMMENDED
true story of William Ash Spitfire
In Nelsons Wake:
pilot, POW, and WWIIs greatest
the Navy and the
escaper by Patrick Bishop. Taylor
Napoleonic Wars
Downing considers Dunkirk, a film
by James Davey
reconstruction of Operation Dynamo.
BOOKS
WAR ON FILM
MHM VISITS
MUSEUM
HIGHLIGHT
E H Shepard:
an illustrators
war at House
of Illustration
LISTINGS
WIN
copies of The
Agincourt
Companion
CAPTION COMPETITION
BRIEFING ROOM
O
TAYLOR DOWNING REVIEWS A CLASSIC WAR MOVIE
humiliating retreat and withdrawal is
what gives the film its strength and
enduring quality. It is as watchable
today as it was nearly 60 years ago.
FILM | CLASSIC
DUNKIRK
Studiocanal Films Ltd
15.99
60
LITTLE SHIPS
The Ministry of Information Film
Unit, based at the Denham studios,
produced a short film called Channel
Incident later in 1940. It helped to
promote the story of the little ships
that were sent out to Dunkirk by featuring the story of a private yacht, sailed
by Peggy Ashcroft, who was in search
of her husband an officer in the BEF,
somewhere on the beaches.
Ashcroft and her motley crew
come under attack from German
aircraft, but succeed in rescuing several
soldiers. It is only when she returns
home that she finds her husband,
wounded on a stretcher. Ive been
looking for you, she says. Well,
here I am, he responds.
The film had been meant as a
tribute, but was widely criticised as
being a piece of upper-class haughtiness in the face of a military tragedy.
Not until 13 years after the end of
the war did the subject return to the
cinema screens. Dunkirk was one of
the last films made by Ealing Films
under the legendary Sir Michael
Balcon. The company had been
bought out by MGM, and had moved
to film studios at Borehamwood,
where it lost much of its ensemble
spirit. Symbolically, the Ealing
studios were taken over by the
BBC, and became the centre of a
new type of television production.
Nevertheless, Dunkirk was made
on a grand scale. It was based on
two books: The Big Pick-Up, a novel
by thriller-writer Elleston Trevor,
and Dunkirk, by Lieutenant-Colonel
Ewan Hunter and Major J S Bradford.
The screenplay was written by W P
Lipscomb and David Divine, who had
written a popular and highly critical
account, The Nine Days of Dunkirk,
just after the war. Leslie Norman,
an Ealing stalwart, directed.
December 2015
MHM REVIEWS
LESLIE NORMAN
Leslie Norman began his film career in the 1930s, as a film editor
at Teddington Studios. After the war, he joined Ealing Studios under
Michael Balcon. Here he edited The Overlanders (dir. Harry Watt,
1946) and Nicholas Nickleby (dir. Alberto Cavalcanti, 1947). During
the 1950s, he started producing at Ealing with two big hits Mandy
(dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1952) and The Cruel Sea (dir. Charles
Frend, 1953 see MHM 39), another classic war movie.
Dunkirk was probably his best-known film as director. Norman
found it difficult to find work in the changing film world of the
1960s, and ended up producing episodes in long-running TV
dramas like The Avengers, The Saint, and The Persuaders. He died in
1993. His son is the popular television film-critic Barry Norman.
MILITARY FAILURES
In the central narrative, Corporal Tubby
Binns and a small squad of men led
by an officer blow up a bridge against
advancing German troops. But when
they return to their base, their battalion
has evacuated, leaving only a driver
to take them away. But the officer and
driver are killed in a German air-raid,
and the others have no idea what is
going on or what their orders are.
Binns asks the men, What do
we do now? One of them, Private
Mike (beautifully played by Scottish
character actor Robert Urquhart),
tells him, Youve got the stripes,
Tubby, you tell us. Binns responds,
I never wanted these stripes, but
reluctantly has to take charge.
The men pass from one abandoned farmhouse to another with
advancing German troops never far
behind. Without maps or any sort
of communications, they are never
sure where they should be heading, and they come to symbolise
MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY
61
ALL AT SEA
62
December 2015
www.military-history.org
MHM REVIEWS
DUNKIRK (1958)
An MGM presentation of an Ealing Films production.
Director: Leslie Norman. Producer: Michael Balcon. Screenplay:
David Divine and W P Lipscomb. Music: Malcolm Arnold.
