Military History Monthly - October 2015

October 2015 Ɩ Issue 61 Ɩ £4.
50
HOBART’S FUNNIES
www.military-history.org
Extraordinary D-Day tanks
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Ɩ The Last of the Tide:
portraits of veterans
Ɩ Tank Island: the Home Guard
versus the Nazis
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FOREIGN LEGION’S GAS ATTACK

FINEST HOUR British chemical
The defence of Camerone weapons at Loos, 1915
MHM
HOBART’S FUNNIES
MILITARY
October 2015 Ɩ Issue 61 Ɩ £4.50
www.military-history.org kkk Extraordinary D-Day tanks
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Ɩ Thee Last
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Ɩ Tank
an Island:
Islan theh Home
H e Guard
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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD:

AGINCOURT
T
Martin Brown his has been a year of anniversaries: Gallipoli, Waterloo,
Archaeological Advisor, Defence Outnumbered, h ngry, disease-ridden...
Estates, Ministry of Defence
Agincourt. This issue we mark Henry V’s great victory g s win
Mark Corby
on 25 October 1415, when a heavily outnumbered
Military historian, lecturer, and English army formed mainly of archers smashed a traditional FOREIGN
O LEGION’S
FINEST HOUR
NS GAS
G ATTACK
C
British chemical
The defence
f of Camerone weapons at Loos, 1915
broadcaster French feudal array.
Paul Cornish Military systems are embedded in the social orders they ON THE COVER: Henry V, with an artist’s
Curator, Imperial War Museum representation of the Battle of Agincourt
Gary Gibbs
serve. The soldiers raised reflect the society from which
in the background.
Assistant Curator, The Guards Museum they are recruited.
Image: Look and Learn
Angus Hay The victors of Agincourt – the English longbowmen
Former Army Officer, military (recent research suggests they were predominantly
historian, and lecturer
Nick Hewitt
English rather than Welsh) – were recruited from a social
Historian, National Museum of the class that hardly existed in France: the yeomanry – pros-
Royal Navy, Portsmouth perous, independent, enterprising free peasants.
Nigel Jones
Historian, biographer, and journalist
The English kings – unlike the French – were therefore WHAT DO
Alastair Massie
able to raise first-class infantry: men with a stake in YOU THINK?
Head of Archives, Photos, Film, and society and a will to train hard and fight well. And almost
Sound, National Army Museum always – from Hastings to Waterloo – if infantry have the Now you can have your opinions
Gabriel Moshenska morale to stand firm, they will stop a mounted charge. on everything MHM heard online
Research Fellow, Institute as well as in print. Follow us on
of Archaeology, UCL So it was at Agincourt – one of a succession of 14th-
Twitter @MilHistMonthly, or
Colin Pomeroy and 15th-century battles in which solid ‘middling sort’
Squadron Leader, Royal Air Force take a look at our Facebook page
infantry triumphed over their social superiors, and
(Ret.), and historian for daily news, books, and article
heralded the end of the medieval world and the beginning
Michael Prestwich updates at www.facebook.com/
Emeritus Professor of History, of the modern.
MilitaryHistoryMonthly.
University of Durham Also in this issue, Robin Smith describes the French
Think you have spotted an error?
Nick Saunders Foreign Legion’s epic defence of Camerone in 1863,
Senior Lecturer, University of Bristol Disagree with a viewpoint? Enjoying
Steve Roberts recalls the first British use of poison gas at the mag? Visit www.military-
Guy Taylor
Military archivist, and archaeologist Loos in 1915, and Mike Relph analyses the anti-invasion history.org to post your comments
Julian Thompson defences of Second World War England. on a wide range of different articles.
Major-General, Visiting Professor at
London University
Alternatively, send an email to
Dominic Tweddle feedback@military-history.org
Director-General, National Museum
of the Royal Navy
Greg Bayne ADD US NOW
President, American Civil War Table and have your say
of the UK
CONTRIBUTORS THIS MONTH’S EXPERTS
STEVE ROBERTS MIKE RELPH ROBIN SMITH PATRICK

is a former is a former army is an author and BONIFACE
history teacher officer, who freelance journalist, is a freelance
and a historian, served in the UK, specialising in journalist who
who has written Germany, North- military history, specialises in
several times for ern Ireland, Belize, particularly the naval history.
MHM in the past, and Cyprus, and American Revolution, He has published
including cover stories on Edward III was awarded the MBE. He now works the War of 1812, and the American a number of books profiling Royal
and the Siege of Leningrad. as a freelance conflict archaeologist. Civil War. Navy destroyers and frigates.
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www.military-history.org MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY 3

October 2015 | ISSUE 61
ON THE COVER
Agincourt IN
To mark the 600th Ba
anniversary, our
special feature this T
month focuses on Th
the game-changing
battle and victory of Bat
26
‘the middling sort’ at
Agincourt in 1415.
UPFRONT FEATURES
Welcome 3
Letters 7
18 Gas!
Loos, 1915
Notes from the Frontline 8 Steve Roberts describes the arguments
surrounding the first British chemical
Behind the Image 10 attack, a century ago this month.
MHM studies a photograph of
the French Foreign Legion in the
Central African Republic.
Conflict Scientists 12
Patrick Boniface assesses the 46 Tank Island
career of Major-General Sir Percy Britain’s defence, 1940
Cleghorn Stanley Hobart.
Mike Relph explores the impact
War Culture 14 of the threat of Nazi invasion
MHM looks at portraits of D-Day on the Wiltshire market town
veterans featured in ‘The Last of of Marlborough.
the Tide’ exhibition.
52 The defence of Camerone

The French Foreign Legion’s
finest hour
Robin Smith reports on the nine-hour
14 last stand at a remote Mexican hamlet

in 1863.
4 MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY October 2015

MHM CONTENTS
Military History Monthly
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of War: Arms and Armour from the
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© Current Publishing Ltd 2015
Book of the Month | 64 Listings | 72 All rights reserved. Text and pictures are copyright restricted and must
MHM Editor Neil Faulkner reviews The best military not be reproduced without permission of the publishers. The publishers,
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TWITTER
@MilHistMonthly
@MilHistMonthly
6 August 2015
A rare photo collection
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
capturing the aftermath
of the #Hiroshima
Let us know! Military History Monthly, Thames
Works, Church Street, London, W4 2PD
bombing is on display 020 8819 5580 feedback@military-history.org
at Scotland’s Secret Your thoughts on issues raised
Bunker @Secretbunker. @MilHistMonthly MilitaryHistoryMonthly
in Military History Monthly
@MilHistMonthly
18 August 2015
Today is the 75th
anniversary of the
Battle of Britain’s ‘Hardest
L E T T ER OF T HE MON T H
Day’. #OnThisDay both
sides recorded their ARMENIAN APPRECIATION
greatest loss of life. I was lent a copy of your magazine by one of my neighbours,
who knows I am a British-born Armenian. Although I have
@MilHistMonthly
ead many accounts of what happened to my forebears, I
20 August 2015
75 years ago was very impressed by the way you managed to convey in
#OnThisDay, Churchi st seven pages such a full, unbiased, and accurate picture
made his famous speech of what happened (MHM 60).
about ‘The Few’. Here’s I can understand the fear the Turkish government
what you should know had that the Armenian community might join with their
about it: www.military-
Christian Russian attackers from the East, bearing in mind how badly the Armenians had been treated
history.org/articles/
the-few-churchills- under Abdulhamid. However, although there is some evidence of this, there is much greater evidence
wartime-speech.htm of many Armenian units serving the Turkish Army faithfully.
An uncle of mine was serving in the Turkish cavalry when they were disarmed and killed. He had been
FACEBOOK sent somewhere else for training and was lucky to survive.
www.facebook.com/ Thank you for your article.
MilitaryHistoryMonthly Antony Abadjian
Hertfordshire
6 August 2015
On the morning of
6 August 1945, 70 years
ago today, three US
B-29s appeared over TREBUCHET ADVERTISING ERROR
Hiroshima. Two carried REDESIGN I am a regular reader of your magazine and
cameras and scientiﬁc An interesting generally enjoy the inclusion of articles that I
equipment. The third back-page do not agree with and the (few) factual errors
carried an atomic bomb. article on the that creep in. What did sadden me, though, was
trebuchet an advertisement for a book by David Irving in
13 August 2015 (‘Briefing the September issue.
The Battle of Blenheim Room’, MHM David Irving should not be given any space!
was fought #OnThisDay 60) was slightly Bruce James
in 1704, during the War of spoiled by a Scotland
the Spanish Succession. major error in
Here is a blow-by-blow the description In last month’s issue on page 60 there was an advert
account of this decisive of its operation. for signed copies of David Irving’s book Churchill’s War.
battle, along with battle
To the best of Irving has been convicted of Holocaust denial
maps, published in issue 9:
my knowledge, and was banned from a number of countries. As a
www.military-history.org/
there was no contributor, reader, and friend of MHM, I am amazed
articles/blenheim.htm
padded cross- and shocked you should be advertising such a book.
beam. The arm Chris Bambery
15 August 2015
swung freely. London
Today is the 70th
anniversary of VJ Day.
No drawing or
#OnThisDay in 1945, Japan reconstruction
I have seen has I wish to apologise wholeheartedly to readers and
surrendered, effectively
such a thing. Indeed, neither of the two drawings contributors for the advertisement that appeared
bringing in our last issue. It slipped through our, usually
World you used have a crossbeam. These were used in
rigorous, system of checks. We will not retain
War II torsion-powered weapons such as the Roman the fee for the advertisement, but donate it to a
to an onager and its subsequent derivatives. relevant charity.
end. Richard Foinette Neil Faulkner Editor
Bristol

Our round-up of this month’s military history news
THE CATCH-22 LOOK

A North American aircraft has been 340th Bomb Group, among
repainted to represent the plane once them 43-4064.
flown by Joseph Heller. This historically accurate
The paintwork has transformed repainting was completed by
the B-25J Mitchell to exactly match a conservation team at IWM
43-4064, a plane that served with Duxford over a period of six
the 488th Bomb Squadron of the weeks. Care was taken to make
340th Bomb Group, 12th Air Force, sure it is identical to the original
United States Army Air Force, at the 43-4064 – all the lines and colour
end of WWII. changes were taken from original
Heller relied heavily on his time photographs of the aircraft during
spent serving as a bombardier WWII. It will be exhibited in the
in the 488th Bomb Squadron in newly renovated American Air
Corsica for the inspiration for his Museum at IWM Duxford when it
famous satirical novel Catch-22 . reopens to the public in the spring
The writer in fact flew several of next year. For more details, visit
different planes assigned to the www.iwm.org.uk/duxford
Wilfred Owen’s training camp

vate the area for the first time
and document the findings.
The project is backed by
a £30,000 grant from the
Government’s community
covenant scheme. The
scheme aims to strengthen
ties and mutual understanding
between members of the
armed forces and civilians
in the wider communities
in which they live.
So far the project has
uncovered many contemporary
artefacts, including mess
tins, dummy bullets used for
Volunteers have been helping Owen died a week before the training, and a harmonica.
uncover a former military camp end of the war, aged 25. These finds, along with docu-
in Surrey where war poet Wilfred The site, near Godalming in ments from the archives, will
Owen trained for service in Surrey, was active during both be collected together to form
World War I. world wars: it was known as an exhibition and booklet
Owen arrived at the camp in Witley North Camp during WWI for the wider public to learn
June 1916 to train for combat in and Algonquin Camp during more about the history of this
France. While he was there, he WWII. However, it was almost military site.
penned a sonnet that was later completely lost until Surrey Follow the team’s progress
reworked into his famous poem County Council’s archaeological on their Facebook page at www.
‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. unit initiated the project to exca- facebook.com/diggingsurreyspast

MHM FRONTLINE
NEWS IN BRIEF
Defending
Ascension Island Dover
bicentenary The only working example of a British 3-inch
anti-aircraft gun from WWI has been restored
To commemorate its bicentenary year,
and installed at Dover Castle. This marks the
the British Overseas Territory of Ascension
centenary of the first successful hit on a Zeppelin
Island is hosting celebrations all summer,
by an identical anti-aircraft gun, controlled from
culminating in a weekend of special events
Dover Castle’s Fire Command Post.
on 22-25 October.
On 21 December 1914, Dover was the target of
In 1815, a small British naval garrison
the first bombing attack on Britain by a German
named HMS Ascension was established on During WWII, the island was an important
aeroplane. The threat of this type of aerial warfare
an uninhabited volcanic island in the South naval and air station, providing anti-
led to the development of anti-aircraft defences,
Atlantic Ocean, between the coasts of West submarine warfare bases during the Battle
such as the 3-inch gun.
Africa and Brazil. It was a precaution after of the Atlantic. It was also used during the
Now an anti-aircraft emplacement, including a
Napoleon was imprisoned on Saint Helena Falklands War. Today, Ascension Island
Fire Command Post and Port War Signal Station,
to the south-east. In October of that year, has a temporary population of around 800
has been painstakingly recreated thanks to a
the captains of HMS Zenobia and HMS people, and an MoD and a USAF base.
Heritage Lottery Fund grant. By restoring some
Peruvian had landed to claim the island British Base Commander Mark Taylor
of these features, visitors will be better able to
as British territory. said, ‘Those of us who live on Ascension appreciate the crucial part the castle played in
today must pay tribute to all our military the defence of Britain during WWI.
forebears, who worked in extreme condi-
tions from 1815 onwards to establish a
fresh water-supply, sanitation, military Stamp duty
fortifications, housing, and healthcare The Royal Mail is to create a
in this isolated and remote environment. Special Stamp honouring Sir
Ascension continues to have great strategic Nicholas Winton, who rescued hundreds of children
importance, and those of us who serve here from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, after an online
today have a key role to play as a staging petition calling for him to receive the accolade
post for British interests – both military reached over 100,000 signatures. On the eve of
and diplomatic – in the South Atlantic.’ WWII, Winton organised eight trains to take 669
unaccompanied children away to safety in Britain.
He also helped find them foster families. He died
SCRAPBOOKS FROM THE HOME FRONT

earlier this year, aged 106.
A spokeswoman for Royal Mail had said, ‘It is
Scrapbooks made by a family during WWI are fewer scraps, clear that Sir Nicholas Winton is a worthy candidate’.
being made available for public viewing after tokens, and The campaign was launched by Justin Cohen and
staff at Edinburgh Council’s Capital Collections illustrations, Richard Ferrer from Jewish News, in conjunction
library tracked down the original owners’ son. but shows the with the Holocaust Education Trust, and backed
The two books were made by the Thomson impact of war by Sir Mick Davis, who chaired the Prime Minister’s
family, who lived at Glengyle Terrace in on the home Holocaust Commission. The stamp will be issued
Edinburgh. Most of the letters are addressed front. There are items related to rationing and in 2016 as part of a commemorative set.
to Thomas Davidson Thomson, who was just official notices to conserve resources. There are
three years old when the war broke out. The also letters of thanks for small donations given Mightier than the sword
researchers believe his parents were collecting to charitable causes. Finally, there is news of The pen used by US General Douglas MacArthur
the material on his behalf, to document the times peace and the surrender of the German fleet. during the Japanese surrender
he was living through when just a little boy. On the last page, pressed like real flowers, are ceremony that ended WWII has
The first scrapbook contains newspaper two handmade red-silk poppies. been displayed in Chester Town
articles relating the news of the ‘impending Library officer Clare Padgett and John Temple Hall to coincide with the 70th
E ropean War’, illustrations from the digital volunteer team conducted a anniversary of the signing.
Allied military in their thorough investigation through records, ship’s The pen was used on 2 September 1945,
fferent uniforms, and passenger lists, and online search engines, on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, and then
ewspaper cuttings of managing to find Thomson’s son, Dave was given by MacArthur to Lieutenant General
he British and Belgian Thomson, who now lives in the Netherlands. Arthur Percival, a former forces commander,
oyal Families, as well as Thomson has allowed the scrapbooks to be Japanese prisoner-of-war, and witness to the signing
ropaganda cartoons and included in the Capital Collections so that his on board the ship. He, in turn, donated it to the
dvertisements. family’s history is available to the public. Cheshire Regiment before his death in 1966.
The second scrapbook The scrapbooks can be viewed at the The pen will be shown as part of the year-long
less colourful, and has website www.capitalcollections.org.uk ‘Chester Unlocked’ programme that celebrates the
city’s diverse heritage. After its loan to the Town
Hall, the pen will return to the Cheshire Military
GOT A STORY? Military History Monthly, Thames Works,

Church Street, London, W4 2PD
Museum, where it will go back on display to the
public. For more information about the museum,
Let us know! 020 8819 5580 editorial@military-history.org visit www.cheshiremilitarymuseum.co.uk

OPERATION
SANGARIS

MHM BEHIND THE IMAGE
CENTRAL AFRICAN
REPUBLIC, AUGUST 2014
What immediately grabs one’s attention in this
photograph is the different poses of the soldiers
behind the sandbags. They are clearly protecting
themselves from the dust, yet why is the figure
at the right standing upright and not fully pro-
tected by the wall of sandbags?
It is not merely the fact that these are people,
which always attracts our attention, but also
the fact that their different poses rise so neatly
from left to right. This is the only movement in
the photograph – through the rising diagonal
line to the slightly off-vertical of the makeshift
flagpole, proudly flying the French Tricolour. A
visual link is created from the soldiers to the flag,
which clearly declares their allegiance to France.
The various gestures of the squatting soldiers
almost make one think of the three wise monkeys:
‘Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil’. Perhaps
all that is literally behind them as they face
towards the flag. Or again, are they gradually
rising from their crouched positions to stand
tall beneath the French flag?
The setting could almost be staged. The sand-
bags form a limited foreground space in which the
figures are placed, and create a strong horizontal
that gives the whole image a static feel, stressing
the gentle rise of the soldiers.
There is a rather muted feel about the picture,
for behind the sandbags the view is limited by
the dust (in fact, stirred up by a helicopter) that
clouds both middle ground and the background.
This haze washes out the colour in the shot,
and it is difficult to make out features beyond
the line of the sandbags – it could be almost
anywhere. Or, at least, anywhere warm and
Image: Edouard Elias/Getty Images Reportage; courtesy of Visa pour l’Image Perpignan 2015.
sunny. The only slash of colour looks like the red

cross of an ambulance, barely seen at the right of
the photograph, reminding us that these men are
soldiers, and that fighting is dangerous.
The photograph’s set can thus be taken to sym-
bolise the men’s readiness to serve anywhere
under the French flag, as many men of the Foreign
Legion have done. It might also touch on the
Romantic idea of men who have left their pasts
behind to grow tall again under the Tricolour.
The photograph is one of an award-winning
series taken by the French photographer Edouard
Elias, whose photo-essay documented 30 men
from the Second Foreign Infantry Regiment
(from Nîmes, France) for a month during their
Text: Keith Robinson
involvement in Operation Sangaris, which sought

to reduce ethnic tension between Muslim Seleka
rebels and Christian anti-balaka militias. It is on
show at Visa pour l’Image 2015 Perpignan. .
Patrick Boniface considers the influence of science on warfare
MAJOR- Confronting us is
GENERAL the problem of
SIR PERCY getting ashore on a “
CLEGHORN
STANLEY defended coastline.
Sir Percy Hobart
HOBART
BIOGRAPHY
P
ercy Hobart was born on ABOVE RIGHT The Duplex Drive (DD)
14 June 1885 to parents ‘swimming’ Sherman was an
Janetta and Robert Hobart amphibious tank used on all five
in Naini Tal, India. His father beaches on D-Day.
RIGHT The ‘Crocodile’, a Churchill tank
worked for the Indian Civil Service.
rebuilt as a flame-thrower.
On the family’s return to Great Brit-
ain, young Percy was educated at a
number of private schools, before the difference mechanical warfare
graduating in 1904 from the Royal had made, and in 1923 he trans-
Military Academy at Woolwich. ferred to the Royal Tank Corps.
From an early age, he had shown In 1934 he was promoted to
an aptitude for engineering, and he the rank of brigadier, and took
was commissioned into the Corps command of the first permanent
of the Royal Engineers. His first armoured brigade in the British
posting took him back to India, but Army. His task was a tough one, as
within the space of a decade he was he battled with cavalry staff officers
fighting in France and Mesopotamia who regularly denied his requests
during the First World War. Between for resources and personnel.
1919 and 1920 he was once again In 1938, Hobart had attained
in India, where he took part in the the rank of major-general. He was
Waziristan campaign. sent to Egypt to train Mobile Force
During the closing stages of the (Egypt), the forerunner of the famed
First World War, Hobart had seen 7th Armoured Division, ‘The Desert

MHM CONFLICT SCIENTISTS
BELOW Sherman Crab Mk II flail tank, one of General Hobart’s ‘Funnies’ of 79th
Armoured Division, during minesweeping tests in the UK, 27 April 1944. QUOTES
FROM
HOBART
The success of
[Overlord] depends
on the element of
surprise caused by
new equipment.
Suggestions from
all ranks for improve-
ments in equipment
are to be encouraged.”
The first need

was to inspire all
officers with the
Rats’. Hobart’s ‘unconventional’ from command, but instead he was strange mechanical devices ever belief that wire-
attitude and personality led to put in charge of the 79th Armoured created by the Royal Engineers. less communication
many run-ins with his superiors, Division. Following the disastrous Among the most notable of
between tanks on
and Sir Archibald Wavell dismissed Dieppe Raid of August 1942, the these creations were the Duplex
Hobart into retirement in 1940. Army became focused on ways of Drive (DD) ‘swimming’ Sherman the move was prac-
Back home in Chipping Campden, overcoming strong coastal defences. tank, the Crab flail tank that drew ticable; and the next,
Hobart joined the Local Defence That task fell to Hobart. The 79th much from the Matilda Scorpion to convince them that
Volunteers as a lance corporal. Armoured Division was converted used in the Battle of El Alamein they were capable of
Hearing of this, Winston Churchill into a unit of specialised armour in 1942, the Churchill Armoured
convinced Hobart to re-enlist into and renamed 79th (Experimental) Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE),
making use of it.”
the army in 1941 to train the 11th Armoured Division, Royal Engineers. the Bobbin Carpet Layer, the
Armoured Division. In 1943, Hobart was knighted. Armoured Ramp Carrier (ARK), Confronting us
Percy Hobart was no longer Hobart’s leadership led to the and the Crocodile flamethrower. is the problem of
young –in fact, he was 57. Many creation of some of the most in- The latter, when fitted to a con- getting ashore on a
senior officers wanted him removed novative, unusual, and downright verted Churchill tank, could deliver
100 one-second bursts to a range
defended coastline.
of around 110 metres. The success of the
IN CONTEXT: HOBART
These would later become known operation depends
Unpopular and brilliant as ‘Hobart’s Funnies’, although of the element of
funny they were not. While some surprise caused by
Major-General Hobart was described by his direct superior, were spectacular failures, most
Lieutenant-General H M Wilson, as ‘self opinionated’ and ‘lacking proved to be very effective. The
new equipment.”
in stability’, as a man who ‘showed little consideration for the unit’s work was a decisive factor
feelings and wishes of others’. on D-Day, with the ‘Funnies’ dealing There seems
Such was the extent of some military top brass’s dislike
of Hobart that Prime Minister Winston Churchill had to
with German minefields, tank traps, to be in some
and a multitude of other devices on quarters a frigid
intervene to defend him: ‘The High Commands of the Army
the Normandy beaches.
are not a club. It is my duty… to make sure that exceptionally
Percy Hobart retired (again)
attitude as regards
able men, even those not popular with their military contempo- mechanical matters.”
raries, should not be prevented from giving their services in 1946. In recognition of his huge
to the Crown.’ contribution to the success of Opera-
Churchill felt it necessary to defend this particular man tion Overlord, he was awarded the The need is so
because of his uniquely creative mind in coming up with solu- American Legion of Merit and also acute that we cannot
tions to defeat German defences. Despite his unpopularity, the Companion of the Order of the
Hobart would go on to lead a group of talented individuals Bath to add to his Military Cross and
afford either to neglect
at the 79th Armoured Division who created a multitude of his Distinguished Service Order. or drop any possible
innovative devices for landing on the D-Day beaches in June Major-General Sir Percy Cleghorn method of dealing
1944 – the so-called ‘Hobart’s Funnies’. Stanley Hobart died aged 72 at Farn- with minefields.”
ham in Surrey on 19 February 1957. æ

1
Inspired by last year’s commemorations in Normandy,

Prince Charles commissioned 12 portraits of surviving veterans
to coincide with the 71st anniversary of the D-Day landings.
The portraits show some of the survivors of the greatest
amphibious and airborne invasion in history, involving some
7,700 ships and 12,000 aircraft.
The men were painted wearing their medals for this first
collection of D-Day veteran portraits, which pays tribute to
all those who served in the Normandy campaign.
The title of the exhibition originates from a message sent
to all the troops on the eve of D-Day by General Eisenhower,
in which he announced, ‘The tide has turned! The free men of
the world are marching together to Victory!’.
3
2
1. GEOFFREY PATTINSON 2. JAMES ‘JIM’ GLENNIE 3. ERIC JOHNSTON

A sergeant with 9th Parachute Battalion, Glennie was a private with the 5th/7th Johnston was a trooper with the 4th/7th
Pattinson was to land at the Merville Gordon Highlanders, who advanced Royal Dragoon Guards and co-driver
Battery, but, due to a faulty glider, he inland and took up defensive positions within the Reconnaissance Troop, which
actually landed in Hampshire. By the near Caen. During a German counter- landed on Gold Beach at dawn. He took
evening, his platoon managed to land attack, Glennie was wounded and taken part in the Battle of Villiers-Bocage and
in Normandy where he rejoined his unit. as a prisoner-of-war for four months. the defence of Hill 103.

