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Battle Story
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These concise and accessible overviews are written by
military history experts for the general reader. Each title
includes the battle’s place in history, the men who fought it, a
blow-by-blow account of the action, the aftermath and the
legacy. Timelines, key profiles, information boxes and orders
of battle ensure that these pocket guides contain everything
you need to know.
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The series kicks off with an infamous battle during the
Victorian age, where British Imperial forces were decimated
by a supposedly primitive opponent. Two classic World War I
conflicts follow, including Gallipoli. The final three titles look
at a range of battles from World War II: an arduous desert
campaign, parachuting over the Low Countries and the Nazi’s
final push into Europe.
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On 22 January 1879 a 20,000-strong Zulu army attacked
1,700 British and colonial forces. The engagement saw
primitive weapons of spears and shields clashing with the
latest military technology. However, despite being poorly
equipped, the numerically superior Zulu force crushed the
British troops, killing 1,300 men, whilst only losing 1,000
of their own warriors.
It was a humiliating defeat for the British Army, who had
been poorly trained and who had underestimated their
enemy.
The defeat ensured that the British had a renewed respect
for their opponents and changed their tactics, rather than
fighting in a straight, linear formation, known as the Thin
Red Line they adopted an entrenched system or close order
formations.
The defeat caused much consternation throughout the
British Empire, who had assumed that the Zulu were no
match for the British Army and thus the army was greatly
reinforced and went on to victory at Rorke’s Drift.
Isandlwana 1879
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The battle of Isandlwana remains one of the
most iconic battles in British imperial and
military history. In probably little more than two
hours of fighting a garrison comprising around
1,700 British regular, colonial and African
auxiliary forces were overwhelmed and
practically annihilated by an estimated 20–
25,000-strong Zulu army. Over 1,300 men on the
British side perished in this pitiful, savage and
often hand-to-hand encounter, their bodies
remaining unburied for several months after the
battle.
It has been claimed that more British regular
and colonial officers were killed at Isandlwana
than at the battle of Waterloo. For the Zulu
nation the battle was equally iconic. It
represented the high tide of Zulu nationalism
and a rare, indeed stunning victory in the
broader nineteenth-century struggle of
indigenous peoples against rampant
colonialism. Only a few other global examples of
indigenous victories, notably the destruction of
Major-General
Elphinstone’s 16,000-strong Anglo-Indian army
by an estimated 10,000 Afghan irregulars in
1842, the complete annihilation of General
Custer’s 200-strong 7th cavalry force by 8,000
Sioux/Cheyenne in 1876 and the rout of an
Italian army at Adowa by Ethiopian warriors in
1896, bear comparison in terms of both the scale
of defeat and their impact on their respective
colonial establishments.
The main aim of this short introductory book is
to, by using revised material drawn mainly from
my extensive published literature on the Anglo-
Zulu War, my own fieldwork studies of the
Isandlwana battlefield in 1989 and 2004, as well
as that of several selected leading contemporary
experts, present for non-specialists and general
history enthusiasts, a clear, hopefully balanced
and concise analytical narrative of this epic
encounter. The opinions expressed in this book
are my own and do not reflect those of either the
Ministry of Defence or the Royal Military
Academy Sandhurst.
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Ypres was a medieval town known for its textiles;
however, it became infamous during the Great War
with trench warfare, poison gas and many thousands of
casualties.
As the German Army advanced through Belgium, it
failed to take the Ypres Salient. On 13 October 1914,
German troops entered Ypres. On looting the city, the
Germans retreated as the British Expeditionary Force
advanced.
On 22 November 1914, the Germans commenced a
huge artillery barrage killing many civilians. This title,
written by WW1 expert William Fowler, charts the First
and Second Battles of Ypres.
Fowler uses his extensive knowledge of the ground he
has walked many times as a battlefield guide to
explore why this stretch of land was so hard fought
over and why so many men lost their lives here.
Ypres 1914-15
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At 8pm every day a simple ceremony takes place
at the Menin Gate Memorial in the town of Ieper
(Ypres) in Belgium. For a few moments before
8pm the noise of traffic ceases and stillness
descends over the memorial. On the hour the
regular buglers drawn from the local volunteer
Fire Brigade step into the roadway under the
memorial arch. They sound Last Post, followed by
a short silence, followed by the Reveille.
This ceremony has been carried on uninterrupted
since 2 July 1928, with the exception during the
German occupation in the Second World War,
when the tradition of the daily ceremony was
kept alive at Brookwood Commonwealth War
Graves Cemetery in Surrey, England. In the
Second World War on the evening of 6 September
1944 as the Polish 1st Armoured Division was still
fighting to clear parts of the town men from the
volunteer Fire Brigade took post at the Menin
Gate and in a salute to liberation the ceremony
was renewed. at Menin is dedicated to the
commemoration of British and Commonwealth
soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient
during the First World War.
The massive war memorial at Menin is dedicated
to the commemoration of British and
Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the
Ypres Salient during the First World War and
whose graves are unknown.
