Military History

One of the most prominent chroniclers of the Norman infiltration in southern
Italy and Sicily was Geoffrey Malaterra, who was recruited by Roger Hauteville to
write his “Deeds of Count Roger of Calabria and Sicily and of his brother Duke
Robert Guiscard”. This paper will examine Malaterra as a “military historian” of the
Norman expansion in southern Italy and Sicily, from the 1040s to the Illyrian
invasion of 1081, and compare his work with other contemporaries like William of
Apulia, Amatus of Montecassino and Anna Comnena.
A series of questions that will be addressed are: to what extent are the figures
he provides for army size, reliable, both in absolute numbers and in the ratios given
between cavalry and infantry? What is our chronicler’s knowledge of the local
geography where the military operations took place, and to what extent – if at all –
was he familiar with the terrain of the battles or sieges, or the campaign routes of
armies which he describes? How accurate or detailed is his description of castles and
fortifications? To what extend does Malaterra date major military events, and how
far does his narratives permit the accurate reconstruction of the sequence of events?

Nach den verlustreichen Rückschlägen der letzten Woche haben die russischen Invasionstreitkräfte seit Mitte des Monats wieder die Initiative ergriffen und die Ukrainer an verschiedenen Fronten in Bedrängnis gebracht. „Im Donbass versuchen die Besatzer, den Druck zu erhöhen. Da ist die Hölle, und das ist keine Übertreibung,“ sagte Präsident Wolodymyr Selenskij am Donnerstag in seiner abendlichen Videobotschaft. Seither ist die Lage noch um einiges dramatischer geworden.
1. Russische Luftangriffe
2. Beanspruchung der ukrainischen Kräfte
3. Ein Russischer Gegenangriff bei Charkiw
4. Die Pattsituation um Isium und Lyman
5. Der russische Angriff auf Siewierodonezk
6. Der russische Durchbruch bei Popasna
7. Vergeblich Angriffe von Donezk bis zum Dnjepr
8. Russische Annexionspläne im Süden
9. Russische Gesprächsbereitschaft
10. Die Schlangeninsel und die Seeblockade
11. Die Kapitulation von Mariupol

Dolgozatomban bizonyítani szeretném, hogy a Sátorhely mellett feltárt tömegsírokban menekülés közben lemészárolt gyalogos keresztény katonák fekszenek, akiknek nagy területen szétszóródott tetemeit a mohácsi csata másnapján az oszmán csapatok gyűjtötték össze a felállítandó török tábor helyének előzetes megtisztítása érdekében. A témával kapcsolatosan eddig felmerült "táborhely őrzői", "csatatéren elesettek", illetve "kivégzett foglyok" koncepciókkal szemben a gondolatmenet erőssége, hogy csaknem valamennyi régészeti, antropológiai és történeti bizonyíték alátámasztani látszik azt. Gyenge pontja, hogy outsider "kutatóként" a releváns információk teljessége nem állt rendelkezésemre, célom ezért elsősorban az, hogy egy újszerű, de további vizsgálódást igénylő nézőpontot ajánljak a téma iránt érdeklődő szakmai nyilvánosság figyelmébe.

Acaban de cumplirse ochenta años del regreso de la Bandera de la Academia General Militar (AGM) a Zaragoza. En concreto, fue el 9 de abril de 1940 cuando
salió de su retiro del Museo del Ejército para volver al servicio activo en un centro de enseñanza. Sin embargo, no la recibió la General (que no existía en aquellos momentos) sino la Academia de Infantería recién instalada en el acuartelamiento de la carretera de Huesca. Ésa fue la penúltima de sus muchas vicisitudes hasta que en 1942 fuera entregada al primer director de la recién inaugurada tercera época de la AGM, donde continúa hasta hoy. Pero la presente estabilidad tiene poco que ver con los avatares sufridos desde su confección en 1886. Dado que al narrar su historia se han omitido algunos
acontecimientos y se ha caído en errores y malas interpretaciones, en este artículo se pretende exponer los principales momentos de tan ajetreada existencia.