MHM WAR CULTURE
4
Painted by some of the UK’s leading artists, the portraits were

recently exhibited in the Queen’s Gallery, London, in a collection
put together by the Royal Drawing School in collaboration
with the Royal Collection Trust. They will also be shown at the
Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh early next year.
Artist Jonathan Yeo, who painted the portrait of veteran
Geoffrey Pattinson, said, ‘Painting someone who candidly
describes the first time they set foot on foreign soil as the
time they jumped out of a moving aircraft and parachuted
down through flying bullets to land in Normandy for D-Day
makes Geoffrey one of the more extraordinary sitters I’ve
encountered in my time as a portrait artist.’
Here, MHM highlights nine of these historic portrayals.
5
6
4. BRIAN STEWART 5. TOM RENOUF 6. ROBERT ANTONY ‘TONY’ LEAKE

Stewart was the Anti-Tank Platoon A private (later lieutenant) with the 5th A corporal with the 8th Battalion of
Commander with the Tyneside Scottish. Battalion Black Watch, Renouf took part the Parachute Regiment, Leake took
He helped rescue comrades in the 8th in the battle for high ground around part in the mass parachute drop
Battalion of the Parachute Regiment Breville. He was also part of the 51st behind German lines, blew bridges
who were cut off in their bid to destroy Highland Division that rescued the 8th over the River Dives, and set up
the bridges over the River Dives. Battalion of the Parachute Regiment. defensive positions.

7 9
7. RAYMOND ‘TICH’ RAYNER

8 Rayner was a sergeant with the Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, and flew as part of the
operation on Pegasus Bridge. His glider had navigational
issues, landing seven miles from the planned landing zone.
He eventually fought his way back to his unit.
8. LAURENCE ‘LAURIE’ WEEDEN

Weeden was a pilot during the mass airborne operation on
D-Day. He landed safely in Normandy, where his cargo of
jeeps, explosives, and ammunition were used by the 8th
Parachute Battalion to blow up bridges over the River Dives.
9. JACK GRIFFITHS
Griffiths flew a glider containing Parachute Regiment soldiers,
successfully landing on the morning of D-Day. The soldiers
went on to destroy bridges over the River Orne.
GO FURTHER
The Last of the Tide:
Portraits of D-Day Veterans
Royal Collection Trust and Modern Art Press,
£5.00. ISBN 978-1909741294
Available from the shop at the Queen’s
Gallery, Buckingham Palace, and online
at www.royalcollection.org.uk/shop

BELOW This exceptional photograph apparently
shows men of the 47th Division advancing through
the cloud of gas and smoke in no-man’s-land
on 25 September 1915, the first day of Loos.
Photo: IWM
THE FIRST BRITISH GAS ATTACK, LOOS, 1915
It was outlawed, but the Germans had used it at Ypres in April 1915. The British followed suit
in September. Steve Roberts explores the arguments about, and the effects of, the first British
chemical attack, a century ago this month.
M
en hold one another, hand Gas was a worrying development for The Entente line was shattered when
on shoulder, bandages cover- Entente troops, given that early anti-gas 171 tons of chlorine were released from
ing eyes, straggling towards measures comprised holding urine-sodden cylinders on a four-mile front in a period
the guy ropes of a field hos- handkerchiefs over mouth and nose. of five minutes.
pital. John Singer Sargent’s The first ‘major’ gas attack allegedly The prevailing wind carried the gas towards
painting depicting a line of blinded soldiers was occurred at Bolimow on 31 January 1915, French lines, resulting in 6,000 casualties
given the simple title Gassed. Wilfred Owen, in when the Germans rained 18,000 gas shells and many agonising deaths. The gas attacked
‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, conjured a nightmare on the Russians. They used ‘xylyl bromide’, wet tissue (lungs and eyes) and destroyed
vision of ‘clumsy helmets’, ‘choking, drowning’, an early tear gas – but its effect was vitiated the respiratory organs. Ominously for those
‘white eyes writhing’, and ‘froth corrupted lungs’. by the cold of the Eastern Front. inclined to imitate, the Germans lost men
The Battle of Loos, fought in northern The Germans were the first to give serious releasing the gas.
France in September 1915, was the first British study to chemical weapons and to deploy The French troops fled, leaving Ypres
gas attack of WWI – despite the Hague them in quantity. During WWI, their tonnage exposed. The Germans gained ground –
Convention of 1899 having banned shells of gas exceeded that of Britain and France but, unsure of the gas’s effectiveness, failed
‘diffusing asphyxiating or deleterious gases’. combined. They tried an improved tear-gas to push on and break through.
Who was first? Some claim the French, concoction at Nieuport (in March 1915) The British observed a low cloud of yellow-
using ineffectual tear-gas grenades in August against the French. grey vapour (some say ‘ghostly green’). Almost
1914. The Germans, benefiting from a highly immediately the French appeared, galloping
developed chemical industry, first used gas SECOND YPRES horses spurred away from the cloud. A pungent,
on 27 October, when deployment was largely The first time the Germans tried ‘poison’ nauseating smell became evident, tickling throats
ineffective, the shells containing a chemical gas was at the Second Battle of Ypres on and making eyes smart. In the worst cases, men
irritant that resulted in violent sneezing fits. 22 April. This time, the effect was dramatic. were frothing at the mouth, their eyes bulging.

The Germans had driven a French army
corps out of the line. Sir John French, BEF
(British Expeditionary Force) commander,
called the enemy gas attack ‘cynical’, ‘barba-
rous’, and alien to the concept of ‘civilised war’.
The Western Front was quiet over most
of the following summer, the Allies preparing
a ‘great offensive’ for the autumn. When
it came, the centrepiece was French
commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre’s Second
Battle of Champagne (22 September-
6 November). This was supported by a
secondary British offensive, the Third Battle
of Artois (25 September-15 October). Loos
(25 September-8 October) was an integral
Photo: WIPL
part of this British offensive; and, French’s
moral reservations notwithstanding, it was
to see the first British use of gas.
ABOVE After the German gas attack at Second Ypres
CHLORINE, PHOSGENE,
AND VESICANTS
It was considered in April 1915, the British began experimenting with
gas masks. These soldiers, photographed in May
At Second Ypres, the Germans had released

chlorine, a characteristically green gas. Victims
‘dirty’ when 1915, are shown wearing an early improvisation.
choked, gas reacting quickly with water in air-

ways to form hydrochloric acid, swelling and compared with chlorine gas was persuasive. With a shortage of
artillery, the ‘advantage’ of gas forced the battle.
blocking lung tissue, resulting in suffocation.
Two days later, when gas was released a second ‘honourable’ Not everyone was happy. Lieutenant Charles
Ferguson, while conceding that Britain had not
weapons like
time, Canadian troops used socks soaked in been the first to use gas, condemned it as a ‘cow-
urine as protection. ardly form of warfare’. It had an image problem
swords and guns.

By 1917, chlorine was no longer the only – it was considered ‘dirty’ when compared with
chemical agent employed. A more dangerous ‘honourable’ weapons like swords and guns.
irritant, phosgene, now became the main Special gas units were raised, approximately
killer. Slow to act, with victims often not 1,400 men in total, many of them science
developing symptoms for hours, or even Experimental research was conducted students, all given the rank of ‘chemist
days, it is easy to see why panic spread. at Porton, a name now synonymous with corporal’. They operated under the leadership
The standard-issue gas mask of 1917, chemical, biological, radiological, and of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Foulkes RE.
the ‘small-box respirator’, provided good nuclear warfare (CBRN). A laboratory was The new arm was ordered to prepare for a
protection against both, provided it could constructed at Helfaut, St Omer (the gas- gas attack at Loos.
be donned quickly – an ‘ecstasy of fumbling’, warfare ‘Special Companies’ would have Such was the stigma, the chemical-warfare
according to Owen. their depot here, and when assembled specialists were forbidden even to utter
Worse was to come, as both sides resorted would be given the option of quitting once the word ‘gas’. Gas canisters were called
to ‘blistering agents’ (vesicants), which maimed the mission had been explained). ‘accessories’. Anybody mouthing the G-word
even those wearing masks. The most widely The Kestner-Kellner Alkali Company, the was punished.
used, mustard gas, blistered lungs and throat. only one in Britain capable of manufacturing
Masked soldiers blistered all over as gas soaked large quantities of chlorine, supervised trials
into uniforms, which had to be stripped and
washed quickly: never easy at the front.
at Runcorn, concluding on 4 June. They
would not, however, be able to manufacture THE COMMON AGENTS
enough gas to attack the entire enemy front
DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING by the time of the planned offensive, so smoke æTear gas – chemical irritant, resulting in violent
The British were in a game of catch-up. They candles were to be used as well, creating the sneezing fits.
needed to know what chemicals the Germans illusion of a continuous chlorine cloud. æChlorine – first ‘poison’ gas, potentially deadly,
were using and how to counter them. After The War Office called in Oxford academic irritant to lungs and mucous membranes, causing
Second Ypres, Kitchener appointed Colonel John Scott Haldane to produce the first gas victim to cough violently and choke.
Lois Jackson RE to conduct a feasibility study mask. The primitive veil respirator followed, æPhosgene – caused less coughing, so more gas
into British use of gas. pads of cotton waste, wrapped in gauze, inhaled, therefore more potent. Delayed effect, with
The research team at the Imperial College soaked in sodium thiosulphate; this countered poisoning often apparent only after 48 hours.
of Science concluded that chlorine could low concentrations. Haldane also developed æPhosgene/chlorine – so-called ‘white star’
be despatched from pressurised cylinders to the more effective box-respirator, introduced mixture, chlorine supplying the vapour necessary
form a ‘cloud’. Using a soda-siphon system, in April 1916 and used for the rest of the war. to carry phosgene.
gas could escape under pressure controlled æMustard gas (Yperite) – first used in 1917,
by stop-cocks. A ½-inch diameter iron-pipe, ARGUMENTS AND SPECIALISTS odourless chemical causing serious blistering
three metres long, would deliver liquid Prior to Loos, General Haig might have been internally and externally, brought on several hours
chlorine, which developed into yellow- persuaded that battlefield and armament were after exposure. Hard to protect against.
white gas on emerging. unfavourable, but the availability of 150 tons of

GAS!
Image: Alamy
Cylinders, brought up from Maroc mine, a total of 140-150 tons of chlorine, maybe half ABOVE A fanciful reconstruction of British infantry
were handled by Special Service Brigade REs what was needed. Immediately on release, con- storming German trenches on the first day of the
wearing green, red, and white armlets, making trol was lost, as deployment depended on wind. Battle of Loos. This engagement saw the first
British use of poison gas.
them clearly distinguishable as they prepared Weather reports were mixed.
their gas and smoke. Although conditions were not ideal
On 23 September, French went to see (the wind was not blowing towards the tube, nose clip, and a pair of glass eyepieces.
Foulkes about the Gas Company, and declared German trenches), release was ordered Air came through in suffocatingly small
himself happy. He thought all ‘in order’, and anyway, as the use of gas was an essential amounts; it was a feat to breathe at all,
a favourable wind would deliver. A change in part of Haig’s masterplan. never mind fight.
the weather that night augured well. The wind, doubtful all night, had finally The gas was released at 5.50am. French
turned at 5am, and Haig confirmed the attack claimed that heavy volumes floated forwards,
SET-UP AND RELEASE after consulting with meteorologist Captain E over enemy lines.
The diary of L G Mitchell of the SSB RE Gold, who predicted favourable 20mph speeds.
confirmed the secrecy. Equipment was Haig wavered, as the predicted wind failed TRAGICOMEDY
brought by train from the coast to a siding to materialise. He asked if there was time to Decision made, but it was then tragicomedy,
at Gorre a week before, transferred to the cancel: negative. At 5.30am, the assault troops as spanners and cylinder cocks proved misfits.
RE dump in wagons with muffled wheels fitted their recently delivered gas masks: PH Corporal G O Mitchell RE reckoned only
at night, then manhandled into trenches Helmets – flannel bags impregnated with a eight cylinders discharged. On the British
by 8,000 REs – a major undertaking, begging foul-smelling solution, supplied with mouth left, gas drifted back and many 2nd Division
the question, how come the Germans did (I Corps) regiments were gassed, with men
not realise something was afoot? staggering about vomiting.
Two men carried six pipes, the journey up
the 3½-mile communications trench taking
Immediately on Brigadier J D Selby MC, observing at 8,000
feet, saw the wind change and gas drift back
7-8 hours. Foulkes later wrote to the Gas
Company alluding to ‘alterations’ made in release, control was over the British trenches. ‘Thank God we are
in the Flying Corps, old boy,’ was the prescient
the equipment, suggesting the initial kit was
difficult to operate or unsafe. One problem lost, as deployment comment from his pilot.
Wearing sweaty flannel gas helmets made
depended on wind.
was only having two pipes for 12 cylinders, breathing almost impossible, and impaired
pipes being switched when a cylinder was vision as eye-pieces misted. Men had a choice
empty. Apparatus leaked, so men worked between being semi-blinded and virtually
in a gas cloud as they turned on the cylinders
and attempted to direct the gas over the
Weather reports asphyxiated, or chucking the helmets and
being ‘mildly’ gassed.
parapet via the pipes.
Gas would be released from 5,250-5,500 metal were mixed. On the right, gas drifted over German lines
and was moderately effective, the chlorine
cylinders, each weighed around 200lbs, contained cloud causing temporary panic.

Image: Ian Bull
ABOVE Plan of the first day of the Battle of Loos, 25 September 1915, showing
the effects of the British gas attack and the subsequent advance of the infantry.

GAS!
enemy after 30 minutes. L G Mitchell said the
Germans kept machine-guns firing through-
out by lighting fires around them while gas
was going over; the attackers emerging from
the gas, silhouetted against a white cloud,
made clear targets.
CHAOS
German batteries opened up on the British
lines – and had more success opening cylin-
ders than their operators. The Gas Company
scarpered. The gas was turned off at 6.28am,
two minutes before the assault, which had
been delayed by 90 minutes in the hope that
the wind would become favourable. Then, with-
out any real change in conditions, the men
went over the top, many describing the wind as
‘in their faces’. Allegedly, the gas caused more
British casualties than German.
Photo: WIPL
Chaos reigned in many sectors of the British

front, yet in others the gas did carry to the
German trenches and initial British attacks
prospered. In many areas, however, attacking
ABOVE British walking wounded at a dressing
Gas canisters station near Loos during the battle.

infantry were enveloped in their own gas as
ABOVE RIGHT German gas casualty being treated they caught up with the slow-motion chlorine
cloud: a chemical ‘friendly-fire’.
were called
with oxygen at Loos in September 1915.
Feint-attacks, kicking off earlier, were
hampered by small amounts of gas the wind
‘accessories’. Accounts suggest the greenish-yellow hue

rose to form a cloud 40 feet high, drifting
barely shifted. It seems surprising gas was used
in the feint, warning the Germans this would
Anybody mouthing
towards the enemy, but it also festered in come in the main event. The fact word did not
no-man’s-land, whirling around uselessly. spread on the German side was due to the gas
the G-word was

Rain the previous day and night considerably not reaching them.
reduced its effectiveness. The offensive was a catastrophe. The
The secret weapon was a failure. Even bombardment was not strong enough
punished. where the gas drifted over enemy trenches,

it was slow and thin. At the southern end
to destroy German wire or machine-guns.
Accounts often do not mention gas,
of the attack front, no gas had reached the although A F Francis of 5th Field Ambulance
TIMELINE 22 April 1915

Germans use gas at Second Ypres
24 August 1915
French meets Haig to
discuss Loos and argues
1899 4 June 1915 against waste of lives
Hague Convention Declaration Final trial of British chlorine gas
(IV, 2) prohibits use of projectiles at Runcorn 4 September 1915
to spread asphyxiating First two Special Companies
poisonous gases July 1915 assigned to First Army
Nos 186/187 Special Companies for operations
August 1914 formed
French use tear-gas grenades 22 September 1915
August 1915 First Army bombardment
27 October 1914 Nos 188/189 Special Companies begins
First attempted use of gas formed
by Germans 23 September 1915
21 August 1915 French sees Foulkes
31 January 1915 Kitchener advises French that about Gas Company,
First major use of gas – against Germans are short of men and which starts for trenches
Russians in Poland urges an attack at 4.45pm
did confirm effects on eyes and stomach.
Flesh wounds were aggravated.
The Germans rallied after initial panic,
although in some areas morale was wholly
unaffected. This confounded British expecta-
tions, which had been that German infantry
and gunners would be neutralised to a depth
of three miles.
The difficulties in releasing gas at Loos
led to the development of gas shells, fired by
artillery, which increased the range and made
the use of a variety of gases easier.
GAS PANIC
The effects of gas are several. As well as causing
death or disabling injury through its direct
effect, it can also cause panic and flight, and
may neutralise resistance through the encum-
Photo: WIPL
brance of wearing gas masks.
Panic was widespread. The mere threat of
gas attack was terrifying, panic spreading like
Attacking infantry
a virus, resulting in gas ‘casualties’ who had in intense nausea and vomiting, compelling
not been affected at all. Since the effects were the victim to wrench off his mask. The mortar
invisible, soldiers feared ‘contamination’. team would then switch to standard chlorine
Gas had other effects, too – chlorine gas
caused rapid rusting of rifles and artillery
and phosgene bombs.
British and Empire deaths due to gas in were enveloped in
breech blocks, rendering them useless.
Despite the limited effect of gas on the
WWI numbered 6,000. Of the 90,000 of all
nations killed by gas, over 50% were Russian, their own gas as they
caught up with the
battlefields of 1915, research and develop- many without masks. Some 185,000 British and
ment continued, and gas remained a major Empire troops were ‘injured’, the vast majority
slow-motion chlorine
weapon until the end of the First World War. during the last two years, when mustard gas was
A key innovation was mustard gas, which could deployed. Most gas casualties made full recover-
inflict severe burns. A respirator could save a ies, however, and by 1929 just 1% of British
soldier, although the gas might still remove
the power of speech for several days.
disability pensions were paid to gas victims.
cloud: a chemical
Trench mortar batteries experimented
with new bombs, the gas emitted on impact
GAS BAN
After the war, humanity delivered its verdict: ‘friendly-fire’.
designed to penetrate gas helmets, resulting the Geneva Protocol of 1925 banned gas as a
Some, but not all, initial gains lost in

24 September 1915 8 October 1915
German counter-attack
Some 400 chlorine gas emplacements Battle of Loos ends
established along British front
Evening, 25 September 1915 13 October 1915
Haig confirms at 11.30pm that Second British gas attack
Morning, 25 September 1915 attack will continue at 11am using new equipment
Haig orders gas to be released
(5am), commencing Battle of Loos 26 September 1915 September 1917
Reserve divisions committed. French Mustard gas is used by
Afternoon, visits wounded at dressing-station Germans against Russians
25 September 1915 at Riga using artillery shells
27 September 1915
Foch visits French, who is unaware 30 November 1917
how much German line at Hill 70 Mustard gas is used
has been reinforced at Cambrai
30 September 1915 1925

Gas Company moved to Annaquin, Geneva Protocol bans use
close to Cambrin, preparing for a of gas – this ban is nominally
second gas attack still in force today
GAS!
battlefield weapon. No other weapon was
condemned in this way. Cynics argue that
it was because the weapon was ineffective:
the Great Powers were willing to sign away
something they did not need. This is almost
certainly correct.
Had gas not been available to the British
at Loos, the attack may never have been
launched, and a major defeat costing 60,000
casualties avoided. It was ineffective at Loos,
and on most other occasions on which it
was used. Its primary effect was always moral
rather than physical – as the relative casualty
figures show – but even this was hardly ever
decisive in shaping a battle, let alone in
determining its outcome. History knows no
great victory for gas warfare.
Gas played almost no part in the Second
World War, except that residual gas panic
remained, symbolised by the ubiquitous
Photo: WIPL
gas mask. The gas mask was one of the iconic
artefacts of that conflict, and also, in the
event, one of the most redundant. r
ABOVE Gas became an obsession after its first
Steve Roberts is an historian and former history large-scale use on both the Eastern and Western
BELOW Australian soldiers recover at a casualty Fronts early in 1915. Here, pictured in 1916, a
teacher, who has written for MHM on many occasions,
clearing station after being gassed – probably by British soldier in a gas mask poses with a gas alarm.
including cover stories on Edward III and the Siege of mustard gas – in May 1918. Most such men made
Leningrad. Steve has been published in more than 50 a full recovery, with relatively few fatalities. Artillery,
different magazines, and his first book, Lesser Known machine-guns, rifles, and grenades killed far more
Christchurch, was launched on 6 August. than gas ever did, but its moral effect was great.
Photo: Alamy

Introduction
Battle
court
T
hree great victories over French chivalry during
the so-called ‘Hundred Years War’ have achieved
iconic status in British popular history: Crécy
(1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415).
Viewed from a geopolitical perspective, their
status is undeserved. England was too small and distant to have
any hope of making good the claims of its kings to French
territory, at least in the long term.
Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt were tactical battlefield
victories without the strategic weight behind them necessary
to consolidate any temporary gains they yielded. Whatever
France’s often timid Valois kings might concede in the imme-
diate aftermath of defeat was invariably recovered in the years
and decades following. The meteoric career of Joan of Arc
(following the campaigns of Henry V) is only the most famous
example of such a French resurgence.
But these battles do, in fact, have great significance: they
herald the decline of feudalism and a way of war based on
armoured cavalry.
During the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, heavy horse had
dominated European battlefields, and indeed battlefields
beyond, like those of the Middle East during the Crusades. But
the primacy of heavy horse was contingent on the absence
of a strong infantry.
Serfs make poor soldiers. For men to fight well, they must
be stakeholders, or at least imagine themselves to be, in the
social order of which they are part. The new infantry of the
14th and 15th centuries – Flemish club-men, Scots pikemen,
English longbowmen, Swiss pikemen, German landsknechts,
Hussite hand-gunners – were recruited from a distinct social
layer of free men who were relatively prosperous, indepen-
dent, and entrepreneurial.
English sources refer to ‘the middling sort’, by which they
mean the yeoman farmers of the countryside and the indepen-
dent artisans and petty-traders of the towns. This layer of society
was driving radical economic and social change across a large
swathe of Europe. Feudalism had become brittle. New forms
of wealth based on commercial farming and maritime trade
were upsetting the traditional social order. Radical ideas – like
those of the English Lollards, who anticipated the Protestant
Reformation by a century – were undermining old certainties.
Image: Bridgeman Images
Agincourt, the focus of our special this month, was not

only a victory of a small English army over a larger French
one. It was also a victory of strong infantry over heavy horse,
of common men over feudal chivalry, of the rising ‘middling
sort’ over what had by then become a dying social order.
MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY 27

