Military History Monthly

December 2015 Issue 63 4.
50
www.military-history.org
CHARTING CONFLICT
Curious war cartography

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NAPOLEONS
MASTERPIECE
The Battle of Austerlitz, 1805
MPERIAL
PERIAL
USSIAS ARMY
rimean War to WWI
HAWKER
HURRICANE
Forgotten fighter of WWII
MHM
MILITARY
CHARTING CONFLICT
December 2015 Issue 63 4.50

Curious war cartography
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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD:

Martin Brown
Archaeological Advisor, Defence
Estates, Ministry of Defence
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
he centenary of Waterloo has reminded us what a

crude slugging match the battle was. A desperate
defence on one side. A succession of clumsy frontal
attacks on the other. A huge butchers bill.
Our special feature this month focuses on a very
different sort of battle, ten years before. Austerlitz, fought
on 2 December 1805 in the heart of Europe, was perhaps
Napoleons greatest masterpiece.
The basic idea was simple enough: to fix the flanks
and break through in the centre. The mastery was all
in the detail.
Victory depended on a minute appreciation of the
ground, a precise distribution of force along six miles of
front, and an elaborate deception plan designed to make
the enemy do exactly as the French commander wanted.
Then, however, matters depended on the Grande Arme.
But in 1805, after ten years of Revolutionary change and
Napoleonic reform, this had become the finest army of its
age a superb all-arms military machine based on mass,
morale, and mobility.
Also this issue, Stephen Roberts recalls the role of
that other great British fighter of the Second World
War, the Hawker Hurricane; Graham Goodlad analyses
the decline of the Tsarist Army between Borodino and
Tannenberg; and David Flintham reviews the coastal
defences of Henry VIII.
Military archivist, and archaeologist
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
HURRICANE
HUR IC
Forgotten
F g t n fighter
t r of WWII
W
ON THE COVER: Detail from Franois Grards

painting of the Battle of Austerlitz.
Image: Chteau de Versailles, France/Bridgeman
Images.
WHAT DO
YOU THINK?
Now you can have your opinions
on everything MHM heard online
as well as in print. Follow us on
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updates at www.facebook.com/
MilitaryHistoryMonthly.
Think you have spotted an error?
Disagree with a viewpoint? Enjoying
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on a wide range of different articles.
Alternatively, send an email to
feedback@military-history.org
Director-General, National Museum

of the Royal Navy
ADD US NOW
and have your say
Greg Bayne
President, American Civil War Table
of the UK
CONTRIBUTORS THIS MONTHS EXPERTS

DAVID FLINTHAM
is a military
historian with a
particular interest
in the 17th century, especially
fortifications and
sieges. David is a fellow of the Royal
Geographical Society.
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.
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MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY
December 2015 | ISSUE 63
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
Notes from the Frontline
Behind the Image
10
MHM looks at a photograph of

UN forces landing at Red Beach,
Korea, in 1950.
Conflict Scientists
12
Patrick Boniface assesses the

work of Irish-Australian inventor
Louis Brennan.
18 For God and Tsar
Imperial Russias army from

the Crimea to World War I
Graham Goodlad describes the
decline of the Tsarist army in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries.
44 Hawker Hurricane
Biography of a
battle-winning fighter
War Culture
14
MHM examines quirky war cartography

from Ashley Baynton-Williams
The Curious Map Book.
14
Stephen Roberts tells the story

of the other great British fighter
of the Second World War.
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
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BACK AT BASE | MHM REVIEWS
War on Film | 60
Taylor Downing reviews British
war film Dunkirk.
74
IN THE FIELD | MHM VISITS
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Richard Lucas travels to Genoa in Italy
to visit the Galata Maritime Museum.
Listings | 76
The best military history events.
Book of the Month | 64

Nick Hewitt reviews In Nelsons Wake:
the Navy and the Napoleonic Wars
by James Davey.
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.
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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
WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Let us know!
Your thoughts on issues raised
in Military History Monthly
Military History Monthly, Thames

Works, Church Street, London, W4 2PD
020 8819 5580
feedback@military-history.org
@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
A BRIDGE TOO FAR
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
of Ranville later named Horsa Bridge. Both of

these bridges were captured in the first minutes of
D-Day, as the first objectives of the Allied invasion
of Normandy.
Neville Jackson
Australia
May I congratulate the editor of Military History

Monthly and its contributors for an excellent magazine, featuring the Battle of Agincourt (MHM 61).
Contrary to the claim in the caption supporting
the picture of Jack Griffiths wearing a Glider Pilot
Regiment cap badge and a Parachute Regiment tie
(page 16), no bridges were destroyed on the River
Orne on D-Day, only those over the River Dives.
The River Orne and the Caen Canal, running in
parallel from Caen to the sea, formed the base of
the 6th Airborne Division bridgehead, which was
held for two months. The only bridges over these
two waterways of strategic importance were those
on the Canalat Bnouville later named Pegasus
Bridge and one over the Orne in the commune
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.
Our round-up of this months military history news
D-DAY LANDING CRAFT TO BE CONSERVED

A small group of D-Day veterans met
in a shipbuilding shed in Portsmouth
Naval Base to visit the recently raised
Second World War Landing Craft Tank
LCT 7074, prior to her conservation.
The vessel is the only one of her kind
left in Britain.
More than 800 LCTs took part in
the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 as
part of Operation Overlord. Its naval
dimension, Operation Neptune, was

the largest amphibious operation in
history, with more than 7,000 ships
and craft of all sizes landing over
160,000 soldiers on the beaches
of Normandy.
Professor Dominic Tweddle, Director
General of the National Museum of
the Royal Navy, which raised the
vessel, said, LCT 7074 is one of the
last of these vital workhorses
nown to have participated in D-Day.
rdinary vessels, they performed
an extraordinary task, carrying
up to ten Sherman tanks, and
transporting almost all the heavy
artillery and armoured vehicles that
landed in Normandy. This allowed
engine, propeller, and oxygen

tank among other finds.
RAF Spitfire X4593, of the
266 Rhodesian Squadron, nosedived into the peaty fenland on
a routine training flight, killing
Pilot Officer Harold Edwin
Penketh, aged 20.
Investigations into the crash
concluded that a failure of
the oxygen system or another
physical failure had occurred.
Eye-witness John Bliss said,
I went down there with my
father and the policeman.
There was an enormous crater,
which was slowly filling up with
::,,6SLWUH
H[FDYDWLRQ
water while we were there.

At Holme Fen the water table
is very high, and if you dig a
hole its not very long before
it fills up. There was quite a
lot of steam coming out of the
hull, as obviously the engine
was very hot.
The excavation coincided
with the 75th anniversary of
the Battle of Britain, and of the
crash itself, but most importantly the timing permitted
archaeologists to recover and
record material from the site,
before restoration of the area to
wetlands made this impossible.
D-Day Museum, where it is hope

the vessel, once restored, will be put
on public display.
LCT 7074 was raised from Liverpool
Docks last year. Despite her rusty
exterior, she is in remarkably good
condition, having been submerged in
brackish water, which has less salinity
than seawater. Conservators hope
work will be completed by the 75th
anniversary of D-Day in 2019.
Stephen Macaulay, Project

Director for Oxford Archaeology
East, said, We hoped that,
because the Spitfire crashed
in peat soil, the artefacts would
be well preserved, but the
condition of many of the finds,
including the headrest, oxygen
tank, and pilots helmet, was
beyond our expectations.
Image: Lauren Stonebridge
Image: Aviva Group Archives
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
the amphibious force to win major

engagements and remain equipped to
fight for months without a friendly port.
It was an emotional visit for
veteran John Jenkins, 96, who, sitting
by the hull of the vessel, reminisced
about his girl in the window: a
woman he first noticed in the window
of a ladies hat shop in 1938, to whom
he would be married for 74 years.
Separated from his wife during
the war, he landed on Gold Beach, in
Normandy, shortly after D-Day, and
now volunteers at Portsmouths
December 2015
6HFUHWV
RQ VKRZ
lso highlight Rutherfords

Christian faith: her drawings
ften focus on themes of
ebirth and Christ-like
esurrection.
The acquisition of
hese works complements
the Museums existing
collection of war art. The
rawings will be conserved
and digitised.
Image: British Library Board, Harley MS 326, f.29v
Image: James O Davies/His

toric
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.
The Holigost was a major part of Henry V s war

machine. It joined the royal fleet on 17 November
1415, and took part in operations between 1416
and 1420, playing a key role in two of the most
significant naval battles of the Hundred Years
War, which enabled Henry to conquer much of
France in the early 15th century.
The ship had a crew of 200 sailors in 1416,
but also carried large numbers of soldiers to
war, and as many as 240 in one patrol.
It carried seven cannon, but also bows and
arrows, poleaxes and spears, along with 102
gads fearsome iron spears thrown from
the topcastle (a small, railed platform at the
masthead). These could easily penetrate the
body armour of the period.
Historic England will undertake further study,
and assess the site for protection.
GOT A STORY?
Military History Monthly, Thames Works,

Church Street, London, W4 2PD
Let us know!
020 8819 5580
The George Cross

that was posthumously awarded
to Second World
War secret agent Violette Szab has been
put on permanent display in the Lord Ashcroft
Gallery at the Imperial War Museum, London.
During the war, Violette was recruited to the
Special Operations Executive, joining the French
F section, whose agents were sent undercover
to occupied France.
On the night of 7 June 1944, the day after
D-Day, Violette parachuted into France to set up
a network with local resistance groups.
Captured three days later by German soldiers,
she was brutally interrogated in prison before being deported to Germany. Violette was executed
in Ravensbrck concentration camp in 1945.
Her daughter, Tania Szab, commented, Her
legacy will live on and it is my hope that anyone
who visits the Imperial War Museum may be
inspired by her story.
Image: IWM
The Royal Museums Greenwich has

acquired a collection of 17 drawings by
extraordinary WWII artist and Voluntary
Aid Detachment nurse Rosemary Rutherford
(1912-1972). The works have not been on
public display before.
Trained at the Slade School of Art,
Rutherford became a Red Cross nurse in
1940, and experienced
first-hand the casualties,
suffering, and disorientation of war.
After obtaining permission from the War Artists
Advisory Committee,
she began recording her
experiences of WWII
through haunting and
evocative drawings of
nurses, hospital staff, and
recovering sailors.
Not only do these works
give an insight to womens
roles during the war, they
editorial@military-history.org
: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
Image: Crown Copyright courtesy

of the National Archives
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.
MHM BEHIND THE IMAGE
SURPRISE
ATTACK
On 15 September 1950, American-dominated

UN forces carried out the biggest amphibious
operation since WWII, landing deep behind
enemy lines at Inchon in Korea.
This photograph, taken by American reporter
and war correspondent Marguerite Higgins,
shows the second assault-wave landing on
the northern side of Red Beach.
Wooden scaling-ladders are being used to
disembark the LCVP landing craft that brought
the men to shore. First Lieutenant Baldomero
Lopez, from Tampa Florida, leads 3rd Platoon,
A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines over the
seawall. Lopez carries an M-1 Carbine, while
the other Marines carry M-1 Rifles.
The North Korean invasion of South Korea
had pushed most of the fighting to the Pusan
Perimeter in the south-east corner of the
peninsula. US Army commander Douglas
MacArthur had campaigned for a surprise
attack on the west coast at Inchon thought
to be a risky operation.
The attack, code-named Operation Chromite,
managed to catch the North Koreans off guard,
breaking their supply-lines, and paving the way
for UN forces to push inland and recapture the
capital at Seoul.
Just a few minutes after this photograph
was taken, Lieutenant Lopez was killed.
Exposing himself to enemy fire, he was
preparing to throw a grenade into a North
Korean bunker when he was shot in the right
shoulder and chest, falling backwards and
dropping the grenade.
He went to retrieve the weapon and,
when not able to grasp it firmly enough
to throw it, cradled it under his body to
absorb the impact of the explosion and save
his fellow soldiers. He was posthumously
awarded the Medal of Honor.
Text: Polly Heffer
Image: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
INCHON LANDINGS,
KOREA, 1950
11
Patrick Boniface considers the influence of science on warfare
LOUIS
BRENNAN
It is not only your

torpedo we want to buy.
We want to buy your
brains as well.
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
ouis Brennan was born in

Ireland, but her verdant green
hills were barely home to this
mans brilliant mind. Shortly
after his ninth birthday, his family
made the decision to transplant to
Melbourne in Australia.
The young Louis was educated
at the local technical college and
attended evening classes in engineering at Collingwood Artisans
School of Design. Such was his
aptitude for devising engineering
solutions that, as a 21-year-old
man, he put on a spellbinding
display at the Juvenile Industries
Exhibition, held at Victoria in 1873,
with designs for a billiard marker,
a mincing machine, and a window
safety latch.
Such brilliance rarely goes
undiscovered, and Brennan
came to the attention of wealthy
industrialist Alexander Kennedy
Smith, who fostered the young
mans creativity.
missile. The simple process of

pulling the thread on the reel from
underneath saw the reel move
away. The faster Brennan tugged at
the line, the faster the reel moved.
While this process fascinated the
young inventor, he had to wait
weeks before he could think of
a practical use for it.
His Eureka moment came when
he was introduced to the Victoria
Volunteer Artillery Regiment,

whose sister-unit was the Victoria
Torpedo Corps. He knew he had
found a practical application
for his cotton-reel observation:
an anti-ship torpedo that was
directed to its target by the use
of a strong line.
Brennan developed the system
further, patenting the Brennan
Torpedo on 1 February 1878. He
showed off his design in public

for the first time in the spring of
1879, on the shores of Melbournes
Hobson Bay.
The weapon was described as
looking like a childs coffin, fatter
BELOW The Brennan Torpedo was
driven by counter-rotating propellers
connected to two reels of wire inside
the body of the weapon.
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
MHM CONFLICT SCIENTISTS
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 the middle, with tapering ends

to the front and rear. Inside were
two reels of wire, each 3km long,
attached to two propellers. The
torpedo was attached to a steamdriven machine, which pulled the
wire at breakneck speed. It was
steered towards its intended target
by a gunner, who judged distance
and speed by sight. The demonstration ended with the torpedo
successfully striking a target-boat,
moored 400m away. The military

were impressed, and the Royal
Navy in London informed.
As a result, Brennan was invited
to London to show off his invention
to the Royal Navy. Four years would
elapse before the Navy expressed
any further interest: they had been
reluctant to buy the torpedo since
it was, in its early stages, cumbersome to transport, weighing close
to three tonnes.
Brennan, however, was not one
to be deterred. He found a friend
and advocate in Sir Andrew Clarke,
who campaigned on his behalf. The
IN CONTEXT: BRENNAN
Revolutionary designs
In the late Victorian era, military strategy and technology were

changing and expanding in ways that had not been conceived
of just a few years earlier. Into this maelstrom of development
emerged an unlikely genius from County Mayo in Ireland, by
the name of Louis Brennan.
Brennan would be credited with inventing the worlds first
guided-missile system, but his contribution extends much
further, from locomotives to motorcycles and helicopters.
Indeed, it was his designs for a gyroscopic monorail that led
Sir Winston Churchill to exclaim, Sir, your invention promises
to revolutionise the railway systems of the world.
Louis Brennan, however, will always be remembered as the
man who devised the Brennan Torpedo, the worlds first steerable guided-weapon system. It made him famous and, for a short
while, rich. Furthermore, such was the advanced nature of his
work that some details of his torpedo designs are still, over 100
years later, classified.
four years also allowed Brennan

to enhance his design, so that by
1885 it could be guided all the way
to the target, run at 40 knots, and
had a range of 3km.
Once the Royal Navy accepted
this new weapon, they built a
series of fortifications around the
British coast between 1884 and
1894, as well as at Malta and at
Fort Camden, near Crosshaven,
County Cork. The Brennan torpedo
would, for the next two decades,
be a crucial part of Great Britains
coastal defence strategy, until
superseded by artillery.
Brennan was paid handsomely
for his work, and was honoured by
Queen Victoria with a Companion
of the Order of Bath in May 1892.
His wealth brought him a large
house for his family. Even though
he had made his money from the
torpedo, his inventive flair never
left him, and he went on to create a
gyroscopically balanced monorail
system, an 800m track version
of which filled a large part of his
garden. Sadly, the monorail also
sapped his personal wealth, and
Brennan paid his workforce from
his own pocket when funds ran dry.
Having lost his fortune, which
forced him to sell his beloved home,
Brennan worked during WWI at
the Royal Aircraft Establishment
in Farnborough, in the munitions
inventions department. In 1919,
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.
13
Today, maps are considered instruments of navigational

precision, though they have often been used as channels
for cultural self-definition. Designed to depict both local
and global arrangements of diverse lands, they have
long been used as vehicles to convey political and
propagandistic messages.
The art of map-making stretches across 14,000 years of
human history. The earliest maps were engravings, which
recorded basic geographical features on stone tablets. Over
time, however, depictions of the physical world grew ever
more intricate, and were relied on by armies, merchants, and
travellers to ensure safe passage from one place to another.
But map-makers also used their artistic skills to create
maps for pleasure and entertainment. Drawing on cultural
stereotypes and allegories, some produced satirical
geographies of the world, especially in times of war.
Others sought to distract their users from the harsh

realities of conflict by fashioning game maps based on
militarised landscapes.
The degree of accuracy reflected in these maps could
vary widely. William Nicholsons The Evil Genius of Europe,
for example, uses the natural lay of the land to its advantage,
capitalising wittily on the shape of the Italian peninsula.
Kisaburo Oharas A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe
and Asia, on the other hand, is less restricted by topography
in personifying Eurasias constituent countries.
In a new book published by the British Library, Ashley
Baynton-Williams has collected and analysed 100 entertaining
and imaginative maps, produced between 1493 and 2008.
The book includes high-quality reproductions of a variety
of cartographic curiosities. Here, MHM features six creative
maps born of war.
14
December 2015
1904. Kisaburo Ohara, Tokyo. Chromolithograph

Russia was often depicted as an octopus in
European allegorical cartography, to emphasise
her sprawling evil. This map depicts Eurasia
during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
MHM WAR CULTURE
1. A HUMOROUS DIPLOMATIC ATLAS OF

EUROPE AND ASIA
2. MAP OF EUROPE, 1859.