Starring: John Mills, Richard Attenborough, and Bernard Lee.
A Studio Canal DVD, available to buy now.
63
M
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TORY MON
H IS
TH
ds
James Davey
Yale University Press, 25 (hbk)
ISBN 978-0300200652
t is always a genuine pleasure to
read a book that achieves exactly
what it set out to do, and particularly
one as meticulously researched
and engaging as James Daveys
In Nelsons Wake.
The books central premise is
simple. Davey sets out to show how
the Royal Navys contribution to
ultimate victory in the Napoleonic
Wars did not end with its dramatic
victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in
October 1805. Instead, he argues,
with eloquent conviction supported by
a wealth of evidence, that the naval
war against Napoleon continued for
another ten long, hard-fought years,
and that victory would not have
been possible without the total control
of the worlds oceans, which Britain
ultimately attained.
The Trafalgar campaign is placed
in appropriate context: one chapter
out of 14 that span 12 years of war.
Nelson, too, is placed appropriately
among the heroes (and some villains
and rank incompetents) who together
made up the pantheon of Royal Navy
commanders afloat and ashore
between 1803 and 1815.
Davey is Curator of Naval History
at the National Maritime Museum in
Greenwich, and at the heart of his
narrative lie the collections of that
O T
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TA
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MILI
MHM REVIEWS
NICK HEWITT
LEFT John Bull Peeping into Brest
by George Woodward, June 1803.
Representing the British people
as a gigantic sailor, Bull clasps
both sides of a small boat and
peers at three French ships off the
French coast, terrifying Napoleon.
www.military-history.org
65
MHM REVIEWS
OO S
THE BEST NEW MILITARY HISTORY TITLES THIS MONTH
67
continuum of crises, wars, and revolutions, punctuated by the fall of the ancient Romanov dynasty and the
rise of the Bolsheviks this is how Russian history scholar Jonathan Smele proposes we should think of
the period 1916-1926.
In his authoritative new study, Smele argues that we should understand the ten years that shook
the world (an allusion to John Reeds famous Ten Days that Shook the World) as a series of Russian Civil
Wars not restricted to one nation or one discrete conflict. Instead, the decade saw a kind of Hell on Earth,
with families, armies, nations, and ethnicities fighting it out for control of the post-imperial order.
Smele sets out his case in a series of fascinating and detailed, if occasionally plodding, chapters. His
consideration of the Russian performance in WWI (not as bad as commonly thought, particularly during
the Brusilov Offensive) is followed by discussion of the Establishment reaction to the Revolution; the full
flow of Red against White conflicts (the Bolsheviks supremely well organised by Commissar of War
Leon Trotsky); the fighting on internal fronts (to remove the last of the anti-communists after the defeat
of the main White armies); and the consolidation of Bolshevik rule (to be followed, as the revolutionary
movement decayed, by the horrors of Stalinism).
The appeal of The Russian Civil Wars lies in its meticulous research and firm grasp one can sense
throughout that Smele is well versed in his subject, conversant with all the main personalities and conflicts of the time. That said, lay readers may find the book
challenging at times, as it takes us, with sustained seriousness, into a (thankfully) distant world of visceral hatred, conflict, and devastation.
The Russian Civil Wars is a must-have for any Russia aficionado and an often sombre, but immensely informative, overview for the general reader.
ANDRE VAN LOON
his book reads like an adventure story, with tales of extreme bravery and derring-do. Its hero is a figure
who, throughout his life, was committed to defending the browbeaten and mistreated.
William Ash was born in Texas, but became a Canadian citizen so that he could join the Canadian
Air Force and fight against fascism. He then became a British citizen, once the war was over. He
was the son of a travelling salesman, brought up in poverty, who went on to graduate from Oxford;
a committed socialist; a Spitfire pilot whose war ended in March 1942; and henceforth a PoW who took
every opportunity to escape.
In his nearly three years in captivity, Ash was always looking for escape opportunities. Some attempts
were impulsive and unplanned, while others involved escape committees and many months of preparation.
On one occasion, while in Oflag XXIB, he was at work unloading a goods train, and when the guards back
was turned, he threw himself under the train, crawled out the other side, and ran. He was caught within minutes, suffered a severe beating, and was sent to the cooler, or camp prison, to mull over his misdemeanour.