1413: SUCCESSION OF HENRY V
Timeline 19 SEPTEMBER England had passed through a period of
1356 urmoil with the Peasants’ Revolt (1381),
ENGLISH VICTORY AT he overthrow of Richard II and usurpation
BATTLE OF POITIERS f Henry Bolingbroke/Henry IV (1399), and then
wars with the Scots, the Welsh, and English
ebels. The succession of Henry V was itself a
minor achievement. As Shakespeare’s plays
amously record, the young king had been a
26 AUGUST 1346: ENGLISH e’er-do-well at odds with his father. Though
VICTORY AT BATTLE OF CRÉCY ars with France had become unpopular in
This was the first great continental e late 14th century, a new generation
victory of the new English military ad grown up in troubled times, and
system based on the ‘bill and bow’ combination. The e prospect of foreign war under a
clash between King Philip of France and King Edward III young leader offered an opportunity
of England took place in Flanders. Heavily outnumbered, to forge a stronger national unity.
the English fought an essentially defensive battle, Henry V came to the
while the French staged a long succession throne gagging for
war, and many of
of unauthorised, badly co-ordinated, and
chaotically conducted mounted charges,
SPRING 1414 his countrymen
ENGLISH responded
most of which were destroyed GREAT COUNCIL
24 JUNE 1340 by arrow-shot before the French
chivalry could get to grips with their
RECOMMENDS
FURTHER
enthusiastically.
ENGLISH VICTORY NEGOTIATIONS

AT BATTLE OF enemies. The main lesson of the
WITH FRENCH
SLUYS battle was that that traditional heavy
horse could not prevail against massed
English archery.
1337
: BEGINNING OF HUNDRED YEARS WAR MAY/OCTOBER 1360: TREATY OF BRÉTIGNY
The ‘war’ was really a succession of separate wars
spread across more than a century (1337-1453) that
pitted the English House of Plantagenet against the
French House of Valois in a dynastic conflict over
control of territory in France. In the long run, the
French had the advantage: they were fighting ‘on home
ground’, close to their bases; their population and
resources were much greater; and their enemies were
compelled to fight overseas and, if they penetrated
far inland, at the end of perilously long supply-lines.
A greatly superior military system often allowed the
outnumbered English to win tactical successes on the
battlefield; but any short-term gains were soon lost in
1389- Following a conference in May,
a peace treaty was agreed
the long periods of relative inactivity in-between.
1415 between the English and the
French at Calais in October.
THE SECOND
PEACE Edward III agreed to renounce
his claims to Normandy, Touraine,
Anjou, and Maine, in return for
increased lands in Aquitaine. He also
1369-1389 agreed to reduce King John’s ransom by
a million crowns (the French king had been
REIGN OF
CHARLES V: captured at Poitiers), and to abandon his
FRENCH claim to the throne of France.
RESURGENCE
Timeline
DECEMBER 1414
ENGLISH
1420: TREATY OF TROYES PARLIAMENT
GRANTS ‘DOUBLE
SUBSIDY’ TO
FUND WAR
1428: SIEGE OF ORLEANS

The English laid siege to
Orleans with insufficient
force, and it was
relieved by a French
19 APRIL army inspired
1415
by the young
mystic Joan of
ENGLISH Arc. The English
GREAT COUNCIL army retreated
SANCTIONS WAR and suffered
WITH FRANCE heavy losses.
y p g g, y The Dauphin was escorted to Reims, and
of England married Catherine of Valois, daughter of crowned King Charles VII. Though Henry VI was
King Charles VI, and was recognised as heir to the crowned King of France at a ceremony at Notre Dame
French throne. But Henry died two years later, and in Paris in December 1431 (Joan of Arc having been
his son, Henry VI, a minor who became one of England’s captured and burnt as a heretic the previous May), it was
most unsuitable monarchs, was never able to make but a token gesture. The French resurgence continued
good his claim. and the English lacked the resources to drive it back.
8-24 1453
13 AUGUST 1415: ENGLISH ARMY OCTOBER 1415 17 JULY 1453: BATTLE OF CASTILLON
MARCH FROM
LANDS IN NORTHERN FRANCE HARFLEUR TO
THE SOMME An English army
under John Talbot
decision was defeated. Two
ight in the years later, the Wars
th – not in the south- of the Roses began
13 AUGUST- st, where the most in England. Thus
22 SEPTEMBER ensive English territories the war was never
– was critical. Edward III renewed, and the
1415 d campaigned in the Battle of Castillon
SIEGE OF
HARFLEUR rth – and won the Battle has therefore come
Crécy close to where to be regarded as the
e Battle of Agincourt effective end of the
ould be fought – but his Hundred Years War.
n, the Black Prince, had No treaty was ever
ampaigned mainly in the signed, however, and
outh-west, and it was in a sense the
ere that a slow war of conflict
ttrition had eventually had
round the English down.
enry was aiming for a
25 OCTOBER no
formal closure. Indeed, English
nockout blow close to 1415 claims on French territory were
he richest territories of BATTLE OF to remain a diplomatic irritant
he French Crown. AGINCOURT for many years to come.
The background
The Middling Sort

and
t he English Way of War
MHM analyses the ‘bill and bow’ say nothing of these elements in their accounts,
military system used by Edward III, it seems reasonable to assume that their role was
marginal. The fighting was done by the French
the Black Prince, and Henry V. men-at-arms, and it is on these we must focus in
seeking to make sense of the action.
These men-at-arms were organised into
T
he French army at Agincourt was three giant ‘battles’, each of between 3,000 and
a traditional feudal host. Estimates 8,000 men (depending on which figures one
of its size vary wildly, but claims accepts). The battlefield seems to have been
of 60,000, or even 100,000, can highly constricted. The traditional location
be rejected out of hand as gross has the armies facing each other across a field
exaggerations by contemporary chroniclers. about 1,000 yards wide between two woods.
Most modern accounts regard a figure of about Though this location is, in fact, uncertain,
25,000 as realistic, but Anne Curry, Professor of all the accounts of the battle seem to imply a
History at Southampton, has argued convinc- relatively narrow front and secure flanks. The
ingly that the actual figure may have been less French army seems to have been compelled
than half this total. She has also suggested that to deploy in three lines, one battle behind
the English army may have been larger than the other, the first two dismounted, the last
generally assumed, perhaps 8,500 rather than mounted. The only major exception was that
the 6,000 usually given. The implication is that, two contingents of cavalry, each about 500
while the English were almost certainly outnum- strong, were placed on the flanks.
bered, their disadvantage may have been of the
order of three to two, rather than the four or THE FEUDAL ARRAY
five to one of traditional accounts. Who were these men? They comprised the
Nor is it the case that the whole mass of retinues of the lords who, honouring their
the French army was formed of chivalry. Curry feudal obligations (or commercial contracts),
believes that archers may have accounted for one had answered the King’s call to arms. The
in three of the French, and that they are likely to retinues will have varied in size according to
have included longbowmen as well as crossbow- the wealth and power of their lord. Since the
men. There may also have been some French feudal system was a hierarchy of vassals and
cannon on the battlefield. Since the chroniclers sub-vassals under the King, many of these
individual retinues would have been grouped
ABOVE Squires arm a knight for battle. Agincourt
in larger agglomerations under a great lord.
The mounted,
was a collision between an army formed mainly of
A sea of banners indicated the position of heavily armoured men-at-arms recruited from the
each lordly retinue in the array. top level of society and one formed mainly of lightly
armoured, lance- Though military service was a feudal obliga-

tion – in return for holdings of land – it was
equipped archers recruited from the middle ranks.
The archers, though they were greatly outnumbered,
bearing knight had

also a moral obligation, its performance being were the victors.
the culmination of a chivalric code that
been transformed
stressed bravery, skill-at-arms, and the glory Channel – but this need not alter the essentially
and honour to be had in an ordeal by battle ‘feudal’ moral code governing military action.
with rivals of equivalent rank. Knights might now be paid for service, but they
into a clanking Anne Curry’s research has collapsed the
differences between the English and French
were still embedded in a feudal array preoccu-
pied with individual combat and personal glory.
All images: WIPL
anachronism. armies in the Hundred Years War – she argues

that war had become professionalised and sub-
This meant that French medieval armies were
undisciplined and disorderly. Command and
ject to commercial contract on both sides of the control was limited. On the battlefield, each lord

The background
RIGHT A manuscript illustration depicting 15th-

century knights jousting. The joust – mock combat
between warrior-nobles – was the supreme ‘sport’
of feudal chivalry.
did much as he pleased. Once the action began,

a dense mass of several thousand men-at-arms
was unlikely to be capable of anything more than
a plodding advance to contact with the opposing
line, the more headstrong lords pushing forwards
eagerly to get to grips with their peers.
This problem – lack of control, of manoeuvre,
of tactical finesse – was compounded by two
other characteristics of the French army at
Agincourt. First, even with the battles stacked
up in three lines, the constricted front would
have meant that each was ranked in consider-
able depth. As they advanced, moreover, the
French men-at-arms seem to have veered away
from the English archers, directing themselves
towards the waiting English men-at-arms,
thereby contracting their front and increasing
their depth even more. Only the men at the
front and on the flanks would have had any
clear view of the enemy; most would have been
able to see very little except the press of their
own comrades around them.
PROTECTION VERSUS MOBILITY

The second factor making the French array
more plodding lump than masse de manoeuvre was
the weight of armour. By the early 15th century,
armour was no longer a mix of plate and mail
– lighter and more flexible – but almost wholly
plate. Many changes had taken place in the
preceding half century, largely in response to A CLANKING ANACHRONISM THE ENGLISH PROFESSIONAL ARMY
the power of the English longbow, and all in one Though recent research has raised The English army – probably far more so than
direction, towards greater protection and safety. questions about the weight, restriction, the French – was less a feudal array than a
Neck and shoulders were now guarded not by and impracticality of late medieval armours, professional army under contract. Many feudal
mail, but by a steel gorget, which rose from the there can be no question that there is always land-holders had commuted their military-
upper rim of the breastplate to meet the helmet. a trade-off between protection and mobility, service obligations into money payments. This
Beneath the waist, the groin was now covered by and that the plate armour of the 15th century suited both parties. The nobility acquired
a skirt of overlapping steel bands (taces). Arms represented an all-time extreme in favour of personal freedom – those who wished could
and hands, legs and feet were also protected by the former at the expense of the latter. still, after all, go on campaign if they chose –
plates, some rigid, some articulated. Helmets The French men-at-arms in the first while the monarchy was strengthened by its
now tended to be completely enclosed bascinets, two lines fought dismounted, because ability to hire professional soldiers rather than
with visors that covered the face except for eye- of the vulnerability of horses to the rely on levies of unruly feudatories.
slits and sometimes breathing holes. arrow-storm. They moved slowly forwards Not only did the King acquire more skilled,
Sir Charles Oman, the great historian of because of their armour, impeded by disciplined, and effective soldiers, he acquired
medieval warfare, considers these armours the mud of a ploughed field following men willing to serve for long periods, at least as
to have been wholly impractical: mobility, in heavy rain, and if they fell, they found long as they continued to be paid; whereas feu-
his view, had been sacrificed to protection to it exceptionally difficult to rise again. dal service was restricted to only 40 days a year.
the point of absurdity. ‘The later 14th century With their visors down, moreover, as they Equally limiting were the commissions of
had seen many changes in armour – all in the would have been in battle, their hearing array by which militia were traditionally raised.
direction of “safety first”, and all detrimental and vision would have been seriously The obligation on all free men to serve went
to mobility, and tending to secure the early impaired, and their ability to perceive back to Anglo-Saxon times, but it was restricted
exhaustion of the wearer. We have arrived at the and respond to threats gravely, sometimes to home defence: the militia could not be forced
time when middle-aged knights of a stout habit fatally, compromised. to embark on a foreign expedition.
of body died of heart-failure in battle, without The feudal array, now encased in plate, Again, the King preferred a commercial
having received any wound, as did Edward of had become a lumbering leviathan. The arrangement, and the common pattern was
York at Agincourt, and when, at the end of a former king of the battlefield – the mounted, for a lord or captain to be contracted with to
long fight on a sultry day, masters were seen armoured, lance-bearing knight of the supply a specified number of both men-at-arms
supported by their pages, lest they should lose 12th century – had been transformed into and archers. The King’s brother, the Duke of
their footing and be unable to rise again…’. a clanking anachronism. Clarence, for example, agreed to provide 240

LEFT The development of armour from the 12th to
the 15th century, based on English tomb effigies.
The increasing reliance on plate was a response to
both the hazards of close-quarters combat and the
rise of archery in medieval warfare. By the end,
the weight of plate-armour had become a military
absurdity – a fitting symbol, perhaps, of the
dying feudal order.
THE MIDDLING SORT

The term ‘middling sort’ would later
be applied to the class from which
the longbowmen of Agincourt were
recruited. Recent research has shown
that the English yeomanry were
already improving their farms and
turning themselves into a class of
commercial farmers, pioneering a
sort of rural capitalism.
The yeomanry/middling sort
would later play a major role in
supporting the (anti-feudal) Yorkists
during the Wars of the Roses and the (yet
more centralising) Tudor monarchy during
the 16th century. They were usually keen
supporters of the Protestant Reformation and
the Dissolution; and Cromwell’s Ironsides –
‘plain russet-coated captains’ – were, to some
degree, the heirs of Henry V’s longbowmen.
Relative prosperity and personal freedom
made the middling sort stakeholders in
English and Welsh society from the late 14th
to the late 17th century. Their enterprise and
status imbued them with morale. They were
first-rate military material.
men-at-arms and 720 mounted archers for archers represented a selection of English They had to be, for the longbow had
the 1415 campaign. and Welsh yeomanry who had chosen the one major drawback. It was a far better
The Duke’s weekly wages bill was over £250. profession of arms, and offered themselves weapon than the crossbow or early handguns
The King published a schedule of payments: willingly for contractual service. employed by contemporary foot on the
13s. 4d. per day for a duke; 6s. 8d. for an earl; Henry took 2,000 men-at-arms and 8,000 Continent, but, as military historian Trevor
4s. for a baron; 2s. for a knight; 1s. for other archers to France, and when he fought the Dupuy explains, ‘the strength, co-ordination,
men-at-arms; 6d. for an archer. There was also Battle of Agincourt he is believed to have had and skill necessary for its successful use
a schedule of bonuses due. All had to be paid at least 1,000 men-at-arms and 5,000 archers could be acquired only by years of training
for out of royal state revenues, which included in his line (and probably more, judging by and practice… Crossbowmen, on the other
income from the King’s private estates, various what we now know of his losses to combat and hand, could be trained to operate their
feudal dues, war taxation, and the booty and disease up to this point). The proportion of machines rather quickly.’
ransom money to be had on campaign. Victory archers in English medieval armies had been The French army at Agincourt reflected a
almost certainly meant profit, mainly from the steadily rising – from two or three to one under rigidly feudal society, in which the gap between
ransom money that could be charged for the Edward III (1327-1377) to four or five to one the politico-military elite and the mass of the
return of high-ranking prisoners. Defeat, on under Henry V (1413-1422), and occasionally population was a chasm that precluded the
the other hand, could bankrupt the royal state. as many as ten to one in the later 15th century. development of a strong massed infantry. It
Archers were usually recruited from the was a feudal host supplemented by mercenary
A MILITARY HYBRID rich-peasant class, the yeomanry, so, in the highly archers and gunners (who were viewed with
Henry V’s army was a military hybrid. It was class-conscious society of the time, they were contempt by their ‘social superiors’); it was not
the product of a ‘bastard feudalism’ in which ‘commoners’. That they did military service at all in any sense a ‘national’ army.
lords, knights, and retinues served under was testimony to a further element of hybridisa- The English army was quite different. It was a
contract, performing military service not as a tion in the English way of war, for they repre- combined-arms force, in which missile firepower
feudal obligation, but because they were paid, sented a continuation of the Anglo-Saxon military (archers), defensive staying-power (dismounted
and because they hoped to enrich themselves system based on a militia – a fyrd – of free men. men-at-arms), and mobile shock-action(mounted
on booty and ransoms. Norman-style feudalism had been laid across men-at-arms) were all represented. What made
Equally, while royal edicts required all this system, but had not replaced it. Thus, when this possible was the more balanced distribution
classes of Englishmen to be equipped for medieval English kings went to war, they tradi- of wealth and power in English society.
war – the poorest were expected to possess tionally both summoned the feudal host and The English leader may have been a war-
a bow and a quiverful of arrows – Henry V’s issued commissions of array to raise militia. mongering young blood who deliberately

The background
RIGHT English longbowmen as depicted on a

14th-century French manuscript.
Instead of a
terrifying charge
of armoured
horse, the English
faced a sluggish
trudge of men on
foot, like a film
in slow-motion.
provoked a pointless war in pursuit of personal
glory: a classic feudal warlord. But he was also
something else: a proto-national monarch who,
in some sense, was King of the English, much
as his Anglo-Saxon forebears had been. That
Henry V is said to have been the first English
king since 1066 to have spoken the language of
the common people – as opposed to Norman
French – seems appropriate.
armour-penetrating ‘bodkin’ point up to 300 was indirect: it had reduced the armoured
THE LONGBOWMEN yards every 10 seconds. On 25 October 1415, the man-at-arms to virtual impotence.
The English longbow was, of course, a devastat- French faced sheets of arrows from four wedges Only at a huge sacrifice of mobility, vision,
ing weapon. Made of elm, hazel, or yew, it was of English longbowmen, creating an arrow-storm and shock-power could the French chivalry
6ft long and, when strung and handled by a of 30,000 or 40,000 missiles per minute. neutralise the effect of the arrow-storm. This
skilled archer, could send a 3ft arrow with an But full plate-armour, especially given its meant they reached the English line exhausted,
glancing surfaces, designed for the purpose, and they struck it without any real impetus.
was usually effective in preventing penetration. Instead of a terrifying charge of armoured
BELOW This late 15th-century woodcut depicts
It is likely that only the occasional lucky shot horse, the English faced a sluggish trudge of
a line of Burgundian soldiers. It is a classic image
of the ‘bill and bow’ infantry warfare that was will have brought down a French man-at-arms men on foot, like a film in slow-motion.
becoming generalised across Europe with the during the advance to contact. By the early Their armour also made the French
decline of feudalism and heavy horse. 15th century, the real effect of the longbow vulnerable to close-quarters attack by the
archers themselves. The longbowmen were
protected by hedges of sharpened stakes.
From these, they could sally forth when
opportunity offered, and, being more
fleet-of-foot, could take out opposing
men-at-arms – especially the fallen, the
wounded, the disoriented, the straggling
– with axes, swords, mallets, and daggers,
retreating back within the stake-hedge when
pressed. It is quite possible that the longbow-
men killed more Frenchmen this way on
25 October than by arrow-shot.
The commoner with a bow had forced
feudalism to encase itself in metal. For
the English man-at-arms, this was less of a
problem, for he operated in combination with
archers. For the French man-at-arms, on the
other hand, stranded on the battlefield in a
strait-jacket of steel without anyone to guard
his flank, his armour casing became a tomb. .
The Battle
Agincourt 25 OCTOBER 1415

Outnumbered, hungry, disease-ridden, far from home – how did the English win?
Neil Faulkner reconstructs the battle, stage by stage, as it developed.
T
he young Henry V had much worn out several English armies in the past, OPPOSITE PAGE This near-contemporary depiction
to prove. His father had been a having placed them at the end of a long and of the Battle of Agincourt is not wholly inaccurate.
usurper, and his reign had been hazardous maritime communications-line. It attributes primary significance to the English
one of continual strife. The Better to fight just across the Channel, where archers, it shows French cavalry on the flank and
dismounted men-at-arms in the centre, and makes
House of Lancaster’s legitimacy re-supply and reinforcement would be
clear that one army was a combined-arms force and
remained in question – it would, of course, relatively straightforward. But this would the other a feudal host. The arms and armour are of
become the basis of the Wars of the Roses a require a strong base – a fortified port – the period. Even the ploughed field and the woods
generation later – and nothing was more likely on the French coast. on either side that defined the battlefield are shown.
to secure the new king’s crown than a military Henry chose the port of Harfleur at the
triumph over the traditional enemy. mouth of the Seine. His problem was that
To guarantee French rejection of his his army sailed relatively late in the season –
demands, Henry demanded restitution not on 11 August – and the town’s exceptionally
only of the lands (in Poitou and Aquitaine) strong fortifications then defied his efforts
won by Edward III at the Treaty of Bretigny in
1360 and since lost, but even of territory (the
until 22 September. This left him with
neither the time nor the forces – combat Henry was
Duchy of Normandy) surrendered by King
John as long ago as 1204. Henry was demanding
and especially disease had degraded his army –
to attempt another major operation, such demanding a third
of France – less for
a third of France – less for its own sake than as a march down the Seine to Paris.
to provoke a war. This became clear when The correct military decision would have
he rejected French peace overtures despite been to accept the gain of Harfleur, post a
massive territorial concessions. strong garrison, and return to England for
the winter with the intention of renewing the
its own sake than
HARFLEUR
to provoke a war.
Image: Alamy
campaign the following year. But feudal politics

The war was a major strategic challenge. demanded a different strategy: a military
Campaigns in south-western France had promenade through the French countryside

BELOW LEFT An early 13th-century depiction of a
English scouts reported that the French medieval siege. Although Henry V’s Siege of Harfleur
occurred two centuries later, the technology of siege
had caught up, crossed the army’s path, warfare seems to have changed very little, except
for the introduction of cannon.
and were deploying for battle ahead.

to demonstrate English power – in effect,
the delivery of an invitation to battle.
The matter was decided at a long council
of war on 5 October, when Henry appears
to have persuaded his leading lords that they
might follow this course – appearing to offer
battle – yet avoid it in practice by outpacing
the French in a march to Calais (which was
in English hands).
THE MARCH ALONG THE SOMME

The distance from Harfleur to Calais is about
120 miles. The only major obstacle en route
is the River Somme, but Henry planned to
get across this well ahead of the French. In
this he miscalculated badly. He was, in fact,
a poor strategist and a routine tactician: not
at all the military hero implied by popular
legend. The French were on home ground,
they had been mobilising for two months
since the English landing, and there were
no good grounds for assuming the French
would be incapable of blocking the crossings
of the Somme.
Henry learnt from a French prisoner
on 13 October the shocking news that the
Somme was blocked at its northern ford,
at Blanche-Taque, by 6,000 Frenchmen
protected by a hedge of sharpened stakes.
An emergency council of war debated
the options: to attempt to force the ford;
to retreat to Harfleur; to turn east and seek
another crossing upriver. The English com-
manders decided on the latter, but this was
an advance deeper into France, with a growing
French army now shadowing the march along
the river from the opposite bank.
THE RUN FOR THE COAST

For five days it continued, the French
keeping abreast of the English and blocking
each crossing in turn, the English growing
more hungry, sick (with dysentery), and
despondent. Then, taking advantage of a
bend in the river, the King drove his army
forwards fast, out-marched the French,
and got it across the river by evening on
19 October, the English sleeping that night
on the further bank.
But their situation was still bad enough.
They had marched over 200 miles in 12 days,
Image: WIPL
their condition was deteriorating fast, they

were almost 100 miles from safety, and they
were still being shadowed by a growing

The Battle
RIGHT King Henry V (1413-1422), the young blood

turned warrior king who, unwittingly, presided
over one of the greatest English victories of
the Middle Ages.
French army that almost certainly

outnumbered them heavily.
After a day of rest on 20 October,
the English forced-marched 18 miles
on 21 October, and another 53 miles on the
following three days. Then, late on 24 October,
came shattering news: despite the burst
of speed, English scouts reported that the
French had caught up, crossed the army’s
path, and were deploying for battle ahead.
As darkness descended that day, the
English, finding what shelter for the night
they could in and around the village of
Maisoncelles, knew that they would fight
the battle of their lives on the morrow.
THE ENGLISH LINE

If the battle was indeed fought between the
villages of Agincourt and Tramecourt – as
traditionally assumed – it took place on an
arable field about 1,000 yards wide, between
two woods. Henry at first deployed his out-
numbered army towards the southern end of
this defile, forming it in the conventional three
battles, Lord Camoys commanding on the left,
the King himself in the centre, the Duke of
York on the right.
Each battle was anchored on a bloc of
men-at-arms, formed several ranks deep,
but these were flanked by archers. The
latter were therefore ranged in four
blocs, two large ones on each flank,
two smaller ones between the three blocs
of men-at-arms.
Most, if not all, the archers were formed
in wedges projecting forwards from the main
line. This had three main effects. It increased
the period of time the enemy would be
under arrow-shot before reaching the waiting
English men-at-arms; it reduced the frontage
of the archers and thus made it more likely
that any attack would be funnelled towards Calculations have shown that the stakes, THE FRENCH HOST
those men-at-arms; and it meant that the assuming one per archer, would have formed a A strong argument for accepting the tradi-
archers would be on the enemy’s flank more-or-less solid barrier had they been placed tional view regarding the size of the French
when this happened. in a single line, so it is likely that they were army – that it was of the order of 25,000 – is
The archers, nonetheless, were vulnerable. placed in depth, forming a thicket of stakes, that the chroniclers are unanimous about
They had only light armour, and were equipped such that the archers could move through them. the fact that it deployed its three battles
primarily for shooting, not hand-to-hand The archers were, in any case, ranked in not in line, but one behind the other. Of
fighting. So they protected themselves with great depth. Very few men could have had a these, the first two were dismounted, the
a hedge of sharpened stakes. Each archer clear view of the enemy, so there must have third mounted. The position of archers and
had a single stake, which he would hammer been a proper system of command and con- artillery, neither of which appears to have
into the ground at an angle, with the point – trol that involved officers providing accurate played a major role in the battle, is uncer-
sharpened once set in place – at chest-height information about distances and fall of shot tain. We do, however, have good reason for
to a charging horse. to ensure effective overhead shooting. believing that small mounted contingents,

BELOW Henry V was determined to parade his army across the French countryside in a display of feudal military
power before returning to England. But he was outmanoeuvred by his enemies and brought to the brink of
Campaign map
disaster. The map shows the march of the English army – up the Somme and away from Calais and safety –
and the parallel march of the French. Though the English eventually succeeded in crossing the Somme, the
French intercepted them and blocked their way in the vicinity of Agincourt.