ILLUSTRATIVE WAR SCENE
1859. Jacobus Johannes van Brederode,

Haarlem. Lithograph
Here, King Victor Emmanuel II clings to the leg
of Emperor Napoleon III. During the Second
Italian War of Independence (1859), the Kingdom
of Sardinia sought aid from France.
3. THE EVIL GENIUS OF EUROPE
1859. William Nicholson, London. Lithograph

Napoleon IIIs cunning in the Second Italian War
of Independence is represented by his slipping
on the boot of the Italian peninsula.
4. A NEW MAP OF ENGLAND & FRANCE
1793. James Gillray, London. Copper etching

After the French Revolution, Britain fought
France in the War of the First Coalition (17921797). The French threat prompted this amusing,
scatological portrayal of the Channel.
15
5
5. HARK! HARK! THE DOGS DO BARK!
1914. Johnson Riddle & Co., London. Chromolithograph

This light-hearted take on the early part of the First World War uses
canine comparisons to play on national stereotypes. Baynton-Williams
speculates that this map was intended for use by children, designed to
animate and simplify the complexities of war.
6. THE SILVER BULLET OR THE ROAD TO BERLIN (GAME)
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
Images: British Library
The Curious Map Book

by Ashley Baynton-Williams
British Library, 25.00
ISBN 978-0712356190
6
16
December 2015
God
Tsar
IMPERIAL RUSSIAS ARMY FROM

THE CRIMEA TO WORLD WAR I
Historian Graham Goodlad

asks why Russias army failed
to meet the challenges of
war in the declining years
of Tsarist autocracy.
All images: WIPL
sarist Russias final century was

punctuated by a series of serious
military reverses. Defeat in the
Crimean War of 1853-1856 was
followed by further disaster in
the Russo-Japanese War 50 years later, and the
armys poor performance in the First World
War was a critical factor in the collapse of the
autocracy in the February 1917 revolution.
Yet these disasters befell a country whose
military strength had played a major role in
the downfall of Napoleon in the early 19th
century. In the legendary campaign of 1812,
when France invaded its homeland, Russias
defensive strategy was of devastating effect.
The French were drawn into the countrys
bleak interior, where a combination of harassment by cavalry, deteriorating weather, and
hunger and disease put paid to the French
emperors dream of conquest. Russian troops
then helped to push Napoleon back into
France, forcing his abdication in 1814.
OPPOSITE PAGE The Battle of Borodino,
7 September 1812. The Tsars army played a
central role in the downfall of Napoleon between
1812 and 1814. Thereafter the Russian military
tradition went into steep decline. What went wrong?
Just over 40 years later, Russia was to be

beaten by a hostile alliance whose troops
invaded its territory and established a bridgehead on the shores of the Black Sea. The
Crimean War saw Russia lose heavily to the
combined but by no means militarily impressive
forces of Britain, France, Sardinia, and Turkey.
In the wake of this catastrophe, the empires
autocratic leadership overhauled its military
system, and then managed to defeat Turkey in
a short war in 1877-1878.
A generation later, however, to widespread
surprise, the rising power of Japan inflicted a
major defeat on Russia in the Far East. In the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, fought in
Manchuria (todays North Korea and northeast China), the Tsarist forces lost every battle.
This was a curtain-raiser for the Great War,
which broke out ten years later. Although it
achieved some temporary successes against its
German and Austro-Hungarian opponents on
the Eastern Front, the Russian army ultimately
proved unequal to the challenges it faced.
Why did the Russian military lose so
many contests in the twilight years of
imperial rule?
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
ABOVE The Battle of Inkerman, 5 November 1854.

The Russians suffered three successive battlefield
defeats in the Crimea at the Alma, Balaclava, and
Inkerman and then lost the great naval base at
Sevastopol. The need for military reform was obvious.
BELOW The Siege of Plevna, 1877. This was the

central action of the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878).
The Russians were eventually victorious but only
in a local war against the Sick Man of Europe.
We have no army: we have a horde of

slaves cowed by discipline, ordered about
by thieves and slave traders.
Leo Tolstoy
Although contemporaries spoke fearfully of
he mighty Russian steamroller, the Tsar was
unable to wage war on the Eastern Front without Western allies. By now, however, Russia
had formed an alliance with France, whose
army of four million evened up the odds.
Numbers in relation to territory or mass
n relation to space was only one part of
Russias problem. Throughout the period, the
Russian Army was composed overwhelmingly
of conscripted peasants. Until 1861, when Tsar
Alexander II belatedly decreed their emancipaion, these were agricultural serfs, selected by
heir village elders, who served for 20-year terms.
Russian practice differed sharply from that
of most Western countries, which tended by
he mid 19th century to favour short service
and the build-up of a trained reserve. Taken
from their homes for what was effectively a life
entence under arms, Russian soldiers tried
o recreate the sense of community they had
known in their rural communes.
On the whole, the quality of Tsarist troops
n the Crimea was poor. Commune leaders
ried to keep back the best men for agriculural work, so that a disproportionate number
of draftees were those judged to be troublemakers. Most soldiers were illiterate.
A dogged sense of loyalty to the Tsar, reinorced by the rituals of the Orthodox Church,
helped to bind them together. The year-long
defence of Sevastopol in the Crimean War, for
December 2015
RIGHT & BELOW RIGHT The Russo-Japanese War

(1904-1905) stunned the world. A rising Asiatic
power defeated one of Europes traditional great
states. Inside Russia, the disaster triggered the
first (abortive) revolution.
example, began with a religious procession,

and icons and lamps adorned the defences of
the beleaguered fortress. Many soldiers maintained a nave belief that they would be granted
liberation from serfdom as a reward for service.
BRUTALITY AND STUPIDITY

The troops displayed remarkable courage and
endurance under fire, reinforced by brutal
physical punishment. In a minor concession
introduced after the Crimean War, the maximum number of lashes permitted was reduced
from 6,000 to a still incredible 1,500 strokes.
The savagery of military life led the writer Leo
Tolstoy, who witnessed the war at first hand as an
artillery officer, to write that we have no army:
we have a horde of slaves cowed by discipline,
ordered about by thieves and slave traders.
Officers showed little concern for their
mens welfare, and training laid great emphasis
on the detail of drill rather than the development of tactics. Karl Marx wrote scornfully that
those who secured promotion were usually
martinets, whose principal merit consists of
stolid obedience and ready servility added to
accuracy of eyesight in detecting a fault in the
buttons and buttonholes of the uniform.
This obsession with regulation and discipline, dubbed paradomania by some observers, was in part a response to the inefficiency
of the firearms issued to the infantry. The
standard weapon was still the smoothbore percussion musket, which was wholly outclassed
by the Mini rifled musket that had been
issued to the British Army.
As a result, Russian soldiers were forced to
rely more on cold steel than accurate fire a
principle embodied in the much-quoted words
of the Napoleonic-era general Suvorov that
the bullet is a fool, the bayonet a fine fellow.
Throughout the period, regulations insisted
that the bayonet should be permanently fixed
when soldiers were in the zone of combat.
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
BACKWARDS INTO THE FUTURE

Defeat in the Crimea forced the Tsarist regime
to undertake a partial modernisation of the
countrys military and social system. The emancipation of the serfs was now unavoidable if the
empire was to go down the path of managed
change rather than undergo outright revolution.
The indebted gentry were obliged to give
up ownership of their peasants, in return for
redemption payments levied on the land now
transferred to the freed serfs in effect, the
latter had to pay for their own liberation.
In 1874, a reforming War Minister, Dmitry
Miliutin, introduced universal conscription,
21
TSARIST ARMY
ABOVE The Imperial Russian Army in 1914. From left

to right: an infantryman of the line, an artilleryman,
a cavalryman of the guard, a dragoon, and a Cossack.
they captured in 1915, the Germans found

some two million shells stockpiled to equip
almost 6,000 heavy guns. Russias Great War
field artillery, on the other hand, was allocated
a shell reserve per gun that was half that of the
French and a third that of the Germans.
Efforts were also made to improve the
weaponry available to the infantry. By the
time of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878,
troops had been issued either with a converted
muzzle-loading rifle, the Krenk, or with a
single-shot, bolt-action rifle, the Berdanka.
From 1891, the Army adopted the superior
It could still
take between
30 and 50 days to
make the journey
from Moscow to
Manchuria.
22
.30 calibre Mosin, a clip-loaded magazine rifle

with a range of more than 2,000 yards, which
was still holding its own against the models
favoured by the countrys opponents in the
First World War.
Russias War Ministry also recognised the
importance of the machine-gun, purchasing
the reliable Vickers-Maxim, which, with a rate of
fire of 250 rounds per minute, equalled the firepower of 50 infantrymen in a defensive position.
Like all European armies prior to 1914,
the Russian military assumed that frontal
assault by waves of infantry was the way to
capture enemy positions. In 1900, it was
decided that the distance over which troops
would charge with the bayonet should be
reduced from 1,000 paces to 300. Yet, with
Russian troops still organised in close formations, this was incapable of reducing significantly the losses caused to attacking troops
by massed artillery- and rifle-fire.
At the same time, attention was given to
defensive tactics. The key features of trench
warfare were present a full decade before the
outbreak of the First World War, notably in the
six-month-long defence of Port Arthur against
the forces of Japan.
This was still an army that functioned on
the basis of detailed instructions, and in which
little importance was attached to initiative.
It was the reverse of the mission-oriented
approach that had been part of German military practice for a generation, whereby junior
officers were required to think for themselves,

within an overall framework laid down by the
commander. Russian soldiers had not moved
beyond the volley-firing, on the orders of an
officer, that had typified 19th-century battles.
Sheer numbers, combined with the stolid
endurance of adversity of the Russian peasant
conscript, was expected to deliver victory.
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
carrying-capacity, meant that munitions and

weapons failed to reach the theatre of war
quickly enough in the required quantities.
Transit speeds improved from October 1904,
with the completion of the rail line around
Lake Baikal. This meant that troops and
equipment no longer had to be moved across
the 35-mile-wide strip of water by ship and,
in winter, over the frozen ice. Nonetheless, it
could still take between 30 and 50 days to make
the journey from Moscow to Manchuria.
Shortages of rolling stock, conflicts between
railway managers and the military, and the
tendency of senior officers to use the line
for their own private purposes, all prevented
the Trans-Siberian Railway from operating
at full capacity.
CASE STUDY: THE BATTLE OF THE ALMA, SEPTEMBER 1854

In this battle, which took place soon after British
and French troops had landed on the Crimean
peninsula, the invaders encountered Russian
forces drawn up on high ground on the opposite
side of the River Alma, blocking the way to the
key fortress town of Sevastopol.
Although the Russians occupied a strong
defensive position, they faced an adversary armed
with a new and much more accurate weapon: the
Mini rifle. Rather than a smooth ball, it fired a
conical bullet with a hollow base, which expanded
to fit the grooves inside the barrel. The Mini was
lethal from well beyond the range of the Russian

infantrys weapons.
As the Russian engineer Eduard Totleben recalled,
our infantry with their muskets could not reach
the enemy at greater than 300 paces, while
they fired on us at 1,200. The enemy, perfectly
convinced of the superiority of his small-arms,
avoided close combat; every time our battalions
charged, he retired for some distance, and began
a murderous fusillade.
Russian casualties exceeded 5,000 men, while
total allied losses were in the region of 3,600.
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.
The First World War caught Russias Army

in the middle of an incomplete process of
modernisation. Ironically, the year that its
high command had set for the completion
of its grand programme, aimed at making
Russia Europes greatest military power, was
1917. This was to be the year in which, under
the pressure of global conflict and industrialised war, the Tsarist system fell victim to
internal revolution. In the end, ancien rgime
Russia ran out of time.
FAILURE AT THE TOP

In spite of successive attempts at reform, critical deficiencies at the level of command and
control persisted. Seniority rather than ability
was the main criterion for promotion, and the
officer corps was divided by faction-fighting
and professional jealousies. In the August
1914 campaign in East Prussia, the fact that
Here the corpses

do not so much
appear to be
escaping from the
ground as to be
the ground itself.
Ian Hamilton
CASE STUDY: THE DEFENCE OF PORT ARTHUR,

JULY 1904 TO JANUARY 1905
The siege of Port Arthur, a key Russian naval base
on the Liaotung peninsula in Manchuria, was the
longest action of the Russo-Japanese War.
Although the garrison was significantly outnumbered by the attacking Japanese forces, the city
possessed formidable defences in the form of
a series of heavily fortified hills. Many of Port
Arthurs defensive features were to become
familiar in the battles of the First World War,
with overlapping fields of fire, machine-gun
emplacements protected by barbed-wire
entanglements, minefields, searchlights, and
artillery batteries connected by telephone to
field headquarters.
The Japanese eventually overwhelmed the base

by mining under the fortifications and deploying
huge 280mm howitzers.
Both sides showed a willingness to accept heavy
casualties. In one part of the action alone, the battle
for 203 Metre Hill, the Russians suffered almost 5,000
killed and wounded, the Japanese close to 12,000.
The accounts of foreign military observers testified
to the horrors of the intense hand-to-hand fighting,
as men encountered each other across mounds of
mangled, unburied corpses. In the words of Britains
General Ian Hamilton, Here the corpses do not so
much appear to be escaping from the ground as to
be the ground itself.
23
TSARIST ARMY
ABOVE The Tsar tries on a variety of uniforms

from left to right, those of the Cuirassiers of the
Guard, His Majestys Hussars, the Grodno Hussars,
the Preobrazhensky Regiment, and the Cossacks.
It was obligatory
for the side
commanded by the
Tsar on manoeuvres
to emerge as
the winner.
24
Rennenkampf and Samsonov belonged to

rival factions was a major problem.
Russias chances of success were further
undermined by problems higher up the chain
of command. At the start of the war, Tsar
Nicholas II appointed his cousin, Grand Duke
Nicholas, as supreme commander of his countrys forces. The latter not only lacked experience of strategic planning, but his effectiveness
was also limited by his inability to work with the
War Minister, Vladimir Sukhomlinov.
Friction was reduced by the Tsars decision
to replace his cousin in August 1915, but this
was insufficient to overcome the wider problems
of the military establishment.
No less seriously, Russia lacked an efficient
general staff of the kind developed by
Germany. The staff was subordinate to the
War Ministry, and its personnel lacked the
standing to assert themselves over the aristocratic officers mainly in the guards and the
cavalry who still dominated the Army.
Hidebound deference to social superiors
reduced the worth of military exercises. Thus it
was obligatory for the side commanded by the
Tsar on manoeuvres to emerge as the winner.
There were insufficient staff officers

to work out plans, and the opening campaigns of the First World War revealed an
inability to communicate effectively with
the battlefront.
It was little wonder that the Russian Army
struggled against Germanys more efficient
war machine. The empires troops were let
down by their leaders. The fruits of this were
military failure, progressive demoralisation,
and the erosion of discipline, which, by early
1917, had doomed the Tsarist regime.
Graham Goodlad teaches History and Politics
at St Johns College, Southsea.
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
ABOVE Napoleon commissioned French

artist Franois Grard (1770-1837) to
commemorate his victory at Austerlitz.
The painting depicts a romantic, highly
idealised scene in which General Jean
Rapp (1771-1821) presents the
defeated Prince Repnin to Napoleon.
26
December 2015
Introduction
A
A
usterlitz was not one of world historys most

decisive battles. Eight years later, on the battlefield
of Leipzig, its outcome would be reversed.
But, at the time, it was a political earthquake:
the upstart emperor, the soldier of revolution,
the man from nowhere now stood on a par with the scions of ancient
royal dynasties. Indeed, he had surpassed them. They still looked more
resplendent in their plumes, sashes, and gold braid, but it was the little
man in the cocked hat and plain grey coat who was the victor.
Austerlitz broke the resistance of Habsburg Austria, chased
Romanov Russia back inside its eastern homeland, and destroyed
the diplomatic edifice painstakingly constructed by Hanoverian
Britain. In short, it established the European hegemony of
Napoleonic France.
Despite Leipzig and Waterloo, the world was never the same after
1805. Austerlitz sounded the death-knell of ancien rgime Europe,
for the conservative social orders and creaking military traditions of
the other Great Powers had been exposed as anachronisms by the
dynamism of revolutionary France.
Napoleons brilliance was a concentrated expression of the potential

of a new way of war based on the mass, morale, and mobility of a nation
in arms. In the French Army, each man was a citizen with rights as well as
obligations; each officer had been promoted on merit rather than birth;
and each regulation could be justified by effectiveness, not tradition.
After ten years of defeat, Frances enemies were adapting: but too
slowly to catch up. French armies marched faster, manoeuvred better,
and fought with greater aggression, lan, and system.
The new way of war had been forged in the fires of revolution and war,
despite the chaos of insurrections and coups, of divisions and defections,
in a decade of internal upheaval that had frequently imperilled the
survival of the nation.
But in 1804 Napoleon had made himself Emperor of the French, and
the following year he dubbed the new army he had assembled on the
Channel coast La Grande Arme. There was now a single, unified, centralised state; a sole autocrat who was both head of state and commander-inchief; and one great national army.
The leaders supremacy was unchallenged. The instrument of conquest
had been forged. The time had come for a lightning war to dazzle the world.
27
The Commanders
The Three Emperors