The "Military Aspects" - symposium took place 2.-4. May 1996 at the National Museum, Cph. Military organization was for the first time the subject of a large-scale international scholarly gathering in Scandinavia. Together with topics such as trade and religion, military organization forms one of the cornerstones in the formation process of the state. It is therefore of vital importance for our understanding of prehistoric and historic societies that we in a broad European perspective discuss the change from military organization on tribal basis to a pre-state army in the light of both written sources and archaeological material. In the publication Military Aspects of Scandinavian Society, in a European Perspective A.D. 1-1300 this complex is treated in 26 articles by archaeologists and historians from USA, England, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Ideas, organization and publication of the author, in collaboration with Dr. Phil. Niels Lund, University of CPH., Dir. Dr. Johan Engström, The Royal Army Museum, Stockholm, Curator Svend Erik Albrethsen, The National Museum, CPH. and Prof. Dr. Phil. Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, head of the Centre for Maritime Archeology, Roskilde. The author was at that time senior researcher associated with Crumlin-Petersen`s Centre for Maritime Archeology (1993-1996) with the research project: Sea defense in Denmark 200-1300 AD.

The article discusses the history of the Tuvan people's revolutionary army from the beginning of its creation in 1921 until its disbandment in 1946. The decision on its creation was made on September 28, 1924 by the III Great Khural (congress) of the Tuvan People's Republic. The readers are also offered a brief sketch of the history of the Tuvan armed forces, including material on the insignia of the period 1943-1944.

Coinciding with the centennial of the U.S. entry into World War I, this exhibition catalog examines the lives of four individuals from Montana or closely tied to the western state who served their country proudly and whose lives were significantly shaped by the Great War. They are: Glasgow-born William Belzer, celebrated aviator and among America’s first flying aces; Great Falls widow Josephine Hale who served as a Red Cross nurse and became a notable painter in France; doughboy Sidney F. Smith, survivor and hero of the infamous “Lost Battalion;” and James Watson Gerard, U.S. ambassador to Berlin until the U.S. declaration of war and husband to Mary Daly of the famous mining family. The catalog essay  by UM Professor of Art History and Criticism H. Rafael Chacón addresses the abstract concept of the enemy, both abroad and within.

The history of the War of 1812 has been dominated by scrutiny of the duelling frigates, squadron actions, and the British blockade of American ports. Yet, during the conflict from 1812 to 1815, sailors and marines were just as likely to be involved in maritime raiding operations and other irregular missions as they were to work the 'great guns' in ship versus ship combat. This paper reexamines operations on the Great Lakes, and particularly Lake Ontario, in order to illuminate the role of irregular operations and small unit and small craft actions. These types of operations were common throughout the age of sail, but receive little attention from scholars. In order to broaden the scope of operational naval history, and the understanding of the roles and missions of naval forces, a wider investigation of naval irregular warfare is warranted both in the War of 1812 and across naval history more generally.

This article examines the impact of cultural perceptions on military operations, using the history of the Spanish army in Morocco as a case study. Emphasizing what they regarded as the fundamentally non-Western character of indigenous North African warfare, top Spanish officers initially doubted the applicability of European military methods in Morocco. They also erroneously attributed a “native” quality to military practices that Europeans themselves had brought to the Maghreb, such as the razzia in its modern, colonial form. Cultural prejudices about Moroccan capabilities contributed to the massive rout of Spanish forces in 1921 near the Rifian settlement of Anwal (Annual)—the greatest defeat of any colonial army in twentieth-century Africa. After Anwal, the Spanish army’s dominant cultural conceptions evolved, as influential officers increasingly championed the viability of European military methods in North Africa, took steps to “de-exoticize” the Moroccan enemy, and stressed similarities rather than differences between Spaniards and Moroccans. Although traditional prejudices persisted, the cultural conceptions of prominent officers became more nuanced and less negative, facilitating relatively successful counterinsurgency and military occupation.

Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, more than 500,000 civilians were evacuated either side of the French-German border. For these refugees, totalling more than 1 million, the ten months that followed were a veritable domestic exile (éxil intérieur). For obvious reasons, such a measure was not prepared from one day to the other. Preparations for the evacuations in both countries had begun a lot sooner in France than in Germany, yet in either case experienced significant changes to what had originally been envisaged. In the present contribution, planning evacuation of civilians between the two fortified lines (Maginot Line and Siegfried Line) is analysed and compared in detail.

Few navies have been immune from mutiny in the twentieth century, but the question of how and why naval discipline sometimes breaks down has received little scholarly attention. This book brings together a set of readable and up-to-date essays examining mutinies in the navies of Russia (the Potemkin mutiny, 1905), Brazil (1910), Austria-Hungary (1918), Germany (1918), France (1919), Australia (1919), Chile (1931), Great Britain (the Invergordon mutiny, 1931), the United States (the Port Chicago mutiny, 1944), India (1946), China (1949), and Canada (1949).