BELOW The Battle of Agincourt, 25 October 1415, showing the constricted battlefield, the deployment
Maps
Battle map
of the respective armies, and the English advance to within bow-shot that triggered a general action.
Note the single English line and the banking up of the French army in three lines: the terrain imposed
a frontal collision, and wholly negated the French advantage in numbers.
Maps: Ian Bull/Hans Braxmeier

BELOW The English way of war involved a sophisticated combination of shooting and shock action. Both
The archery was a were equally important. The English and Welsh archers were recruited from the more prosperous among
commoners, mainly yeomen farmers, who represented the top level of the peasantry. They wore little armour
violent challenge
but were protected by a thicket of stakes on the battlefield. Most were professional soldiers: highly skilled,
and highly motivated.
that invited a
response from
the proud feudal hands only an ignoble death was possible,
the French chivalry was goaded into action.
of the initial charge of French heavy horse was
moral rather than physical. This is almost
lords on the
The cavalry on both wings of the French always the case when cavalry confront
army now charged at the blocs of longbow- formed infantry. The reason is simple.
receiving end.
men at either end of the English line, and Infantry can bunch in a protective huddle,
they were soon followed by the great mass of with perhaps half a dozen men opposing
dismounted men-at-arms in the forward each horseman, and as long as they stand
battle, who began lumbering towards firm, constituting themselves as a solid
their assailants. The English King obstacle, even the most determined
perhaps 500 in each case, were deployed had succeeded in triggering the all- rider will find it exceptionally difficult
on each flank. out battle on which his only hope to drive his horse into them.
This large French army was blocking the of salvation had come to depend. As soon as matters come to
English army’s road to safety, and its substantial, close-quarters, the infantry will
perhaps massive, superiority in men-at-arms THE ATTACK OF be able to use their weapons –
meant that it was effectively unassailable. THE FRENCH HORSE
It might have chosen simply to stay put, Like the opening English
in which case it is difficult to conceive of any arrow-storm, the main effect
alternative outcome than the English being
compelled to surrender. They were already
short of supplies, and, deep inside hostile
territory in the presence of a large enemy
host, could hardly expect to procure any.
The English had either to fight their way
to victory and an opening of the road, or
be starved into submission. Their King had
led them to the brink of disaster.
The French did nothing. For four hours
on the morning of 25 October, both armies
breakfasted, milled about, rested, made no
move. In the long run, this was victory to
the French, death to the English.
THE ENGLISH ADVANCE

So the King finally ordered the entire
English line to advance down the field to
within extreme bowshot of the French –
literally to ‘up sticks’, since it involved the
archers removing their stakes and recon-
structing the hedge in a new position.
Having redeployed them at extreme range,
about 300 yards from the enemy, Henry
ordered his archers to begin shooting. These
first flights of arrows can have had little physical
effect against men in full plate-armour, espe-
cially given their loss of velocity over such a
distance. But the moral effect was dramatic.
The archery was a deliberate affront, a
violent challenge that invited a response from
the proud feudal lords on the receiving end.
Forced to close their visors, assailed by the
whistling approach of the storm and the weird
crashing against their bowed heads and chests,
indignant that their assailants were mere
peasants, their social inferiors, men at whose

The Battle
LEFT Though archers outnumbered them five to one at

Agincourt, the English men-at-arms were the essential
complement to the bowmen. Their armour was
excellent, though they probably wore less than their
French counterparts – no mail coat under their plate, for
example – as they did not have to face an arrow-storm.
Nor did they need to advance across a muddy field.
the arrow-storm unscathed. And as they

approached the English line, they seem to
have bunched towards the waiting men-at-
arms, avoiding the archer wedges, partly in
fear of close-range arrow-shot, partly because
neither honour nor ransom were to be had
engaging social inferiors.
This shuffle away from the archers will have
caused the front of the French formation to
separate into three blocs, with consequent
bunching, some disorder, and a stacking up
of the ranks behind.
Most Frenchmen, their vision and hearing
restricted by their armour and the great press
of their comrades all around them, will have
known little of what was happening, and will
simply have been carried forwards by the
general momentum.
THE COLLISION
Those at the front, meantime, tired by
their weary trudge through the mud in full
armour, would have confronted the English
men-at-arms without gaining any advantage
from the depth of the column behind.
Images: akg-images/Osprey Publishing
Indeed, it may well have been a positive

disadvantage, the press from behind perhaps
causing men to stumble forwards, either to
lose their footing or to become impaled on
their enemies’ weapons.
The flowing inwards from the flanks
combined with the pressing forwards of the
rear is likely to have caused such excessive
bunching that many French men-at-arms
against the horse if not the rider – whereas the THE ATTACK OF THE FRENCH FOOT must have found it impossible to wield their
cavalryman, on a swaying platform and held at The great mass of the first line – up to 8,000 weapons or dodge enemy blows, and many
a distance from his opponents by the body of men – would have taken three or four minutes must have been pushed to the ground and
his mount, may find it difficult to reciprocate. to trudge across the rain-soaked mud of the crushed or suffocated.
At Agincourt, there was an additional field to reach their enemies. In this time, they The English men-at-arms knew no such
consideration: the thicket of stakes. This will would have been the targets of perhaps as many difficulties. They were relatively fresh, well
have had two effects, since we can assume as 100,000 arrows. spaced, and deployed in a stationary line;
that, on the one hand, the archers may have But at the longer ranges, these would have they could even have given a little ground
given a little ground, retreating into the been almost entirely harmless, and even at if necessary. For sure, had the mêlée
heart of the thicket, beyond the reach of somewhat closer ranges, only a lucky shot continued for any length of time, the
their opponents, while the opposing chivalry that penetrated a slit or a joint in the armour French numerical advantage might have
must surely have found it impossible to force would have brought a man down. As the range begun to tell. But the French formation –
their mounts forwards against a barrier of reduced, however, despite the thickness of the three blunt-headed wedges – was now under
projecting points. plate and the slanted, deflecting surfaces, the attack along the flanks.
Having suffered casualties on the approach, ‘bodkin-points’ of the longbowmen’s arrows,
and now suffering more as they stalled imme- which were designed to be armour-piercing, THE ARCHERS COUNTER-ATTACK
diately in front of the stakes and the bolder will have begun to tell, especially against such The wedges of French men-at-arms were,
of the English archers resumed shooting, the a dense, slow-moving mass. of course, presenting no fewer than six
French chivalry were – it seems easily and Even so, the great majority of the flanks to the sides of the opposing wedges
quickly – driven off on both flanks. French men-at-arms will have come through of English archers. As the men-at-arms shied

LEFT A vivid medieval depiction of close-quarters
combat between opposing lines of men-at-arms.
away from the archers and tried to

get forwards to reach the English men-at-
arms, the archers were able to engage in
both close-range shooting and, it seems,
hit-and-run attacks.
More lightly equipped and therefore
more nimble, armed with axes, swords,
daggers, and mallets (the latter used to
hammer in their stakes), they would sally
forth from the protection of their stake-
thicket to attack stragglers, men who had
stumbled, and the ones and twos who
strayed too close.
It is easy to imagine. Two or three archers
see a struggling Frenchman a few yards
beyond the front stakes. They agree to
attack, one waving a sword in front to
distract him, another clubbing him from
behind with a mallet, a third driving a
dagger through his eye-slit once he is
down. Then, if safe, the body is looted.
Always there is the near proximity of
comrades and the stakes.
The counter-attack of the archers will
have intensified the press towards the centre
of the French wedges and the problem of
bunching. Brought to a standstill, increas-
ingly compressed, fighting at a disadvantage
on three fronts and six flanks, the great mass
of the French first line began to give way.
Compounding the grief of the Frenchmen
in the first line was the fact that the second
line had begun its advance across the field.
The men of both lines became embroiled.
This must have had two effects.
First, it would have added to the press and
relative immobility of the French mass, expos-
ing the men in the killing zone, which ran all
along the jagged front edge of the formation,
to extreme danger for a longer period as they
struggled to make their escape.
Second, it would have infected the second
line with the increasing panic in the ranks
of the first. The second line represented
a reinforcement of failure, with the usual
consequences. Unable to get to grips with
the enemy, plunged into a fearful, chaotic,
heaving mass of humanity, it was carried
backwards by the momentum of the first
line’s retreat.
THE FINAL ACT

The battle was not yet over. The third line –
formed of mounted chivalry – stood waiting

The Battle
The great mass of

to charge. Henry therefore kept his own men was the large number of French prisoners
in hand – no general advance, no looting, no in English hands.
the first line would

seeking prisoners for ransom yet permitted. A man with a machine-gun can easily
Then two minor incidents punctuated the control hundreds of disarmed prisoners.
pause in the main fighting. But what of men armed only with medieval
First, the Duke of Brabant, who was late
for the battle, led an impromptu charge of
weapons? The King was no more brutal
than other feudal potentates of his age. have taken three
a small body of horsemen. This appears to
have been wholly ineffective, though it no
He was, moreover, bound by the chivalric
rule which placed a noble prisoner under or four minutes
to trudge across
doubt contributed to continuing English the protection of the man to whom he
anxiety about the intentions and potential had surrendered. In any case, the haul
the rain-soaked
of those Frenchmen who had not yet partici- of French prisoners represented a fortune
pated in the fighting. It may, indeed, have in ransoms. In short, his order to kill the
contributed to the King’s notorious decision prisoners that afternoon must be regarded
to kill prisoners.
Some time later, a body of armed peasants
as an act of desperation.
An esquire and 200 longbowmen were
mud of the field.
led by three French knights attacked and ordered to carry out the executions. It is
plundered the English camp before being not known how many they had managed
driven off. When news first reached Henry, to kill before the order was rescinded. The
BELOW An equally dramatic 19th-century
he had no idea of the size of the force or news arrived that the party of French who
representation of a medieval mêlée, here showing
the seriousness of the attack: merely that had attacked the camp had been driven off,
Henry V engaging the Duke of Alençon on the
the French were in his rear. Had the third and then it was seen that the third line was battlefield. A romanticised personal combat amid
Images: WIPL
line chosen this moment to attack – or so he withdrawing from the field. The Battle of a swirling Hollywood-style swashbuckle, it is
seems to have figured – his army might easily Agincourt – as it was soon agreed it should probably far less close to the reality than the
have been destroyed. An additional hazard be called – was over. medieval manuscript illustration.

ABOVE The legend of Agincourt: Laurence Olivier as Shakespeare’s Henry V.
WHY DID THE ENGLISH WIN? army than to the incompetence of individuals.
Agincourt was an overwhelming victory It was, in essence, an agglomeration of lordly
against the odds. The total French dead may retinues, each eager for glory, renown, plunder,
have been more than 6,000, whereas English and noble prisoners. Feudal egotism and
casualties, dead and wounded, were no more indiscipline would probably have brought on
than 500, and may have been as few as 100. In the battle, and the bungled assault, whatever
addition, between 1,500 and 1,600 prisoners the most senior Frenchmen had done.
fell into English hands. Many of the most The English men-at-arms, on the other
One waved a
distinguished members of the French aristoc- hand, were a small minority of their army, and
racy were killed or captured. they had a long tradition of combined-arms
sword in front,
Little credit belongs to the English high ‘bow and bill’ tactics. The missile-shooting of
command. King Henry V was a young feudalist the longbowmen, the defensive staying-power
out to prove himself by provoking an unnec- of dismounted men-at-arms, and, when neces-
another clubbed essary war, and then leading his army on a

strategically pointless march through enemy
sary, the offensive shock action of mounted
men-at-arms made the English army of 1415
from behind, territory. His conduct of the battle was routine:

he formed his line in conformity with estab-
an altogether more sophisticated military
machine than that of its opponents.
a third drove a
lished English practice, and his tactics were That such an army was possible was
those of a simple defensive. testimony to the feudalism-lite of early
dagger through
Still less credit, of course, belongs to the 15th-century England; more specifically, to
French high command, and herein lies part the rise of the yeomanry, the rich peasant
of the explanation for the outcome of the class, ‘the middling sort’ who would soon
the eye-slit. battle. But the failure of the French to exer-

cise effective command and control probably
be at the forefront of a succession of radi-
cal upheavals that would give birth to the
owed more to the feudal character of their modern world. .
Tank
Island I
t is 1 July 1940. Recovering from the
British Expeditionary Force’s defeat in
Belgium and France, the army evacuated
from the beaches of Dunkirk in late
May and early June is in the process of
being reconstituted and rearmed. Reinforced
by the recently formed Local Defence
Volunteers (renamed later that month the
Home Guard), the military remains on alert,
On the 75th anniversary of the threat of a Nazi invasion, ready to repel an anticipated German invasion.
Standing alone against Nazi-occupied Europe,
conflict archaeologist Mike Relph explores the plans for Britain’s future is uncertain.
Britain’s defence in late 1940, and their impact on the Some 75 years later, the nation’s popular
memory of its anti-invasion defences is
Wiltshire market town of Marlborough. dominated by lines of static concrete pillboxes
and anti-tank barriers (many still visible in

LEFT Clacton makes ready to receive the invader.
But the British high command knew they were
unlikely to stop the Germans on the beaches.
RIGHT General Alan Brooke, who became
Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces, in July 1940.
the landscape); absent road, village, and town

signposts; and mined beaches, access to which
was blocked by anti-tank defences and swathes
of barbed-wire entanglement – all designed to
defend England, London, and the country’s
industrial heartland from enemy invasion.
Less well known is Britain’s revised defence
plan, adopted once General Sir Edmund
Ironside, criticised for his policy of static
defence, had been replaced by General
Alan Brooke as Commander-in-Chief,
Home Forces, in July 1940.
Brooke favoured more mobile and aggressive
defensive tactics, based on ‘a light defence along
the beaches, to hamper and delay landings to
the maximum, and in the rear highly mobile
forces trained to immediate aggressive action
intended to concentrate and attack any landings
before they had become firmly established’.
From 1941, the emphasis inland switched
from Ironside’s stop-lines to a network of
defended towns and villages, and locally
constituted, mobile, offensively minded,
and energetically led ‘strike forces’, each
tasked with observing, harassing, and
destroying the German invader.
In the area commanded by Headquarters
Salisbury Plain, the north Wiltshire town
of Marlborough found itself on a potential
enemy main axis of advance, and was given
a key role in the county’s defence and
designated an anti-tank island – a term
quickly abridged to ‘tank island’. an effort to destroy the Royal Air Force, the beachhead and advance north, with two
the Luftwaffe launched Unternehmen panzer corps tasked with destroying the British
OPERATION SEALION Alderangriff (Operation Eagle Attack) Army’s main reserve and crossing the River
Unternehmen Seelöwe (Operation Sealion) on 10 August 1940. Medway in Kent. The first operational objective
was the name given to the German plan for Judging that two army groups (totalling was to be a line running from Portsmouth to
the cross-Channel invasion of the United some 40 infantry, motorised, and panzer the Thames Estuary.
Kingdom in 1940. Prepared initially by the divisions) were required, the Germans Following a period of heavy fighting
German Naval Staff in late 1939, the plan was planned a three-phase assault across the and consolidation, the Germans’ armoured
revised following Hitler’s Supreme Command Straits of Dover, with preliminary airborne formations were to push on to encircle
Directive Number 16, dated 16 July 1940, and special-forces attacks, the use of U-boats London, while the enemy’s mechanised
which requested the German Army, Navy, and maritime minefields on the flanks of the divisions were to advance rapidly on a subsid-
and Air Force CinCs to work together to crossing area, and the support of 155 trans- iary axis through Wiltshire and Berkshire
prepare more detailed plans for the invasion port steamers, 1,722 barges, 471 seagoing tugs, to secure crossing-points over the River
of England. The proposed landings stretched and 1,161 motor-boats. Thames north of Marlborough between
from Lyme Bay in the west to the Isle of Wight Alert to the risk posed by British sea power, Swindon and Oxford.
and Ramsgate in the east. the German Naval Staff planned to execute Success against the British Army in the
Updated to reflect the evolving military situ- simultaneously a diversionary landing in south of England would be marked by German
ation, on 27 August 1940 the Führer accepted Scotland, and, through use of the cruiser occupation of London and the capture of all
the German Supreme Command’s proposals Hipper and the pocket battleship Sheer, land south of their second operational objective,
for an invasion on a narrower front, between draw the Royal Navy away from the proposed a general line running from Gloucester in the
Beachy Head and Deal, with a feint attack landing areas to the Iceland–Faroes gap and west to Maldon in the east.
by the Kriegsmarine to the north to lure the the North Atlantic.
Royal Navy away from the actual landing sites. BLITZKRIEG
Hitler and the German Supreme Command BREAKOUT By 1940, the Germans had harnessed modern
agreed, however, that a successful invasion was Once sufficient forces had been landed, technology to wage a revolutionary new form
dependent on gaining air-supremacy and, in the Germans intended to break out from of ‘lightning warfare’: blitzkrieg. The use of

TANK ISLAND
BELOW Some high-ranking visitors cast critical
eyes over Britain’s anti-invasion defences.
radio allowed Wehrmacht corps and
divisional commanders to move freely
around the battlefield, enabling them to
take personal control of the tactical situation
from the front-line.
Superior means of command and control;
improved tank firepower, speed, and protection;
motorisation and the integrated use of ground-
attack aircraft instead of artillery, also permitted
inspirational panzer leaders, such as General
Heinz Guderian, to exploit technology to the
full, and so operate at a higher tempo and inside
the ‘decision-cycle’ of their adversaries.
In May 1940, Guderian’s concentrated use
of mobile armoured formations in Belgium and
France had shattered the Allied front, leading
to a general collapse in the French defences;
the same tactics would have been used by the
Germans had they invaded Britain. Advancing on a wide front, bypassing through the enemy’s front-line and defeat
areas of major resistance, the German’s the opposition.
coordinated use of armoured and mecha- Momentum and local air-superiority were
BELOW The Marlborough defence concept in 1941
involved three main Home Guard lines of defence nised formations allowed them to concen- vital to success. Attacking columns, advancing in
(outer stop-line, inner stop-line, and two ‘citadels’) trate their ground forces at a time and parallel, normally kept to the roads until forced
to fix the attackers and set them up for counter- place of their choosing, typically where to move across country to converge against
attack by mobile Regular Army formations. there was least resistance, to break enemy defenders. Vulnerable when committed

to street-fighting, wherever possible German Group A’s motorised infantry divisions, each local Home Guard – the 6th (Marlborough)
tanks avoided towns and built-up areas for fear equipped with a mixture panzer tanks and Battalion, the Wiltshire Home Guard – was
of losing the momentum of the attack. motorised infantry, together with supporting commanded by General Sir Francis Gathorne-
Luftwaffe ground-attack aircraft and organic Hardy, a 66-year-old retired regular soldier
MARLBOROUGH AND artillery, engineer, and logistic units, advancing who had served with distinction during the
ITS DEFENDERS north through Wiltshire to secure crossings Second Boer War, and on the Western Front
The market town of Marlborough, which pos- over the River Thames. and in Italy during the Great War.
sesses the second widest high street in England, Identified initially as a ‘defended locality’, Given the size of his area of responsibility,
lies in north Wiltshire’s upper Kennet Valley Marlborough was upgraded to a ‘tank island’ Gathorne-Hardy chose to divide his command
astride the Old Bath Road (the A4), which in July 1940 as part of the Army’s plans for into two half-battalions: one dedicated to the
connects London to Bath, and its junction with the defence of Wiltshire. defence of the Marlborough Tank Island,
the lesser south–north route, which runs from Lying midway between Stop Line Blue the other responsible for north Wiltshire’s
Salisbury to Swindon (the A345). (which covered crossings over the Kennet and network of rural villages.
Situated on the southern edge of the Avon Canal, some 4 to 5 miles to the south) Personal responsibility for the defence of
Marlborough Downs, the town also lies astride and Stop Line Red (guarding crossings over Marlborough was given to Lieutenant-Colonel
the River Kennet where it joins the River Og, the River Thames, 20 miles to the north), the Arthur Fuller, who had served with the 6th
and is adjacent to Savernake Forest (a 4,500- town’s defenders were tasked with two con- Dragoon Guards during the First World War,
acre area of woodland used to store ammuni- secutive missions: to deny the German invader and had the battalion’s A Company and three
tion during the Second World War). transit routes through the town; and, in the rifle platoons from Marlborough College’s
Had the invasion come, Marlborough’s latter stages of the defence, to form a tank Officer Training Corps – a contingent of
defenders would have been faced by Army island to hold the town for up to ten days. around 150 masters and boys aged over 17 –
under command.
BELOW The Marlborough defences – strongpoints, MARLBOROUGH’S COMMANDERS Plans were also put in place to reinforce the
pillboxes, road blocks, AT mines, and barrel traps – With its headquarters based in the Royal Oak town Home Guard defenders with 200 regular
in 1941. public house in Marlborough’s High Street, the troops, and four obsolete First World War