Another attempt, this time from Stalagluft III, involved the classic ploy of digging a tunnel. This was
carefully planned, a mass escape bid that involved each potential escapee being provided with civilian
clothes, a food supply, forged papers, and a supply of Reichsmarks (these last being sent by Intelligence
Service 9 back in London, whose remit was to assist with escape bids).
Nearly 50 PoWs managed to escape on this occasion. Bill Ash and his companion were picked up only 27 miles from the camp. Most of the others were caught
within a few days. Ash found himself in the cooler for another protracted stretch.
While he was inside on this occasion, the escape that would be immortalised in the film The Great Escape took place. On his first morning back, on the morning
roll call, a list of names was read out. It was announced that all 50 of those on the list had been executed for resisting arrest. Only 23 of those involved in the
Great Escape lived to tell the tale.
The Cooler King is a story of one mans war, filled with incident, for all that he was far from the front-line. Thanks to his experiences, he became a life-long
socialist, committed to fighting for the weakest members of society and to making that society more equal.
FRANCESCA TROWSE
68
December 2015
ILLUSTRATED BOOK
The Battle
of Agincourt
Anne Curry and Malcolm
Mercer (eds)
Yale University Press,
30 (hbk)
ISBN 978-0300214307
An overarching history
of Europe looking at the
causes and effects of the
conflicts that occurred
between 1914 and 1945.
Covering not only the two
great wars, but also the
Spanish Civil War and conflicts
in Yugoslavia after 1945, it
examines the economic effects
of war, and of the huge
movements of peoples
seeking sanctuary from war
and unfriendly regimes.
70
Germany Ascendant:
the Eastern Front, 1915
Prit Buttar
Osprey Books, 20 (hbk)
ISBN 978-1409148487
ISBN 978-1472807953
ISBN 978-1775592020
ISBN 978-1847087201
December 2015
M
MEMBERSHIP
B
BOOKS
PRICE: 25.00
THE OXFORD
ILLUSTRATED
HISTORY OF WORLD
WAR TWO
World War Two re-assessed
for a new generation,
from Japanese aggression
against China in the early
1930s to the transition
from World War to Cold
War in the late 1940s. A
stimulating and thoughtprovoking new interpretation of one of the most
terrible episodes in world
history.
PUBLISHER: Oxford University Pre
PRICE: 30.00
WHERE TO BUY: www.oup.com
THE BATTLE
OF WATERLOO
A FOREGONE
CONCLUSION?
A J Pointon
SU
02
12
ENTRY
03
VISIT
GALATA: A MAJOR
MARITIME MUSEUM
74
COLUMBUS:
GENOAS NATIVE SON
The first major display on the ground
floor is dedicated to Genoas most famous native son and the most famous
navigator the world has ever known:
Christopher Columbus. Alongside
models of his ships and original documents and navigational instruments,
an interactive map lays out his voyages
with pertinent commentary. The most
famous portrait of the navigator, painted by Italian artist Ridolfo Ghirlandaio,
is displayed prominently.
06
04
MHM VISITS
GENOA ,
I TA LY
07
05
MARITIME EXPLORATION
AND COMMERCE
The second floor houses a life-size brigantine schooner, the ship that was the
www.military-history.org
EMIGRATION AND
THE OCEAN LINERS
Floor three is home to an exhibition
that traces the Italian emigrants
odyssey from his European homeland to the Port of New York. It
explores his first confrontations with
customs officials and his new life as
he passes through the Ellis Island
Immigration Reception Centre.
Boarding the reconstructed interior
of a passenger liner, visitors make their
75
ISTI S
LECTURE
FREE
ENTRY
FREE
ENTRY
SHELLSHOCKED BRITAIN:
UNDERSTANDING THE
LASTING TRAUMA OF
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
10 December 2015
Image: National Army Museum
LECTURE
www.nam.ac.uk
020 7730 0717
t this National Army Museum event, Dr Gajendra Singh lecturer in the Department of History
at the University of Exeter will discuss some of the everyday realities of Indian soldiers lives
during the First World War. Approximately 1.7 million sepoys were recruited, mobilised, and
shipped overseas to fight for the British Crown. While their contribution has been acknowledged,
their experiences of war in France and in the Middle East have been recognised only partially. Although this
event is free, you must register in advance to attend.