The nature of these incidents varied widely, but all represented a deliberate assault on naval or political authority. The objectives of the mutineers ranged from limited reforms of a purely naval nature to overtly political goals and, in rare cases, to outright revolution. The first twelve chapters in this book address the causes of a particular mutiny, its long-and short-term repercussions, and the course of the mutiny itself. Taking advantage of new research and new methodologies, the contributors provide something of value to both the specialist and non-specialist reader.

The volume concludes with an essay by the editors shedding important new light on the dynamics at work in the outbreak, development, and resolution of modern naval mutinies. It shows that mutinies in democratic, western states usually differed fundamentally from those in authoritarian regimes or less-developed societies. In the former, incidents were usually short-lived and non-violent. They tended to spread easily from ship to ship, but the mutineers' demands remained moderate and limited. In the latter, mutinies were less frequent, but were more often characterized by violence, escalating demands, and revolutionary intent.

Looking forward, the authors' conclude that the days when sailors might rebel against their immediate superiors to seize control of a warship are probably long gone. But as long as western states rely on broad and imprecise definitions, incidents will continue to occur that meet all of the legal criteria for mutiny, even if there is a reluctance to use the term. The potential for major naval mutinies probably remains, however, in non-democratic states like China and throughout the underdeveloped world.

From 1916 to 1918 the "Tirailleurs Somalis" were the only military unit from the Horn of Africa to operate on the Western Front, distinguishing itself at Verdun and in the Chemin des Dames offensive. The allies were concerned that the strong sympathies of the Ethiopian Crown Prince Lïj Iyasu toward the Central Powers could favour an alliance with Muḥammad 'Abd Allāh Ḥassān.

Roman roads are the backbone of British history. This book examines the questions that never seem to be asked about Roman roads. Whilst new routes are traced and theories propounded about how they were surveyed, the important issues like Why? and When? have been neglected. How does an animal track turn into a major military highway? Were there any roads in the prehistoric period? How the Romans built their roads is assessed using comparative information (such as the detailed 18th-century records of Highland military road construction). The way the system functioned is examined and most particularly the often-ignored point of how it developed and changed in the Roman period. Change is a theme pursued for the early medieval period, as the importance of some parts of the system ensured their continuation whilst others were abandoned. What processes preserved a road, and what made it decay? Finally the book looks at the legacy of Roman roads now and the way in which they have been viewed and studied in recent times is considered.
An accompanying website provides links to related material (online sources of information and map resources) together with access to a Google Earth map derived from Margary’s description of the roads of Britain.

While practitioners and historians have long noted the importance of leadership in war, the scholarship on military effectiveness has generally ignored the role of leadership. This essay uses the scholarship on strategy, leadership, and military performance to develop a strategic leadership theory of military effectiveness. The theory proposes that strategic leadership can have two effects on military performance. First, a strategic leader can increase combat power by creating an advantageous context for battle through the development and implementation of an effective theory of success (strategy). Second, a strategic leader can increase motivation by inculcating an identity and values in the fighting force consistent with the leader’s strategy. A case study of General Matthew Ridgway’s leadership intervention in the Korean War suggests the potential analytical utility of a strategic leadership explanation of military effectiveness.

The Battle of Alarcos.
The Alarcos' defeat left Castilia at the mercy of its enemies. In one hand. the King of Leon. Alphonse IX entered the fight by the Tierra de Campos while in the North. Sancho VII from Navarre. was threatening the fortified towns of Soria and Almazan. During the two following years. the Castilians saw that so many fortresses situated in the frontier line like Calatrava, Malagon, Caracuel or Alarcos were captured by the Agarens. Abu Yusuf even reached Toledo and Alcala. The Christians were terrified and thought that their frontiers could withdraw anew until the Sierra de Guadarrama. During the second campaign the fortresses of Santa Cruz, Trujillo, Montanchez, Talavera and Escalona were caught. In 1197, the Caliph launched a new offensive even more daring that allowed him to reach Madrid. Guadalajara and Toledo's gates and then he went against Huete, Ucles, Cuenca and Alarcon.

Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Allied Commander of the armies that defeated the Central Powers, made a significant contribution to the development of the doctrine of trench warfare throughout the First World War. Yet his name is barely remembered in British popular discourses about the conflict. Jonathan Krause analyses how Foch’s tactical and operational thinking developed in the crucial period of 1915–16.