TANK ISLAND
ABOVE The Kingsbury Hill road block c.1943. Note defended localities – were regularly tested, The lack of weapons also led to the invention
the concrete pimples either side of the road; the with an annual major field-training exercise. and introduction of a number of innovative
two rows of sockets in the road surface, and the The last such drill, Exercise ‘Royal Oak’, devices, such as the Northover Projector (a
bent rails against the left side of the road, ready to which took place on 31 January 1943, sophisticated grenade-launcher), the Smith
be inserted in the sockets at short notice; and the
was the largest exercise of its kind, with Gun (a 3-inch gun which fired a hollow-charge
mini pillbox camouflaged by a small picket fence.
The building to the rear (behind the two figures) has
two troops of tanks from 20th Armoured 8lb anti-tank bomb), and the Spigot Mortar.
been converted into a strongpoint, and is a potential Brigade, two squadrons from the RAF Available in larger numbers from 1942
2-pounder anti-tank gun position. Regiment, and a Home Guard company (when the regular army received the new
ABOVE RIGHT The Kingsbury Hill road block, playing the part of the enemy tasked 6-pdr anti-tank gun), the 2-pdr eventually
photographed in 2015. The mini pillbox can still with entering the town following a became the Home Guard’s principal anti-
be seen in the landscape – a visible reminder of German invasion. tank capability.
Marlborough’s Second World War heritage. While the national shortage of anti-tank
weapons proved to be a problem, particularly THE DEFENCES
18-pdr artillery pieces and their detachments: in 1940, when there were only 170 2-pdr The construction of Marlborough’s defences
to be dispatched by road from Tidworth anti-tank guns available for the whole of – with road and rail blocks, and brick and
and Larkhill once the code word ‘Resolute’, the UK, the Home Guard used its initiative reinforced-concrete pillboxes, strongpoints, and
which was to trigger the nation’s anti-invasion and developed a series of impromptu other defensive works – continued throughout
defences, had been given. weapons and tactics.
These included Molotov cocktails made
BELOW LEFT Figgins Shop strongpoint, which covered
HOME GUARD from bottles, filled with a mixture of tar or
the Kingsbury Hill road block, c.1943. Two firing-ports,
The Home Guard’s plans for the defence sugar, petrol, and paraffin; and the No.76 camouflaged by painted window-frames, can clearly
of Marlborough – based on the defenders self-igniting phosphorous grenade and the be seen in the reinforced concrete wall.
holding a network of road and rail blocks, No.74 nitro-glycerine filled ‘sticky grenade’ BELOW Figgins Shop, photographed in 2015. The outline
fortified strongpoints and pillboxes, and for use against tanks. of the strongpoint’s firing-ports can still be seen.

the summer and autumn of 1940 and into the known as fougasses and barrel-flame traps, ABOVE LEFT The Green, Marlborough, 1943. Two
first half of 1941. By April 1942, the Home designed to disable enemy tanks and person- of the three pillboxes guarding the Green can be
Guard was responsible for the maintenance of nel. Typically sited close to an artificial or seen. The British Restaurant, opened in 1940, is
some 22 road and two rail blocks, which formed natural obstacle where it was impossible to also visible under the trees.
ABOVE The Green, Marlborough, photographed
the basis of the Tank Island’s defences. move tanks away from the road (such as a
in 2015.
Road blocks were generally built to a defile or marshy ground), and well camou-
standard design utilising a mixture of bent flaged, these devices were designed to take
rails inserted in prefabricated concrete sockets the enemy by surprise, causing the maximum What emerges is a multilayered defensive
embedded in the road’s surface, and two-foot- amount of damage and destruction. plan, with two outer defensive lines along
high concrete pimples placed on the pavement The town’s defences were subsequently the railway line and the River Kennet, and
on either side of the road. improved by the construction of a number two inner ‘citadels’, one at either end of
Enhanced by the use anti-tank mines of pillboxes of various designs. These ranged the High Street, where the narrow Victorian
on the approaches (for example, 225 from the relatively common hexagonal Type streets – reinforced by the use of pillboxes
mines were allocated to the Cow Bridge 22 Bren Gun emplacement, for six men; to the and strongpoints – offered the best protection
road block), the defenders hoped that the hexagonal Type 24 concrete Bren and rifle from ground attack, and which Marlborough’s
incline provided by the bent rail would raise pillbox, built to house eight men equipped defenders planned to withdraw to once the
the front of any tank attempting to break with small arms; to the round Type 25 pillbox, town’s outer defences had been breached.
through, exposing its vulnerable underside which held three or four men; to purpose- While the town’s defenders lacked the
to anti-tank fire. Marlborough’s two rail built strongpoints and pillboxes conceived combat power necessary to deny Marlborough
blocks were based on a similar design, with to meet a specific threat. to the enemy had the Germans decided to
hairpin rails at hand to be slotted into a take the town, it is clear that, under the right
number of prefabricated concrete blocks A MULTILAYERED PLAN conditions, the Home Guard and regular
laid between the railway tracks. An examination of the town’s topography, defenders might have put up sufficient resis-
Five of Marlborough’s road blocks were its setting within a militarised landscape, tance to nudge the Germans into looking for
reinforced by the use of improvised mines, the surviving archaeology, aerial photographs alternate routes north, and so fulfilled their
and other images of the period, contemporary mission as a tank island – and, in the process,
accounts, and archived military documents set the enemy up for a potential counter-attack
BELOW A general view of Marlborough High Street,
looking north-west, 1943. A large 10,000 gallon
reveals a detailed picture of the Home Guard’s by a regular strike force. r
water butt, for use in the event of an air-raid, can plans for the defence of Marlborough had
be seen in the foreground. the Germans invaded between 1940 and Mike Relph is a retired army officer and
BELOW LEFT Marlborough High Street, looking 1942, and of the viability of the anti-tank a modern conflict archaeologist based Modern Images: Author’s own. Archive Images: Merchant's House, Marlborough
north-west, 2015. island concept. at the University of Bristol.

The defence
of Camerone
THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION’S FINEST HOUR
Robin Smith reports on the epic nine-hour defence of a remote In the popular imagination, the French
Mexican hamlet by a handful of legionnaires in April 1863. Foreign Legion conjures up images of
tough men trudging across blazing deserts,
or manning lonely outposts commanded
A
battered, wooden prosthetic by brutal officers; of a force formed of men
hand is the most sacred relic drawn to serve France after fleeing prison,
of the French Foreign Legion. disgrace, or doomed love affairs back home.
Honoured annually in a special This popular image is encapsulated in films
ceremony, it was worn by Captain like Under Two Flags and Beau Geste – not
Jean Danjou, who on 30 April 1863, at the to mention the classic ‘Carry On’ movie
Mexican hamlet of Camerone, commanded the Follow That Camel.
remnants of an understrength Legion company. But the most famous day in Legion history
Less than 60 men held off a 2,000-strong was played out south-west of Veracruz, in
ABOVE The Battle of Camerone, as depicted in a
enemy force for nine hours, saving a vital supply a colourful but tragic chapter of France’s
painting by Jean Adolphe Beaucé.
convoy: an extraordinary feat of arms. ill-fated ‘Mexican Adventure’.

and rather than become embroiled in the
volatile Mexican situation, Britain and Spain
withdrew. France, however, remained.
One French
Napoleon III was scheming to extend
France’s empire. Living under the long regiment lost
shadow cast by his uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte,
Napoleon III saw exotic, far-flung Mexico as more than 600
men to sickness
a challenging new territory, ripe for French
control. He also saw himself as a crusader for
in less than
the Catholic Church. He would re-establish
Mexico as a devout Catholic country, a
bulwark against Protestant influence.
EXILES AND PUPPETS a month.

Refugees from the ousted conservative govern-
ment were anxious to court Napoleon’s favour.
This suited the French Emperor. Napoleon
even had a job opportunity lined up for the
currently unemployed Austrian Archduke
Maximilian, brother of the Austrian Emperor.
He and his wife Charlotte-Amélie, a Belgian- BELOW Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion
born princess, would be installed as the in 1852.
Image: Richard Lucas
THE WAR OF REFORM

In strife-torn Mexico, the civil war known
as the War of Reform had broken out
after the liberal government of President
Benito Juárez brought in sweeping
reforms that provoked a hostile reaction
from Mexican conservatives and Catholics.
His government adopted a new constitu-
tion, selling off many of the Catholic
Church’s holdings and guaranteeing
freedom of worship.
The War of Reform eventually saw
the conservatives ousted from their
stronghold in Mexico City, but the conflict
left the country in economic crisis,
and Juárez’s government suspended
payment on foreign debt. There were no
international mediating organisations in
those days. Sabre-rattling and gunboat
diplomacy were the only options for
Image: AKG Images
Mexico’s creditors.
Spain, Britain, and France sent forces
to seize the port of Veracruz at the end of
1861. But the expedition proved fruitless,

CAMERONE
RIGHT In this fanciful

contemporary illustration,
French infantry – including
a posse of Zouaves – storm
the rebel stronghold of Puebla.
The city fell after a lengthy siege
in May 1863. The conflict left
the French unable to secure a
grip on Mexico, and Napoleon III’s
dreams of extending France’s
empire into exotic new lands
became a nightmare.
puppet Emperor and Empress of Mexico, from their pipes and cigars would ward turbulent revolutionary fervour sweeping
with France pulling their strings. off disease-carrying insects. across Europe in the 1830s, when monarchs
For the time being, Mexico’s near- Any legionnaire expecting easy glory was trembled on their thrones, fearing the people
neighbour, the United States, could do disappointed. While the main French army might come crashing through the palace doors
no more than cast anxious glances at what was assigned to ousting enemy forces at their at any moment.
France was doing in Mexico. America was stronghold, Puebla, the Legion was parcelled France had a long history of raising foreign
fighting a bloody civil war of its own, out in detachments and given the necessary regiments to serve among its forces. The
and was therefore unable to respond to but thankless task of keeping transport routes Irish Brigade is a famous example. But wor-
European interlopers in its ‘backyard’. free from marauding Juarist forces. ried that disruptive foreign elements were
France’s intervention was seen as a threat, Truth to be told, there was little military infiltrating his army, King Louis-Philippe had
but for now little could be done. glory to be had anywhere in Mexico, as French disbanded the Swiss and German regiments
Veracruz was the coastal staging-post for troops and their Mexican Imperial Army then in French service.
routes into Mexico. The Legion was not allies fought President Juárez’s fast-moving France was, however, engaged in various
included in the original French troop contin- Republican Army in a series of indecisive colonial wars abroad, and the suggestion arose
gent. Considering that such colonial action bloody skirmishes and short pitched battles. that the unemployed foreign soldiers, and
was exactly what the Legion was designed for, There was great savagery on both sides: perhaps other foreigners resident in the
this seems a glaring omission. Outraged at not dressed in distinctive light-blue jackets, the country, might be enrolled in a new force
being included on the muster roll for Mexico, 1st regiment, Chasseurs d’Afrique, were nick- dedicated to service overseas.
Legion officers signed a petition, which was named ‘Blue Butchers’ by the Mexicans. The idea of using foreigners as cannon
sent to Napoleon III. It did the trick: the Legion fodder, serving French interests abroad, is
was belatedly shipped out. THE LEGION traditionally said to have come from French
By the time of the Mexican adventure, the Minister of War Marshal Soult. A man who
VERACRUZ French Foreign Legion was already more had built a formidable reputation as one of
With its Spanish grandeur rapidly crumbling, than 30 years old. It had been born amid the Napoleon’s commanders, Soult had by now
Veracruz had become little more than a morphed into a committed Royalist.
sprawling shanty town. The surrounding area On 9 March 1831, a law to set up the Legion
‘These are not men,

harboured deadly yellow fever. In European was passed, and the following day Louis-
armies campaigning abroad, deaths from Philippe signed a royal ordinance approving
but demons.’
disease often surpassed battlefield casualties: its creation. The new force’s Romantic image
at Veracruz, one French regiment lost was established right from the start. A hard
more than 600 men to sickness in less than core of Swiss and German soldiers signed up,
a month, before it had even fired a shot. alongside embittered young adventurers and
Soldiers smoked profusely, hoping the fumes &RORQHO0LODQ0H[LFDQRƯ
FHU broken-down drifters of all descriptions.

RECRUITMENT CAPTAIN DANJOU
Recruits were to be aged between 18 and 40, Captain Danjou, who was destined to
and, although they officially had to be of good become the Legion’s most famous son,
character, legionnaires were not obliged to was born on 15 April 1828 in Chalabre,
give their correct names when they enlisted. southern France. He attended Saint-Cyr,
The battalions making up the Legion were the officers’ training school, joining the
organised like those of the regular French Foreign Legion in September 1852.
line infantry. Ideally, each battalion had eight Several sources claim that fighting in the
companies, each of 112 men. Crimea cost Danjou his left hand. But he
Resented by the regular army, the fledgling had in fact lost the hand in less auspicious
Legion was issued second-rate uniforms and circumstances, as a result of an accident sev-
equipment, and shipped out to Algeria. eral years before, on a mapping expedition
A tough Swiss colonel and his team of in North Africa.
French officers knocked the motley recruits Danjou was loading a signalling pistol
into shape, and the Legion cut its teeth in when the cartridge exploded prematurely.
skirmishes and pitched battles, trying to His crippled hand was skilfully amputated,
defeat local warlords and impose French and the wound healed well. Nobody
colonial control. knows who made Danjou’s wooden
In those early days, the fledgling Legion’s replacement, which had articulated
fourth battalion was composed mainly of fingers and fitted over his forearm
Spaniards, many of whom were veterans of the with an attached leather cup. In
Peninsular War. They were particularly adept pictures, Danjou seems to be wearing
at dealing with enemy cavalry, ingeniously a long white glove over his false hand.
slipping under the bellies of horses, tipping The Legion had all manner of men in
the riders out of their saddles, and stabbing its ranks, including many craftsmen, so the
them to death. Unorthodox, but effective. hand’s anonymous creator is likely to have
Pulled out of Algeria, the Legion was been a skilled carpenter. The artificial hand
‘loaned out’ to the French-backed Queen did not affect Danjou’s soldiering abilities.
Isabella of Spain, locked in a bitter dispute for He could still mount a horse, and was deco-
the Spanish throne with her uncle Don Carlos rated for gallantry in the Crimea.
– the so-called Carlist Wars. At Tirapegui in The Legion’s eclectic mix of manpower
April 1836, two Legion battalions held off has included the philosopher and author ABOVE Captain Jean Danjou (1828-1863),
Carlist forces five times their strength for Arthur Koestler, American poet Alan Seeger, the one-handed officer who was killed at the
several hours, establishing a Legion tradition songwriter Cole Porter, and Ozzy Osbourne head of his men at Camerone and became the
of facing down unequal odds. – almost! In 1986, the author of this feature French Foreign Legion’s most celebrated hero.
witnessed Ozzy’s attempts to join the Legion
NORTH AFRICA, THE CRIMEA, in the south of France, after Ozzy had a row
AND ITALY with his wife, Sharon, during a promotional be grinding its way up from the coast. Colonel
Worn down by its Spanish service to a skeleton tour. Sharon drove up to stop him, outside Jeanningros, the Legion’s commander in
of less than 600 men, the Legion was rebuilt, Legion headquarters, in the nick of time. Mexico, decided it would be prudent to send
seeing further gruelling service in North The Legion’s loss has indeed been rock a company of legionnaires out as an escort.
Africa. The Legion had won its spurs, and music’s gain. The understrength 62-strong 3rd Company
earned grudging respect from its peers. On 29 April 1863, news arrived at Legion of the Legion’s 1st Battalion was assigned
During the Crimean War, the Legion was headquarters in Chiquihuite that a convoy the arduous task. But all its officers were ill.
praised for its part in storming the Heights carrying three million francs in gold, Danjou, then serving as Battalion Adjutant
of the Alma in September 1854. At the Siege as well as rations and equipment for on the Legion’s headquarters staff, and
of Sebastopol, a forlorn hope of 100 Legion embattled French forces at Puebla, would two other staff officers, colour-bearer
volunteers led the assault column that Sous-lieutenant Maudet and paymaster
stormed the Malakoff. Sous-lieutenant Vilain, stepped in. They
Maudet ordered
In 1859, the Legion played a major role were ordered to scout the countryside for
in France’s Italian campaign, which aimed marauding Juaristas and meet up with the
to free Italy from Austrian domination – lumbering procession of 60 carts.
another of Napoleon III’s many foreign
adventures. During the Battle of Magenta, his men to fire their DANJOU’S ESCORT
when French forces wavered before an Austrian
onslaught, the Legion held its nerve, advancing final rounds and In the early hours of 30 April, the company
set out on what should have been a routine
rush the encircling

steadily forward and driving the Austrians assignment. Danjou was offered reinforce-
back at bayonet-point. When the French army ments for his small band by the commander
enemy in a suicidal
marched into newly liberated Milan, the Legion of a legionnaire detachment they passed on
was in the position of honour at its head. the road, but he did not wish to weaken the
In Mexico, on the other hand, it might have detachment’s strength.
seemed that there was little opportunity for
the Legion to win fresh laurels. But fate was bayonet-charge. The convoy’s journey to Puebla should
have been a secret, but the Mexicans had
about to decide otherwise. heard about it. Danjou’s company was being

CAMERONE
LAST STAND
Sous-lieutenant Maudet ordered his men to
fire their final rounds and rush the encircling
enemy in a suicidal bayonet-charge.
They were met with a barrage of fire
from the Juarists. Maudet was killed, and
one legionnaire riddled with 19 bullets
as he threw himself in front of him as a
human shield. Remarkably, three legion-
naires still stood in the blood-soaked court-
yard of the hacienda.
It must have been a moment as surreal as
a scene from a spaghetti western. A strange
silence fell on the surviving legionnaires
and their adversaries, peering at each other
through the gunpowder smoke, unsure of
what the next move would be.
Then the remaining legionnaires poised
to charge again, and the enemy prepared to
deliver the coup de grâce. But a Mexican
colonel yelled out for both sides to stop
fighting, knocking his men’s bayonets away
ABOVE A dramatic reconstruction, by French military water. Their memories of a last bottle of wine with the flat of his sword.
artist Édouard Detaille, of the last five legionnaires they had shared with Danjou shortly before He offered the legionnaires another
standing in defence of the hacienda at Camerone. the battle must have been bittersweet. chance to surrender, and they agreed, but
The legionnaires sucked every last only on their own terms. A corporal in the
trailed at a distance by forces around 2,000 drop of water from their empty canteens. little group stated that they would stop fighting
strong, led by Colonel Francisco de Paula Their tongues swelled up and they suffered only if they could keep their weapons and
Milan. Milan thought it would be an easy hallucinations, as the derelict hacienda the Mexicans promised to take care of the
task to annihilate the pitifully small company became an oven under the relentless wounded and to attest that the Legion had
and prevent any of them summoning help. broiling sun. done its full measure of duty that day.
He could then turn his attention to ambushing When they heard drums in the distance, ‘One can refuse nothing to men like you,’
the convoy. the embattled legionnaires thought relief replied the awestruck Juarist officer who had
Danjou’s men had paused for breakfast was on its way. But they heralded the arrival halted the fighting. More praise followed
when Juarist cavalrymen were spotted in of fresh enemy troops. The Mexicans offered when the beleaguered legionnaires were
the distance. Forming a hollow square, the them another chance to surrender. ‘Merde!’ presented to Colonel Milan, who had
classic way of dealing with a cavalry attack, was the emphatic reply. commanded the attack on Camerone. He
Danjou’s men made a fighting retreat to the Some of the Mexicans managed to clam- shook their hands enthusiastically, shouting,
ruined Hacienda de la Trinidad Inn, at the ber up onto the top floor of the hacienda ‘These are not men, but demons.’
derelict hamlet of Camerone. In thick scrub, and poured fire down on the legionnaires
amid the confusion of battle, 16 men became below. Sous-lieutenant Vilain was killed. HOLLOW HEROICS
separated from the company, and pack-mules The savage little battle continued until It was a strange moment of triumph for the
carrying invaluable supplies bolted. the evening, when just 12 legionnaires were Legion, in an increasingly squalid conflict
Hearing sounds of battle, the convoy began left standing out of 49. Bitter hand-to-hand that eventually saw Napoleon III’s dreams of
turning back to safety. The legionnaires barri- fighting reduced this number further, to just building an empire in the Americas crumble.
caded the hacienda and courtyard as best they five, but even now the remaining handful His army eventually wore itself out dealing
could. Under a flag of truce, the besieging did not give up. Eyes burning with defiance, with insurgents, and the Emperor faced
Juarist forces said the legionnaires would be soaked in sweat, and begrimed with gunpow- mounting criticism at home because of the
well treated if they surrendered, but Danjou der, the five were determined to sell their war’s increasing cost in lives and money.
calmly rejected the offer. lives as dearly as possible. Napoleon also faced mounting hostility
from the Americans. The Civil War was over,
THE DEFENCE OF THE and the Federal Government was now free
HACIENDA DE LA TRINIDAD INN
Dismounted Mexican cavalry made the Three legionnaires to see off the French interlopers in Mexico.
President Juárez had widespread support in
first attack, and Danjou was mortally
wounded, felled by a bullet in his back. still stood in the America. He was even called the ‘Lincoln of
Mexico’ because of his liberal views – an ideo-
blood-soaked
Shortly before he died, he made his men logical sympathy that reinforced an underlying
vow that they would fight to the death. The US interest in keeping the French out.
determined little group of legionnaires US forces were despatched to Texas, and
poured out a withering fire as the enemy
rushed forward again.
courtyard of American arms were supplied to eager Juarists.
Napoleon informed Maximilian in January
By 11am, the legionnaires had defended
their position for three hours. They were the hacienda. 1866 that he planned to withdraw French sup-
port. But Maximilian chose to stay and try to
short on ammunition and almost out of cling onto his increasingly fragile throne.