Ian Maycock considers the opposing commanders at the Battle of Austerlitz.
The French Emperor
He sought to
equate personal
success and
national triumph.
28
Image: WIPL
The coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte

(1769-1821) in 1804 deflated Royalist hopes
of restoring the Bourbons. The Emperor
hoped to legitimise an hereditary Bonapartist
dynasty, and in time produce a successor.
This move, however, challenged the status
of Francis of Austria (1768-1835) as Holy
Roman Emperor, fuel being added to the
diplomatic fire when Bonaparte declared
himself King of Italy, extending the French
sphere of influence into a region traditionally
dominated by Austria.
Although Napoleons new Code Civil
of 1804 a condensed single volume of
law based on that of the Ancien Rgime
and the Revolution proclaimed equality
before the law, it also enabled the state
to intervene in the private affairs of the
citizen. Accordingly, by the end of 1800,
all newspapers except nine had been
closed down, and those that remained
were heavily censored; private correspondence was routinely opened; spy networks
flourished; and imprisonment without trial
was commonplace.
The Concordat of 1802 effectively
reconciled the Church to the Bonapartist
regime, defusing pro-Royalist feeling while
attempting to make political agents out of
village priests. Moreover, it signalled an
end to Republicanism and the beginning
of Bonapartes autocratic rule.
Thus, in the years between his seizure
of power in 1799 and the campaign of
1805, Napoleon had transformed France
and established an extraordinary personal

ascendancy. France was united, streamlined,
centralised as never before.
Napoleon attempted to placate public
opinion through spectacular battlefield
victories and lucrative conquest (France was
to gain an estimated 50 million francs from
Austerlitz). He sought to equate personal
success and national triumph. To maintain
a grip on his empire, Napoleon relied on
members of his extended family, many of
whom simply enriched themselves at the
ABOVE Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821).
expense of their master and the people

over whom they ruled.
The regime appeared precarious. Astute
Frenchmen of dubious loyalty like foreign
minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
(1754-1838) and police chief Joseph Fouch
(1759-1820), guessing that Napoleons hold
on power would be brief, conducted private
negotiations with Third Coalition diplomats
prior to Austerlitz.
December 2015
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
BELOW Emperor Francis II of Austria (1768-1835).
control of the French state and its army. The

campaign of 1805 an autumn blitzkrieg that
destroyed the Third Coalition represented
the summit of his military achievement.
The Russian Tsar
Tsar Alexander I (1777-1825) reportedly

fled the field of Austerlitz in tears. The
young monarch had effectively seized
control of the army from the veteran
general Mikhail Kutusov (1745-1813)
prior to the battle with dire results
for Russia.
Having ascended the throne in
1801 following the assassination of
his father Paul (1754-1801), Alexander
had flattered, attempted to emulate, and
then finally squared up to Napoleon in
response to the latters expansion into
the eastern Mediterranean, Germany,
Italy, and the Balkans.
Russia assumed the role of defender
of the European political and social order
against the disruptive impact of Napoleonic
France a role as the gendarme of Europe
that it would retain throughout the 19th century. Alexander knew that he could not break
the power of the Bonapartist state alone, so
he entered into alliance with Austria, and
sought one with Prussia also.
Despite the disaster at Austerlitz, creating
and sustaining future coalitions would prove
to be Alexanders most notable achievement.
He insisted that the rolling back of French
conquests and the toppling of the ogre
from his throne were the only way to achieve
peace and stability in Europe.
Alexanders military competence was
another matter. He ignored the advice of
Kutusov a socially well-connected aristocrat
rather than the wily peasant of War and Peace
and insisted on giving battle at Austerlitz
when to do so played into Napoleons hands.
Kutusov in 1805, as in 1812 favoured a
retreat to extend the enemys supply-lines
to breaking point.
The Austrian Emperor
The rivalry between the Archduke Charles

(1771-1847), brother of Emperor Francis
(1768-1835), and General Karl Mack
(1752-1828) split the Austrian high command. Charles has often been portrayed
(not least by Austrian historians) as
the anti-Napoleon.
Certainly, he advised against war in 1805,
and was to defeat Napoleon in a set-piece
battle at Aspern-Essling in 1809. However, the
fact that his proposed political and military
reforms had not been acted on prior to 1805
led to his rather half-hearted participation in
the Austerlitz campaign.
ABOVE Tsar Alexander I (1777-1825).
Instead of trusting Charles, Francis and his

hawkish advisers turned to the ambitious son of
a saddle-maker, General Mack, who promised
he could implement reforms and still mobilise
the army in time to meet the French.
Mack pushed for the main Austrian effort
to be made along the Danube, while Charles
had proposed Italy as the main theatre of war.
Mack was lured into the Black Forest defiles,
outflanked by the Grande Arme, and then
allowed himself to become bottled up at Ulm.
Emperor Francis, demoralised and disoriented by the disaster, then became prey
to another military adventurer, Francis von
Weyrother (1755-1806). Convinced that the
French were on the back foot, Weyrothers
aggressive and complex plan for an all-out
Coalition attack on the left at Austerlitz was
exactly what Napoleon had hoped for.
The double disaster at Ulm and Austerlitz
coupled with the fall of his capital (Vienna)
broke the spirit of the Austrian Emperor, who
sought an interview with Napoleon the day
after the second battle to secure an armistice,
and had signed the Peace of Pressburg within
the month.
29
The Armies
Mustering the Troops

Ian Maycock reviews the armies at the Battle of Austerlitz.
LA GRANDE ARME
The French Revolution created both problems
and opportunities for the new state that
emerged from it. French governments could
no longer rely on a well-drilled professional
army capable of the complex battlefield
manoeuvres that had characterised the
European killing-fields of the Seven Years
War. Instead, huge levies of enthusiastic but

untrained troops had to make up in lan and
vigour for what they lacked in textbook drill.
Unsurprisingly, the old officer corps was
looked on as a potential hotbed of counterrevolution, since, in 1789, 85% of new officers were drawn from the nobility. This had
fallen to fewer than 3% by 1799 a measure
of the upheavals of the Revolution, which,

on the one hand, had caused many aristocrats to flee and others to be purged, and,
on the other, had made of the French officer
corps a career open to talent.
In 1790 conscription was introduced, and
in 1793 the National Convention brought in
the leve en masse, whereby all French males
were conscripted into the army until an unspecified time of national crisis had elapsed.
If the state claimed to be the legitimate
voice of the people, then it stood to reason
that the citizen was duty-bound to defend the
state. Thus the nation in arms was born: a
military meritocracy wherein the individuals
social standing depended on his military role.
In consequence, by the end of 1794, France
could boast an unprecedented 700,000
men under arms. This was the base metal
from which Napoleon would later forge
La Grande Arme.
THE CORPS SYSTEM

For the Austerlitz campaign, the French
deployed an army of seven corps (approximately 176,000 men in total), an arrangement that gave them the operational edge
over their opponents, both in manoeuvre
and flexibility.
Napoleon had improvised a corps system
in Italy in 1800, in effect creating small,
independent, all-arms armies of 25,000-30,000
men, each capable of travelling along a
separate route of march, foraging for themselves, yet remaining close enough to their
neighbours for mutual support and rapid
concentration. If well handled, the corps
was capable of holding off a more numerous
opponent until help arrived.
Subdividing armies into self-contained
divisions was not, in fact, new: it had been
done during the Seven Years War. But the
French revived the practice, and Napoleon
Image: WIPL
LEFT By 1805, the French cavalry had become as

good as any in the world. Shown here is a light
cavalryman of the Chasseurs Cheval. Napoleons
light cavalry played a key role in the campaign,
screening his strategic movement from the enemy,
which allowed him to carry out his manoeuvres
unobserved and achieve complete surprise.
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.
turned it into one of the foundation-blocks

of his strategic method though the corps
system could go awry if wayward marshals
deviated from their strategic objectives or
route marches became disrupted.
Undaunted by unfavourable odds,
Napoleons main strategic aim was nearly
always to crush his opponents field forces.
This was best achieved by lightning marches
and manoeuvres, the French often appearing
behind or on the flank of the enemy.
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.
Moving against what he considered to be

the strongest force, Napoleons aim would be
to destroy this before turning his whole force
against the second.
LINES, COLUMNS, AND SWARMS

French regiments would deploy into line for
defence and in order to utilise firepower, but
into a column for attack though, on occasion,
they employed a combination of both, as
prescribed in the dominant military manual
of 1791, which remained the basis of French
drill throughout the Napoleonic period.
Swarms of skirmishing light infantry
would precede the advance of the dense
columns of attack, both to disrupt the cohesion
and stolidity of the opposing formations,
and also to screen the close-packed columns
against enemy fire.
Utilising the French

superiority in
manoeuvre, he
would then attempt
to pin his victim
against some
natural barrier prior
to destroying him.
31
Images: WIPL
LEFT The Russian Imperial Guard Cavalry captures

a French regimental eagle during the fierce fighting
for the Pratzen Heights on 2 December 1805. The
Russian Guards were the preserve of the nobility;
line regiments were officered by local gentry; the
rank and file was formed of peasant-conscripts.
The artillery arm underwent considerable

expansion, civilian gun-teams being replaced
by military personnel, replacement parts standardised, and artillery pieces recast into 6-, 12-,
and 24-pdrs. The grand batteries that defined
many of Napoleons later set-piece battles
notably Waterloo were, however, for the
future. Guns were concentrated at Austerlitz,
but in a series of discrete detachments.
The Army of England eventually
named La Grande Arme was a mixture
of conscripts and revolutionary veterans,
and arguably the best that Napoleon ever
commanded. The sale of Louisiana to the
United States and the exorbitant taxes
levied on client-states meant that the French
coffers had been filled, enabling the newly
crowned emperor to expand both the Army
and the Navy with the very real intention of
invading the British Isles.
The fact that, by late 1805, the Army had
been camped along the French coast for
32
nearly two years in a state of battle-readiness

meant that the troops were proficient in drill
and familiar with the commanders who would
lead them in the Austerlitz campaign.
That Napoleon was both head of state
and also commander-in-chief meant that the
French forces could move decisively once war
was declared, without the internal wrangling
that bedevilled the Coalition armies.
THE COALITION ARMIES

It is erroneous to claim that the Coalition
deployed outmoded 18th-century armies at
Austerlitz, and that these proved no match
for the modernised French. By 1805,
Napoleons enemies had gone some way
towards reorganising their forces into allarms corps, and were using skirmishers almost
as extensively as the French. And during the
Austerlitz campaign, Austrian units trudged
through Germany without magazines, to all
intents and purposes living off the land.
Although structural reform of the

Coalition armies took place in the wake
of Austerlitz, the forces that defeated
Napoleon during 1813-1815 were not so
very different from those of 1805-1807.
What did change was the Allies ability
to forge themselves into an effective war
coalition with clear and realisable aims.
The Seven Years War (1754-1763) had
virtually bankrupted Austro-Hungary
and Prussia, and the reasons for the
Austrian debacle during 1805 were as
much economic as military.
Austria, unlike Prussia, found herself
in an unenviable and precarious strategic
position as the Napoleonic era dawned.
Whatever her state of readiness, it was likely
that, in the event of a Franco-Russian conflict,
Austria would find itself the battleground.
She could either allow herself to be overrun
or else join the Coalition. Therefore, on
9 August 1805, after much hand-wringing and
with a promise of British subsidies, Austria
reluctantly joined Russia and promised to
field 320,000 men.
From the start, Coalition war plans were
hopelessly muddled. An Austrian highcommand riddled with internal strife advocated
an advance on the Danube with a simultaneous
offensive in Italy. These moves had to be coordinated with the arrival of the Russians.
The basic plan was then modified to
incorporate an advance by General Mack
into Bavaria in an attempt to strong-arm the
Elector into joining the Coalition.
Mack believed that Napoleon could not
reach Bavaria in fewer than 69 days after a
declaration of war, while the Russians would
be concentrated at Brannau (Upper Austria)
64 days after leaving their main base at Brody
(Western Ukraine). The working assumption,
then, was that the main Coalition armies
would be able to unite before facing the
French. The assumption was false: Napoleon
was across the Rhine in a month.
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.
These reforms were quite sound, but

initiated on the eve of war there was little
chance of them being assimilated before
the test of battle.
Conscription filled the ranks of the
Russian Imperial Army. Undertaken using
a levy of souls registered on tax rolls, the
quota varied according to the prevailing
international climate. For example, peacetime recruitment of two men per 500 might
rise to a 25% levy in wartime.
No leave was granted. Therefore, on the
basis of a 25-year enlistment period, few
members of the rank and file had much
hope of seeing their homes again.
Despite the primitive conditions and brutal
discipline, the Russian peasant-conscript
often demonstrated great resilience and
steadfastness in the field a characteristic
immortalised in the character Platon Karataev
from Tolstoys War and Peace.
Russian officers were considered the
worst in Europe; those of the line regiments
were recruited in the main from the minor gentry, while the guards, the staff, and the senior
officers were recruited from the nobility.
The levy of souls made Russias army
the largest and cheapest in Europe. Russian
mobilisation began in earnest during 1803
as the political situation began to deteriorate.
An initial plan involved two armies, one
marching from Brest-Litovsk through Warsaw
to Berlin in order to support the Prussians,
while the other, positioned near Brody, was
to move towards Vienna to aid the Austrians.
on a war footing, so the level of training was

low. War plans, reflecting a shifting geopolitical situation and the need to coordinate with
allies, were muddled and ad hoc.
More generally, though the Coalition
armies had by no means remained static
since the end of the 18th century and had
attempted to implement reform, they were
behind the curve. The French were the
pioneers. The Revolution had shattered an
ossified social order and made society more
meritocratic and amenable to reform. A new
military system based on citizenship, mobility,
and mass had, perforce, been created.
Austria and Russia, shackled by conservative
regimes and social structures, were left racing
to catch up.
Even so, the gap was not as wide as
is sometimes supposed. Austerlitz was
not simply a victory of the nation that
was creating a new way of war based
on a new form of politics. It was
also a military masterpiece by one
of historys greatest captains a
masterpiece of deception, surprise,
and rapid manoeuvre.
The levy of souls

made Russias army
the largest and
cheapest in Europe.
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
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.
The centralisation of command placed

a massive burden on the Emperor, but in
1805 he was at a physical and psychological
peak, and the events of that autumn were to
be a dazzling display of his military art. The
Austerlitz campaign, moreover, would mark
the beginning of a decade in which European
politics would be dominated and thrown
into turmoil by Napoleons Grande Arme.
ULM: THE HORS DOEUVRE
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
BELOW The Grande Arme on the march in the

autumn of 1805. It marched from the Channel
coast to the Rhine in barely half the time its
enemies anticipated.
Image: WIPL
he formation of the Third

Coalition had dissolved the
immediate threat of a French
invasion of Britain two months
before Trafalgar settled the
matter for good. Orders were issued on
26 August 1805 for the Grande Arme to abandon
its cantonments on the Channel coast and
march for the Rhine. Inside a month, the
forward elements were crossing the river.
The Grande Arme was something new.
We used to have the Army of Italy, of the
Rhine, of Holland, explained Napoleon
himself. There was no French Army. Now
it exists, and we shall see it in action.
Not only was there a single national field
army almost 200,000 strong, but also a single
will controlling it. Napoleon Bonaparte,
crowned Emperor of the French the previous
year, might yet be let down by his subordinates; but he would not be openly defied
by them, nor his orders countermanded by
some other general or politician.
In a sense, perhaps, the Grande Arme was the
supreme achievement of the Revolution. It was
a citizen army, not an army of subjects. It was a
national army, not an army of peasant-conscripts
in the service of a dynasty. It was a meritocratic
army in which officers were commissioned and
promoted for their talents, not their birth. And
it was a modern army, organised for rapid strategic movement and rapid battlefield manoeuvre.
Based on the Channel coast for two years,
it was also highly drilled and trained, and
officers and men had formed strong bonds
of trust and camaraderie. Not least, there was
confidence in the senior leadership. Napoleon
was idolised by his men, and he was served by
a group of brilliant young marshals who could
usually be relied on to obey orders, move fast,
and fight hard in the implementation of their
masters strategic and tactical schemes.
Many of the principles of Napoleonic warfare

were in play in the opening campaign against
General Macks Austrian army. One of them
was speed.
The Grande Arme was divided into seven
corps, each of which marched separately.
Supply-trains were minimised, the soldiers
living off depots inside France, off the land
in enemy territory. Units were expected to
march at a pace of three miles an hour, and
to cover about 20 miles a day.
Because morale was extremely high,
straggling and desertion were minimal.
The soldiers joked that Our Emperor
does not make use of our arms in this
war so much as our legs; and hurrying
forwards virtually all kept up. Marching
across Germany, Marmonts II Corps lost
only nine men where 300 might have been
accepted as natural wastage.
General Mack, meantime, at the head of
45,000 men, was pushing forwards into the
35
Battle Map
Image: Ian Bull
Battle
Map
ABOVE The Battle of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805.