The memorial is cut into the ramparts at the
eastern exit of the town, where a fortified gate
once stood, and marks the starting point for one
of the main roads out of the town that led Allied
soldiers to the frontline. Designed by Sir Reginald
Blomfield and built by the British government,
the Menin Gate Memorial was unveiled on 24 July
1927.
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
8
The Gallipoli campaign was in some ways the brainchild of
First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, who saw an
attack on the Dardanelles as a way to break through the
stalemate in supplying the Eastern Front. The preceding
naval campaign led many to believe that victory was
inevitable.
However, increased losses at sea prompted the Allies to send
ground troops to invade and eliminate the Ottoman artillery.
These ground forces comprised a large ANZAC (Australian
and New Zealand) contingent and Gallipoli would be their
first major campaign in the war.
They invaded on 25 April 1915, landing on 5 stretches of
beach in open boats. The casualties from the first landing
were horrific, of the first 200 men out of the boats, only 21
reached inland, the rest were mown down by the Ottoman
machine-guns. Throughout the campaign losses were severe,
with both sides suffering casualties in excess of 200,000
troops. Eventually the Allies were forced to evacuate. The
fall out from this disaster was felt in both military and
political circles.
Gallipoli 1915
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Gallipoli – almost 100 years on and the name of
this ill-fated campaign still resonates. Historians
are divided: was this brief campaign, fought from
April 1915 to January 1916, doomed from the
start, a hopeless endeavour that was guaranteed
to do nothing other than preside over the
hopeless slaughter of its protagonists?
Or was it a bold step, a masterful stroke of genius
that was to become bogged down as momentum
was lost and trench warfare took over? Certainly
the German Commander, Liman Von Sanders,
believed it could have succeeded, but as the years
have passed opinions have become more divided.
Forgotten, more often than not, is the fact that this
was an Ottoman victory.
And not just a victory by default, but a
resounding victory that saw the Allies hemmed
into three small fragments of the Peninsula,
unable to breakout. With tenacious soldiery under
skilful leadership (only a few of whom were
German), intelligent use of terrain and
husbanding of resources on home territory by the
Axis forces, the Allies had little choice but to leave
the peninsula and depart, Constantinople never
under threat.
For these reasons, Çannakale is rightly
remembered in modern Turkey.
In recent years, Gallipoli has become a
battleground of a new sort, a war of words
between nationalities seeking to apportion blame
for what was ultimately a failure. Recriminations
commenced before the campaign was over;
reputations were destroyed. Winston Churchill
was to fall from grace, and would serve his own
time on the Western Front as a battalion
commander.
When the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin,
He’s going balmy
To join the Army;
And his old baggy trousers want a-mending
Before they send him
To the Dardanelles
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The Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major
turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the
Second World War.
El Alamein saw two of the greatest generals of the war
pitted against each other: Rommel and Montgomery.
Through key profiles and a chapter devoted to ‘The
Armies’ Battle Story: El Alamein explores what made
these men inspired leaders and what led to their
respective defeat and victory.
Montgomery’s success ensured that the Axis army was
unable to occupy Egypt and therefore gain control of
the Suez Canal or the Middle Eastern oil fields, thereby
preventing a major source of income and power for
them. The background and impact of the battle are
explored in separate chapters, so offering the reader a
clear insight into why what happened in this remote
part Egypt was so central to the Allied cause. Through
quotes and maps the text explores the unfolding action
of the battle and puts the reader on the frontline.
El alamein 1942
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The Mediterranean and the Middle East were to
become theatres of war only in June 1940,
following Italy’s declaration of war against
France and Great Britain, shortly before the fall
of France. The strategic situation in Europe
during the summer and autumn of 1940 would
greatly influence events in these theatres: the
German threat against the British Isles and
Italy’s thrust towards the Balkans largely
reduced any interest in both the Mediterranean
and the Middle East, where a sideshow war was
fought until December of the same year.
The Italian forces, numerically stronger than
their enemy, although lacking any suitable
degree of motorization, were to miss any
possible opportunity to advance into Egypt and
seize the delta area, whose control would have
changed the fortunes of war. Only a few months
after the German threat against the British Isles
disappeared, Britain was able to intervene in the
Middle East in a way that would have changed
the situation.
The offensive started in December 1940 by
General O’Connor led to the destruction of a
portion of the Italian army and the seizure of the
eastern half of Libya, Cyrenaica – directly
threatening Tripoli. This was, seen from the
other side, a strategic goal comparable to the
seizure of the Nile delta; in either case, one side
might have prevailed over the other, thus
bringing to an end the whole campaign.
In fact, either the Nile delta for the Axis or
Tripoli for the British side were, with their large
harbours, the main source for reinforcements,
new units, men, weapons and materiel, and all
the vital supplies needed to wage a war. Their
seizure would have deprived the enemy of
every resource, while, on the other hand, by
controlling them both sides could feed new
forces into the war. Basically, the occupation of
these key positions was the reason that no side
was able to gain the upper hand, other than
temporarily, and to seize a decisive victory.
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When we think of Arnhem, we think of a Bridge too Far
and a sky full of parachutes dropping the Allies into the
Netherlands.
Beyond these images, this was one of the most complex
and strategically important operations of the war.