He was eventually put on trial by the republi-
can Juarist government and executed by firing
squad with two of his generals on 18 June 1867.
Eye-witnesses said they stood up straight,
clasped hands, and died bravely. Their demise
was immortalised in a painting by Manet.
Maximilian’s wife was so badly traumatised,
she went insane. Charlotte-Amélie died in
1927, at an asylum back in her native Belgium.
THE LEGEND OF CAMERONE

The events at Camerone have understandably
given rise to myths about the legionnaires’ last
stand. One of the most common is the claim
that Captain Danjou’s wooden hand was found
lying in the debris at Camerone by a relief
column in the aftermath of the battle. But
this notion is Romantic fallacy. Somehow,
the hand ended up in the possession of a
French-born Mexican ranch-owner.
In 1865, two years after the furious fight,
Image: Alamy
a French Foreign Legion officer bought it
from him for a handful of coins. The tip
of the hand’s middle finger was missing,
presumably as a result of battle damage.
Despite dominating Legion lore, ‘Camerone In its long journey, changing from being ABOVE The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian
Day’ or the ‘Feast of Camerone’ did not a shabby crew of adventurers to a fighting by Édouard Manet,1867.
become a regular part of the Legion calendar force envied worldwide, the French Foreign
until the 20th century. In 1906, a young officer Legion has built up an extensive collection
at the Legion base in Tonkin organised a of flags and assorted military paraphernalia.
parade in honour of the brave Camerone But none of its relics reflect the drama of the
defenders. The idea caught on. Legion quite so well as Captain Danjou’s bat-
On 30 April, every year, Captain Danjou’s tered wooden hand. Lost and then returned
hand is taken from its resting place in the crypt to the Legion for a handful of coins, the story
of the museum in Foreign Legion headquarters of courage it represents is priceless. r
at Aubagne, in the south of France. The hand, in
its ornate glass case, is paraded in front of admir- Robin Smith is a freelance journalist and author,
ing legionnaires, their families, and assorted specialising in the American Revolution, the BELOW Captain Danjou’s prosthetic hand,
guests and dignitaries. A stirring account of the American Civil War, and the French Second Empire. in its glass case, the French Foreign Legion’s
battle is read out as part of the ceremony. He is also a music writer of some renown. most treasured relic.
CAMERONE DAY
It is a solemn event, but also a Legion holiday,
with plenty of eating and drinking wherever
and in whatever condition Legion units are
serving. At Dien Bien Phu in 1954, at the tail-
end of France’s colonial ambitions in Vietnam,
embattled legionnaires, under heavy fire,
toasted their forebears by swigging Vinogle –
canned wine with the consistency of thin jelly.
Camerone Day celebrations even extend to
Britain. British-born Foreign Legion veterans
place a wreath remembering the sacrifices made
at Camerone at the foot of the statue to France’s
redoubtable Marshal Foch, in Grosvenor
Gardens, near Victoria Station in London.
Although the French Foreign Legion has
played a notable part in derring-do British
fiction over the years, no legionnaires of British
origin are known to have taken part in the
Photo: Richard Lucas
tumultuous affair at Camerone. The ranks of

the 1st Battalion’s 3rd Company were liberally
sprinkled with Belgians, Prussians, Swiss,
Italians, Spaniards, and Poles, but no Britons.

H
I 10/15
OCTOBER Each month, the Debrief brings you the very best in film and book
reviews, along with suggested historical events and must-see museums. Whether H IS
TORY MON
TH
Y
LY
TA
M
you plan to be at home or out in the field, our team of expert reviewers deliver the
MILI
best recommendations to keep military-history enthusiasts entertained.
M H
ds
re n com me
MHM REVIEWS
The Blitzed City: The Destruction of
Coventry, 1940 by Karen Farrington,
Taking Command by David Richards,
and Field Marshal: The Life BOOKS
and Death of Erwin Rommel
RECOMMENDED
by Daniel Allen Butler.
Augustus: a
Taylor Downing revisits the biography
film reconstruction of the by Jochen
Battle of Arnhem, Theirs Bleicken
is the Glory. WAR ON FILM
MHM VISITS
MUSEUM
WHAT’S ON
HIGHLIGHT The Wallace Collection, London, where Neil Faulkner
Battle of
Prestonpans examines the extensive collection of arms and armour.
re-enactment We also recommend a twilight visit to Apsley House,
and a weekend of living history at Battle. LISTINGS
MHM OFF DUTY WIN

Test your problem-solving skills and win Science
great prizes! This month, there is a day out Museum
treats
for two at the Science Museum to be won,
with free entry to exhibitions and lunch. CAPTION COMPETITION BRIEFING ROOM
TAYLOR DOWNING REVIEWS A CLASSIC WAR MOVIE
O
troops, and as a ‘tribute to every
man who fought at Arnhem and DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER
an everlasting Memorial to those
who gave their lives’. The film’s director, Brian
The film had its premiere simulta- Desmond Hurst, grew up in
neously in London and in Arnhem Belfast and fought in the First
on the second anniversary of the World War with the Royal Irish
start of the battle, 17 September Rifles at Gallipoli. In the 1920s,
1946. Thirty years later, an epic he went to Hollywood, where
British war film A Bridge Too he came under the wing of the
Far (1977), directed by Richard great Irish-American director,
Attenborough, brought an all-star John Ford. In the 1930s, Hurst
cast together to tell the Arnhem returned to Britain and filmed
story. But the first film of the battle various Irish plays, including
remains fascinating for its feel and Synge’s Riders to the Sea (1935).
authenticity, having been made so Hurst worked closely with
close in time to the events depicted. Alexander Korda, for whom
he wrote a script for a film
THE PARAS about Lawrence of Arabia
Britain had gone to war in 1939 that was never made. For
without any airborne troops, even Korda, he directed The Lion
though military observers had noted Has Wings in 1939, one of
the developments taking place in the first propaganda films of
the Russian Red Army and the emer- the war. He went on to make
gence of the elite Fallschirmjäger, several films for the Ministry
the German paratrooper force. of Information, including
The outstanding success of the Miss Grant Goes to the Door
German paratroops in the opening (1940; see MHM 60). Hurst
phases of Hitler’s blitzkrieg assault regarded Theirs is the Glory
on Belgium and France in May 1940 as one of his best movies.
convinced Prime Minister Churchill Hurst later directed
that Britain needed to train up an Scrooge with Alastair Sim (1951),
airborne force. In a famous memo Malta Story with Alec Guinness
FILM | CLASSIC of 22 June 1940, he called for the (1953), and The Playboy of the
creation of a force of 5,000 men. Western World (1962). He has
The Army dragged its heels, often been described as the
THEIRS IS THE GLORY reluctant to create a new force while most prolific Irish director
Strawberry Media Limited via Spirit Entertainment facing a potential German invasion. of the last century.
£12.99 In any case, the RAF did not have The producer, Leonard
any suitable transport planes to Castleton Knight, was head of
carry paratroopers into action. Gaumont British News, one of
T
he first film about the airborne dramatic official film shot by Army Churchill continued to press the case, the companies that supplied
drop and battle at Arnhem Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU) however, and the training of airborne twice-weekly newsreels to the
in September 1944, Theirs cameramen during the battle. forces duly began at RAF Ringway 4,500 cinemas around Britain
is the Glory was made two years The film was produced by Leonard (today’s Manchester Airport). during the war. He later pro-
after the battle. The film was Castleton Knight, one of the great In October 1941, the Chiefs of Staff duced several documentaries,
produced without the use of any newsreel producers of the time, and finally created an Airborne Division, including the official film of
studio sets or actors. It was shot directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, and the RAF agreed to supply ten the 1948 London Olympics,
where the battle had actually taken an immensely successful film director squadrons of transport aircraft, made in lavish Technicolor
place, and featured some of the from Northern Ireland. Today, Theirs although at first they adapted the and called The Glory of Sport,
paratroopers who had taken part is the Glory would be classed as a obsolete two-engined Whitley bomber and a colour documentary
in the operation, a few of whom drama-documentary, but in 1946 it for carrying paratroopers, who were about the coronation of
had only just returned from PoW was promoted simply as a record of forced to jump out of a hole cut in Queen Elizabeth in 1953.
camps. It also included much the ‘gallant action’ by the airborne the base of the fuselage. So difficult

MHM REVIEWS
was this that, when they jumped, they link up with the airborne forces
ften hit their faces on the metal cas- along a 60-mile corridor – and
ng around the hole – an experience then thrust into Germany.
nown as ‘the Whitley kiss’. To succeed, every aspect of the
Major-General Frederick ‘Boy’ operation had to go like clockwork.
rowning took charge of the division, For everyone involved, it would be
nd created an airborne force that a race against time.
would see itself, and be seen by The film begins with pictures of
thers, as an elite within the British the Dutch village of Arnhem mixed
rmy, wearing a different uniform, with shots of a large model of the
sing different weapons, and trained town made by model-makers at RAF
o an exceptional level of fitness Medmenham from the evidence of
o as to be able to endure the aerial photos. Authentic archive film
arachute drop and survive behind of loading ammunition and checking
nemy lines. weapons is intercut with footage of
The first successful British briefings taking place. A nice touch
aratrooper raid was on the night of authenticity is when one young
f 27 February 1942, when a force para dozes off in his briefing.
f 120 parachutists led by Major The paras gather in their barracks
hn Frost pulled off a daring mission for the last night before the assault,
capture, dismantle, and bring and the commentary tells us
ack to Britain new German radar ‘paratroopers are not supermen’.
pparatus from the top of the cliffs As the camera tracks down a line
t Bruneval, near Le Havre. The of dormitory beds, the commentary
ewspapers and newsreels were gives us the name and background
ull of the success of the night raid, of each man. Before the war they
nd British airborne forces had their had been farmers, drivers, engineers,
rst ‘battle honour’. The spirit of the a fish-and-chip shop owner; ‘just
irborne brotherhood was born. ordinary men’, we are told.
MARKET GARDEN HIDDEN HISTORY

y the autumn of 1944, British and In reality, there had been consider-
merican airborne troops had estab- able concern among the airborne
shed their fighting value in North commanders that the DZs were in
frica and Tunisia, Sicily and Italy, the wrong place and were too far
nd had performed magnificently from their objectives. Additionally, at
All images: Carlton Film Distributors 1946. Under release from Strawberry Media – https://strawberrymediauk.wordpress.com
n the night before D-Day when the eleventh hour, aerial photography
ropped to secure the flanks had revealed that German panzer
f the invasion beaches. The units were resting and refitting in
ermans called the British airborne the woods around Arnhem. But this
roops Die Röte Teufeln, ‘the red key piece of information was ignored
evils’, after their crimson berets. and the aerial intelligence officer was
In September, Field-Marshal told to go home on leave. None of
Montgomery came up with a new this is touched on in Theirs is the
nd daring plan that, if successful, Glory. The film concentrates entirely
would help to advance the end of on the fighting in Arnhem itself.
he war and bring an invasion of It is Sunday 17 September.
ermany before Christmas. Thousands of gliders take off packed
Known as Operation Market with men and matériel. Paratroopers
arden, the plan was for 20,000 load up into hundreds of American
men from three airborne divisions C-47 transport planes. Archive film of
o be dropped behind enemy lines the real event is intercut with specially
o capture and hold a set of vital shot footage of the men inside the
ridges across the Rhine and its gliders and the transport aircraft.
ributaries. The British 1st Airborne As they approach their drop zone,
were assigned the toughest task, the parachutists line up and check
o seize the furthest bridge over the lines from their parachutes are
he Lower Rhine at Arnhem. attached to a steel cord running
Armoured troops of XXX Corps along the inside of the aircraft. As
n Second Army were then to drive the green light comes on, they jump.
orward from the Belgian border to The assault is under way.
MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY 61

MUTE FOOTAGE
All of the footage shot by the three THE AFPU CAMERAMEN
cameramen from the AFPU who
accompanied the paras was mute. Three cameramen jumped
The film cameras were small and with the 1st Airborne into
portable. However, sound recording Arnhem in September 1944,
equipment was large and cumber- recording the images that
some. So the film-makers added today provide the authentic
sound to their authentic footage, visual record of the battle.
including background gunfire and Sergeant Denis Smith
also orders, and sometimes even was a stills photographer;
words that were clearly being said he was wounded in the shoulder.
or shouted in vision. This again Sergeants Gordon Walker
helps create an authentic feel to and Mike Lewis were film
the original film, as sound would cameramen recording on
have been recorded had portable 35mm film without sound.
technology been available. Mike Lewis had trained
Major-General Urquhart, as a paratrooper in 1942,
commander of 1st Airborne Division, and fought with the 2nd
ABOVE Brian Desmond Hurst, director casualties: they begin to realise that made as his headquarters the Battalion in North Africa,
of Theirs is the Glory. they have come up against some Hartenstein Hotel just outside where he was wounded.
tough German resistance. Arnhem at Oosterbeek. The footage In 1943, he trained as a film
Original film shows the sky full It is true that there was a battle- shot here at the remains of the cameraman for the AFPU
of paratroopers. Gliders come in to hardened SS Panzer Corps resting in actual hotel is very convincing. at Pinewood Studios. He
land, and some crash horribly. One the area, although this is not made Urquhart himself does not feature, flew with the main force,
bursts into flames. All this authentic clear in the film. As the German forces but the senior officers around and remembers C-47s ‘above
footage is cut with new film of the rallied to defend the bridge, the film him report back on daily briefings us, below us, to the left and
men deploying on the ground. Some uses authentic footage to show some as they try to take control of the the right of us’. He was one
of this looks a little too prim and of the Germans who were captured situation and prepare a set of of the first to jump at Arnhem,
organised, as though it is an exercise. early on in the fighting. perimeter defences. and he filmed the dramatic
Although the commentary tells By the end of the second day, Major Dickie Lonsdale, of the scenes of the sky full of the
us ‘opposition was light at first’, the when the airborne troops were 3rd Parachute Battalion, wounded para force dropping into
fighting soon begins. Jeep patrols due to be relieved by XXX Corps, and with his head bandaged, gives their DZs.
come under fire. The paras enter the the paras were fighting for their an inspiring speech to his men, His mission was to film the
town of Arnhem. Dutch resistance lives. Private ‘Butch’ Dixon in encouraging them to fight on. This capture of the bridge, but he
fighters come out to assist. There 2nd Battalion proved especially was what fighting in a citizen’s never made it that far, getting
are some tremendous scenes with effective with a PIAT anti-tank gun. army was supposed to be all holed up in Oosterbeek. Lewis
a clever blurring of authentic record Although Dixon plays himself in about – being told precisely what could only carry about four
film and later reconstruction. the film, this sequence is particularly the situation was, what you were minutes’ worth of film with
unconvincing. He goes out and finds fighting for, and what to do. It is an him. He never received a
THE STRUGGLE FOR ARNHEM a tank that conveniently remains uplifting piece of film-making. further supply. In an era when
The film soon begins to focus on the static as he fires at it, then comes Another interesting element in shooting hours of video mate-
struggle of the 2nd Parachute Battalion in to announce to his officer, ‘Got it, the film is the reconstruction of the rial is standard, it is difficult
to capture the main road bridge sir.’ The officer looks up briefly to say, Canadian reporter, Stanley Maxted, to believe that Lewis had only
at Arnhem. For Market Garden to ‘Jolly good show, Dixon.’ making his reports from Arnhem four minutes to record what
succeed, they had to capture and By the end of the fourth day, the for the BBC on a miniature disc- he saw of the Arnhem battle
hold the bridge for two days until situation has become desperate. The recording system. Maxted is over nine days. All AFPU
XXX Corps arrived. officers at divisional headquarters another who plays himself in the cameramen had to learn the
The commander of the 2nd tell the men struggling to hold the film, having often recorded under discipline of shooting only
Battalion was Lieutenant-Colonel bridge against determined counter- fire, in a dugout or trench. what was necessary.
John Frost, who had led the Bruneval attacks that they cannot fight their The BBC had dramatically Lewis was evacuated across
Raid two and half years before. way through to them. increased the number of radio the river at the end of the
Several veterans from the fighting By this point, Frost had been reporters who were effectively em- operation. In April 1945,
appear in the film, but Frost did not. seriously wounded, and Major Gough bedded with military units by 1944. he was one of the first film
Instead, Major Freddie Gough of the finds him at the end of a corridor Their reports had a real immediacy, cameramen to arrive at
Reconnaissance Squadron is seen packed with injured men. On being which is familiar to us today when Bergen-Belsen concentration
setting up a headquarters overlooking told there was no hope of relief war reporters are frequently on the camp. The footage he shot
the north end of the bridge. arriving, Frost orders the wounded front-line; but in 1944, the reports there is some of the most
The men at the bridge have to be handed over to the Germans. from Maxted, in which the sound shocking but most important
difficulty with radio communications This took place during a truce that of gunfire could be clearly heard in material filmed during the
and cannot get through to the other afternoon, although it is not shown the background, had a real impact war, recording for posterity the
battalions that are supposed to in the film. Frost and the other on listeners in Britain. They were horror of the Nazis’ treatment
support them. The 2nd Battalion wounded spent the rest of the war also translated into the 45 different of their many victims.
assault the bridge, and suffer heavy in a miserable PoW camp in Poland. languages in which the BBC was

MHM REVIEWS
broadcasting by this point of the A Dutch woman named Kate Ter
war, and were consequently heard Horst plays herself, and she reads a
throughout the world. psalm in English to revive the spirits
By Friday 22 September, the of the wounded men. Once more,
men of the 1st Airborne, who had there is a montage of faces showing
been on the ground for six days, that hope is not yet lost.
were fighting for their survival. On the night of Monday 25
Stirling heavy bombers are seen September, the wounded and many
dropping supplies of food and of the doctors were left behind as
ammunition; but, to the despair those fit enough filed away through
of those on the ground, many of the darkness to the river. Canadian
the canisters were in fact dropped engineers brought in flat-bottomed
into enemy positions. boats and, still under incessant fire,
about 2,000 men were successfully FILM | NEW RELEASE
AUTHENTIC FACES evacuated during the night. A total
The film is very strong on showing
the faces of the paras on the ground.
of 8,000 airborne troops were lost
at Arnhem – killed, wounded, or PORTRAIT OF A SOLDIER
These were not actors but real taken prisoner. The commentary Journeyman Documentaries, 8 September 2015
paratroopers, who, with relatively says ‘They had fought a good fight Rated 15
little hamming-up, get across the and had kept faith with you at home.’
‘What would you like to know first?’, the matter-of-fact voice of 70-year-
look of men under immense strain, The last scene shows the same
old Wanda Traczyk-Stawska asks director Marianna Bukowski, who was
exhausted and hungry, not knowing barrack dormitory that had opened
about to embark on a seven-year research project. The fruit of that project
how long they will be able to hold the film, after the survivors had got
was to be this new, hard-hitting documentary, Portrait of a Soldier.
out. These montages of faces are back to Britain. But this time most
The film delivers a history of the Warsaw Uprising, one of the most
an authentic touch from director of the beds are empty. In rather
brutal and bloody battles of WWII. The Uprising was a massive operation
Brian Desmond Hurst, and one high-flown terms, the commentary
by the Polish resistance Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate the city
of the strongest features of Theirs tells us ‘They have written in letters
from the Nazis between 1 August and 2 October 1944.
is the Glory. of fire an immortal page of history…
It was the largest single military effort undertaken by any European
The defenders at the bridge Their story will be told wherever
resistance movement during the Second World War. Yet, while it is a
are finally overcome, and General men cherish deeds of good report,
huge part of Polish history – crucial to the understanding of Polish
Urquhart orders the survivors in the story of those filthy, grimy,
identity and culture – outside Poland the battle is little known.
Oosterbeek to fight on around an wonderful gentlemen who drop
In an attempt to remedy this, Bukowski decided to explore the event
ever-diminishing perimeter. But from the clouds and fight where
through the eyes of a single protagonist, Wanda Traczyk-Stawska, who
when a German tannoy van arrives they stand. Just ordinary men.’
fought during the 1944 battle. This is an unconventional device to use
to tell the paras they face annihila- It has to be said that Theirs
in documentary film-making, which usually encourages broader, more
tion and, if they wish to see their is the Glory is rather slow in
general research. But it gives the film a personal edge, an individual with
families again, they must surrender, places. Without much dialogue
whom to identify, which instantly draws the audience in.
it is met with derision. One para- and relying on the use of commen-
Wanda – Pa¸czek (‘doughnut’) to her friends – fought in the northern
trooper throws a grenade towards tary or Stanley Maxted’s reports
and southern parts of downtown Warsaw during the Uprising. Insurgent
the van, which sends a suitable to provide the key narrative informa-
newsreels show her under fire, surrounded by fellow soldiers and
message to the Germans. tion, the film lacks the impact of a
wielding a Błyskawica machine-gun.
Finally, on the ninth day (they scripted drama.
Wanda believed – like many young women at the time, some of them
were supposed to hold out only for But it stands up extraordinarily
only in their mid-teens at that point – that inaction during the Nazi
two), the message goes out that the well to A Bridge Too Far, made 30
Occupation was unforgivable. She wanted to be able to defend herself.
survivors are pulling out that night. years later with immense resources
In one particularly moving scene, images of very young soldiers
The Dutch support for the British and millions spent on sets and stars.
flash up on screen, grinning from ear to ear. Wanda’s voice can be
paras never wavered. We see a Theirs is the Glory has tremendous
heard during the montage, saying, ‘A soldier is brave when he is not
Dutch doctor and several nurses authenticity. In its grainy black and
alone, when he has friends, when he knows that there are people
working flat out to treat the white, it looks and feels like the real
who will rescue him. We were the closest of friends. Even in the most
wounded in the Elizabeth Hospital thing. That is its unique quality, and
difficult of times, after tough fighting, we were able to roll over in
and at the Hartenstein Hotel, which the reason why it should still be seen
had also become a dressing station. and admired today. . laughter. This was unique to the Warsaw Uprising.’
When the Soviet Army, on whose support the Polish resistance relied
Dutch families sheltering in the
heavily, halted their advance to the city, the Uprising collapsed. Ten
basements of their homes offer food Taylor Downing’s book on the
thousand soldiers of the Polish resistance were killed, and between
and water to the men who have first successful para raid at Bruneval,
180,000 and 200,000 civilians died during the two-month battle.
brought devastation to their town. Night Raid, is now out in paperback.
This hour-long documentary manages to deliver a complete history
of this important chapter of WWII, through the experiences and intimate
THEIRS IS THE GLORY (1946) accounts of a resistance fighter.
In her own words, Bukowski’s aim in making the film was ‘to look at women
J Arthur Rank Organisation and the Army Film and Photographic Unit. during the Uprising, but also to offer a snapshot of the human condition, of
Director: Brian Desmond Hurst. Producer: Leonard Castleton Knight. .
what it is like to be young and caught in the midst of a brutal war.’
Screenplay: Louis Golding and Terence Young. Starring: The men of GEORGE CLODE
the 1st Airborne Division.

O
WITH NEIL FAULKNER
T O T
TORY MON
H IS TH
Y
AUGUSTUS: A BIOGRAPHY
LY
TA
M
MILI
H
Jochen Bleicken
Allen Lane, 2015
M
ds
£30 re
ISBN 978-0713994773 n com me
A
ugustus, the first Roman But there is another problem
emperor, the ruler who for the biographer: the utterly
created an imperial system repellent character of the subject.
destined to last for half a millennium No honest biographer could possibly
in the West, and, in some form, for a empathise with either Octavian,
millennium and a half in the East, is the murderous civil-war faction
a difficult subject for the biographer. leader, or Augustus, the ruler
In part, it is the problem of all of an empire based on violence,
ancient biography. The source mate- dispossession, and slavery in
rial simply does not exist to enable the interests of a tiny class of
us to perform well the central task global super-rich.
of historical biography, which is,
presumably, to shed light on a slice AN OPPORTUNIST THUG
of history by analysing the character He was an 18-year-old university
and motives of a leading actor. student when he got the news
There are no letters, memoirs, that his adoptive father had been
diaries, or personal papers; nothing assassinated and he had been
that gives direct access to the mind of named his heir. From that moment,
Augustus. The closest we come is the naked ambition consumed him,
Res Gestae, a dull litany of ‘achieve- and in his pursuit of it he plumbed
ments’ and honours, punctuated by the depths of militarised brutality
leaden sound-bites, that must have and political corruption in an age
been concocted by the Augustan replete with both.
equivalent of a Blairite spin-doctor. The Roman civil wars between
In truth, despite the subtitle 44 and 30 BC were devoid of
– ‘a biography’ – this is not really principle, policy, or higher purpose;
biography at all, but a particular way they were simply personalised an eminent German academic or by newly appointed political
of reanalysing that crucial chunk of faction-fights between ambitious historian who died in 2005, puts spivs. The Senate had become
Roman history from the assassina- political opportunists in which it bluntly, speaking of ‘the milita- a craven, fawning, leaderless
tion of Julius Caesar in 44 BC to the victory went to the one who risation of politics’ and describing assembly of non-entities; real
death of his successor, his great- offered the professional mercenaries Octavian as ‘a man who killed out power had transferred to the
nephew and adoptive son Octavian, of the legions the biggest bribes. of cold calculation without a trace of warlords and their retinues.
later known as Augustus, in AD 14. In this volume, Jochen Bleicken, humanity, in short a run-of-the-mill The assassination of the dictator
terrorist’, one who became ‘the had left a handful of such men
most hated man in Italy’. competing for power. Some were
Augustus embodied the rise Central to Bleicken’s argument is

his observation that the senatorial
ostensibly ‘Republicans’, most
obviously the assassins themselves,
of the ‘new men’, army officers

nobility – the ancient patrician notably Decimus Brutus, Marcus
nobilitas that had ruled the Roman Brutus, and Gaius Cassius, but
Republic for 500 years – had also Sextus Pompeius, son of
who grew rich and powerful effectively ceased to exist by 44 BC,

consumed in a century-long round
Pompey the Great. Others were
‘Caesarians’, the leading of them
in the service of Rome. of purges and civil wars that had

left the Senate benches populated
forming a ‘Second Triumvirate’ of
Marcus Antonius, Marcus Lepidus,
either by time-servers and trimmers, and Octavian.

