Military History Monthly 056 2015-05

May 2015 Ɩ Issue 56 Ɩ £4.25 www.military-history.org

FIRE AND SWORD

Uncovering Caesar’s Gallic War

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Win Waterloo What really happened in the final two h

ANZACS AT GALLIPOLI

Eyewitness accounts from the invasion beaches

RMS LUSITANIA

The most notorious U-boat assault of WWI

MHM

MILITARY

May 2015 Ɩ Issue 56 Ɩ £4.25

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FIRE AND SWORD

Uncovering Caesar’s Gallic War

+ Did EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Martin Brown Archaeological Advisor, Defence Estates, Ministry of Defence

Mark Corby Military historian, lecturer, and broadcaster

Paul Cornish Curator, Imperial War Museum

Gary Gibbs Assistant Curator, The Guards Museum

Angus Hay Former Army Officer, military historian, and lecturer

Nick Hewitt Historian, National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth

Nigel Jones Historian, biographer, and journalist

Alastair Massie Head of Archives, Photos, Film, and Sound, National Army Museum

Gabriel Moshenska Research Fellow, Institute of Archaeology, UCL

Colin Pomeroy Squadron Leader, Royal Air Force (Ret.), and historian

Michael Prestwich Emeritus Professor of History, University of Durham

Nick Saunders Senior Lecturer, University of Bristol

Guy Taylor Military archivist, and archaeologist

Julian Thompson Major-General, Visiting Professor at London University

Dominic Tweddle

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WELLING

Win Waterloo

T

he Battle of Waterloo was decided in the final two hours. Two masters of war – masters of very different tactical systems – were pitted against one another. Neither was likely to be outwitted by the other. So it came to a long, hard ‘soldier’s battle’. Wellington could not risk open manoeuvre with his ragbag army in the face of an enemy that excelled in mobile shockaction. So he clung to the Mont St Jean Ridge, sheltering his men from the French guns in its lee, carefully nursing his line under the hammer-blows of the French columns of attack. Napoleon had to try to bleed Wellington to death. Waterloo was a battle of attrition, the steady wearing down of physical and moral resilience leaving both armies brittle and ready to snap as afternoon turned to evening. The climax was the struggle of the French elite, Napoleon’s Imperial Guard, in the final two hours. One half defended the fortified village of Plancenoit against the Prussians. The other half launched a frontal assault on Wellington’s withered line. Nigel Sale claims that only the independent initiative of the 52nd Light Infantry prevented the Guard from breaking the Anglo-Dutch-Belgian army in two. Paul Dawson insists that the Prussian penetration of the French rear was decisive. Our special this issue explores the arguments. Also this time, Nico Roymans and Manuel Fernández-Götz report on the archaeological evidence for Roman ‘fire and sword’ in Caesar’s conquest of Gaul, Stephen Roberts explores the impact of the sinking of the Lusitania, a hundred years ago this month, and we open three windows on the grim Anzac experience on Gallipoli, also marking the anniversary.

hat really happened in the final two h

ANZACS AT GALLIPOLI

Eyewitness accounts from the invasion beaches

RMS LUSITANIA

The most notorious U-boat assault of WWI

ON THE COVER: The Duke of Wellington by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Image: Bridgeman Art Library

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Director-General, National Museum of the Royal Navy

ADD US NOW and have your say

Greg Bayne President, American Civil War Table of the UK

CONTRIBUTORS THIS MONTH’S EXPERTS STEPHEN ROBERTS is a former history teacher and historian, who has written several times for MHM, including cover stories on Edward III and the Siege of Leningrad.

NIGEL SALE served for 12 years in the 1st Green Jackets, 43rd and 52nd, and is the author of The Lie at the Heart of Waterloo, published in November 2014.

NICO ROYMANS holds the Chair for West-European Archaeology at the Archaeological Centre of VU University in Amsterdam. He has published extensively on Celto-Germanic societies.

MANUEL FERNÁNDEZ-GÖTZ is Chancellor Fellow at the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. He has authored some 100 publications.

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May 2015 | ISSUE 56

ON THE COVER

The Battle of Waterloo To mark the anniversary of the famous clash, MHM takes an in-depth look at the closing stages of the battle with a focus on the final assault of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard.