ACTIVITY
5
ENTRY
12 December 2015
76
December 2015
ENTRY
RIVER CRUISE
EVENT
13
ENTRY
ENTRY
DATES TO
REMEMBER
1 DECEMBER 2015
FREE
9 DECEMBER 2015
VINTAGE CHRISTMAS
5-6 December 2015
The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, BH20 6JG
www.tankmuseum.org
A Wartime Christmas
Imperial War Museum, Lambeth
Road, London, SE1 6HZ
www.iwm.org.uk
EXHIBITION
MHM VISITS
GALLERY TOUR
ENTRY
E H Shepard is best known for his drawings for Winnie-the-Pooh and The Wind in the Willows,
as well as his regular work for Punch magazine. This exhibition shows a different side of the great
20th-century illustrator, who served as an officer in the Royal Artillery during the First World War.
It is the first to explore Shepards wartime illustrations, drawn in the trenches on the Western Front
and in Italy, and includes over a hundred original artworks, including many never displayed before.
www.military-history.org
77
1915 had been a year of stalemate. The warring nations concluded they needed
more men, more guns, more shells. The winter of 1915/1916 saw a grim resolution
to escalate the war. Jeremy Black analyses the intensification of the First World
War, and the preparation for the great offensives at Verdun and the Somme.
over 10
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28/10/2015 12:35
TITIO S
PUT YOUR MILITARY HISTORY KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST WITH
THE MHM QUIZ, CROSSWORD, AND CAPTION COMPETITION
MHM QUIZ
On the 25 October 1415, Henry V led
an outnumbered army to glory on
French soil. The victory at Agincourt
was a pivotal moment in the Hundred
Years War, reinvigorating the English
campaign in France, and bolstering the
English crowns hereditary claims to
French land. Published for the 600th
anniversary of the battle, The Agincourt
Companion sets the scene for Henrys
MHM
CROSSWORD
NO 63
ACROSS
8 Battle fought in 1812 during Napoleons
retreat from Russia (8)
9 Israeli town taken by Egyptian forces
in May 1948 (6)
10 German arms manufacturer founded
in 1874 (6)
11 French company that produced many
fighter planes during World War I (8)
12 World War II dive bomber built by
Douglas (9)
13 Royal Navy Crown Colony class
cruiser launched in 1939 (5)
15 Knight of an order founded by Hugh
de Payns in the early 12th century (7)
17 Caribbean island where the Maroon
Wars were fought in the 17th and 18th
centuries (7)
20 Code name for the Allied intelligence
work centred on Bletchley Park (5)
80
December 2015
CAPTION COMPETITION
MHM
Answer
online at
www.
military-history.
org
DOWN
1 US state where the Battle of Coochs
Bridge was fought in 1777 (8)
2 British admiral born at Burnham
Thorpe, Norfolk, in 1758 (6)
3 Territory ceded to Britain from Spain
by the Treaty of Utrecht (9)
4 Old word for armour (7)
www.military-history.org
WINNER:
Tense moments for the four finalists of this
years Miss World War II contest as they await
the judges decision.
Dylan
RUNNERS-UP
That last victim said we couldnt hit the side of a barn
before we riddled him.
Les Quilter
Look, this is embarrassing. We cant all go to the fancy dress
party as Che Guevara. Whos up for tarts and vicars?
Ruth Bailey
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briefing
The British
WWII Ordnance
QF 25-pounder
Mark II Artillery
Piece
That's a bit of a mouthful
What was it?
It was the primary British field gun and howitzer of the Second World War.
It was able to provide both high-angle and direct fire at quick rates from
a mobile platform.
Sounds dangerous.
How did it work?
This was a bit of a drawn-out process in the inter-war years. The Royal Artillery
Committee wanted to replace the guns of WWI with a new design, but lack of
political will and money meant a new General Staff Specification was not drawn
up until 1934.
They were light, manoeuvrable, reliable, and versatile. They could be used in
either field-gun mode or in howitzer mode.
The Mark IIs carriage was designed to give it 40 of elevation and 5 of
depression, along with a traverse of 8. However, mounted on its circular firing
platform, it could rotate 360.
It could also fire a varied selection of ammunition, including high-explosive,
smoke, armour-piercing, and carrier rounds (for propaganda leaflets).