MHM REVIEWS
In truth, by 44 BC, despite in the world, Antony and Octavian,
the Republicans’ advocacy of
something they called libertas
fought their climactic final battle.
The scale of the military operations He was a man who killed
(by which they meant the rule
of a senatorial aristocracy of
was awesome. The Roman Empire
extended from the Atlantic to out of cold calculation
without a trace of humanity...
millionaires), the old political the Euphrates, from the German
order for which they claimed forests to the Sahara Desert, and the
a run-of-the-mill terrorist.
to fight was already dead. Little triumvirs drained it of treasure to fund
wonder that they succumbed their vast war-machines. Armies and
to defeat so quickly, their cause fleets of a size unprecedented in his-
extinguished at Philippi in 42 BC. tory were mobilised – of a size that
dwarfed the past efforts of Egyptian
THE GREATEST WAR IN Pharaohs and Persian Kings. Bleicken provides a vivid cameo, access, and there is a total absence
ROMAN HISTORY After his victory over Sextus too, of the sophisticated technology of general maps of the Empire. Given
A yet greater war was to come – Pompeius in 36 BC, Octavian alone of war, telling us that Agrippa’s ships that we are dealing with 15 years
between the rival Caesarians for commanded 45 legions – twice as (he was Octavian’s admiral) in the battle of civil war, followed by 45 years of
control of the Empire. It was delayed many as the entire Roman Republic against Sextus Pompeius, foreign conquest and imperial ad-
only by the necessity to defeat had mobilised in the peak year of the ministration, it is difficult to conceive
mutual enemies: the Parthians in Second Punic War, and almost twice used an improved grappling-iron of a subject that needs them more.
the east, Sextus Pompeius in Sicily. as many as would man the entire known as a ‘gripper’. It has a A second problem is a curious
Then, the historical decks cleared of Roman Imperial frontier during the wooden arm about 2.25m long, change of style around page 200.
clutter, the two most powerful men 1st and 2nd centuries AD. with a barbed iron hook fixed to The first third of the text is exception-
the end. This hook was fired from ally lucid – well written and well
BELOW A traditionalist view of Augustan Rome as the epicentre of ballistas to land on the enemy translated. Then the prose becomes
global civilisation. Bleicken’s study reveals a reality that was altogether ship and fasten on, and was then somewhat clunky, and remains so
more brutal and corrupt. winched in on cables attached for the rest of the text. I can only
to the end of the wooden arm… assume that the first third was
Since the ballistas could be thoroughly edited and polished,
installed only on quite large ships, and the rest was not. Why did the
Agrippa’s grappling-irons gave publisher not address this?
him a special advantage, not to A more important reservation
mention the fact that the higher is that Bleicken is stronger in
sides of his ships made boarding some areas than in others: excel-
very much easier, and the enemy lent on the politics of the civil war
could be harassed with spears and the post-war Augustan reform
and arrows from the tower-like programme; less assured in the
superstructures much more detail of military events, where he
efficiently than from the tends to rely too heavily on dodgy
Pompeians’ smaller ships. ancient sources, and sometimes
seems flummoxed by the realities
The consequences of the war for of the battlefield.
society at large were devastating – And while the narrative is excep-
taxation, forced requisitions, tionally strong – often reading with
land seizures to settle veterans, the pace and vigour of a novel –
a homeland in which hundreds of I would have liked more analysis,
thousands of displaced people were more of a sense of the underlying
cast adrift in search of food and meaning of these titanic events.
shelter. Bleicken’s book is refresh- Octavian-Augustus was a central
ingly different from much traditional player in what Ronald Syme called
ancient history, in which militarists ‘the Roman Revolution’. Irrespective
like Caesar, Antony, and Octavian of his own motivation – unprincipled
– presumably because they were personal ambition – he was the
‘civilised’ Romans and not ‘barbarian’ unwitting agent of powerful social
Huns or Mongols – are portrayed forces created by the expansion
as paragons of historic virtue. of the Empire over the preceding
This, then, is a more honest two centuries: the embodiment
appraisal of Octavian-Augustus and of the rise of the ‘new men’, the
his rivals than many. But it is not ‘aristocrats of office’, the army
quite the seminal study it might officers and imperial officials who
have been. It is not simply that there had grown rich and powerful in
are some notable deficiencies with the service of Rome. The general
the book as a book. Though there reader, I fear, will be left with only
are some maps and illustrations, the most hazy sense of why these
there is no list of them for easy events might actually matter. .
MHM REVIEWS
OO S
THE BEST NEW MILITARY HISTORY TITLES THIS MONTH
THE BLITZED CITY: THE

DESTRUCTION OF COVENTRY, 1940
Karen Farrington
Aurum Press, £18.99
ISBN 978-1781313251
T
he story of wartime Coventry is year of the raid. The story is told by
condemned to an undeserved the people who as youths lived through
fate, in that the city takes a rear the horrors of those two nights and their
seat to London, similar to the way the aftermath. The author has also drawn
name Hiroshima looms larger in the on a wide range of archival material, as
public memory than that of Nagasaki. well as local and national publications.
Yet in absolute as well as relative terms, The Luftwaffe’s targeting and
Coventry suffered more widespread destruction of Coventry was the biggest
devastation on 14 November than did and most destructive air-raid on Britain
the British capital in eight months of during the Second World War. Seen
aerial bombardment. as a centre of British armaments
In mid-November 1940, Coventry production, the German high com-
was subjected to German air-raids mand wished to inflict terror and panic
of intense destructiveness. Homes, on the British public, a plan that had
business premises, factories, hospitals, paid dividends during their relentless
churches, and public utilities were conquest of France that same year.
demolished. More than 1,400 people There was every reason to anticipate Churchill and the Coventry raids, ‘If Churchill wanted to keep the extent
were killed and injured, and thousands an aerial attack on Coventry. The city stemming from a reported discussion of the code-breaking a secret, that
more were rendered homeless. The was a prime target due to the extent of by German prisoners-of-war about a would have been understandable. But
14th-century Cathedral of St Michael its wartime industries, which produced colossal raid on British cities planned the evidence that flagged up the raid
was reduced to rubble, with the re- traditional munitions, VHF radio sets for that month. The information was seems to have come from a prisoner,
markable exception of its spire, which for fighter-defence aircraft, parachutes, corroborated by the code-breakers whose information was merely backed
stood in defiance of the Luftwaffe’s and industrial jewels and gauges, while at Bletchley Park. ‘This was the back- up by Bletchley Park.’
bombs in the way St Paul’s survived behind these factories lay numerous ground to a scandal that enveloped The story comes alive with
amid a curtain of fire and smoke, as other small workshops and engineering Churchill 40 years after the raid on personal tales of heroism and the
seen in the celebrated photo of the outlets supplying the needs of industrial Coventry,’ the author says. will to prevail in the face of adversity.
London cathedral during the Blitz. firms like the General Electric Company, When the veil of secrecy at Bletchley More than a dozen survivors recount
Karen Farrington has mobilised her aircraft-parts maker BTH, and Dunlop Park was finally lifted in the early 1970s, their experiences during that
journalistic skills to give us a highly tyre and wheels manufacturer. some historians blamed Churchill terrifying night. Dennis Adler was a
readable account of the destruction The book explores the particularly for sacrificing Coventry rather than stretcher-bearer who, at the age of 15,
of Coventry, in this 75th anniversary fascinating controversy over Winston revealing that he knew the intended worked through the night in hospital
target of a big raid before it took place. amid scenes of crushed limbs and
Coventry suffered more

Be that as it may, the Air Ministry was corpses. Adler watched two casualties
convinced the target was London, and brought in, a mother with a baby in
devastation on 14 November
this information was sent to Churchill her arms, and assumed they were
on the day of the attack on Coventry. sleep. To the teenager’s horror, he
In the unlikely event Churchill had realised they were dead. The personal
1940 than did London in eight been warned of an impending raid

on Coventry, there was no precedent
accounts of people like Adler and
others bring to life a painful episode
months of aerial bombardment. for evacuating a city perceived to be

under threat from aerial bombers, and
of Britain at war, when the home front
became the front-line.
RAF aeroplanes were already on alert. JULES STEWART

ON THE HORIZON
A Street in Arnhem
Robert Kershaw
Ian Allan Publishing, TAKING COMMAND
£10.99 David Richards
ISBN 978-0711038288 Headline Publishing, £9.99
Kershaw focuses on the ISBN 978-1472220875
experiences of the Dutch
civilians and British and
German soldiers on a single street, fighting
to survive one of the most intense battles
of World War II.
four-star British general, one who has risen to become Chief of the Defence Staff, is not always the most approachable
Fighters in the Shadows:
A New History of the
French Resistance
Robert Gildea
Faber & Faber, £20.00
A of people. One can think of a former CDS or two whose very presence might put one ill-at-ease. David Richards
defies this stereotype of aloofness. I recall a dinner in which no sooner had we sat down than Richards struck up a
conversation with a family of American tourists at the next table. Most un-British!
It is this easy-going manner, whether recounting his dance with Joan Collins while serving as her bodyguard, or telling
an off-colour joke to a banquet hall of harrumphing peers, that has endeared Richards to the services’ rank and file.
ISBN 978-0571280346 Richards has more than once raised hackles in Downing Street by publicly expressing controversial views. He has also
Award-winning historian run the risk of being misquoted, as was the case when the Guardian had him saying in an interview that Afghanistan was in
Gildea’s gripping account of a state of ‘near anarchy’ – a remark that he was, in fact, applying to international private-security firms and NGOs.
‘La Resistance française’ looks at the myths
Richards’ most audacious operation exemplifies an unshakeable confidence in his strategic thinking. This was in 2000,
surrounding the resistance, and examines
when he was sent to evacuate UK citizens from civil war-torn Sierra Leone. Driven by ‘pure instinct’, Richards successfully sent
the personal stories through the voices of
his team of paratroopers and special forces to push the RUF guerrillas out of Freetown and back into the bush. ‘Sierra Leone
the resisters themselves.
could well have ended my career, but in many ways it was the making of it,’ he says. ‘I’d taken a big risk and got away with it.’
Elegy The author offers a particularly fascinating insight into the elaborate security measures deployed by the military to
Andrew Roberts protect against any terrorist attack during the 2012 Olympic Games.
Head of Zeus, £20.00 The second half of the book includes a diary – a valuable historical document – of the years he served as ISAF Commander
ISBN 978-1784080013 in Afghanistan. His ability to look beyond the battlefield, at the need for reconstruction and development, met with
The shattering story of a disappointing reception on his return to London. It was obvious, he notes, that British politicians no longer had an
the blackest day in the appetite for Afghanistan, despite the threat of a Taliban takeover after the hasty departure of NATO combat troops.
history of the British Army, JULES STEWART
the first day of the Somme Offensive,
through the words of casualties, survivors,
and the bereaved.
FIELD MARSHAL:
Hubris: The Tragedy
of War in the Twentieth
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ERWIN ROMMEL
Daniel Allen Butler
Century
Alistair Horne Casemate Books, £20.99
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 978-1612002972
£25.00
ISBN 978-0297867623
Alistair Horne revisits six battles that
ould you cut out all the newspaper articles about me, please? I’ve no time to read at the moment, but it will be fun
‘W
changed the course of the 20th century,
and how excessive human pride on one to look at them later.’ Thus wrote Erwin Rommel, commander of the German 7th Panzer Division, to his wife in
side or the other led to winning or losing. June 1940. Leading from the front during the Blitzkrieg in Belgium and France, Rommel was in his element.
Soon Rommel would defeat a succession of British generals in North Africa. His power is illustrated in
Speer: Hitler’s Architect C-in-C Middle East Claude Auchinleck’s order to the Eighth Army at the start of the First Battle of El Alamein (July 1942):
Martin Kitchen There exists a real danger that our friend Rommel is becoming a kind of… bogey-man… He is by no means a superman,
Yale University Press, although he is undoubtedly very energetic and able. Even if he were a superman, it would still be highly undesirable
£20.00 that our men should credit him with superhuman powers. We must… not always keep harping on Rommel.
ISBN 978-0300190441 Churchill put it more bluntly during a War Cabinet: ‘Rommel! Rommel! Rommel! Rommel! What else matters but beating him?’
Speer maintained his Beat him, of course, they did, starting with Montgomery’s onslaught in the Second Battle of El Alamein (Oct/Nov 1942).
innocence of Nazi crime; In Field Marshal, the highly readable Daniel Allen Butler gives us a traditional look at Rommel’s life, from service in
here, the author challenges previous WWI, interwar duties, the 1940 Blitzkrieg, the Afrika Korps, North African defeat, and improvements to the Atlantic Wall
accounts of a cultured man who was
in France, to his enforced suicide in 1944.
uninvolved in the horror of the regime.
Butler is particularly good writing about small-scale events. In his author photograph, he is reminiscent of the later
Ernest Hemingway. It is interesting to speculate that he may be a Hemingway aficionado: he shares the latter’s gift for
The Lie at the Heart of
Waterloo: The Battle’s observation and tendency to celebrate ‘the man of action’.
Hidden Last Half Hour Unforgivably, Butler denigrates staff officers of all kinds, singling out Chief of the Imperial General Staff Sir Alan Brooke,
Nigel Sale whom he calls plodding, unimaginative, and defensive. Yet Brooke could be acerbic and ruthless while ensuring the
The History Press, £20 big picture made sense, often standing up to Churchill and the Americans to do so. Butler much prefers battlefield
ISBN 978-0750959629 commanders, especially those receiving a good press.
Revealing the horrifying reality of the battle Keen on action and heroism, weak on strategy and politics, Field Marshal is always interesting, but sometimes wilful
using quotations from eye-witnesses to add and myopic. Rather like its subject, in fact.
texture to the analysis. ANDRE VAN LOON

SU
02
REVIEWING THE BEST MILITARY HISTORY EXHIBITIONS

WITH NEIL FAULKNER
01
03
VISIT FREE
ENTRY
THE WALLACE COLLECTION
Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN
www.wallacecollection.org
Open 10am to 5pm daily
I
t has the finest collection of fashionable Marylebone, surrounded
decorated armour in the country, by other rooms filled with paintings,
but it is known primarily as furniture, and porcelain.
an art collection rather than If the latter are not your thing,
a military museum. Sir Richard do not be deterred. You could spend
Wallace (1818-1890), the last in a line a couple of hours with the arms
of Wallace family collectors, had a and armour, which includes both
special interest in late medieval and European and Oriental material,
Renaissance armour as an art form. the former mainly of 15th- and 16th-
Because of this, according to century date, the latter including
curator Toby Capwell, the Wallace objects as late as the 19th century.
collection of arms and armour, which The most spectacular sight is the
is second only to that of the Royal mounted man-at-arms in full plate-
Armouries in Britain and among the armour, shown on a model horse
top ten in the world, is of special about to rear its legs, the rider bent
significance. The Royal Armouries back with raised sword. The horse-
has a fuller range of more workaday armour (probably assembled and Any part of a warrior panoply might making, and the polish and gilding
pieces, but the Wallace material is partly restored in the 19th century) be decorated, so we see daggers of the finish might increase its
exceptional for its artistic quality. is believed to be the most complete and swords, crossbows and value tenfold.
It is, says Capwell, ‘a little jewel-box in the world; it is of south German muskets, shields and saddles, This did not make it ‘parade
of arms and armour’. manufacture, and of late 15th- helmets, gorgets, breastplates, armour’. Though much of the col-
Military museum buffs are likely century date. To stand in front of it gauntlets, and indeed any and every lection comprises armours made
to miss it. The arms and armour and imagine several hundred such separate piece of body armour specifically for the joust, there is no
are displayed in several ground- thundering towards one is to get a turned into art objects. ‘parade armour’ as such. The most
floor rooms of the old Wallace visceral sense of the moral power of An archer’s simple iron skullcap expensive and ornate battle armours
family home, Hertford House, a chivalry on the medieval battlefield. helmet might be hammered out were exactly that: they were to be
white-walled neoclassical edifice Because this is an art collection, in mass production; a great lord’s worn on the battlefield to indicate
in Manchester Square in London’s highly decorated pieces predominate. armour might be months in the the rank and status of the wearer.

MHM VISITS
L ONDON,
ENGL A ND
04 06
PICTURED ON BOTH PAGES:

1. Hertford House –home of
the Wallace Collection – as it
appears today.
2. Pair of gauntlets, Italian, dating
to c.1390.
3. Barbuta-style helmet (that is,
one without a visor), Italian, dating
to the late 14th century.
4. Part of the Wallace Collection,
showing the unique horse-armour
05 in the foreground.
5. Visored bascinet (in the case in
rench,
r early
nch or
late 14th
d armour
uckhurst,
o the late
entury.
The Wallace Collection provides THE SINEWS OF WAR: One of the cased
rich insight into the anthropology ARMS AND ARMOUR FROM display items – e heavier
of medieval battle. THE AGE OF AGINCOURT a reconstructed urs of
The great lords competed in From 1 September, the Wallace breastplate that ars of
wealth and power. They sought each Collection is presenting a special has been dented ses;
other out on the battlefield for the display of arms and armour from and punctured by to
honour of fighting social equivalents. the time of the Battle of Agincourt. arrow-shot – tells deas
They needed to be recognised as This exhibition will include its own different story. Thi obility
leaders by their own followers in small but high-quality collection of to prove that only of the
the thick of the fighting – and by late 14th-century/early 15th-century closest of ranges arms
enemies, who would hesitate to kill material, along with a selection English arrows ha e.
a richly caparisoned opponent for of loaned items, including some penetrated French ill
the sake of the ransom money that reconstructions. sufficiently to hav h the
he represented. Gilding, in its curious The display is designed in part inflicted serious i oby
way, could be as much a protective to dispel some misconceptions. This being so, the th-
metal as the solid steel beneath. What might be called ‘the myth archers would su ur of
Another treasure of the collection of Agincourt’ is bound up with have been slaughtered had the English Knight, 1400-1450,
is the battle armour of Lord modern notions of national they fought alone. The English which will reveal for the first time
Buckhurst, which was manufactured identity and Anglo-French rivalry, men-at-arms were equally the highly advanced and beautifully
at the Almain Armourers’ workshop and involves a popular view of important. Agincourt was a designed armour that was worn
at Greenwich around the time of the battle as a struggle between combined-arms victory of ‘bill by English men-at-arms during
the Spanish Armada. The stunning low-born English archers and and bow’, not a simple triumph the later phases of the Hundred
craftsmanship and artistry is a riposte haughty French aristocrats – of the common man. Years War. Military History Monthly
to the mistaken traditional view that an idea promoted in plays, poems, The display will also demonstrate will shortly be publishing Toby’s
English work was inferior to that of and songs since at least the time that many depictions of Agincourt full-length feature article based
Italian and German masters. of Shakespeare. are unrealistic in showing men on the book. .
ISTI S
EXHIBITION
£10
ENTRY
THE BEST MILITARY HISTORY EVENTS, LECTURES, AND EXHIBITIONS
FREE ENTRY
LEE MILLER:
A WOMAN’S WAR
15 October 2015-
24 April 2016
IWM London, Lambeth Road,
London, SE1 6HZ
www.iwm.org.uk
020 7416 5000
American Lee Miller was one of the

RE-ENACTMENT most important war reporters and
photographers of the 20th century.
Moving to Europe in 1929, she
BATTLE OF PRESTONPANS 270TH ANNIVERSARY became a correspondent accredited
18-20 September to the US Army in 1944, covering
www.prestonpansreenactment.org events such as the London Blitz,
Edinburgh Road,
the Liberation of Paris, and the
Prestonpans 07906 349407 concentration camps at Buchen-
EH32
wald and Dachau. This exhibition
is the first to explore Miller’s vision
of gender and the impact of the
B
onnie Prince Charlie’s famous victory in 1745 will be commemorated with an exciting weekend of
activities at Prestonpans, East Lothian. The anniversary events begin with a parade, followed by two Second World War on women’s
days of living history encampments and displays. Visitors will have the chance to admire the red-coated lives through her photography.
ranks of General Cope’s forces, with cannon, foot, and horse, before witnessing the terrifying Highland It features many photographs,
charge that led to their shocking defeat. There will even be a chance to meet the Bonnie Prince himself, as he objects, works of art, and personal
steels his Jacobite warriors for battle. items never before displayed.
LECTURE
AGINCOURT OR AZINCOURT? VICTORY, DEFEAT,

AND THE WAR OF 1415 names in the roll-call of English military
22 October 2015 history. Dr Helen Castor sets the battle in its
Museum of London, 150 London Wall, 15th-century context – when the outcome of
London, EC2Y 5HN military conflict was understood as the result
www.gresham.ac.uk of God’s will – and unravels the implications of
020 7831 0575 two contrasting narratives: English victory at FREE
ENTRY
In the year of the battle’s 600th anniversary, Agincourt, and French defeat on the field they
Agincourt remains one of the most resonant knew as Azincourt. No reservation required.

MHM VISITS
CONFERENCE
DATES TO
HOLOCAUST MEMORY AND MEMORIALS REMEMBER
FREE 26 October 2015
4 OCTOBER 2015
ENTRY Quay West, Trafford Wharf Road, Manchester, M17 1TZ
www.iwm.org.uk 0161 836 4000 Shuttleworth
Uncovered Airshow
Memories of the Holocaust are explored in this one-day conference
Old Warden Aerodrome,
organised by the Centre for Jewish Studies, the Department of History, nr Biggleswade, Bedfordshire,
University of Manchester, and IWM North. The conference will show SG18 9EP
a new film about Haviva Reick, the British-trained resister who was www.shuttleworth.org
parachuted into Slovakia and murdered by the Nazis in 1944. It will also Get up close and personal with
examine how the destruction of the Jews has been memorialised at dif- the Shuttleworth Collection
ferent sites in Europe. Booking is essential. See website for more details. aircraft, with opportunities
to talk to the engineers about
their unique history, and what
it means to keep them flying.
EVENT TOUR
£12 24 OCTOBER-
ENTRY
1 NOVEMBER 2015
Dazzle Camouflage
HMS Belfast, The Queen’s Walk,
London, SE1 2JH
www.iwm.org.uk
See how dazzle camouflage was
used to keep HMS Belfast from
BATTLE OF being discovered by other ships
£4.25
in this family-friendly anima-
HASTINGS tion workshop. Create your
10-11 October 2015
ENTRY TWILIGHT EVENING own camouflage, which will be
turned into a short film, avail-
High Street, Battle,
East Sussex, AT APSLEY HOUSE able to view after half-term.
TN33 0AD Wednesday evenings throughout October
www.english-heritage.org.uk 31 OCTOBER 2015
0370 333 1183 149 Piccadilly, Hyde Park Corner,
London, WIJ 7NT An Evening
Immerse yourself in medieval life during this weekend
www.english-heritage.org.uk with Andy McNab
0370 333 1183 The Tank Museum, Bovington,
of historical re-enactments and living history events
at Battle. See knights and their horses in the cavalry Dorset, BH20 6JG
The grand Georgian building of Apsley House, an www.tankmuseum.org
encampment, and watch a specially commissioned address once known as ‘Number 1, London’, has
play that details the events leading up to the Battle Former SAS soldier and best-
changed very little since its owner, the first Duke of
of Hastings. There will be numerous activities, talks, selling author Andy McNab
Wellington, claimed victory against Napoleon at Waterloo will be sharing his experiences
and demonstrations suitable for every member of in 1815. Open for four evenings this month, you can be of commanding Bravo Two
the family, including archery, falconry, and weapon- guided by torchlight around its beautiful interiors to see Zero during the Gulf War, as
making, all of which will help you to imagine what life the fine collection of art, silver, and porcelain. Booking well as talking about his latest
would have been like almost 1,000 years ago. for this event is essential, as places are limited. Nick Stone book, Detonator.
CONFERENCE
BEYOND AGINCOURT: THE FUNERARY £65

ACHIEVEMENTS OF HENRY V ENTRY
28 October 2015
Westminster Abbey, London, SW1P 3PA
www.westminster-abbey.org
As the burial place of Henry V, Westminster Abbey is holding a conference, 600 years after his most
famous battle, to talk about the significance of his funeral. This conference brings together a range
of experts in the fields of armour, architecture, and conservation, and will have lectures on the king’s
shield, saddle, sword, and helm, which were carried during his funeral procession at the Abbey.