Napoleons line was anchored at either end on strong
defensive ground. His aim was to draw his enemies
into major struggles on each flank. The battle raged
all day between Bagrations and Lannes corps in the
north (1). The main weight of the Coalition attack fell
in the south, where almost two-thirds of the Austrian
and Russian force was funnelled into an attack on
Napoleons right (2); this, too, lasted all day. The effect
was to thin out the Coalition centre on the Pratzen
Heights, and it was here that Napoleon launched
his main attack (3). Coalition counterattacks in the
centre were ferocious, but lacked the weight to halt
the French onslaught (4). The Coalition army was
cut in two. In the final phase of the battle, the main
mass of the French army wheeled south to cut off
and rout the bulk of the huge Austro-Russian left.
LEFT Napoleon at Austerlitz. He had made a

personal reconnaissance almost two weeks before
the battle. He conceived his plan with a perfect
understanding of the ground.
Napoleon had to move first, so as to strike

while his enemies were still divided. The
advance from Ulm began on 25 October.
To the despair of the increasingly despondent Austrian Emperor, Kutusov refused
to defend Vienna entered by Murats
cavalry on 12 November adopting instead
a strategy of withdrawal designed to extend
the French communications and wear out
Napoleons tired army, and to trade space
for the time needed to effect a greater
Coalition concentration.
This strategy was successful. When
Napoleon reached Brnn in Moravia, he
was down to about 70,000 men, whereas
Kutusov, at Olmtz, had effected a junction
with Buxhwden to create a Coalition army
of 90,000. And, it seemed, as long as the wily
Russian avoided battle, the odds could only
lengthen further in his favour.
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.
Black Forest, a region of tree-clad mountains

between the upper Rhine and upper Danube.
Everything goes well here, wrote the French
Emperor. The Austrians are in the Black
Forest defiles. God will it that they stay
there! My only fear is that we shall scare
them too much. The next fortnight will
see many things happen.
They did. Screened by the superb French
cavalry under Marshal Murat, the great mass
of the Grande Arme marched into Germany
to the north of the Black Forest, and then
swung south in a great arc designed to cut
Macks communications. By the time the
Austrian commander grasped what was
happening, it was too late: the French
were across his rear, and most of his army
was trapped in the city of Ulm.
On 20 October, Mack surrendered with
30,000 men. There had been no major battle
38
and French casualties were minimal. Never,

proclaimed the Grande Arme bulletin, have
victories been so complete and less costly.
THE MARCH TO AUSTERLITZ

Ulm was a sensational victory, but it removed
only one of the Coalition pieces in play.
Kutusovs 36,000 Russians linked up with
22,000 Austrians at Braunau in upper Austria
on 23 October: they were the most immediate
threat to the Grande Arme. But there were four
other Coalition armies within striking distance,
two Russian and two Austrian, and this meant
that some 200,000 men might soon be converging on the French. Yet more alarming was the
very real possibility that the Prussians would
yet enter the war. If they did, the Grande Arme,
now operating deep inside enemy territory,
might soon find itself under attack from several
directions by up to 400,000 men.
To advance further was to run the gravest

of risks. Much of the countryside ahead
had been stripped bare by the Austrian
and Russian armies. Powerful enemy forces
threatened the French rear, certainly from
the south, where there were 90,000 Austrians
in the Tyrol and northern Italy, and possibly
from the north, where the Prussians might field
up to 200,000 men should they be persuaded
to join the war.
Only a great victory in pitched battle could
extricate the French from the strategic impasse;
either this, or they would be forced to retreat in
the face of superior force. To bring such a battle
about, Napoleon prepared a trap, and baited it
with outnumbered detachments.
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.
men) holding more than three miles of

ground along the marshy Goldbach Stream
from the Zurlan Plateau to the Satschan
Lake. The plan was for Davouts III Corps
(6,600 men) to enter the line on the far
right when it arrived.
The Zurlan Plateau was to be the Grande
Armes centre of gravity. Hereabouts were
stationed Murats Reserve Cavalry with 24 light
field-guns (5,600 men), Oudinets Grenadier
Division (5,700 men), and the Imperial Guard
(5,500 men). Immediately south of the Plateau,
at the point where the two streams that ran
either side of it came together to form the
Goldbach Stream, were stationed two of
Soults three infantry divisions, those of St
Hilaire and Vandamme.
This meant that, pending the arrival of
Davouts corps, General Legrands division
would be defending more than two miles of
front on the French right with fewer than
10,000 men. Napoleons calculation was that
this would be just enough to hold what he
expected and hoped would be the main
enemy assault.
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
Images: WIPL
Napoleons plan was to turn his two flanks

into defensive strong-points, allocating sufficient force to enable them to resist enemy
attacks and cause a drain of manpower from
the enemy centre.
Lanness V Corps (19,200 men) was to
defend the left, with his position anchored on
a prominent hillock called the Santon, which
was turned into a fortified laager well supplied
with guns. Bernadottes I Corps (13,000 men)
still on the road at the start of the battle was
to take up position in reserve behind Lannes
when it arrived.
The French right was deliberately
extended, with Soults IV Corps (23,600
39
TIMELINE: THE AUSTERLITZ CAMPAIGN

1799
Coup of 18 Brumaire:
General Bonaparte becomes
First Consul of the First French
Republic (effectively dictator).
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
War with Britain resumed.

French threaten invasion.
Army of England (later
known as La Grande Arme)
begins to assemble on the
Channel coast.
Napoleon begins to march north

into Moravia.
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
French reach upper Danube.
20 October
Capitulation of Macks army
at Ulm.
40
THE COALITION PLAN

Napoleons deployment at Austerlitz was
a masterly application of the principle of
economy of force. His flanks were required
not only to hold the enemys attacks, but also
to draw down the enemys strength from the
Pratzen Heights.
This commanding position the French
Emperor had deliberately conceded, feeding
the enemys sense that the French were
weak and reluctant to face open battle, and
encouraging him to mass for an attack on
the right, with the aim of cutting the French
line of communications.
This was exactly the Coalition plan: to occupy
the Heights and to use it as the launch pad for
a massed assault on the far right of the French
line. But the scale of it exceeded expectations,
for the Allies committed no less than 59,000
men (commanded by Buxhwden) to this
attack, the effect of which was to thin out the
rest of their line, above all on the Pratzen
Heights, which became a thoroughfare of men
moving onto the hill from the east and then
down the far south-western slope.
In contrast to Napoleons carefully measured economy of force, this was an instance
of extreme diseconomy. The mass of men
directed against the French right was too
large, and tens of thousands became backedup and unable to get forwards, while the
front-line became bogged down in a ferocious
see-saw struggle centred on the riverside
villages of Zokolnitz and Tellnitz.
Meantime, the other two wings of the
Coalition army were too small. Bagration
(with 13,000 men) and Lichtenstein (with
4,600 men) lacked the strength to break
through the defences of the French left.
The centre was weaker still: at the time of
Napoleons grand assault on the Pratzen
Heights, only the Grand Duke Constantines
Russian Imperial Guard (10,000 men) was
deployed to guard it.
ABOVE Napoleon appended this version of

his signature to a proclamation of victory
after the battle.
The battle had raged on either flank for about

two hours when St Hilaires and Vandammes
divisions emerged from the mist and smoke
hanging about the valley to begin their ascent
of the Pratzen Heights.
A short while before, Marshal Soult had
pleaded with Napoleon to give them the order
December 2015
Image: WIPL
The Battle
to advance. I beg your Majesty to hold me

back no longer, he is reported to have said.
I have 20,000 men to set in motion.
How long will it take you to climb the
Pratzen?, asked Napoleon. Less than 20
minutes, Sire, replied Soult. In that case,
the impatient marshal was told, we will wait
for another quarter of an hour.
The grand assault began at 9am, and half
an hour later the French were on the Heights.
But this was only the beginning of what now
erupted into a ferocious struggle in the centre
of the Coalition line.
The divisions of St Hilaire and Vandamme
had crashed into the flank of the immense
column of Austrians and Russians moving
against the French right. As he became aware
of the threat to his centre, Kutusov set about
redeploying the men of Langerons and
Kollowraths corps to face this and to commence a series of counterattacks.
Marshal Soult then ordered six 12-pdrs
onto the Heights and came forward in person
to direct the battle. For more than two hours,
an improvised battle of cannonade, musketry,
and bayonet charges raged across the plateau.
But by midday, the French were in control,
and Napoleon then advanced his imperial
headquarters to the Pratzen, instructed
Bernadottes I Corps to redeploy from the
left to the centre, and ordered Oudinets
ABOVE The charge of the Chevalier Cavalry of the

Russian Imperial Guard during the second crisis
of the battle. The struggle for the Pratzen Heights
proved more ferocious than Napoleon anticipated.
Grenadiers and the Imperial Guard to cross

the Goldbach: the French masse de dcision
was thus moved into position.
THE ATTACK OF THE RUSSIAN

IMPERIAL GUARD
Gentlemen,
examine this
ground carefully.
It will be a field of
battle, upon which
you will all have
a part to play.
Napoleon Bonaparte
By 1pm, Napoleon had about 45,000 men

concentrated in the centre of the battlefield.
His intention was to swing the bulk of this
mighty mass to the right, so as to envelop
and destroy the Coalitions over-weighted
left under Buxhwden. Before he could do
so, however, the Russian Imperial Guard
launched a second full-scale counterattack
on the Pratzen Heights.
The first wave of foot Guards winded
themselves by charging with the bayonet
over 300 yards; even so, they broke through
the first French line and were brought to
a halt only by the concentrated musketry
of the second.
Then, as Vandammes tired men inclined
to the right to begin the planned envelopment
manoeuvre, they were struck in their exposed
flank by 15 squadrons of Guard cavalry, supported by battalions of Grenadiers. Here,
in the early afternoon, was the second great
crisis of the battle.
De Sgur (a French staff officer who later
became an historian of Napoleons campaigns)
described the scene:
41
Image: WIPL
LEFT Napoleon receives the surrender of the

Austrian Emperor Francis II after the Battle
of Austerlitz.
Many fine ladies of

St Petersburg will
lament this day.
Napoleon Bonaparte
42
Vandammes two battalions on the left were

overwhelmed. One of them, indeed, after losing
its eagle and the greater part of its weapons,
only got up to flee at full speed. This battalion,
belonging to the 4th Regiment, almost passed over
ourselves and Napoleon himself our attempts to
arrest it being all in vain. The unfortunate fellows
were quite distracted with fear and would listen to
no one; in reply to our reproaches for deserting
the field of battle and their Emperor, they shouted
mechanically, Vive lEmpereur!, while fleeing
faster than ever.
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.
Vandamme kept his head and marshalled

his men. Napoleon ordered the cavalry of the
Imperial Guard into action. Bernadotte, on his
own initiative, sent in the division of General
Drouet from his own command. Then, as
the situation stabilised, two squadrons of
Guard chasseurs and one of Mamelukes were
launched on a final attack.
This last broke the resistance of the Russian
Imperial Guard. Some 500 Grenadiers and
200 of the Tsars personal retinue of Chevalier
Guard were killed in ten minutes. Many fine
ladies of St Petersburg will lament this day
was Napoleons ironic comment when the
survivors were paraded before him.
By 2 oclock, the Coalition centre had
ceased to exist, and its army was broken in
two. The French masse de dcision swung to
the south. Too late, Buxhwden attempted to
extricate his men. By 3 oclock, the Allied line
was breaking up, thousands of men fleeing
to the south, towards the frozen lakes on the
edge of the battlefield.
Napoleon ordered up 25 cannon to smash
the ice on Lake Satschen. As it broke up, it
tipped thousands of Russians into the freezing water beneath; no one is sure how many
drowned, but around 2,000 is a likely figure.
All told, 11,000 Russians and 4,000 Austrians
lay stricken on the field, more of them dead
than wounded, for Austerlitz had been a brutal
battle in which men were routinely bayoneted
on the ground by their enemies. A further
12,000 were made prisoner. So the Coalition
army lost 27,000 men along with 180 guns
and this was a full third of its original strength.
The French losses, by comparison, were 1,305
killed, 6,940 wounded, and 573 taken prisoner.
At this modest cost, Napoleon had broken the
military resistance of both Austria and Russia.
Emperor Francis whose army had been
defeated twice, at Ulm and Austerlitz, and
whose capital was in enemy hands capitulated
immediately. The Treaty of Pressburg, signed
within a month, was harsh: Austria lost Venice to
the new (French-controlled) Kingdom of Italy;
the Tyrol, Vorarlburg, and other Alpine territory
to Bavaria; and Swabia to Wrttemberg.
Tsar Alexander returned to Russia with the
remnants of his defeated army. Prime Minister
Pitt was dead within a few weeks his frail
frame broken, some said, by the bitter news
of Austerlitz. The Third Coalition had, to all
intents and purposes, ceased to exist.
It would be Prussias turn next. Then
Spains. Then Russias. The Napoleonic
decade had begun.
December 2015
Hawker
Hurrica
Stephen Roberts tells the story of the other great British

fighter of the Second World War.
spotted an Me109 flying about 4,000 feet

below me. I immediately turned and dived
down on him. He was a sitting target, but
before I got to him a Hurricane appeared and
shot him down in flames. I was annoyed
Spitfire pilot Flight-Lieutenant D M Crook

may inadvertently have got it right when he
recalled this incident on 8 August 1940, when
patrolling off The Needles. The Hurricane did
rather more to tip the balance in the Battle of
Britain than it is often given credit for.
Five years before, it had been the first of its
kind: the RAFs inaugural monoplane fighter,
tearing through the sky at a top speed of
325mph, and climbing as high as 20,000 feet.
This was the Hawker Hurricane, the forgotten
hero of the Battle of Britain, so often lost in
the Spitfires shadow. But the Hurricane had
been the first operational RAF aircraft capable
44
of a top speed of over 300mph, and it downed

more German planes in the summer of 1940
than any other.
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,
where their line of fire avoided the propeller

arc, allowing Camm to dispense with synchronising gear (otherwise needed to stop pilots
shooting off their own propellers). What Camm
came up with was radical in terms of speed,
agility, and strength. Nothing like it had
been seen before.
The British aircraft industry had managed
to keep going through the lean years of the
1920s, when it focused on providing the
biplanes the RAF needed. By 1934, however,
it was poised on the verge of mass expansion
and the building of a host of new monoplane
types, for every conceivable purpose.
In June 1935, Philip Cunliffe-Lister, the first
Lord Swinton, became Secretary of State for
Air, and ordered planes off the drawing board
and into the skies, without interminable trials.
He also instituted the Shadow Factory statesponsored complexes to bear the load, boosting production from hundreds to thousands.
Cunliffe-Lister benefited from the work of
his predecessor, Lord Londonderry, whose
great achievement had been to push forward
the design of both Hurricane and Spitfire.
December 2015
Image: WIPL
BIOGRAPHY OF A BATTLE-WINNING FIGHTER
The Spitfire and

Hurricane were
probably the
most important
prototypes ever
built in Britain.
FIRST FLIGHT
With the Hurricanes first successful flight,
80 years ago, on 6 November 1935, a new
era in military aviation commenced. Heavily
armed, the Hurricane packed four .303
machine-guns in each wing, and the Merlinengined, single-seat fighter was reputedly the
fastest interceptor in the world.
The plane was considered an immediate
success, having comfortably achieved speeds in
excess of 300mph during trials at Martlesham
Heath in Suffolk. An official order for 600 of
them was not long delayed (June 1936), but
Hawker was already into production-planning
and tooling for 1,000.
By Christmas 1937, No.111 Squadron
(Northolt, Middlesex) had one flight of
airworthy Hurricanes under Squadron Leader
John Gillan, the first Fighter Command
squadron to be upgraded. It was Gillan who
flew one of the new fighters from Turnhouse
(Edinburgh) to Northolt at an average ground
speed of 408.75mph, earning him the nickname Downwind Gillan.
Nos.3 and 56 Squadrons took delivery of
Hurricanes during 1938, although the latters
were still not operational at the time of Munich.
The Spitfire was not far behind, having been
first flown in March 1936, with exceptional
results. No.19 Squadron was the first to receive
Spitfires (in 1938). By 1938, all the basic types
that would take part in the opening ai

campaigns of the Second World War we
in development or full production.
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.
The Spitfire and Hurricane were probably

the most important prototypes ever built in
Britain. Without the rapid development and
production of these eight-gun fighters, creating 31 squadrons operating Hurricanes, and a
further 19 flying Spitfires, the Battle of Britain
simply could not have been won.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF WAR

The Second World War was different from its
predecessor. At the start of the First World
War, aeroplanes were seen as reconnaissance
auxiliaries of land forces. By its end, they were
being seen as an arm of war in their own right.
And then, at the beginning of the Second, the
RAF fought an independent battle against the
Luftwaffe. Both the Battle of Britain, and the
Blitz which followed, were military campaigns
fought entirely in the air: a first for world warfare.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
BELOW A Hurricane takes off on night patrol during the Blitz.
Powerplant: one 1,030hp Rolls-Royce