Operation Market Garden was devised to give the Allies
the opportunity to bypass the German Siegfried Line and
attack the Ruhr. Paratroopers were dropped into the
Netherlands to secure all the bridgeheads and major routes
along the proposed Allied axis advance. Simultaneously
the 1st Airborne Division, supported by the Glider Pilot
Regiment and Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade,
landed at Arnhem.
The British expected to sweep through and connect with
the Arnhem force within a matter of days. However, things
on the ground proved very different. The troops met
resistance from pockets of SS soldiers and were soon
overwhelmed. The Arnhem contingent was cut-off from
reinforcement and eventually forced to withdraw. The 1st
Airborne Division lost three-quarters of its strength in the
operation and did not see battle again
Arnhem 1944
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The Market Garden operation, and particularly
the battle that raged in and around Arnhem and
Oosterbeek for nine days in September 1944, has
attracted a remarkable amount of attention and
a formidable amount of material has been
published about it, by participants and by both
popular and academic historians.
There are many reasons why it has proved to be
such a ‘popular’ battle. It was an unparalleled
event; by far the greatest airborne operation
there had ever been. It was dramatic and
innovative, and it captured the imagination of
the public throughout Europe and the United
States. It has that special aura of a romantic and,
in a sense, glorious defeat.
Another reason that it has been of enduring
interest is that it is very rare to be able to study a
divisional battle in such isolation. The battle
area is relatively small and can be studied on the
ground to a worthwhile degree in a fairly short
space of time. For anyone who has the
opportunity to visit the city of Arnhem and
town of Oosterbeek I can thoroughly
recommend Major John Waddy’s book A Tour of
the Battlefields of Arnhem and Major and Mrs
Holt’s Battlefield Guide to Operation Market Garden
for those who wish to see the bigger picture of
the campaign as a whole.
Although this book is focussed on the struggle
of the British 1st Airborne Division and the
attached 1st Polish Parachute Brigade, it is
important to remember that their fight was part
of a much larger offensive; there would have
been no strategic value in capturing what is now
called the John Frost Bridge over the Lower
Rhine without also gaining control of a chain of
river crossings from Neerpelt to Nijmegen.
Perhaps the single most important factor which
has kept the battle alive in the public
consciousness is the remarkable courage
exhibited by so many men in such a short space
of time and in such a small area. To some extent
echoes of the events at Arnhem have drowned
out examples of outstanding soldiering in other
parts of the campaign.
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The Battle of the Bulge saw the final throw of the dice by
the German army against the US armed forces.
In December 1944 the German military made their final
attempt to end the Second World War by throwing in all
their reserves in a desperate attempt to shatter the Allied
lines. After breaking through the American-held sector in
the Ardennes, two Panzer armies headed for the bridges
over the River Meuse.
However, a combination of poor planning, bad weather,
tortuous terrain and above all, the determined defence of
keys towns and villages, such as Bastogne and St Vith,
delayed the advance. The Allies were able to hold the
northern and southern shoulders of the attack, hemming
the Germans in. The Bulge had been created, and as the
fortunes of battle were reversed, the Allies struck back.
This book gives a clear, concise account of those dramatic
days at the end of 1944, supported by a timeline of events
and orders of battle. Over fifty photographs illustrate the
events during this momentous campaign.
Battle of the bulge 1944-45
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On the morning of 6 June 1944 Allied troops
made airborne and seaborne landings on the
coast of Normandy and by nightfall they had
established a slender beachhead. The long
awaited battle for the Second Front had started
and over the next six weeks the British and
Commonwealth soldiers serving under General
Bernard Montgomery and the American soldiers
under General Omar Bradley fought to expand
their foothold in Nazi occupied Europe.
While the British drew in German reserves
around the town of Caen, the Americans fought
inch by inch through the Normandy bocage as
reinforcements poured into the beachhead.
Finally the breakthrough came on 25 July when
First US Army launched Operation Cobra. As
Montgomery’s 21st Army Group advanced
south from Caen, Bradley’s 12th Army Group
pushed south to Avranches before turning east
in a huge arc to try and encircle Army Group B.
Eisenhower’s plan nearly worked and large
numbers of Field Marshal Walter Model’s men
were trapped in what became known as the
battle for the Falaise Pocket.
The Allied Armies advanced quickly across
France while the remnants of OB West fell back
in disorder towards Germany and the safety of
the West Wall (also known as the Siegfried Line),
a long line of fortifications along the border, the
Allies Armies followed as fast as they could.
While Montgomery’s 21st Army Group entered
Belgium and entered Brussels on the north
flank, Bradley advanced east, liberating Paris
before heading towards the German border.
Following a second successful Allied landing in
southern France General Devers 6th Army
Group pushed quickly up the Rhône Valley and
linked up with Bradley’s advance.
However, while progress was exceeding all
expectations the advance started to falter by mid
September because of mounting difficulties in
keeping the front line troops supplied.
16
A NEW series from Spellmount, an imprint of The History Press.
Everything you need to know about the greatest battles
throughout history, from the Zulu War to World War II.
Concise, pocket-sized guides.
Timelines, orders of battle, the action, the men who fought.
The battle’s place in history, the aftermath and the legacy.
Written by military history experts.
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