B
BOOKS
MHM LISTS THE TOP MILITARY HISTORY TITLES AVAILABLE TO BUY OVER THE COMING MONTHS.
LETTING GO WORLD WAR 1990: OPERATION

Jeff Sands
A gripping memoir about life before,
ARCTIC STORM
during, and after 9/11. Marine Corps William Stroock
Officer Jeff Sands retells his story with An alternate history that imagines war
brutal honesty, describing why he joined between the West and the Soviet Union
the Marine Corps, what he experienced with important characters in the British
in Iraq, and the struggles he endured Army, the Royal Navy, the SAS and Downing
afterwards. Street. Action on the Continent, in the
Pacific, and a major USN/RN campaign in
the Norwegian Sea.
PUBLISHER: Create Space
PRICE: £8.93 Paperback, £1.99 e-book PUBLISHER: Create Space
WHERE TO BUY: Amazon PRICE: £7.99 Paperback, £2.49 Kindle edition
WHERE TO BUY: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook
THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC THE RED EFFECT

Jonathan Dimbleby (BOOK 1 IN THE BESTSELLING
A book that promises to do for the titular
Battle of the Atlantic what Antony Beevor COLD WAR TRILOGY)
did for Stalingrad, weaving stories of Harvey Black
grand strategy from Stalin, Churchill and 1983: the height of the Cold War. With
Roosevelt with anecdotes from the sailors tensions running high and Soviet forces
and soldiers who fought the conflict on gaining strength, NATO prepares for the
the high seas. Jonathan’s thrilling narra- worst. Catapulted towards all-out war, the
tive uniquely places the campaign in the world holds its breath… Harvey Black’s
context of WWII, detailing the decisions gripping alternative history draws from
that led to victory, and the horror and ten years experience in Army Intelligence,
humanity of life on the perilous seas. putting readers at the heart of the action.
PUBLISHER: Viking/Penguin Books PUBLISHER: SilverWood Books

PRICE: £25.00 PRICE: £8.99 Paperback, £3.99 e-book
WHERE TO BUY: All good retailers WHERE TO BUY: Amazon.co.uk, The Book Depository, most online retailers and directly
from www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk/harvey-black
TALES FROM THE FORGOTTEN FRONT,

BRITISH WEST AFRICA DURING WWII alien and often frightening location known as The
White Man’s Grave.
John Wade
This book reveals, through the eyes of a conscripted
soldier, the day-to-day lives of British soldiers in PUBLISHER: Whittles Publishing
British West Africa during WWII. It looks at the PRICE: £16.99
strange cultures, the landscape and wildlife, and WHERE TO BUY: from all good bookshops, online retailers or directly
the unusual situations that were encountered in an from Whittles Publishing
W
W H AT ’ S O N
JOUST AT AVONCROFT MUSEUM

Thundering hooves, shattering lances few miscreants) and explore the living
and all the excitement of a traditional history camps to find out more about life
jousting tournament. in the 15th century.
Marvel at courageous riders on their Drills and activities for younger visi-
highly-trained horses as they take part tors.
in dramatic one-to-one tilting contests. Avoncroft Museum of Historic
Watch squires and ladies hone their skills Buildings is just off the A38 south of
on horseback with demonstrations of Bromsgrove, between Birmingham and
skill-at-arms training. Worcester, a few minutes’ drive from the
Meet horses, knights, ladies (and a M5, M6, M40 and M42.
WEB: www.avoncroft.org.uk WHERE: Avoncroft Museum of Historic HOW MUCH: Adults £8.80 (including
DATES: 19-20 September 2015 Buildings, Redditch Road, Stoke Heath, voluntary Gift Aid contribution)
EMAIL: officemanager@avoncroft. Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B60 4JR Children £4.50
org.uk PHONE: 01527 831363
THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT FELLOWS’ AUCTION OF

25 October 2015 marks the 600th anniversary ANTIQUES & FINE ART
of the battle of Agincourt, one of the pivotal Following the closure of the
events in the tumultuous relationship Birmingham Nautical Club
between England and France during the Hundre earlier this month, Fellows
Years War (1337 -1453). To commemorate this ev Auctioneers are helping the
Royal Armouries will present a special exhibition members raise funds for
in the White Tower at the Tower of London this charity, by auctioning club
winter. memorabilia.
The exhibition brings together, for the first time, rare and iconic A range of memorabilia will go under the hammer on 6 October,
objects including medieval arms and armour, art, music, sculpture and such as a ship’s anchor, 14 pound gun, and plaques which were hung
manuscripts from the Royal Armouries’ own collection and leading in the club; along with various other novelty items and naval medals.
European institutions. The battle of Agincourt will unfold the moving Notable lots for auction include distinguished service medals for
story of the road to battle, the events of 25 October 1415 and the African and Italian campaigns, a collection of medals awarded to a
aftermath, in turn exploring the popular myths, reality and legacy of recipient who took part in the Zebrugge raids in April 1918 (£800-
this extraordinary battle. £1,000), and Naval General Service medal complete with ‘Yangtze
A lively programme of events will accompany the exhibition from 24 1949’ clasp (£300- £500).
October to 1 November, including talks, skill-at-arms demonstrations Visit www.fellows.co.uk/register to sign up for alerts regarding this
and activities for all the family. auction and view the full catalogue online.
WEB: www.fellows.co.uk WHERE: Fellows Auctioneers

WEB: www.royalarmouries.org HOW MUCH: Exhibition admission is DATES: 6 October 2015; visit the website Augusta House, 19 Augusta Street
DATES: 23 October 2015-31 January 2016 included with ticket to Tower of London for confirmed dates for auctions of Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, B18 6JA
WHERE: The White Tower http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/ Antiques & Fine Art and Coins & Medals. PHONE: 0121 212 2131
Tower of London, Image: North Italian, late 14th century EMAIL: info@fellows.co.uk HOW MUCH: View the catalogue for lot
London, EC3N 4AB (Royal armouries IV.470) estimates and condition reports on
individual items.
‘DEAR HARRY...’ - HENRY MOSELEY, A SCIENTIST LOST TO WAR

Henry ‘Harry’ Moseley was an exceptionally promising (HLF), the Museum of the History of Science is staging
English physicist in the years immediately before a centenary exhibition, ‘Dear Harry... Henry Moseley,
World War I. His work on the X-ray spectra of the A Scientist Lost to War’. This marks Moseley’s great
elements provided a new foundation for the Periodic contribution to science and reveals the impact of his
Table and contributed to the development of the death on the international scientific community and
nuclear model of the atom. Yet Harry’s life and career its relationship with government and the armed forces.
were cut short when he was killed in 1915, aged 27, in ‘Dear Harry…’ tells the moving and personal story
action at Gallipoli, Turkey. of the life and legacy of Henry ‘Harry’ Moseley – son,
With support from the Heritage Lottery Fund scientist, and soldier.
WEB: www.mhs.ox.ac.uk EMAIL: museum@mhs.ox.ac.uk Oxford, OX1 3AZ

DATES: 15 May 2015–31 January 2016 WHERE: Museum of the History of Science, Broad Street, HOW MUCH: Free entry to museum and free entry to exhibition.
AN MHM SELECTION
OF SOME OF THE
BEST EVENTS
COMING UP OVER THE
NEXT FEW MONTHS
HENRY V
This Autumn in the Royal Shakespeare gathers his troops and prepares for a war that he
Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, the RSC con- hopes will reunite his country.
tinue their journey through Shakespeare’s RSC Artistic Director Gregory Doran continues
History Plays with Henry V. his exploration of Shakespeare’s History Plays
Henry IV is dead and Hal is King. With with Henry V, performed in Stratford-upon-Avon
England in a state of unrest, he must leave his in the 600th anniversary year of the Battle of
rebellious youth behind, striving to gain the Agincourt. Following his performance as Hal
respect of his nobility and people. in Henry IV Parts I & II, Alex Hassell returns as
Laying claim to parts of France and following Henry V.
an insult from the French Dauphin, Henry
WEB: www.rsc.org.uk WHERE: Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Waterside, PHONE: 01789 403493
DATES: 12 September-25 October 2015 Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 6BB HOW MUCH: Tickets from £16
AGINCOURT 600 AT THE SINEWS OF WAR:

CALDICOT CASTLE ARMS AND ARMOUR
This Medieval tournament FROM THE AGE OF
to celebrate the Battle AGINCOURT
of Agincourt, will be a
thrilling tournament of In the autumn of 2015, the
fully-armoured knights in Wallace Collection will present
battle, precision archery dis- a display of weapons and
plays, graceful dances, and armour dating from the early
accomplished musicians. Join Plantagenet Medieval Society to celebrate 15th century to commemorate
the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. the 600th anniversary of the
Caldicot Castle, Monmouthshire, is a large 13th and 14th Century Battle of Agincourt. These
castle with significant Victorian and modern additions. It was of exhibits will also include
strategic importance as a Marcher border castle between England and rare books from the Wallace
Wales, protecting one of the two crossing points of the Severn Estuary. Collection archive, exploring
On the Saturday (24 October) a medieval banquet is being held the ways in which this historic
to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. event has been remembered
Included will be a four course meal with live entertainment in the over the centuries.
evening. £60 per ticket (free admission to day time event).
WEB: www.wallacecollection.org/collec- WHERE: Wallace Collection

WEB: www.caldicotcastle.co.uk WHERE: Caldicot Castle & Country Park, tions/exhibition/116 Hertford House, Manchester Square
DATES: 24-25 October 2015, 11am-4pm Church Road, Caldicot, Gwent, NP26 4HU DATES: 1 September-1 December 2015 London , W1U 3BN
EMAIL: caldicotcastle@monmouthshire. PHONE: 01291 420241 EMAIL: booking@wallacecollection.org PHONE: 020 7563 9527
gov.uk HOW MUCH: £6 Adults, HOW MUCH: Free
£3 Children (under 16)
AGINCOURT 600 WALES EVENTS

Welsh community groups continue to com- 0DU
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memorate Agincourt 600 with a series of events Brecon Cathedral, St Mary’s Priory Church
during the year. "CFSHBWFOOZ 0DU
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&WFOUTJODMVEFr)BZ)JTUPSZ8FFLFOEUBMLT Henry V and new RSC film of stage production
by Prof Anne Curry, workshops, performances, at Brecon, Monmouth & Abergavenny cinemas
NFEJFWBMBDUJWJUJFT 4FQU
r"SDIFSZDPN (Oct/Nov).
petition and medieval activities Trecastle Show, The Agincourt 600 Wales exhibition tours
OS#SFDPO 4FQU
r3FNFNCFSJOH"HJODPVSU in the coming months Kidwelly (19 Sept-10
stage performance at Christ College Brecon (22 Oct), Brecon Cathedral (14-26 Oct), Monmouth
0DU
r.FEJFWBMUPVSOBNFOUBU$BMEJDPU$BTUMF Museum (28 Oct 2015-28 Feb 2016)
WEB: www.agincourt600wales.com WHERE: Brecknock and Monmouthshire, Mid and South Wales HOW MUCH: Free and ticketed events more details www.
DATES: August 2015-February 2016 PHONE: 07951268310 agincourt600wales.com/events/
EMAIL: info@agincourt600wales.com
IN THE NEXT ISSUE
ON SALE 8 OCTOBER
THE FIRST PUNIC WAR AT SEA ALSO NEXT ISSUE:

It was the Romans’ first overseas adventure, and it pitted them against æ The Italian Resistance, 1943-1945
the greatest naval power in the Mediterranean. To beat the Carthaginians æ Prestonpans, 1745: the forgotten Jacobite victory
in the mid 3rd century BC – and begin the building of a global empire – æ The Irish at Messines, 1917
the Romans had to create a navy. Marc DeSantis tells the story.
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PUT YOUR MILITARY HISTORY KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST WITH
THE MHM QUIZ, CROSSWORD, AND CAPTION COMPETITION
TITIO
This month we have a day out for two at the Science
MHM QUIZ Museum to be won (the prize includes free exhibition

entry, lunch, and a Churchill goodie bag).
CHURCHILL’S SCIENTISTS Scientists’ tells the little-known and antibiotics to Britain’s

‘Might a bomb no bigger than story of how Churchill’s fascination top-secret research behind the Churchill, such as
an orange be found to possess with science led to the scientific first atomic bomb. The exhibition the cigar he was smoking in
a secret power to… blast a town- achievements that helped Britain brings these events to life through 1951 on the day he learned he’d
ship at a stroke?’, Winston Churchill win the Second World War. a rich array of significant histori- been re-elected as Prime Minister,
wrote in a 1924 article for Nash’s The power of science was cal objects, original film footage, and his green velvet ‘siren suit’ –
Pall Mall Magazine. harnessed during the war, from letters, and archive images. a one-piece outfit devised by him
The Science Museum’s the recent invention of radar The exhibition features a number that was designed to be put on
current exhibition ‘Churchill’s and the production of penicillin of personal objects belonging to in a hurry during air raids.
MHM
CROSSWORD
NO 61
ACROSS
7 River crossed by Robert E Lee’s forces
in September 1862 shortly before the
Battle of Antietam (7)
8 Many of these took place during
the London Blitz (3,4)
10 ___ sergeant, NCO who instructs
troops in parade manoeuvres (5)
11 US state in which the Civil War
battles of Cane Hill and Chalk Bluff
took place (8)
12 Name later given to the B-29 bomber
used to take photographs in the attack
on Hiroshima (9,4)
14 Name of the B-29 bomber carrying
blast measurement instruments in the
attack on Hiroshima (3,5,7)
17 ___ War, also known as the American
War of Independence (13)
21 Jet bomber built by English Electric,
which entered service with the RAF
in 1951 (8)

MHM OFF DUTY
MHM
CAPTION COMPETITION
Answer
online at
www.
To be in with a chance of winning, military-history.
simply answer the following question: org We continue our caption competition with an image from this
? Which scientist is most associated with month’s ‘War on Film’. Pit your wits against other readers at
the development of radar in Britain? www.military-history.org/competitions
LAST MONTH’S WINNER

SEPTEMBER ISSUE | MHM 60
ACROSS: 8 Brooke, 9 Achilles, 10 Michael de la Pole,
ANSWERS
11 Gable, 12 Breton, 14 Laurence Olivier, 17 Albret, 19 Innis,

21 Charles of Artois, 23 Farewell, 24 Urartu.
DOWN: 1 Erpingham, 2 Lochaber, 3 Légère, 4 Land, 5 Chilwell,

6 Aleppo, 7 SEALs, 12 Brest, 13 Red Shirts, 15 Norsemen,
16 Venetian, 18 Larsen, 19 Icarus, 20 Ahead, 22 Oslo.
22 Edmond ___ (1917-2014), Native 6 Desert where the Battle of Abu-Ageila

American Code Talker of the US Army was fought in June 1967 (5)
who served in Normandy and Iwo Jima (5) 9 US president who had served as WINNE
23 Sellers of provisions to soldiers (7) an artillery officer in France during You missed the small print, mister. That warranty
24 Medieval kingdom whose king, World War I (5,6) only covers chariot body-parts and labour. It says
Petar Svačić, was defeated at the 13 Soviet ground-attack aircraft of
nothing about horse replacements.
Battle of Gvozd Mountain in 1097 (7) World War II and later (9)
15 Leading Nazi who committed suicide
Joe Agius
DOWN in Berlin in May 1945 (8) RUNNERS-UP
1 Dutch city captured by German forces 16 First name of the senior SS officer
in May 1940 (9) killed in Prague in 1942 during Operation The sale in the fabric department at Liberty was too good
2 Town in West Florida (now Alabama) Anthropoid (8) to miss. I got a whole new wardrobe.
taken from the British by Spanish forces 18 Roger Boyle, Earl of ___, soldier Monty Urquhart
in March 1780 (6) and dramatist whose works include ‘You dancing?’
3 English castle besieged unsuccessfully A Treatise of the Art of War (1677) (6) ‘You asking?’
by Robert the Bruce in 1315 (8) 19 Country that was unified following Mick Lestrange
4 ___ Cleugh, battle fought on the the Battle of Hafrsfjord in the late
banks of the River Esk in 1547 (6)
5 Port in southern Italy entered by
9th century (6)
20 Italian city near which, at Villa Giusti,
Think you can do better?
British forces in September 1943 Italy signed an armistice with Austria- Go head-to-head with other MHM readers for the
during Operation Slapstick (8) Hungary in 1918 (5) chance to see your caption printed in the next issue.
Enter now at www.military-history.org/competitions

fin g roo m + B r ie fin g ro
roo m + B r ie fin g room + Brie
briefing
ALL YOU NEED

TO KNOW ABOUT…
The Gatling Gun
Looks impressive… What was it? So what were the pros
The Gatling Gun was the first easily usable machine-gun, with reliable hand-driven
loading, and the ability to fire sustained multiple bursts – so yes, pretty impressive.
and cons?
Soldiers could load them with standard small-arms ammunition, and they were rela-
tively simple to use. They were also very effective against exposed lines of attackers.
Well, that’s got to be an However, they were not effective against infantry in protected defensive positions,
American invention, yes? like trenches. They could also be difficult to transport in mountainous terrain, and
Gatling Guns were famously refused by General Custer before the Battle of the
It sure is. The American Robert J Gatling designed the machine in 1861, and
Little Big Horn. During the American-Indian Wars, a Lieutenant McClernand recalled
it first saw combat during the American Civil War (1861-1865), although
‘descending a long and precipitous hill, where it was necessary to fasten many lariats
it was not an official government weapon. Twelve guns were purchased
together, tie them to the Gatling Gun carriages, and then lower the latter by hand’.
personally by Union commanders, one of whom, General Benjamin F Butler,
became the first to use the weapon in action at the Siege of Petersburg,
Virginia ( June 1864-April 1865). Another eight guns were fitted on to
Union gunboats.
An adaptation of the gun was bought in 1867 by the US Army, and
various versions became popular with the expanding empires of Europe.
Imperial Russia bought 400 for use against the nomadic horsemen
The
of Central Asia, while the British Army first used them in 1879, during
the Second Afghan War.
Gatling
What’s with all the barrels?
To be capable of firing at a rapid rate, the gun had multiple barrels that Gun
revolved around a central axis. It was first developed with six rotating
gun-barrels, but later updated to have ten – each of which had their own fact fi le
firing mechanism. The barrels were turned by a hand crank, and as cartridges
were fed into the gun, each barrel automatically loaded, fired, and ejected
Mobility: comparable to contemporary
its cartridge in succession.
Since the barrels fired one at a time, each barrel had time to cool before
artillery – reasonable on flat ground, difficult
it fired again. This overcame a major failing of machine-gun designs up in mountainous country
to that time, as most guns had tended to overheat and expand due to Crew: usually four
continuous firing.
Range: 1,200 yards
The Gatling Gun’s hopper-feed system of loading ammunition is consid-
ered to be one of the weapon’s other main advantages – it simplified and Rate of fire: 200 rounds a minute (later models
sped-up the process of loading. surpassed 400 rounds a minute)
The 1862 version of the Gatling Gun had reloadable steel chambers Complement: deployed as needed or
and used percussion caps, but was prone to occasional jamming. In 1867, available, though a platoon of three Gatlings
Gatling redesigned the gun to use metallic cartridges. It was this version
has been recorded
that was bought and used by the United States Army.
Date: 1862-1867 (though improved versions were
not declared obsolete until 1911)
Seems pretty revolutionary…
It was not the first machine-gun, but it was certainly the first to be com-
mercially successful, and yes, with the Gatling Gun we are well on the way
to what was later dubbed ‘concentrated essence of infantry’ – basically, a
single machine able to kill as many as a whole company of riflemen.

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October 2015 Ɩ Issue 61 Ɩ £4.

Outnumbered, h ngry, disease-ridden...

FOREIGN LEGION’S GAS ATTACK

www.military-history.org kkk Extraordinary D-Day tanks

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD:

CONTRIBUTORS THIS MONTH’S EXPERTS

STEVE ROBERTS MIKE RELPH ROBIN SMITH PATRICK

SUBSCRIBE NOW Fill in the form on p.78 and SAVE UP TO 20%

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52 The defence of Camerone

14 last stand at a remote Mexican hamlet

4 MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY October 2015

THE DEBRIEF Business Manager: Erin Goodin

www.military-history.org MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY 7

THE CATCH-22 LOOK

Wilfred Owen’s training camp

8 MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY October 2015

SCRAPBOOKS FROM THE HOME FRONT

GOT A STORY? Military History Monthly, Thames Works,

www.military-history.org MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY 9

10 MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY October 2015

sunny. The only slash of colour looks like the red

involvement in Operation Sangaris, which sought

12 MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY October 2015

The first need

www.military-history.org MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY 13

Inspired by last year’s commemorations in Normandy,

1. GEOFFREY PATTINSON 2. JAMES ‘JIM’ GLENNIE 3. ERIC JOHNSTON

14 MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY October 2015

Painted by some of the UK’s leading artists, the portraits were

4. BRIAN STEWART 5. TOM RENOUF 6. ROBERT ANTONY ‘TONY’ LEAKE

www.military-history.org MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY 15

7. RAYMOND ‘TICH’ RAYNER

8. LAURENCE ‘LAURIE’ WEEDEN

16 MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY October 2015

18 MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY October 2015

At Second Ypres, the Germans had released

choked, gas reacting quickly with water in air-

swords and guns.

www.military-history.org MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY 19

20 MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY October 2015

www.military-history.org MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY 21

Chaos reigned in many sectors of the British

Gas canisters station near Loos during the battle.

‘accessories’. Accounts suggest the greenish-yellow hue

the G-word was

punished. where the gas drifted over enemy trenches,

TIMELINE 22 April 1915

Some, but not all, initial gains lost in

30 September 1915 1925

24 MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY October 2015

Agincourt, the focus of our special this month, was not

MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY 27

ENGLISH VICTORY NEGOTIATIONS

1428: SIEGE OF ORLEANS

The Middling Sort

armoured, lance- Though military service was a feudal obliga-

bearing knight had

anachronism. armies in the Hundred Years War – she argues

30 MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY October 2015

RIGHT A manuscript illustration depicting 15th-

did much as he pleased. Once the action began,

PROTECTION VERSUS MOBILITY