Merlin III 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled
engine
Span: 40ft (12.19m)
Length: 31ft 4in (9.55m)
Weight: 7,127lbs
Maximum speed: 328mph (529km/h) at
20,000ft (6,095m)
Range: 700 miles at 200mph (15,000ft)
Climb: 20,000ft in 9 minutes
Service ceiling: 36,000ft
ABOVE Sydney Camm (1893-1966), the designer

of the Hurricane, showing enthusiasm for the
technology of aircraft as early as 1915.
Armament: eight .303 Browning wing-mounted

machine-guns
Accommodation: pilot only
Recognition: stubby, angular fuselage with large,
rounded fin and flat, heavily framed canopy;
from below, wings have rounded tips and
undercarriage has wide track
Numbers built: 14,500 (of which 3,000 were
destined for the Soviet Union)
Number still flying: possibly a dozen, but only
one from the Battle of Britain
45
Image: WIPL
HAWKER HURRICANE
ABOVE A cutaway of Second World War vintage

showing the main features of the Hawker Hurricane.
The success of the Hurricane went deeper

than just victory in the skies over Britain.
Endless articles about Hurricanes over the
White Cliffs buoyed an impression in the
US that Britain was fighting back, enabling
Roosevelt to overturn his nations neutrality
legislation and get much-needed destroyers
sent to Britain.
Where possible, Hurricanes and Spitfires
were repaired and reintroduced to the fray.
Lord Beaverbrooks aircraft-repair operation
saw 35% of planes issued to pilots in the
46
Battle of Britain coming from repairs rather

than new build.
A typical example was a Hurricane of
151 Squadron (North Weald), which crashlanded at Eastchurch (Kent) after a dogfight
on 28 August 1940. It was taken to No.1
Civilian Repair Unit at Cowley (Oxon) and
completely rebuilt, then transferred to the
Fleet Air Arm.
New Hurricanes were built quickly
enough to make up losses. In August 1940,
Beaverbrooks industrial empire produced
163 Spitfires (a record); that was eclipsed,
though, by the number of Hurricanes, 251,
coming off the lines that month.
Aircraft production as a whole doubled

between January and August 1940, but fighter
production increased more than threefold over
this vital period (157 in January, 476 in August).
The Spitfire may have been faster and more
manoeuvrable in the skies, but the Hurricane
solid and simple could be mass-produced
faster in the factories: a crucial advantage
during the Battle of Britain.
Despite this, when the official campaign
was launched to raise money for aircraft
production in 1940, it was called the Spitfire
Fund. The Germans shared the deprecating
view of the Hurricane. On 17 August, HansOtto Lessing, an Me109 pilot, declared the
December 2015
Hurricane a tired old puffer. On the

following day, he was shot down and killed
by a 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.
One British advantage was that Spitfires

and Hurricanes did not seem that different
to fly. When Bob Doe transferred squadrons
in October 1940, he moved from Spitfires to
Hurricanes. He took one up for 30 minutes
familiarisation, and declared himself happy
there was not much to it, merely commenting
that the flaps seemed a bit stiff. If there was
a difference, it was altitude: the Hurricanes
were not so good higher up.
The only VC awarded to a Fighter Command
pilot during the Battle of Britain was to
Hurricane pilot Flight-Lieutenant James
Brindley Nicolson, caught in a dogfight near
Southampton on 16 August 1940. Shot up,
with his plane on fire and about to bail out,
Nicolson changed his mind when he saw an
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
BELOW Scramble! Pilots of No.87 Squadron

race to their Hurricanes at an airfield in northern
France in 1940.
To win victories in
the air required
skill as well as
courage.
enemy plane, which he immediately engaged

and shot down, at the cost of burns to hands,
face, neck, and legs.
Squadron Leader Tom Grieve of 253 was
another burns casualty. He shot down four
Me109s over Kent in his Hurricane in a
single day (30 August 1940), but was severely
burned the day after when his starboard
fuel tank was hit. He became one of the
first plastic-surgery guinea pigs of Dr
Archibald McIndoe.
Douglas Bader flew Hurricanes, and
he reckoned them rock steady when
firing, whereas there was a recoil effect
on a Spitfire.
Hurricane aces (those with five or
more kills) were worth their weight in
gold, but were heartbreakingly vulnerable.
Between 8 and 19 August, ten were lost;
between 20 August and 6 September, a
further 12 went down.
47
Images: WIPL
HAWKER HURRICANE
control column, fuel-control cock, and the

all-important gun-firing button. It appears
baffling enough without trying to fly it in the
midst of a dogfight.
Apparently some 16 strikes of .303 ammo
per square foot of enemy aircraft were needed
to achieve a lethal density and therefore a
kill. But achieving this required a great deal
of skill which many young pilots of 1940
simply did not have.
Partly for this reason, but also because it
was feared the .303 would be inadequate once
the Germans had fitted rear armour to their
planes, alternative armament was considered.
But a 20mm cannon proved unreliable, and
a .50 Browning failed to penetrate armour
during tests.
In total, 1,715 Hurricanes flew with Fighter
Command during the Battle of Britain, far in
excess of all other British fighters combined.
It is reckoned that Hurricane pilots accounted
for four-fifths of all enemy planes destroyed
during the period July-October 1940.
Having entered service a year prior to
the Spitfire, the Hurricane was, in aircraftdesign terms, half a generation older, and
thus inferior when it came to speed and
climb. It was, however, a robust, reliable,
HURRICANE TIMELINE
1893
December 1937
First flight of Gloster Gladiator biplane.
111 Squadron (Northolt) becomes

first operational Hurricane squadron.
1934
Birth of Sydney Camm.
Camm begins detailed design work

on the Hurricane.
1923
June 1935
Camm joins Hawker.
Philip Cunliffe-Lister becomes

Secretary of State for Air.
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
First successful flight of the

Hawker Hurricane.
Munich Agreement.
March 1936
September 1938
First flight of the Spitfire.
Total of five squadrons remounted

on Hurricanes.
June 1936
July 1939
Official order placed for

600 Hurricanes.
Total of 26 squadrons converted to

eight-gun monoplane fighters.
December 2015
LEFT Hurricanes and Spitfires in action against German

raiders over Dover in 1940. This contemporary
reconstruction is far from realistic. The speed of
the aircraft three or four times that of equivalent
First World War fighters meant that aerial combat
tended to be much more dispersed.
resilient, manoeuvrable aircraft, which

could take severe combat damage before
being written off. Unlike the Spitfire, it
was a wholly operational, go-anywhere,
do-anything fighter, the most versatile of
all single-seat warplanes to emerge from
the Second World War.
Agile, easily maintained, and simple to fly,
the Hurricane was popular with pilots and
ground-crew. It was also adaptable hence
the Hurribomber fighter-bomber, first flown
in 1941, which carried a single 500lb bomb or
two 250lb bombs under its wings.
There was also the Mark IId (1942), which
had two 40mm cannon for tank-busting, plus
two machine-guns. It was used mainly in North
Africa and Burma.
The following year saw rocket-carrying
Hurricanes deployed. There were also Sea
Hurricanes, operating from carriers. In fact,
the Hurricane was the only RAF fighter to see
action in every major theatre, start to finish.
September 1939
October 1940
497 Hurricanes ready for action.
Battle of Britain ends
fastest plane of its time (another

Camm design).
September 1939
October 1941
1966
Outbreak of Second World War.
Hurribomber fighter-bomber created.
January 1940
1942
157 British fighter planes produced.
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).
Death of Sydney Camm.
Mark IId tank-buster appears.
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
ABOVE Hurricanes flying in Vic formation

during the Battle of Britain.
First flight of Hawker Hunter, the

49
HAWKER HURRICANE
RAF FIGHTER
COMMAND
ORDER OF BATTLE
15 September 1940
(Hurricane squadrons)
No.10 Group (HQ Rudloe Manor,

Box, Wiltshire)
Exeter 87 (B Flight) and 601
Bilbury 87 (A Flight)
Middle Wallop 238
Boscombe Down 56
No.11 Group (HQ Hillingdon

House, Uxbridge, Middlesex)
Debden 17
Castle Camps 73
Martlesham 257
North Weald 249
Stapleford 46
Kenley 253 and 501
Croydon 605
Tangmere 607 and 213
Northolt 229, 1 (Canadian), and
303 (Polish)
Hendon 504
No.12 Group (HQ Watnall,

Nottingham, Nottinghamshire)
Duxford 310 and 312 (both Czech)
Coltishall 242
Wittering 1
Digby 151
Kirton-in-Lindsey 307 (Polish)
Speke 308 (Polish)
Church Fenton 85 and 306 (Polish)
Leconfield 302 (Polish)
ABOVE Hurricanes could be adapted to carry a range of weapons. Here

RAF armourers load rockets into under-wing launchers, four on each side.
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
to his designs, and post-war defence, has

been largely overlooked, however possibly
because of his quiet, reserved manner.
He was not one for blowing his own trumpet.
He even had to be persuaded to accept
his knighthood.
Plans are afoot to give him some belated
recognition by installing a full-size replica
of a Hurricane in his home town of Windsor.
Ironically, Camm never liked flying himself. r
Stephen Roberts is an historian, a former history
teacher, and a widely published writer on military
history topics. He is a frequent contributor to MHM.
His first book, Lesser Known Christchurch, was
published in August 2015.
BELOW In this variant, a Mark IId Hurricane
is shown bearing two 40mm cannon, one
under each wing, designed for tank-busting.
No.14 Group (HQ Drunmossie

Hotel, Inverness)
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
THE BIRTH OF ARTILLERY FORTIFICATION IN ENGLAND

A usurper dynasty. A religious revolution. A hostile superpower. This was the context for Englands
greatest programme of coastal fortification since the Romans. David Flintham analyses the
anti-invasion defences of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
52
December 2015
HENRY VIII AND

THE ENTERPRISE OF ENGLAND
In 1538, the threat of invasion was acute and
there were warnings of the enterprise of
England from various parts of Europe. But
while the crisis itself was short-lived, it prompted
a determined response from the English King,
who wanted a comprehensive system of fortifications constructed to deny harbours and anchorages to an invader (at the time, only Dover had
modern harbour defences).
It was the biggest

programme of royal
fortress-building
since Edward I.
The fortifications were to be self-contained

and, where possible, mutually supporting, with
additional blockhouses added if necessary.
This scheme, or Device by the King, would
eventually comprise some 30 separate fortifications, covering the entrance to Falmouth
harbour in Cornwall, Weymouth Bay in
Dorset, the Solent in Hampshire, Rye harbour
in Sussex, Folkestone, the Downs anchorage
in Kent, the Thames Estuary, Harwich Haven
in East Anglia, and finally Hull. In Wales, the
entrance to Milford Haven was also protected.
Of these works, there were ten great castles
Deal, Sandown, Walmer, Camber, Sandgate,
Calshot, Hurst, Portland, St Mawes, and
Pendennis. Among them, Deal the Great
Castle was the most powerful.
At its core was a large, central circular
tower with six small rounded bastions (or
lunettes) attached to it. This was surrounded by
a courtyard, which itself was surrounded by
an outer ring of six larger rounded bastions,
with a stone-revetted moat beyond that outer
ring; from the air, the design has similarities
to the Tudor rose. Deal Castles armament
was equally impressive: a total of 66 guns
arranged in four tiers.
Construction of Sandown, Deal, and Walmer
commenced in April 1539, and was completed
ABOVE Henry VIII (1509-1547). His ambition to cut

a figure as a Renaissance prince, his somewhat
pugnacious foreign policy, and, above all, his
break with Rome and Catholic Europe caused
Henry VIII to prioritise defence. He spent lavishly
on both his navy and his coastal defences.
by the autumn of the following year. The cost

of these three castles was 27,092.
THE DEVICE CASTLES

Each of the Device castles shared a similar overall design, but the curvilinear form could be
adapted to suit the location. Thus, while Deal,
Sandown, and Walmer were all variations of
the Tudor rose type, Sandgate, Hurst, and St
Mawes were more triangular, having three main
bastions each; Calshot and Pendennis were
circular; and Portland was more semi-circular.
Of all the castles, Camber is of particular interest, as in its first form it was a round tower built in
1512-1515 to protect Rye harbour. It was modified as part of the 1539 Device programme, and
subsequently modified again in 1542-1543.
OPPOSITE PAGE This painting of 1550 depicting
Henry VIIIs embarkation at Dover in May 1520
shows one of the artillery towers guarding the
Tudor harbour.
Images: WIPL
he 16th century saw the English

medieval castle superseded by the
type of artillery fortress already
common elsewhere in Europe.
From Berwick-upon-Tweed in
the north to the Channel Islands in the south,
from Deal in the east to the Isles of Scilly in the
west, new fortifications were constructed across
the country. It was the biggest programme of
royal fortress-building since Edward I, and the
biggest programme of coastal defence since the
Saxon Shore forts of the 4th century AD.
Yet purpose-built artillery fortifications had
first appeared in England as early as the end
of the 14th century in places like Norwich,
where the circular Cow Tower, dating from
1398-1399, is Englands earliest gun-tower.
The 15th century witnessed the construction
of blockhouses to defend harbours, such as that
at Fowey in Cornwall, and, during the Wars of
the Roses, at Bamburgh Castle in 1464, the first
use of artillery to reduce a medieval fortress.
With the succession of Henry VII in 1485,
England enjoyed a period of relative peace, but
when his son, Henry VIII, divorced Catherine
of Aragon in 1533, the result was a break from
Rome and a threat of invasion by either France
or Spain. England found itself isolated, and its
shores open to attack from foreign ports.
While he strengthened his navy, Henry was
also fascinated by artillery and fortifications.
He had already planned the refortification of
Calais. The modernisation of existing fortifications was not uncommon during the 1530s
Norham Castle, for example, was remodelled
following its recapture from the Scots. But
if Henry were to resist foreign invasion,
new, strategically sited, purpose-built artillery
fortifications would be required.
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.
GUARDING THE THAMES

The Thames defences were an integral part
of the Device, although here matters took
BELOW Deal the Great Castle was the jewel
in the crown of Henry VIIIs Device system of
coastal defences.
54
RIGHT The 1539 plan of Deal Castle, showing the

model Tudor rose design essentially a circular
central tower with attached rounded bastions,
surrounded by a courtyard and then a ring of
outer rounded bastions.
the form of artillery blockhouses rather

than castles. Designed by James Nedeham
and Christopher Morice, they were sited
in two groups where the Thames begins
to narrow: Higham (Kent) and East
Tilbury (Essex) formed the outlying
line, while 5,000 yards upstream were
Gravesend and Milton (both in Kent)
and Tilbury (Essex). Each D-shaped
blockhouse mounted 25-30 guns across
two storeys.
In 1545, Milton was modified by
Sir Richard Lee with the addition of
an angular bastion. Further up the
Essex coast, bulwarked defences were
added at Harwich, and a blockhouse
constructed at Languard Point on the
Suffolk side of Harwich Haven.
Further north still, the fortifications
designed by John Rogers at Hull in 1541
combined features from both the Italiantype bastioned fortifications and the concentric
forts of Henry VIIIs Device scheme, thus
representing a noteworthy milestone in the
development of English fortifications.
Henrys interest was sufficient for him to
create a seat of military architecture in his
Office of Works, where the likes of Rogers,
Lee, and Sir Henry Cavendish followed in
Van Haschenpergs footsteps. Importantly,
it was through the Office of Works that
English fortress design quickly evolved
from the circular reinforced castle style
of the Device castles to the Italian-influenced
bastion system that was now dominating
European fortress design.
Henry was to see Continental fortress
design for himself when war broke out
with France in 1544 and he led an army
to besiege Boulogne. The King hired the
Italian engineer Girolamo Pennacchi to
oversee the construction of the siege-works.
Despite his success at Boulogne, the threat

of French invasion was great enough
to prompt Henry to renew his fortressconstruction programme, this time focusing
on the vulnerable Solent.
The natural harbour at Portsmouth has
been of considerable significance since
Roman times. While the entrance was fortified
during 1416-1422, it was during the reign of
Henry VII that the concept of a defensible
naval base was first adopted. In 1526, the
town was protected by an enclosing rampart
and ditch, which were improved in 1545 with
the addition of a rudimentary Italian angle
bastion. The approaches to the harbour itself
were protected by a blockhouse at Hasilworth.
The 1544 Device programme resulted in five
more castles: the first to be built was Southsea
near Portsmouth, and then Netley Castle
towards Southampton. The following year, 1545,
the French did actually invade, albeit only the
BELOW An artillery bastion at Walmer Castle.
December 2015
LEFT Excavated remains of the Henrician

blockhouse guarding the Thames at Gravesend.
For the first part of her reign, Elizabeth Is

skilful diplomacy kept England out of direct
involvement in Continental wars, with the
result that new fortifications were constructed
at just two locations: Upnor Castle on the River
Medway in Kent, and Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Upnor, opposite Chatham Dockyard, represents something of a transitional design.
Lees castle had a number of features that
hark back to an earlier age, including partial
bastions and tall, slender angle turrets.
GUARDING THE NORTH
Isle of Wight though their attack on the Solent