26 Welcome

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Letters

7

Notes from the Frontline

8 10

MHM studies a striking photograph taken on VE Day, 8 May 1945.

Conflict Scientists

Mark Bryant analyses the reactions of the world’s cartoonists to the sinking of the Lusitania.

14

18 The sinking of the Lusitania

U-boat assault Stephen Roberts explores the story of the one of the most notorious submarine attacks of WWI.

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Patrick Boniface summarises the controversial career of Wernher von Braun.

War Culture

Battle map Key to victory The assault Warriors & weapons Order of battle

FEATURES

UPFRONT

Behind the Image

INCLUDES:

44 Gallipoli 1915

The Anzac experience

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MHM describes the first critical hours of the campaign and the futility of the fighting on The Nek. Plus an Anzac eyewitness account of the conditions at Lone Pine.

52 Fire and sword The archaeology of Caesar’s Gallic War Manuel Fernández-Götz and Nico Roymans discuss what Roman conquest meant for the defeated.

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MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

May 2015

ITORIAL tor: Neil Faulkner [email protected] puty Editor: George Clode [email protected] tor-at-large: Andrew Selkirk [email protected] b Editor: Simon Coppock t Editor: Mark Edwards [email protected] signer: Lauren Gamp [email protected] naging Editor: Maria Earle [email protected] naging Director: Rob Selkirk mb House, Church Street, London, W4 2PD : 020 8819 5580

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70 BACK AT BASE | MHM REVIEWS

IN THE FIELD | MHM VISITS Museum | 70

War on Film | 60

David Flintham visits the Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Belgium.

Taylor Downing reviews the brilliant WWII German biopic, Downfall.

Listings | 72

Book of the Month | 64 Jonathan Eaton on Adam Tooze’s The Deluge: the Great War and the remaking of the global order.

Books | 67 Jules Stewart on The Tears of the Rajas by Ferdinand Mount and Waterloo Voices 1815 by Martyn Beardsley. David Flintham on The Great War: memory and ritual by Mark Connelly.

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PATTERSON’S BATTERY ASSAULT Your article about the Battle of New Orleans (MHM 54) fails to mention the action on the west bank of the Mississippi. The map provided clearly shows Patterson’s Battery, which was constructed by the Americans to enfilade the British attack. To counter this, an amphibious assault was mounted to coincide with the main attack. This was led by one Thornton, who, being late in arriving, expedited the assault by ordering his men to fire a volley and then charge in with the bayonet. The Americans defending the battery did what was expected of them and moved rapidly to the rear in great confusion. The battery was captured in short order. The main battle could have been included alongside the articles on Sebastapol and Petersburg as an earlier example of what happens when infantry assaults an entrenched position well provided with artillery. Philip Francis Weston-super-Mare

NUMBER MUDDLE Thanks for another excellent copy of MHM. As someone who grew up near Chesil Beach, I have always been fascinated by the Barnes Wallis ‘bouncing bomb’ story and the subsequent Operation Chastise (MHM 55). But it was not, of course, 611 Squadron that carried the Highball Bomb, but No 617 Squadron with its modified Lancasters. At the time of the dams raid, No 611 Squadron was operating Spitfires! Colin Pomeroy Editorial Advisory Board

MUSIC CHANGING HISTORY Modern students of history may be largely unaware of the Battle of New Orleans (MHM 54), but to many of us brought up in the 1950s the

battle is very well known. This was because the ‘King of Skiffle’, Lonnie Donegan, spent four weeks at number two in the charts with his slightly tongue-incheek cover version of Johnny Horton’s US number one hit, Battle of New Orleans. The historical content of the song was somewhat questionable, but it nevertheless made quite an impact on our growing years. Bill Ridley Folkstone

WHITTLE’S UNIVERSITY EDUCATION In your short item on Frank Whittle (MHM 54) you say he was self-educated. In one respect at least this is untrue: he took first-class honours in the mechanical sciences tripos at my old college – Peterhouse, Cambridge – in 1936, after completing his RAF officer engineering course. The college has just acquired some very interesting papers relating to Power Jets Ltd, which it had on show with Whittle’s college papers at our annual dinner last year. Henry Shipley Northumberland MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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Our round-up of this month’s military history news

