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Essays in military history (Author: TheHistoryNetwork.org)
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Recent episodes from The History Network

  • Published: Sep 8, 08
    The General Antoine-Henri Jomini writing in the 19th century defined logistics as "the practical art of moving armies..." and includes "providing for the successive arrival of convoys of supplies". The very base need of any commander throughout the history of war is to provide the magic three thousand calories a day a soldier needs... ... to march, to dig, to build and fight. Dur:17.45 File: .mp3
     
  • Published: Aug 22, 08
    The Balkan Wars of 1912-13 pushed the Ottoman Empire almost totally out of Europe, leaving her with a toe hold on Constantinople. Montenegro, Greece and Serbia, the Balkan League, after defeating the Turks then fell out over the spoils and fought one another. One result of this would be heightened Serbian aspirations which worried its Austria resulting in tensions that would inevitably lead the rest of Europe into World War One. File: .mp3 Dur: 12min
     
  • Published: Aug 8, 08
    By mid September 1944 the Allies had raced across France after hard fighting breaking out of the Bocage country of Normandy. On the Belgian-German border lies some 50 square miles of forest only eight miles deep and 25miles wide, with Aachen to the North. The Roer River ran along the eastern edge of the Hurtgen. Beyond it was the Rhine. This Forest, the Hurtgen, would see American troops fighting the longest battle in US history and even though they outnumbered the Germans five to one they would
     
  • Published: Jul 25, 08
    The Battle of Austerlitz, or Three Emperors, took place in December 1805. Out-numbered, Napoleon faced the combined forces of Emperor Francis II of Austria and Tsar Alexander I of Russia. Operating in enemy territory and having been on the move since Austria the battle would provide Napoleon with one of his greatest victories, smashing the Third Coalition against him. File: .mp3 Dur: 13min
     
  • Published: May 17, 08
    In 1896 20,000 Italians were thoroughly beaten by the Abyssinians at the battle of Adowa, 14,000 Italians were killed or missing with a further 4000 captured. This casualty rate was the highest of any European battle of the nineteenth century, including the Napoleonic wars. Yet only just over thirty years earlier the British with only 13,000 men marched 400 miles in three months, through mountains and over plains to defeat the Abyssinians with almost no loss of life to themselves. Dur: 11.53 Fil
     
  • Published: May 2, 08
    The history of the Ninja is hard to trace due to the scant records kept and even fewer being still in existence today. In fact, most of what is known about the Ninja has been passed down in stories and folklore from generation to generation, thus adding to the myth and mystery surrounding them. Dur: 16.34  File: .mp3
     
  • Published: Apr 18, 08
    For over a hundred years European armies had developed infantry tactics based round massed ranks of infantry firing in volleys to maintain a constant rate of fire, and this was due to the equipment at hand. The muzzle loading muskets, such as the Brown Bess, required a long series of actions to be carried out to load and discharge the weapon, and these were drilled in to troops from the day they joined the army. The needle gun with its bolt to open the chamber and the insertion of the bullet, in
     
  • Published: Apr 6, 08
    The battle of Gaugamela would be the final confrontation between Alexander the Great and Darius III the Persian King, one in which the Persian King had to win... or lose his empire. After being beaten two years previously at Issus, Darius had brought together an army of huge proportions drawn from throughout the empire. The battlefield would be of his choosing and fully prepared. On paper the odds were in his favour with his forces out numbering the Macedonians by at least three to one... Dur:12
     
  • Published: Apr 6, 08
    The battle of Gaugamela would be the final confrontation between Alexander the Great and Darius III the Persian King, one in which the Persian King had to win... or lose his empire. After being beaten two years previously at Issus, Darius had brought together an army of huge proportions drawn from throughout the empire. The battlefield would be of his choosing and fully prepared. On paper the odds were in his favour with his forces out numbering the Macedonians by at least three to one... Dur:12
     
  • Published: Feb 10, 08
    Midway is a small atoll in the Pacific, only 2.4 miles square and over two thousand miles from the Japanese mainland. With two airstrips and a small American naval base it was about to give its name as possibly the most important single naval engagement of the second world war, at the end of which five aircraft carriers would be sunk and the balance of naval power in the pacific shifted. File: .mp3 Dur: 19min
     
  • Published: Jan 27, 08
    Midway is a small atoll in the Pacific, only 2.4 miles square and over two thousand miles from the Japanese mainland. With two airstrips and a small American naval base it was about to give its name as possibly the most important single naval engagement of the second world war, at the end of which five aircraft carriers would be sunk and the balance of naval power in the pacific shifted. File: .mp3 Dur:21min
     
  • Published: Jan 15, 08
    Carl von Clausewitz the military theorist and historian wrote "War is merely a continuation of politics by other means", but can we wage war with out actually going to war? Do huge armies have to face one another for us to achieve our politic ends?? File: mp3 Dur: 14min
     
  • Published: Dec 30, 07
    Kohima is the capital of the Indian state of Nagaland, now in Bangladesh, high in the mountainous Naga hills. It was here the Imperial Japanese army would suffer its largest defeat of WWII thus far. The fighting was savage and proved to be a turning point for the British 14th army. It would gain a new confidence and prove its commander Bill Slim's new tactics to be a success. Mountbatten, Commander in Chief in South East Asia would describe it as: âprobably one of the greatest battles in histor
     
  • Published: Nov 18, 07
    Throughout history armies have looked to protect themselves whilst advancing. The greek hoplites developed the phalanx while the Romans used the testudo (or tortoise) whereby their interlocking shields could minimise the effects of the enemies' long-range offensive weapons.With the coming of the gun powder age nothing could stop a bullet, but the rate of fire was only limited. The first machine guns changed this, however. Thousands of rounds could be spewed forth slowing an enemy's advance, but
     
  • Published: Nov 4, 07
    In 1854 war broke out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire with Britain and France throwing there hat in with the Turks. Landing in the Crimea British and French defeated the Russians at Alma, driving them back and laid siege to Sevastopol, home of the Tsar's Black Sea Fleet. The French took up positions at Kamiesh whilst the British dug in at Balaclava... The following battle is the "boys own" stuff of legend, the "thin red line", the charge of the heavy brigade and the disastrous charge of th