resulted in the loss of the Mary Rose, watched by
the King himself from Southsea Castle.
Further castles were designed: Brownsea
near Poole (although this was never completed,
being left as a single-storey blockhouse), and
Sandown on the Isle of Wight.
Henrys last castle was Yarmouth, again on the
Isle of Wight, which was built during the year of
Henrys death, 1547. Square in shape, with a single, two-storey bastion at its south-east corner, it
represented the most up-to-date of all of Henrys
castles, and the contrast with those built in 15391540 could not be starker. Yet it is the earlier
castles, with their central tower surrounded by
concentric bastions, squat in appearance, but
with tiers of artillery positions, that typify the
Henrician style of castle construction.
The focus of
centuries of AngloScottish conflict,
Berwick would be
on the frontline.
For most of the 16th century, Scotland was

allied with France, and a French army was
based in Scotland in 1559-1560, fortifying the
port of Leith with what were considered at the
time to be the most modern artillery fortifications anywhere in the British Isles.
The focus of centuries of Anglo-Scottish
conflict, Berwick would be on the frontline
should an incursion from Scotland occur. In
1550, therefore, Lee and Sir Thomas Palmer
were charged with improving Berwicks
defences. Their solution was a fort similar
in design to Harrys Walls.
Named Edward VIs Citadel, it was
located on the towns eastern, seaward side.
However, in 1557 the incomplete citadel was
abandoned, Lee having returned with orders
to fortify the entire town. But Lees plans were
flawed, the work limped along until 1569, and
the cost spiralled to 128,648.
BELOW Yarmouth Castle, Isle of Wight, the last of
the Henrician Device coastal fortifications to be built
before the Kings death.
THE 1550s
Photos: David Flintham
The construction of coastal defences did not end

with Henrys death. In 1547 an inventory of the
ordnance in active fortifications was undertaken,
and a year later work commenced on a castle
(now called King Charles Castle) on the west
side of Tresco, the Isles of Scilly. A blockhouse
was built on the eastern side of the island, and
the two were connected by a defence line.
During the 1550s, construction began on a
state-of-the-art bastioned fort on St Marys (the
main island of the Isles of Scilly). Known as
Harrys Walls, it was never completed.
Even further afield, new defensive schemes
were executed on the Channel Islands following the French landing on Sark in 1549.
In 1551, Rogers visited Guernsey, resulting
in new fortifications built to protect St Peter
Port. Jerseys Mont Orgueil Castle was remodelled to take artillery, and on Alderney some
5,000 was spent on fortifications.
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.
Berwicks defences ended up as something

of a compromise. Despite this, they are
impressive to this day, and represent the
nearest England came to a Continental-style
fortified town. Indeed, the only towns to be
fortified in a systematic and scientific manner
during the Tudor period were Berwick and
Portsmouth, the latter having its defences
completely revised in 1580, when they were
reconstructed as a bastioned trace, incorporating both landward and harbour defences.
THE ARMADA
Photos: David Flintham
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
LEFT Berwick-upon-Tweed: the Windmill Bastion

viewed from the north.
December 2015
Image: WIPL
LEFT Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), as

depicted on a contemporary broadsheet. Adroit
diplomacy had kept the peace in the early part
of her reign, and Englands defences decayed.
Frantic work on the countrys fortifications
followed in the 1580s and 1590s.
his experience in the Low Countries, and his

work represents a landmark in British military
engineering: no longer were English military
men ignorant of European warfare or completely reliant on foreign experts.
STAGNATION AND CIVIL WAR

Yet much of this knowledge and expertise
vanished during the next 50 years, and during
the English Civil Wars both sides were reliant
on engineers from abroad.
BELOW The medieval defences of Carisbrooke
Castle were radically remodelled in the 1590s as
part of the belated reaction to the Spanish threat.
BELOW RIGHT Tresco, Isles of Scilly: a remote
fortress that held out for the King until 1651.
Considering that the Tudor fortifications

ere designed to defend against a foreign
nvader, there is a certain irony in the fact that
most of these works saw action only against
ther Britons: Yarmouth and Carisbrooke
astles and Portsmouth were all captured by
arliament in the summer of 1642; Berwick
as twice occupied by Scottish armies; Hull
nd Plymouth long resisted the Royalists; and
endennis Castle held out for the King until
646. The Downs forts were captured by
he Royalists in 1648, and the forts on the
hannel Islands and the Isles of Scilly did
ot fall to Parliament until 1651.
After the Civil Wars, the Protectorate
mplemented a policy of demilitarisation.
ut such was the importance of the Tudor
oastal and harbour defences that they
avoided the systematic destruction that
was the fate of fortified places inland.
It was from these 16th-century defences
that the schemes of the late 17th and 18th
centuries evolved, even influencing the coastal
defences of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Some fortresses were rebuilt, while others
were modified and continued in use until the
Napoleonic Wars and even beyond.
Berwick, for instance, went on to mount
Victorian artillery and even Second World
War anti-aircraft defences. Others would
serve as royal prisons (Carisbrooke and Hurst
Castles), a stately home (Walmer Castle), and
even a hotel (Star Castle). Fortunately, the
majority of them are still visible to this day,
often in an excellent state of preservation,
most in the care of English Heritage.
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
R
TORY MON
H IS
TH
LY
M
H
M
re
n
ds
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
Galata Maritime Museum, Italy,

with Richard Lucas, where visitors
can board a real submarine.
MEMBERSHIP
MHM OFF DUTY

Test your problem-solving skills
and win great prizes! This month
there are five copies of a new
book to be won.
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.
event. It has been suggested that he

might have been able to shoot more
had he not himself become involved
in hauling soldiers out of the water
on to the rescue ships.
FILMING THE FRONT
FILM | CLASSIC
DUNKIRK
Studiocanal Films Ltd
15.99
any of the British war films

of the 1950s were heroic
affairs, usually celebrating
great British achievements. Films
like The Dam Busters (dir. Michael
Anderson, 1955 see MHM 32) and
Reach for the Sky (dir. Lewis Gilbert,
1956 see MHM 59) tell the story
of courage in the face of impossible
odds. It was this version of the war
that made post-war British society
comfortable and proud of having
helped defeat Nazism.
60
But Dunkirk (dir. Leslie Norman,

1958) is very different. There are
relatively few heroics in the film;
and there is much discussion about
complacency at home, and political
failures in not adequately preparing
for war. Dunkirk is about as political
a war film as it was possible to
make a little over a decade after
the war had finished.
But it also contains war scenes
of memorable scale and immense
power. Its candid treatment of a
All the five newsreel companies

had cameramen with the British
Expeditionary Force in France in 19391940. But when the German Army
launched its blitzkrieg attack on France,
Belgium, and the Netherlands on
10 May 1940, the military authorities
quickly evacuated the cameramen. The
feeling among many senior Army figures was that they were a nuisance and
might record things detrimental to the
reputation of the military. Consequently,
they were better out of the way.
The result was that the Germans
enjoyed a propaganda triumph with
their own well-orchestrated film
record of the attack on northern
Europe being shown around the
world. Footage shot by German
military cameramen operating at the
front using light, hand-held cameras
showed powerful images of tanks
rolling, of paratroopers jumping, and
infantry advancing which stunned and
impressed international audiences.
In three weeks, the Germans had
broken through and split the Allied
forces, with the British Army and
some French troops forced back to
Dunkirk, where their only option was
to await rescue by the Navy.
Over nine days and nine nights,
the Navy and its civilian auxiliaries
managed to get more then 330,000
men off the beaches. But only one
cameraman, Charles Martin of Path,
actually filmed at Dunkirk.
Martin had already been evacuated, but returned to France on one
of the rescue vessels. He took the
only authentic film of exhausted
British troops in long lines waiting on
the beaches and walking out to their
rescuers, who arrived in a host of
military vessels and small, privately
owned little ships.
Martin was able to take only a
few minutes of film of this important
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.
John Holden (superbly played, with

a quiet puzzlement about the turn
of events, by Richard Attenborough)
runs a small company manufacturing
buckles for British Army uniforms and
is exempt from war service. In the
pub, an injured serviceman threatens
him because of his ignorance of the
harsh realities of the war. In the same
pub, Foreman complains about the
widespread complacency at home.
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
Images: Studiocanal Films Ltd
The film contains three parallel

arratives that all come together
n the drama on the beaches of
Dunkirk. The first is the story of
squad of men who are lost and
ying to find their unit in northern
rance. The second is the story of
reporter who is critical of official
olicy towards the war. The third is
he story of a small businessman
who reluctantly gets drawn into the
Dunkirk evacuation.
The film opens with a Path
ewsreel promoting the collaboraon between the British and French
overnments in the early part of
he war, known as the Phoney War
r the Bore War.
The newsreel, intended to show
ow far the official line was removed
om reality at this stage of the war,
s being watched by a group of British
oldiers in a NAAFI cinema in France.
ll three central characters are set
p in the first few minutes. Corporal
ubby Binns (wonderfully played by
ohn Mills) is watching the newsreels
ut is worried that the real war
about to erupt and everyone is
losing their eyes to it: My missus
ays they dont know theres a war
n back home.
Charles Foreman (played with
reat strength by Bernard Lee)
a journalist who is fed up with
he bland denials of danger by
he military authorities in Britain
nd France.
61
the men of the BEF as a whole,

retreating headlong without any
understanding of what is happening
around them.
The squad of British soldiers joins
a huge column of French and Belgian
refugees, carrying their possessions
in carts and prams. Suddenly, a
squadron of Stukas appears and
shoots up the refugees. A mother
is killed in front of her children. The

horrified soldiers can do nothing, and
head off on their own.
They meet up with a battery of
four 25-pdr guns hidden in a wood.
The battery has been told to fight
to the finish, and the Major (Peter
Halliday) prepares his last stand.
The odds and sods are ordered to
get away while they can.
The guns open up on advancing

German troops but soon bring down a
hail of enemy fire. The sound of incoming
shells tearing into the hugely outnumbered British troops is very effective.
As Binns says, watching from a safe
distance, Its sheer bloody murder. I hope
someone knows what theyre doing.
This sense that the military
authorities have lost control and
Its candid treatment of a humiliating retreat

and withdrawal is what gives the film its
strength and enduring quality.
do not know what to do is present

throughout the film.
Meanwhile Foreman, the journalist,
visits the French embassy in London,
where he meets an attach he knows
well, who is utterly convinced the
French have lost the battle. Foreman
is stunned, and tries to persuade
him that the war will go on. But the
Frenchman is convinced that all is lost.
This was not untypical of the
French response to the German
breakthrough on the Meuse. Prime
Minister Winston Churchill was
woken one morning a week after
the Germans had launched their
offensive to take an urgent
telephone call from the French
premier, Paul Reynaud. In emotional
terms, Reynaud told him that the war
was lost, and the way to Paris was
open. Many British who remembered
standing shoulder to shoulder with
their French allies for more than four
years of intense fighting during the
First World War found it impossible
to grasp how quickly France was
collapsing in the spring of 1940.
ALL AT SEA
Image: World History Archive/AlamyStock Photo
Finally, as the scale of the disaster

begins to sink in, the Royal Navy starts
to requisition all the boats they can to
join their destroyers off the coast at
Dunkirk, ready to evacuate men from
the beaches. This includes ferries, pleasure boats, fishing vessels anything
that can cross the Channel.
Foreman has a motor launch called
Vanity, and offers immediately to take
it to Sheerness, where it is needed.
Holden also has a boat, the Heron, but
his wife has just had a baby, and he
does not want to take risks or do anything dangerous, so says he does not
have time to go. At home, his whining
wife demands that he promise youll
never leave baby and me.
We see Richard Attenborough,
as Holden, slowly reflecting on his
responsibilities. He decides that it is
his duty to help the nation, and he
goes along with 17-year-old Frankie
(a young Sean Barrett in one of his
first film performances) with the
Heron. There is a brief heroic moment
as Malcolm Arnolds music reaches a
peak under shots of dozens of small
62
LEFT Men wading out to board a

warship during the evacuation of
French, Belgian, and British troops
from Dunkirk, 27 May to 3 June 1940.
December 2015
MHM REVIEWS
boats sailing down the Thames

flames. The pandemonium is all
and assembling on the coast.
too realistic.
At Sheerness, Foreman asks a
Binns and his men manage to get
naval commander to let him take
back to the beach. But they are back
his own boat across the Channel
where they started, and have to wait
to France. Dont be silly, he is told,
for another opportunity to get away.
thats no place for civilians.
Both Holden and Foreman arrive off
But clearly the Navy were running
the Dunkirk coast. The journalists boat
out of men to crew the growing fleet
is hit, and Holden picks him up. But his
of little ships, and Foreman persuades
boat now suffers a mechanical problem
the commander to let him go. Holden
and drifts in to the shore, helpless.
is once again reluctant, but when
Private Mike is a car mechanic,
Frankie says he will go, Holden agrees
and offers to try to fix the engine.
to go across with him. They are told
Foreman goes ashore and joins Binns
they will sail at dawn from Ramsgate.
on the beach. I never thought Id
Meanwhile, hopelessly lost and
see a sight like this, the hardened
with the Germans everywhere, Binns
journalist tells the corporal. What a
faces a rebellion from his exhausted
mess! What a shambles weve made
soldiers, who are on the brink of givof the whole rotten affair!
ing up. With the help of Private Mike,
To make matters worse, the Navy
Binns rallies his men and a passing
decide to withdraw their destroyers
RAF truck gives them a lift to Dunkirk. from the evacuation. They are sufferHaving been lost for four days, they
ing heavy losses, and will need their
do not even know that an evacuation
ships to keep the sea lanes open for
is taking place.
Britains survival. But, at Dover, ViceThe last 40 minutes of the film are
Admiral Ramsay (Nicholas Hannen)
the most memorable, shot at Camber
intervenes, persuading the Admiralty
Sands to represent the beaches at
that unless they can get the men off
Dunkirk. Rye stands in for the old
the beaches there will be no Army
town of Dunkirk.
left to defend Britain. The destroyers
The only time the beaches of Dunkirk
are sent back in.
have been similarly presented was
DUNKIRK SPIRIT
in the film Atonement (dir. Joe Wright,
2007). This, however, was done in the
In the final scenes of the film, the fightage of CGI. In 1958, the only way to
ing gets nearer. Everyone knows there
make such scenes look real was to fill
is little time left before the Germans
them with people. And this is what the
overrun the beachhead. In a medical
film-makers did: hundreds, probably
aid station, the doctors draw lots for
thousands, of extras line the beach.
who will remain with the wounded and
John Mills gives an especially
certain captivity, and who will leave.
strong performance, combining wideOn the beach, Binns and Foreman
eyed amazement with a determination
talk. What caused all this?, the
to keep his small squad together. By
corporal asks. Stupidity, replies the
day, the men lie up on the beaches
journalist. Everyone saying that war
and come under repeated air attack.
was so dreadful it could not happen
The Germans seem to have total
again, stuffing their heads in the sand.
mastery of the skies, and the men
He sums up his view by saying
grow angry, cursing the RAF.
You cant blame the Army. They
had what we gave them last-war
PANDEMONIUM
weapons, last-war methods. This
The soldiers on the beach wait patiently is the result. The films message is
that it took a disaster like Dunkirk
for their turn to try to embark each
to wake the nation up.
night. Vast columns of men snake
On Sunday, a church parade is
out into the sea, and the lucky ones
held on the beach. But it makes no
clamber aboard a vessel. Many of the
difference to the beastly Luftwaffe,
small boats nearly capsize as dozens
who still attack. Foreman is killed in
of men swarm onto them.
one of the last air-raids.
In another powerful sequence,
Binns and his men manage to
Binns and his squad finally get onto
get on Holdens now-repaired boat,
a destroyer, but it is hit by shell-fire
and the deck bursts into flames. This is along with half a dozen others. They
eventually get back to Britain. But
all filmed for real, and men leap back
there is no celebration of their arrival.
into the water to get away from the
The films message is that

it took a disaster like Dunkirk
to wake the nation up.
THE RAF AND DUNKIRK
With the Luftwaffe able to bomb the Dunkirk beaches and the
perimeter defences repeatedly, there was much criticism of the
RAF, who were rarely visible in the skies above. In Dunkirk, the
RAF pilots are accused of sleeping it off while the Army suffered.
When the soldiers came home, many of them were openly
hostile towards anyone in RAF uniform, and there were frequent
fights and brawls reported in pubs and on dance floors.
The fact was that the RAF had very limited forces in France
at the end of May 1940, and although the French government
was calling on Churchill to send more squadrons, RAF Fighter
Command, led by Hugh Dowding, was reluctant to commit more
valuable Spitfires and Hurricanes. Dowding knew that if France
fell, his fighter aircraft would be vital for the defence of Britain.
In any case, RAF fighters in France (and some based in southern
England) were often attacking the Luftwaffe as they headed for
Dunkirk, although these actions were rarely visible from the
beachhead. The RAF fighters shot down about 150 German aircraft,
but lost 100 of their own planes, and 80 irreplaceable skilled pilots.
Nonetheless, the reputation of the RAF with the other fighting
services hit a nadir in late May and June 1940. But this soon
passed: in the following months, during the Battle of Britain, its
popularity soared. The heroic legend of the Few was born, and
any memories of let-downs at Dunkirk were quickly forgotten.
The film does not allow itself an

upbeat ending.
A commentary declares, Dunkirk
was a great defeat, and a great miracle.
No longer were there fighting men
and civilians. There were only people.
A nation had been made whole.
This was a very Ealing-type
declaration, that war or an outside
challenge brings everyone together.
It is a reference to how the Dunkirk
Spirit helped unite Britain.
The films last images show Binns
and Private Mike back on the drill
square being marched up and down
by a bawling drill sergeant. It suggests
that in reality things will not change.
Dunkirk is an unusual but still

powerful film. The evacuation has
often been presented as a miraculous achievement. But, in this film,
the triumph of the story of the little
ships is outweighed by the message
of how pre-war complacency left
men fighting impossible odds and
facing death or captivity.
The scenes on the beaches provide
the dramatic climax, and it is difficult to
imagine such scenes being presented
more forcibly or realistically again.
Although out of step with many of the
classic war films of the 1950s, Dunkirk
deserves its place as one of the most
interesting war films of the decade.
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
H
M
re
n
com me
eminent institution, but these

are supported by a wide range of
other primary source documents,
from the National Archives and
the National Museum of the Royal
Navy, among others, along with an
impressive array of printed primary
and secondary sources, all detailed in
a comprehensive bibliography.
In Nelsons Wake is the very
definition of authoritative, and
Davey is a fine writer. One of his
many accomplishments is to swoop
effortlessly down from the lofty
heights of grand strategy to the
participants who lived and died by
its consequences, at sea and on
land, all over the world. Across the
centuries, he calls on admirals
and seamen, masters mates,
midshipman and marines, to help
him make his case.
As a 20th-century naval historian,
I am no expert in the Napoleonic
period, but In Nelsons Wake is an
accessible introduction for the newcomer which covers a huge amount
of ground. However, the quality of
the research and source material
should also make it an invaluable
addition for the specialist.
Of the many lessons it teaches,
one is that there are key themes
that run consistently across the
In Nelsons Wake is the very

definition of authoritative,
and Davey is a fine writer.
64
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
LY
IN NELSONS WAKE: THE NAVY