DEATH OF A PHARAOH He may have led a king’s life, but new forensic evidence gleaned from the remains of Pharaoh Senebkay indicates that the Egyptian ruler died in battle after being attacked by multiple assailants. Last year, the tomb of king Senebkay (c.1650-1600 BCE) was discovered at the site of Abydos by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Museum working in association with Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities. Now the team led by Dr

Josef Wegner of the Penn Museum has completed a detailed study of Senebkay’s skeleton, as well as the remains of several other kings whose tombs have been discovered nearby. ‘Forensic analysis has provided some new answers about the life, and death, of this ancient Egyptian king,’ noted Dr. Wegner, ‘while raising a host of new questions about both Senebkay and the Second Intermediate Period, of which he was a part.’ Pharaoh Woseribre Senebkay, who lived during the later part of Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period (c.1650-1550 BCE), is now the earliest Egyptian pharaoh whose remains show he died in battle. Detailed analysis by Dr Maria Rosado and Dr Jane Hill of Rowan

University has documented an extensive array of wounds on Senebkay’s skeleton showing he died aged 35-40 years old during a vicious assault from multiple assailants. The king’s skeleton has 18 wounds that penetrated to the bone. The patterns of wounds to Senebkay’s body suggest he was attacked while in an elevated position relative to his assailants, quite possibly mounted on horseback. Another surprising result of the osteological analysis is that muscle attachments on Senebkay’s femurs and pelvis indicate he spent a significant amount of his adult life as a horse rider.

Although use of horseback riding in warfare was not common until after the Bronze Age, the Egyptians appear to have been mastering the use of horses during the Second Intermediate Period. Horseback riding may have played a growing role in military movements during this era, even before the full advent of chariot technology in Egypt. Continued excavations by the Penn Museum researchers in collaboration with the National Geographic Society hope to shed further light on Senebkay, his rule, and the other kings buried near him.

beautifully composed portraits of the men and women preparing to head home. In a year of retrospective imagery surrounding the centenary of the First World War, these images provide a fresh perspective on the photography of conflict. Stuart Allan, Principal Curator of Scottish Late Modern Collections at National Museums Scotland, said, ‘Helmand Return

is a compelling denouement to the story presented in Robert Wilson’s previous exhibition, Helmand: Faces of Conflict, of images taken during the height of the British military operation. Robert’s pictures offer a different impression from the reportage we are used to seeing, and these images invite reflection not just on the recent British experience but also on the future for Afghanistan.’

Helmand Return exhibition opens A new exhibition, Helmand Return, opened at the National War Museum in Edinburgh on 27 February, showcasing the latest body of work from renowned photographer Robert Wilson. The exhibition documents British troops’ final tour of Afghanistan and builds on his 2008 project Helmand: Faces of Conflict, which exhibited at the National War Museum in 2009.

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MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

In 2014 Wilson revisited Afghanistan as an official war artist, tasked with recording the British troops’ final operational tour. The resulting exhibition offers a unique perspective on a much-documented conflict, allowing a rare insight into the process of withdrawing from a war zone. In each of the pictures, Wilson captures the essence of the human and logistical challenges faced during he transfer of responibility and withdrawal, ncluding many neverbefore recorded sights both on and off base. mages include a soldier sculpting a metal rose from shrapnel for loved one back home, intimate glimpses of life in the camp, and

May 2015

A damned serious business

Hidden message Lying nestled and out of sigh nearly 70 years, a letter writte little boy to his friend during has been discovered at Blair during its winter conservation works. The short letter, which has been behind a radiator in the grand ballroom since 1945, is believed to be correspondence between two young evacuees to the safety of the countryside until the end of the war. Now the team at Blair Castle is appealing to the public to see if they can track down the two young friends, who may now be in their 80s, to reunite them with the lost note, as well as keepsakes including dominos, cigarette cards, and an unusual golf game involving a dice. The almost perfectly preserved letter was written by Archie to his friend, or possibly relative, Bill, a resident of Blair Castle at the time. The letter begins by asking after Bill, then comments on how quiet it is without him, and goes on to tell him of another friend, Jackie, who is ‘going away for good’. The heading on the letter indicates that

staying at Boturich Castle in Dunbartonshire and, going by the location of the letter, Bill was a resident at Blair Castle. Stuart Letford, Marketing and Communications Officer at Blair Castle, said, ‘If this letter sparks a memory for anyone, we would love to hear from them. Blair Castle is steeped in over 700 years of history and this remarkable little find is another story to add to a chapter in the castle’s long and rich history.’ The castle’s archive team also found a photograph of the 8th Duke of Atholl with evacuees who stayed in the area during WWII. If you know who Archie or Bill are please contact Blair Castle on 01796 481411 or email [email protected]