The Falklands War has been described and experienced as disproportionately traumatic. The war was the first following the consolidation of the diagnostic for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as the measurement for the traumatic nature of combat. Whilst a variety of different disciplines and literatures have explored the traumatic nature of warfare, the experiences and accounts of Falklands veterans have been key to the popularization of the PTSD model, as well as to campaigns around the treatment and rehabilitation of ex-combatants. Ex-combatants' Falklands memoirs share a number of explanations of trauma with the wider literature. However, Falklands soldiers' memoirs also provide invaluable insight into both the specificity of their battlefield experience, and suggest wider universal lessons on trauma more generally. Although presented as individual accounts, central to Falklands memoirs is the importance of the military collective body in maintaining resilience to, and enabling recuperation from, the traumatic impact of combat.

The Mongols are widely known for one thing: conquest. In the first comprehensive history of the Horde, the western portion of the Mongol empire that arose after the death of Chinggis Khan, Marie Favereau shows that the accomplishments of the Mongols extended far beyond war. For three hundred years, the Horde was no less a force in global development than Rome had been. It left behind a profound legacy in Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and the Middle East, palpable to this day.

The history of the Somali Armed Forces, principally the army, forms
an important part of studying the Somali civil war. Two key themes
are evident from 1960: the pursuit of an irredentist agenda beyond
reasonable limits, which led to the downfall of Siad Barre’s regime,
and the clan divisions and agendas that Barre used to shore up
his rule in the 1980s and that have bedeviled the rebirth of the
Somali Army in the twenty-first century. With the twentiethcentury
context covered, and in some places reinterpreted, this
article then focuses on the uncertain rebirth of the Somali Armed
Forces since 2008, using a host of primary and United Nations
official sources. Assistance efforts have been focused on
Mogadishu, but limited success has been made in forming truly
national armed forces. Future prospects are uncertain, but there
are some signs of hope.

Gestützt auf Gerichtsakten des ICTY wird die organisatorische
Beziehung zwischen in Bosnien-Herzegowina und Kroatien agierenden paramilitärischen
Verbänden und regulären staatlichen Institutionen Serbiens bzw. Kroatiens
analysiert. Dabei kann nachgewiesen werden, dass sowohl die in Kroatien als
auch die in Bosnien-Herzegowina eingesetzten serbischen paramilitärischen
Verbände in geheimdienstliche Strukturen des Belgrader Milošević-Regimes eingebunden
waren. Für die in Bosnien-Herzegowina agierenden paramilitärischen
kroatischen Verbände ist eine Verbindung zu staatlichen Organen des »Mutterlandes
« Kroatien nicht zweifelsfrei nachweisbar; eine Betrachtung der militärischgeheimdienstlichen
Netzwerke zeigt aber engste Verbindungen zwischen der politisch-
militärischen Führung in Zagreb und paramilitärischen Verbänden in der
Herzegowina.
Vorliegender Artikel ist zugleich als Beitrag zur laufenden geschichtswissenschaftlichen
Diskussion über Methoden, Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Neuesten
Militärgeschichte ab 1990 zu verstehen. Es wird am konkreten Beispiel der »Jugoslawienkriege
« argumentiert, dass ein quellenbasierter, moderner, durch geheimdienstgeschichtliche
und kommunikationswissenschaftliche Ansätze erweiterter
Umgang mit organisations- und operationsgeschichtlichen »harten« Fragestellungen
unabdingbar ist und keineswegs durch theoretisierende, abstrakte Betrachtungen
ersetzt werden kann.

This article explores the military use of dogs in the west, principally from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. It is argued that the use of ‘war dogs’ was a recurrent but essentially ad hoc, sporadic and localized practice, quite distinct from the regular dog handling units that were established in the late nineteenth century. However, from the earliest phases of European colonization in the fifteenth century, another tradition, which employed dogs as weapons and instruments of torture, developed in the context of racialized warfare. The legacy of this infamous practice would be felt again in the twentieth century.

This article traces the plight of the widows of Scottish soldiers who participated in the Thirty Years' War. Contrasting a number of strategies the women used in two main contrasting legal systems (Dutch & Swedish), this article offers an alternative to the usual worn narrative that women were abandoned or had no agency. Indeed from the wives of generals to the common soldiers it is clear that women could rely on a combination of kith and kin structures and state and crown intervention to recover pensions and property. Some widows made the long journey to the state they petitioned to claim their rights, others returned home from abroad.

This is a pilot project for a much larger survey on the topic and the authors welcome feedback on it.

A qualitative (auto-ethnographic) exploration of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and civil-military relations under apartheid. Some pointers on future civil-military relations and space for future research is mentioned. Unpublished PhD. 2008. University of South Africa (Unisa), Pretoria, South Africa.