AND THE NAPOLEONIC WARS
TA
R
EDITED BY KEITH ROBINSON
T
MILI
centuries. Certainly, the way in

which the Admiralty moved its key
assets, the majestic line-of-battle
ships, around the globe to respond
to each new crisis bears a striking
resemblance to the way dreadnought battleships were deployed
in the First World War, and aircraft
carriers and landing ships in the
Second. The guerre de course
waged by French privateers
against the British economy, and
the solutions which eventually
defeated them, can be compared
to the war against first the Kaisers
and then Hitlers U-boats.
I was particularly struck by the
very familiar complexities and risks
associated with amphibious warfare

in the age of sail. At one point,
the Dowager Marchioness Lady
Downshire relates a mournful tale
of problems with what would today
be called assault loading before
the expedition to the Scheldt in
1809, describing how all the troops
were shuffled in the wrong ships,
and have been two days sorting by
the men-of-war. Her words could
equally well have been written about
Gallipoli in 1915, or Norway in 1940.
The books structure is sensible.
Each chapter describes a theatre
of operations and historical period,
so Chapter 6, for example, covers
the Royal Navy and the European
December 2015
MHM REVIEWS
Image: National Maritime Museum, London
LEFT Thomas Luny's 1830 depiction

of Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew's
action during the blockade of Toulon,
1810-1814. On 5 November 1813,
there was a brief naval clash between
the blockading British force, led by
Pellew, and the French, who were
forced back into port.
Image: National Maritime Museum, London
conflict between 1806 and 1807.

Geography takes precedence over
chronology, so chapters sometimes
overlap, but the clear style and
helpful cross-referencing head off
potential confusion.
At the end of each chapter, a
carefully crafted conclusion supports
the authors central tenet that naval
The book is supported by

commendably clear maps, and
a useful glossary and timeline.
operations continued to make an

indispensable contribution to the
Allied war effort. (It was particularly
satisfying to see the War of 1812
with the United States placed in its
proper context, as an unwelcome
and small-scale distraction from the
titanic struggle against France.) The
only exception is a thematic chapter
that groups together such issues
as supply, shipbuilding, propaganda,
and prisoners-of-war under the
heading of Production, Prisons,
and Patriotism.
The book is supported by commendably clear maps, and a useful
glossary and timeline. There is
also a useful collection of colour
illustrations, albeit reproduced at
a small scale, including portraits of
many of the senior British figures
of the conflicts, as well as political
cartoons and reproductions of paintings of the naval battles.
In Nelsons Wake is an excellent
and necessary book. If, in this year
of the Waterloo Bicentennial, everyone with an interest in the period
(and, in particular, those whose
interests incline more towards land
rather than sea warfare) could be
persuaded to read it, it might correct
a centuries-old misunderstanding
that began almost as soon as the
guns fell silent in 1815.
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.
65
MHM REVIEWS
OO S
THE BEST NEW MILITARY HISTORY TITLES THIS MONTH
YANKS AND LIMEYS:

ALLIANCE WARFARE IN
THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Niall Barr
Jonathan Cape, 25 (hbk)
ISBN 978-0224079228
iall Barr starts by asking

why another book on the
Anglo-American alliance in the
Second World War is necessary. He
begins his book by taking us back
to the 18th century and then the
First World War unusual starting
points for a book about the Second
World War, but this does serve a
purpose. It illustrates how the two
armies were enemies during the War
of Independence, and that Britains
neutrality during the American Civil
War infuriated the North.
The First World War exposed
weaknesses in both armies, who
equally believed they had won the
war, and in the two decades that followed, they became strangers again.
When the Second World War began
in 1939, the British and American
armies were largely unknown to
each other. However, by 1942, tens
of thousands of US troops were
invading Britain, and beginning
to cause some concerns.
The British Army of over two million,
mainly stationed in Britain, was
ready to respond to the threat of the
German invasion that never came
the troops were thus in a state of

limbo and had a poor public image.
Their leadership was lampooned as
old-fashioned and pompous, portrayed as made up of incompetent
Colonel Blimps, and this was having
a deleterious effect on troop morale.
To add to their woes, they were
poorly paid, poorly fed, and badly
dressed when compared to the
newly arrived GIs with their smart
uniforms, money in their pockets,
and better food in their messes. A
common taunt of the British soldier
said it all the GIs were overpaid,
oversexed, and over here. It was
not surprising, therefore, that when
British and American troops got
together at a social event, it often
resulted in open hostility. Hardly a
satisfactory basis for integration.
In August 1943, an Anglo-American
relations committee was formed and,
among other initiatives, promoted an
inter-attachment scheme. This was
successful in changing opinions on
both sides, brought about by working
together and closer acquaintance.
The flow of staff across the Atlantic
was two-way, with British Army staff
From the forests of the Ardennes

to the North African deserts,
the two armies were competing
for resources and glory.
working in the USA in a wide and

complex collaboration that included
Operations Plans Intelligence, Public
Relations, and Ordnance. However, in
Europe, relations between British and
American commanders remained poor.
From the forests of the Ardennes
to the North African deserts, the
two armies were competing for
resources and glory. In Europe and
in the thrust into Germany, there
was hostility between the commanders, above all between Eisenhower
and Montgomery.
Barrs book is about the unprecedented and successful cooperation
between America and Britain in
overthrowing Germany, but also
about the simmering frictions that
lay close beneath the surface, and

which sometimes erupted into
open hostility. Despite the many
difficulties, however, the cooperation
endured as the Special Relationship
between the two countries.
At over 548 pages, this is a long
book and, if shorter, would be more
readable. Perhaps condensing the
first two subsidiary chapters of pre1939 history would have helped.
To answer Barrs question about
the necessity of his book: he was
right to ask the question. The subject
area is crowded with many other
books, but this one makes a valuable
contribution, and is the best one
I have read.
JOHN B WINTERBURN
67
THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WARS, 19161926:

TEN YEARS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD
Jonathan D Smele
Hurst Publishers, 35 (hbk)
ISBN 978-1849044240
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
THE COOLER KING: THE TRUE STORY OF WILLIAM ASH

SPITFIRE PILOT, POW AND WWIIS GREATEST ESCAPER
Patrick Bishop
Atlantic Books, 17.99 (hbk)
ISBN 978-1782390220
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
MHM S ROUND-UP OF THE BEST MILITARY HISTORY TITLES
ILLUSTRATED BOOK
The Battle
of Agincourt
Anne Curry and Malcolm
Mercer (eds)
Yale University Press,
30 (hbk)
Image: Lambeth Palace Library (MS 6)
ISBN 978-0300214307
ABOVE The Battle of Agincourt from Brut (commonly

known as the St Albans Chronicle), about 1450.
To Hell and Back:

Europe, 1914-1949
Ian Kershaw
Allen Lane, 30 (hbk)
ISBN 978-0713990898
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
X Platoon: the true story of

an elite British Army unit
Steve Heaney with
Damien Lewis
Orion Books, 18.99 (hbk)
Germany Ascendant:
the Eastern Front, 1915
Prit Buttar
Osprey Books, 20 (hbk)
ISBN 978-1409148487
We hear about the Western

Front of WWI, but know little
of what happened on the
Eastern Front, where Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and Russia
were engaged in a large-scale
and ferocious conflict. Germany
was dominant for much of 1915,
but the Russians held out and
drained Germanys reserves of
men and equipment. This book
takes the reader from Carpathia
to Belgrade, and ultimately to
the fall of Serbia.
Steve Heaney wanted to join

the Paras from the time he saw
them going off to the Falklands.
From the Parachute Regiment,
he joined the secret X Platoon,
becoming the first non-officer in
the units history to be awarded
the Military Cross. Covering
action from narcotics
operations in Guatemala to
finding arms caches in Northern
Ireland, this fast-paced book is
difficult to put down.
ISBN 978-1472807953
A beautifully presented book,

lavishly illustrated and containing
an excellent series of essays
by a range of scholars, both
British and French. Published
in partnership with the Royal
Armouries, the book abounds
with fine illustrations of the
military armaments and
equipment of the period.
A must!
Johnny Enzed: the New

Zealand soldier in the First
World War, 1914-1918
Glyn Harper
Exisle Publishing, 25 (hbk)
All for Nothing

Walter Kempowski
(translated by Anthea Bell)
Granta Books, 14.99 (hbk)
ISBN 978-1775592020
East Prussia: January, 1945.

As the Russians edge ever
closer, the inhabitants of a large
house continue with their
everyday lives, concerned only
with their own preoccupations
and the ever-increasing number
of visitors coming to the door.
This thoughtful novel examines
the ways in which people lived
in the Third Reich, whether
by closely adhering to its
principles or by small individual
acts of rebellion.
Out of 100,000 men and

women who left New Zealand
to fight in the First World War,
60,000 died. This was a huge
tragedy for what is only a
small nation. Harper looks at
the experience of war for the
New Zealand soldier through
correspondence, diaries, and
memoirs. Topics such as gas
attacks, rats, horses, food,
infectious diseases, and singing
are considered.
ISBN 978-1847087201
December 2015
M
MEMBERSHIP
A PROMOTION OF MILITARY HISTORY ORGANISATIONS ACROSS THE UK.
THE SOCIETY OF ANCIENTS
IWM (IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS)

IWM tells the story of people who have lived, fought,
and died in conflicts involving Britain and the
Commonwealth since the First World War.
Our unique Collections, made up of the everyday
and the exceptional, reveal stories of people, places,
ideas, and events. Using these, we tell vivid personal
stories and create powerful physical experiences
across our five museums that reflect the realities of
war as both a destructive and a creative force. We
challenge people to look at conflict from different
perspectives, enriching their understanding of the
causes, course, and consequences of war and its
impact on peoples lives.
Our five branches attract over 2 million visitors
each year. IWM London, our flagship branch,
marks the Centenary of the First World War with
new permanent First World War Galleries and a
new Atrium with iconic large object displays. Our
other branches are IWM North, housed in an
iconic award-winning building designed by Daniel
Libeskind; IWM Duxford, a world-renowned
aviation museum and Britain's best preserved
wartime airfield; Churchill War Rooms, housed in
Churchills secret headquarters below Whitehall;
and the Second World War cruiser HMS Belfast.
MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS:
Unlimited free entry to Lee Miller: a womans war (IWM London),
Churchill War Rooms, and HMS Belfast. Free entry to IWM Duxford,
except on special event days and air shows.
Despatches, our Members magazine, delivered direct to your door.
A 10% discount in IWMs shops, cafes and online shop, and exclusive
Member shopping events.
COST OF MEMBERSHIP: Starts at 45 per year
WEB: www.iwm.org.uk/connect/iwm-membership
EMAIL: friends@iwm.org.uk
PHONE: 020 7416 5255
The Society of Ancients is celebrating its 50th anniversary

and seeks to welcome new members. We are a UK-based
society with a worldwide membership interested in all
aspects of ancient warfare (essentially anything before
AD 1500), including war-gaming, through a variety of
methods and systems.
The Society is noted for cutting-edge research into
pre-gunpowder military systems, detailed knowledge of
equipment and organisation of many period armies, and
a worldwide membership including many contributors on
items of special interest.
Society members receive six annual issues of the
Society's magazine, Slingshot, totaling more than 250
pages of articles on war-gaming and history, game design, reviews, and letters. In
addition, many leading figure manufacturers, painting services, and book suppliers
offer discounts to Society members.
New members are not expected to bring any particular skills, nor do they require any
great depth of knowledge, just an interest in or love of military history and/or war-gaming.
MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS: Bi-monthly periodical Slingshot,
society discussion forum, Battle Day, society war-games
championship, member discounts with several
booksellers and numerous miniature figure dealers, and
discounts on Society products.
COST OF MEMBERSHIP: 24 for 1 year (six issues of

Slingshot). Please apply through the website (and
let us know if you find it anything other than easy).
WEB: www.soa.org.uk/joomla
EMAIL: secretary@soa.org.uk
INDIAN MILITARY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The IMHS act as a forum for the dissemination of knowledge of uniforms, medals, badges, buttons, and other militaria, as well as the
history of Service units in India before and after Independence.
These include: Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force units
that served in India; Units of the Honourable East India Companys
Army and Marine prior to 1861; The Indian Army subsequent to 1861,
including the European Volunteer Corps; The Royal Indian Marine
and the Royal Indian Navy; The Army of Nepal and those of the
Princely States; the present day Armed Services of India, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh, including Frontier Corps, Para Military, and Police units.
MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS: A quarterly journal of
roughly 52 pages. Once the website has been
completed and back issues of all journals
placed online, members will have exclusive
access to the previous five years journals.
COST OF MEMBERSHIP: 15 per annum,

including delivery by air mail to
international addresses
WEB: www.imhs.org.uk
EMAIL: membership@imhs.org.uk
B
BOOKS
A PROMOTION OF THE LATEST MILITARY HISTORY TITLES

AVAILABLE TO BUY THIS FESTIVE SEASON.
HMS PICKLE: THE

SWIFTEST SHIP IN
NELSONS TRAFALGAR
FLEET
Peter Hore
Celebrated worldwide on the
6th November with Pickle
Night, HMS Pickle was the
smallest ship in Nelsons Fleet
at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Deemed too small to take
part in the fighting, it distinguished itself as the vessel that
brought the news of Nelsons
victory at Trafalgar and his
death.
THE LAST BIG GUN: AT

WAR AND AT SEA WITH
HMS BELFAST
In this first complete
biography of HMS Belfast,
bestselling author and naval
historian Brian Lavery
vividly portrays the realities
of life aboard a Second World
War battleship. Lavishly
illustrated and written in an
accessible style, it juxtaposes
an in-depth technical
understanding with a highly
evocative use of quote and
anecdote.
PUBLISHER: The Pool of London
Press
PUBLISHER: The History Press
PRICE: 25.00
PRICE: 14.99 hardback
WHERE TO BUY: www.casematepublishers.co.uk
WHERE TO BUY: Telephone Sales: 01235 465 500. Website: www.thehistorypress.co.uk
TO HELL AND BACK:

THE LAST TRAIN FROM
HIROSHIMA
Charles Pellegrino
Drawing on eyewitness accounts
and forensic archaeology, this
book describes the events and
the aftermath of the Hiroshima
and Nagasaki bombings. This
illustrated narrative challenges
the official report, showing
exactly what happened and
why. The authors scientific
authority and close relationship
with the A-bomb survivors
make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written.
PUBLISHER: Rowman & Littlefield
PRICE: 19.95
WHERE TO BUY: any online retailer or bookshop
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
TANK: 100 YEARS

OF THE WORLDS
MOST IMPORTANT ARMOURED
MILITARY
VEHICLE
Michael E. Haskew
THE MILITARY DIARY 2016

A high-quality, special-interest pocket diary with 30 pages of articles on
leaders, weapons, wars, and battles, plus war poetry and military quotations. Two historical battle or military event dates on every diary-day
of the year. Week-to-view format, world maps section in full colour, as
well as conventional diary features. Limited edition. 144pp.
From the Greek phalanx to Roman siege

engines, from plans by Leonardo da Vinci to the imagination of
H G Wells, the idea of the armoured fighting vehicle the tank
has crossed centuries, giving rise to the technologically advanced
warfare systems populating the armies of countries, large and
small, today.
PUBLISHER: Zenith Press
PRICE: 25
WHERE TO BUY: Amazon, Quarto Knows and all good book shops
PUBLISHER: Howman Books Limited

PRICE: 11.99 (plus p&p)
WHERE TO BUY: Classic edition from www.howmanbooks.com. Cover branded editions
available from: Royal British Legion Poppy Shop and Help-for-Heroes website shop.
THE JULY CRISIS