100 DAYS IN 100 OBJECTS An online exhibition, curated by the University of Warwick, will provide a new angle on the Battle of Waterloo, whose bicentennial anniversary is commemorated this year. The events of the battle have bee well studied. What few people know, however, is that Napoleon had already been defeated and exiled one year earlier, and that in February 1815, escaped from Elba, raised an army, and marched on Paris. Having toppled the newly restored monarchy, he reinstated the Empire. Only then did face the Allies at Waterloo in June. The exhibition will trace Napoleon’s return and defeat by releasing one object for each day of the period known as the ‘100 Days’. The exhibits have been selected by an international array of Napoleonic scholars and museums. Dr Kate Astbury, of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Warwick, said, ‘We wanted to put the Battle of Waterloo into context, and move away from the traditional British focus on the “duel” between Napoleon and Wellington.’ Professor Mark Philp from the University of

Warwick History Department dded, ‘We hope that what ’ve provided is a nuanced, der picture of the events to the Battle of Waterloo, and their political ramifications. ‘Whereas by 1814 most of Europe thought the radicalism of the French Revolution had finally been contained, the 100 Days showed that a monarchy couldn’t simply be restored by European alliance as if nothing had happened. ‘By moving beyond the largely military terms of the usual discussion of 1815, this exhibition draws attention both to civilian and popular responses to this dramatic period, and its implications for the political landscape of Europe.’ The online exhibition has been live since 23 February 2015 at www.100days.eu

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A letter written from the bodystrewn battlefield at Waterloo, an invasion map of the UK, and a book from Napoleon’s personal library in exile will go on display in Cambridge during one of the first major Waterloo exhibitions of the bicentenary commemorations. A Damned Serious Business: Waterloo 1815, the Battle and its Books will be opened by the current Duke of Wellington, Charles Wellesley, at Cambridge University Library on 30 April 2015. The exhibition runs until 16 September 2015. Looking at how Waterloo was written about in the immediate aftermath of the battle, it draws on the rich and varied collections at the library and includes political propaganda, broadsheets, military drill-books, maps, plans, coloured engravings, and early historical accounts of the bloodshed.

MHM FRONTLINE

NEWS IN BRIEF

Gallipoli: setting the record straight A new exhibition at the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) will mark the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign. Gallipoli: Myth and Memory will show that the Royal Navy was instrumental in supporting operations on land, and highlight how the Gallipoli campaign was supported, supplied, and eventually evacuated by all branches of the naval service. MHM contributor, historian, and NMRN Strategic Development Executive Nick Hewitt said, ‘The exhibition is designed to put the Royal Navy back at the heart of the Gallipoli story. The importance of the Navy’s contribution from Royal Marines, the submarine service, the Royal Naval Air Service, and the surface fleet, is too often overlooked by history. We plan to set the record straight.’

Uniforms boost charity auction The Great Charity Auction for The Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London has received a valuable collection of uniforms and head-dresses. The collection, from an anonymous donor, includes uniforms from the Crimean War through to WWI and WWII, National Service and later. It covers the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force. Delighted auctioneer Colonel David James remarked, ‘This collection, added to the many uniforms, medals and militaria already received, takes the number of lots to 600, and we have brought forward the auction date to 28 June.’

MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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MHM BEHIND THE IMAGE

A NEW ERA

Image: Imperial War Museum

VE DAY, 8 MAY 1945 We are all familiar with photos depicting jubilant crowds of people celebrating the end of the Second World War. They are shown racing through the streets of Piccadilly or crammed together outside the balcony at Whitehall as Churchill waves, exultant relief on their faces, bottles and flags in their hands. Victory in Europe (VE) Day marked the official conclusion of the six-year world war against Hitler and his allies. Civilians and soldiers around the world had endured loss, pain, and suffering which, with Churchill’s famous announcement, was finally at an end. At 3pm in Trafalgar Square, the day after his official declaration of victory, Churchill’s voice was broadcast to the crowds of thousands. He later gave an impromptu speech on the balcony of the Ministry of Health, in which he told the crowds, ‘This is your victory!’ While these scenes of public celebration were plastered on front pages throughout Europe, what was not depicted so widely were the moments of personal celebration and individual reflection on 8 May 1945. In this image we see the ground crew on an RAF Bomber Command station in Britain returning the V-sign to a neighbouring searchlight crew. Silhouetted is the nose of a Lancaster. It is a touching, quiet, yet striking photograph, which contrasts drastically with the frantic VE Day images we are accustomed to seeing. For those who had lost friends and loved ones in the war, the VE Day parties were doubleedged. The war was over, but the physical and mental wounds it inflicted would take longer to heal. Once the streets were cleared of the celebrating crowds, the country faced a challenging period of peace. Half a million homes had been destroyed, thousands of civilians had been killed. VE Day signified the end of that time of suffering, and Churchill’s defeat at the General Election only two months later heralded the dawning of a new era.

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MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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Patrick Boniface considers the influence of science on warfare

The rocket worked perfectly except for landing on the wrong planet.

WERNHER VON BRAUN

“

Wernher von Braun

TIMELINE 23 March 1912: Born in Wyrzysk, Poland. As a teenager developed liquid-fuelled rockets. 1937-1945: Sturmbannführer in the SS and developed V1 and V2 rockets at Peenemunde. 1945: Captured by American forces and taken to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. 1960: Director of NASA Marshall Space Flight Centre. 1969: Landed men on the moon.

T

he controversial Wernher von Braun was born into privilege, driven by scientific curiosity, but funded by a wicked totalitarian state. His affiliation with the Nazi party led to accusations of being a career Nazi – claims von Braun denied to his dying day. Von Braun’s father Magnus served as Minister of Agriculture in the Weimar Republic and his mother was descended from German royalty. As a youngster he was fascinated by the study of space and the mechanics of rocketry. In 1925 he acquired a copy of Die Rakete zu den Planetenraumen (By Rocket into Interplanetary Space) by rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth. He and Oberth would later jointly develop liquid-fuelled rocket motors. Funding for these experiments came partially from the German Army. Secretly he wanted his rockets to be aimed at space and not for war. By the end of 1934 his group had successfully launched two rockets that rose to heights of 2.2 and 3.5km. Von Braun incorporated a great deal of American physicist Robert H Goddard’s plans into the building of the

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MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

RIGHT Wernher von Braun stands by the five F-1 engines of the Saturn V Dynamic Test Vehicle on display at the US Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Alabama.

Aggregat (A) series of rockets, the most famous of which was the A4 (V2) rocket. After 1934 production of rockets was accelerated and a large facility was developed at Peenemunde. The site was subjected to repeated heavy air raids, including Operation Hydra on 17/18 August 1943 when 596 aircraft dropped 1,800 tonnes of bombs. The first V2 rocket was launched against London on 7 September 1944. It was a day of mixed feelings for von Braun. His rocket had performed flawlessly but his obsession with space travel would not leave him, and he was heard to remark, ‘The rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet.’ The destruction his rocket had wrought caused him to describe it as his ‘darkest day’.

SLAVE LABOUR Much of the criticism directed at von Braun stemmed from the use of slave May 2015

labour. The need had been identified by the brutal SS General Hans Kammler. In fact by the end of the war more people died building the V2s than were killed by them exploding. On 14 August 1944, von Braun wrote a letter to Albin Sawatzki, manager of the V2 production, admitting that he had personally picked labour slaves from the Buchenwald concentration camp, whom he admitted 25 years later had been in a ‘pitiful state’. He went on to say, ‘It is hellish. My spontaneous reaction was to talk to one of the SS guards, only to be told with unmistakable harshness that I should mind my own business, or find myself in the same striped fatigues…’ The Nazi regime, although satisfied with the V2 rockets, was unsure of von Braun’s loyalties. He had been under SS surveillance since October 1943. A report stated that he was said

