Battle Story

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Battle Story – the only books that will ensure you know what happened and why at every battle in history

Transcript of 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.

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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.

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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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