T. G. Otte
THE BATTLE
OF WATERLOO
A FOREGONE
CONCLUSION?
A J Pointon
Drawing on painstaking research

and many new sources, Otte
illuminates the importance of
timing in understanding the crisis.
Financial Times
If you want to understand how
Europe stumbled into suicide
in 1914, read this book. The
Independent
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University
Press
PRICE: 14.99 paperback, 25.00
hardback
WHERE TO BUY: www.cambridge.org
Professor Pointon looks at

hard facts from the French
perspective in this thoughtful,
thorough, and entertaining
account. He suggests that
Wellingtons famous words,
it has been the nearest run
thing, did not refer to the
final Battle of Waterloo itself,
but to the events, including
another two battles, of the previous three days.
PUBLISHER: Parapress Publishing
PRICE: 9.00
WHERE TO BUY: www.parapresspublishing.com
SU
02
REVIEWING THE BEST MILITARY HISTORY EXHIBITIONS

WITH RICHARD LUCAS
01
12
ENTRY
03
VISIT
GALATA MARITIME MUSEUM

Calata de Mari, 1, 16126 Genova, Italy
+39 010 234 5655
www.galatamuseodelmare.it
Open March to October 10am-7.30pm daily; November
to February 10am-6pm Tuesday to Friday, 10am-7.30pm
Saturday and Sunday
hinking of Genoa, readers

might imagine sail and
ships, naval prowess, and
a maritime tradition that
spans several centuries. Probably
no other city in the world has been
so influenced by the sea as this port
and one time city-state in the heart
of the Mediterranean. During the
16th and 17th centuries, Genoa was
a major naval power, with a fleet that
dominated the Mediterranean Basin,
and was unexcelled in maritime trade
and exploration.
All images: Richard Lucas
GALATA: A MAJOR
MARITIME MUSEUM
74
Today, the port is as important and

active as before. Its shipyards continue
to construct and refurbish cargo,
passenger, and military vessels.
Proud of its rich naval tradition,
the city has erected one of the largest
and most interesting maritime museums
in the world: the Galata Maritime
Museum (or Galata Museo del Mare).
The museum is located in the centre

of the city, on the water, and covers
6,000m2. It occupies what was once
Genoas arsenal and shipbuilding
complex. From the fifth floor of the
building, visitors can enjoy a panoramic view of the harbour and the
city, which is surrounded by steep hills.
One of the most interesting
aspects of the museum is its interactive, hands-on displays. These
make the experience of life aboard
historic naval vessels more tangible
for modern visitors. Visitors are
invited to climb aboard ships from
several eras, ranging from a 17thcentury man-powered war galley to a
contemporary submarine.
The museums five floors house
some of the largest and bestdocumented displays on maritime
history anywhere in the world. The
tour begins with a brief description
of the port city itself, including the
development of its harbour and
shipbuilding activities.
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.
Visitors are invited to explore

several rooms filled with weapons,
armour, and cannon. They can board
a full-scale reproduction of a 17thcentury galley, over 40m long and
9m high at the stern. Inside the hull,
life-size holograms play out a variety
of scenes and visitors can speak
with a galley slave, a soldier, and a
ships captain. Surrounding the galley
are displays and video presentations
where visitors can discover what life
was like on a slave-powered warship
400 years ago.
December 2015
06
04
MHM VISITS
GENOA ,
I TA LY
PICTURED ON BOTH PAGES:

1. The 60m-long Sauro class
submarine that is docked outside
the Museum.
2. The equipment aboard the
submarine is fully operational.
07
3. A model of a Genoese galley.

Galleys like these were used
in the Mediterranean until the
18th century.
4. The portrait of Christopher
Columbus painted by Florentine
artist Ridolfo Ghirlandaio in 1525.
05
5. Genoa was a major port

for passenger liners carrying
immigrants to America.
6. A display of 17th-century
plate armour. Genoa was also
a major military power.
7. Scale models of vessels used
by sailors throughout the citys
long history.
The first floor provides the visitor

with a view of the galleys main deck,
and has several rooms dedicated to
the evolution of naval warfare in the
same period. A series of adjoining
rooms contain maritime charts, maps,
and globes of the era, alongside ships
logs and other documents with interactive translations and explanations.
MARITIME EXPLORATION
AND COMMERCE
The second floor houses a life-size brigantine schooner, the ship that was the
backbone of the European quest for

unexplored lands and trade in exotic
products. Visitors can climb aboard and
peer into the ships hold with its cargo
of coffee and tea, the crews quarters,
and the captains pilot station. Alongside the schooner are a number of
rooms dedicated to ship-building tools
and techniques, including a display
about the workshops which developed
scale-model prototypes.
The Italian love of art is not forgotten
in this museum. There is a gallery
with paintings of sailing vessels by a
number of famous artists. In a separate
wing, there is another gallery for
contemporary pieces, featuring artists
whose work explores the maritime
milieu with a modern aesthetic.
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
way through the cramped quarters of

the third-class passengers, with their
stark eating area and generally unsanitary conditions. From here they may
climb to the upper deck, reserved for
first-class passengers, complete with its
plush dining hall and luxury cabins.
Exiting the ship, visitors are confronted by customs officers whose
questions must be understood and
answered. The exhibition ends with
another story of immigration. It is that
of the African boat people who have
been landing on the Italian shores
over the last few years.
THE UNDERWATER NAVY

Visitors may choose to attend the
Submarine School, where several
rooms have been built to resemble
the interior of a submarine. There are
a number of interactive installations,
where visitors can pilot the vessel
through an undersea oceanscape using
sonar equipment and a periscope,
before meeting with its captain. There
are several displays dedicated to the
layout and function of the various
stations of an active submarine.
Returning to the ground-floor lobby,
visitors are provided with a hard hat
and an audio-guide. Across the dock,
in front of the museum, is a real submarine, which is open to visitors. The

Nazario Sauro 151 was a submarine of
the Italian Navy, and belongs to the first
series of class Sauro, commissioned in
1980. This diesel-/electric-powered sub,
designed for coastal patrol and defence,
was used in the Mediterranean and
carried a crew of 45.
Entering the aft hatch, visitors make
their way through the engine room,
passing the control panels, officers
quarters, wardroom, and captains
quarters to reach the bridge and
operations centre. Peering through
the submarines periscope, the cars
on the road at the other side of the
harbour become visible. Passing
through the crews quarters, by the
galley and crews mess, the visit ends
in the forward torpedo room.
With such a variety of exhibits,
the museum is interesting and informative. It would make a particularly
rewarding visit for children, thanks
to its emphasis on things that are
interactive, hands-on, and climbaboard. You should set aside around
three hours for your visit, but can
break this up with a snack at the
cafeteria or a visit to the gift shop in
the ground-floor lobby.
75
ISTI S
LECTURE
THE BEST MILITARY HISTORY EVENTS, LECTURES, AND EXHIBITIONS
FREE
ENTRY
FREE
ENTRY
SHELLSHOCKED BRITAIN:
UNDERSTANDING THE
LASTING TRAUMA OF
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
10 December 2015
Image: National Army Museum
The National Archives, Kew,

Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
LECTURE
RETHINKING INDIAN SOLDIERS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR

14 December 2015
36-39 Pall Mall,
London, SW1Y 5JN
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
CAROLS IN THE TRENCHES
Millions of soldiers were scarred

by their experiences in the First
World War trenches, but how
new was what we now know as
shell shock? What treatments
were on offer? And what happened
after the men came home?
Writer and researcher Suzie
Grogan reveals the First World
Wars legacy for soldiers, their
families, the communities they
lived in, and the nation as a whole.
The talk will include discussion of
the rise of spiritualism, the impact
of the Spanish influenza outbreak,
air-raids on the Home Front, the
trauma experienced by survivors,
and why the conflict still resonates
into the 21st century.
5
ENTRY
12 December 2015
76
An evening of carols and readings, set in the

museums First World War trench system,
followed by a re-enactment of the Christmas
Truce in No Mans Land. Participants of all
ages are welcome to join in the festivities,
but pre-booking is essential.
Image: Terry Fidgeon
Staffordshire Regiment Museum,

Whittington Barracks,
Whittington, Lichfield,
SW14 9PY
www.staffordshireregimentmuseum.com
01543 434394
December 2015
PETER KENNARD: UNOFFICIAL WAR ARTIST

5 December 2015
Join a free, hour-long tour of an exhibition of Peter Kennards art at

the Imperial War Museum. Regarded as Britains most political artist,
Kennards images have become synonymous with political activism,
and have inspired many of todays politically aware artists, from
Mark Wallinger to Banksy. The tour will highlight key pieces and
themes within the exhibition, and will assess the immediate impact
of Kennards art and its effect on subsequent generations.
Image: Peter Kennard
ENTRY
RIVER CRUISE
EVENT
13
ENTRY
ENTRY
DATES TO
REMEMBER
1 DECEMBER 2015
Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London, SE1 6HZ

www.iwm.org.uk
FREE
Worn Out by War:

disabled soldiers
and their pensions
The National Archives, Kew,
Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Dr Caroline Nielsen will use

military records to reconstruct
the lives of disabled people
and their families in the past,
exploring the experiences of
disabled veterans in the 18th
and 19th centuries.
9 DECEMBER 2015
1915: the second year

of the First World War
Image: Mark McNulty
Black Watch Regimental

Museum, Balhousie Castle,
Hay Street, Perth, Perth &
Kinross, PH1 5HR
www.theblackwatch.co.uk
EVERYBODY RAZZLE DAZZLE

April 2015-December 2016
River Mersey, Pier Head, Liverpool, L3 1HT
www.1418now.org.uk
All aboard the Mersey Ferry Snowdrop! Learn

about the role of the Mersey Ferries during
the First World War, and explore the world of
wartime dazzle camouflage. Artist Sir Peter Blake
has covered Snowdrop with a distinctive pattern,
transforming her into a moving artwork inspired
by 20th-century artists who painted British
vessels in dazzle camouflage to confuse enemy
U-boats. Continue the fun with the Dazzle It app,
which allows you to remix work by contemporary
artists to create your own dazzle and apply it to
a 3D model.
VINTAGE CHRISTMAS
5-6 December 2015
The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, BH20 6JG
www.tankmuseum.org
Step back in time at The Tank Museums annual

Christmas festival, and learn about life at Christmas
from 1920 to the post-war era. Meet living history
re-enactors in the museum, before treating yourself
to a carvery lunch and attending a vintage tea-party.
There will be entertainment throughout the weekend,
including childrens crafting and live music. Watch
Santa arrive by tank, before picking up unique gift s
for family and friends at the vintage market. And
dont forget to attend in period dress for a chance
to win the best-dressed competition.
In 1915, the world moved into

the second year of a war that
some had thought would be
over by Christmas. Discover
the effects of this on the Black
Watch, and the events that
sum up that year.
20-23 AND 27-30

DECEMBER 2015
A Wartime Christmas
Imperial War Museum, Lambeth
Road, London, SE1 6HZ
www.iwm.org.uk
Visit the IWM London to learn

about Christmas on the Home
Front while crafting your very
own Christmas wreath. Open
to participants of all ages.
EXHIBITION
E H SHEPARD: AN ILLUSTRATORS WAR

Image: artwork from The Shepard Trust archive
reproduced with permission of Punch Ltd
MHM VISITS
GALLERY TOUR
ENTRY
9 October 2015-10 January 2016

House of Illustration, 2 Granary Square, Kings Cross, London, N1C 4BH
www.houseofillustration.org.uk
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.
ABOVE My Village, I Think? by E H Shepard.
77
IN THE NEXT ISSUE

ON SALE 10 DECEMBER
PREPARING FOR THE GREAT OFFENSIVES
ALSO NEXT ISSUE:
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.

Wellington on Wellington: in his own words

Strasbourg, AD 357: the Emperor Julians
great victory over the Germans
Ballistic bombardment: the V2 rocket attacks
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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
This month we have five copies of The Agincourt Companion: a

guide to the legendary battle and warfare in England to give away.
invasion, explaining the historical
background to the Kings claims. It
details the battle itself, and how the
superiority of the English (and Welsh)
archers was fundamental to the success
of the army that day. It discusses the
military tactics of both sides, and what
happened in the aftermath.
The book also looks at the
development of and advances
made in weaponry and armour

in the Middle Ages, as well as the
changes in tactics. Finally, it considers
the legacy of Agincourt, including
how Shakespeares famous play
has shaped our views, asking
whether there is any truth in the
claim that the hand gesture, the
V-sign, originated from English
archers gloating in victory.
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 OFF DUTY
MHM
Answer
online at
To be in with a chance of winning,

simply answer the following question:
www.
military-history.
org
? The Battle of Agincourt was fought

on which Christian feast day?
We continue our caption competition with an image from this

months feature on the Tsars army. Pit your wits against other
readers at www.military-history.org/competitions
LAST MONTHS WINNER

ANSWERS
NOVEMBER ISSUE | MHM 62

ACROSS: 7 Centurion, 8 Malta, 10 Sparta, 11 Khartoum,
12 Cruise, 13 Bearskin, 14 Agent Orange, 19 Tristram,
21 Herzog, 22 Kawasaki, 24 Lennox, 25 Anjou, 26 Baltimore.
DOWN: 1 Leopard, 2 Stirling, 3 Greave, 4 York, 5 Nantes,
6 Etruria, 9 Havana, 13 Blohm, 15 Norman, 16 Geronimo,
17 Ariadne, 18 Colours, 20 Sharon, 21 Helots, 23 Ivan.
22 US research project, begun in 1942,

that produced the first nuclear bombs (9)
25 African country where the Battle of
Adwa was fought in 1896 (8)
26 Country which suffered genocide
following the assassination of President
Habyarimana in 1994 (6)
27 Allied operation in 1940 to capture
Dakar in French West Africa (6)
28 Royal Navy T-class submarine named
after a son of Zeus (8)
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)
5 Surname of actor who portrayed

Lieutenant Chard in the film Zulu (5)
6 Battle fought in Upper Canada (now
Ontario) during the War of 1812 (8)
7 Leading figure of the Clan MacGregor,
wounded at the Battle of Glen Shiel
in 1719 (3,3)
14 Russian empress in whose reign the
Pugachev Rebellion was suppressed (9)
16 British general who surrendered to
the Japanese at Singapore in 1942 (8)
18 Roman emperor who came to Britain
during the invasion in AD 43 (8)
19 Asian city captured by the Japanese
in 1942 (7)
21 Battle of the Thirty Years War (6)
23 Roman emperor famous for his
conquest of Dacia (6)
24 Hitlers Minister of Armaments from
1942 to 1945 (5)
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
Think you can do better?

Go head-to-head with other MHM readers for the
chance to see your caption printed in the next issue.
Enter now at www.military-history.org/competitions
81
Photo: Nigel Evans
g ro
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in
f
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o
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in
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ie
r
B
+
m
o
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briefing
ALL YOU NEED TO

KNOW ABOUT
The British
WWII Ordnance
QF 25-pounder
Mark II Artillery
Piece
That's a bit of a mouthful
What was it?
Ordnance QF 25-pounder fact file

Mobility: its light and manoeuvrable carriage made
the gun highly mobile
Crew: six men, though it could be operated with
an official
reduced detachment of four men
Range: used as a field gun in direct fire mode it had
a
maximum range of 13,400yds (12,253m)
Rate of fire: normal rate of fire was three rounds
per minute,
though it could reach six to eight rounds per minu
te
Complement: British Field (and RHA) Artillery Regim
ents
during the Second World War were organised into
three
gun batteries of eight guns each, in two troops of
four. Three
such regiments would be allocated to infantry and
armoured
divisions to give a nominal total of 72 guns per divisi
on
Date: WWII
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?
Designed in the 1930s, the 25-pdr was a 3.45in-calibre (87.6mm) weapon.

It fired a shell weighing 25lbs (11.3kg). It was mounted on a two-wheeled carriage
using a circular firing platform. The firing platform was attached to the gun and,
when lowered, transferred most of the knockback to the ground, providing a
very stable firing base. The road wheels allowed the gun to be moved rapidly
from one place to another.
The 25-pdr used variable-charge ammunition. The shell was loaded first,
followed by the cartridge in its brass casing. It was fitted with direct and indirect
sights to provide accurate, rapid fire in both the howitzer and direct-fire modes.
It had a maximum range of 13,400yds (12,253m).
Who invented this

deadly device?
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.
So how many were used?
By 1945, over 12,000 had been manufactured.

82
Terrifying! Why were

they so popular?
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).
Pretty high-tech. How effective

were they?
They were very effective. The barrage preceding the Battle of El Alamein was one of
the most memorable moments in the 25-pdrs history. Some 834 guns were used
in a coordinated fire-plan designed to cover the engineer parties that were trying
to clear paths through the enemy barbed-wire and minefields. Over one-and-a-half
million shells were expended during this barrage.
The last 25-pdr used in action by British forces was fired as late as 1972 by
SAS troops in Oman. That gun had been built in 1943.
Another 25-pdr field gun was spotted being used by Kurdish forces in northern
Iraq in 2003. Ammunition for the weapon is still produced by the Pakistan
Ordnance Factories.
December 2015

Military History Monthly - December 2015

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December 2015 Issue 63 4.

Curious war cartography

Forgotten fighter of WWII

December 2015 Issue 63 4.50

Curious war cartography

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18 For God and Tsar

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dimension, Operation Neptune, was

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