to have expressed regret that they were not working on a spaceship and felt the war was not going well. Himmler had also wrongly accused him of being a Communist sympathiser, and both incidents led to von Braun being arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo on 14 March 1944. He was only released after Albert Speer personally pleaded with Adolf Hitler that he was too important for the V2 programme. In the spring of 1945 von Braun could see that Germany was losing the war and prepared plans to surrender to the Americans. Fake documents were made and he and his team fled south to an area at Mittelwerk, where they resumed their work. By April the war was almost over and von Braun and his team were moved by train to Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps. Here they were closely guarded by the SS, who had orders to

IN CONTEXT: VON BRAUN

Ballistic foundations

The harsh restrictions placed on Germany at Versailles meant they could not have armed forces or develop new aircraft, submarines, or combat vehicles. There were, however, no restrictions on rocketry. Wernher von Braun had been an avid ‘rocketeer’ since childhood. In the 1930s the Nazis financed von Braun’s experiments to refine his somewhat crude devices into weapons. Initial ambition and gung-ho attitude meant numerous mistakes, some of which almost cost him his life at the hands of the SS, the same organisation he later joined to further his career. His questionable ethics also saw slave labour from concentration camps forced to build V2 missiles in horrible conditions, all with von Braun’s knowledge. The V1 and V2 missiles that von Braun’s team developed at Peenemunde came too late in the war to be effective as anything other than terror weapons, but they laid the foundations for today’s ballistic missiles.

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execute them if they were about to be captured by the Americans.

VON BRAUN’S SURRENDER On 2 May 1945, however, von Braun successfully surrendered to American forces. After his surrender he said to the press, ‘We knew we had created a new means of warfare, and the question of what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else. We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through, and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured.’ Capturing Wernher von Braun was a coup – he was number one on the Americans’ Black List, the code name for the list of German scientists and engineers targeted for immediate interrogation. The Americans knew the value of the Germans’ expertise and von Braun and most of his team were recruited for the secret project, Operation Paperclip. On 20 June 1945 the US Secretary of State Edward Stettinius Jr approved von Braun’s transfer to the United States and his Nazi party membership was expunged. On 20 September of that same year, the first of the German rocket scientists went to New Castle Army Air Field in Delaware and then on to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to continue rocketry research. Later they were moved to Fort Bliss for the Hermes project to develop the

QUOTES FROM WERNHER VON BRAUN

MHM CONFLICT SCIENTISTS

BELOW A US Army cutaway of the V2 rocket.

I have learned to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution. ” Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.” Our two greatest problems are gravity and paperwork. We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.” The best computer is a man, and it’s the only one that can be mass produced by unskilled labour.” One test result is worth one thousand expert opinions.” V2 rockets. The Germans were not allowed off base without guards and they started referring to themselves as ‘prisoners of peace’. In 1950 the team was transferred to Huntsville, Alabama, where they developed the Redstone and Jupiter C rockets. The success of Sputnik finally saw the Americans properly fund rocket research and von Braun was central to their plans to put a man in space. Wernher von Braun retired from NASA on 26 May 1972 and died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 65 on 16 June 1977. æ MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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The reactions of the world’s cartoonists to the sinking of the Lusitania reflected the editorial stance taken by their publications, as well as national public opinion in their countries. Many cartoonists from neutral and Allied nations produced savage drawings attacking the Germans and featuring a bloodyhanded Kaiser or crazy German monster figure. Among these were Lusitania Amok, and The Lusitania Nightmare by the Dutchman Louis Raemaekers for Holland’s De Telegraaf. The USA, then also neutral, produced images such as Out of the Depths by Oscar Cesare for the New York Sun, showing a huge pickelhaube-helmeted figure of Death holding a giant trident on which the Lusitania has been speared like a fish. Others included Contraband of War by Robert D Carter of the New York Evening Sun, with Uncle Sam carrying a drowned girl, and the recruiting poster Only the Navy Can Stop This by the New York Herald ’s W. A. Rogers in which a giant German figure wielding a bloody sword strides through bodies in the sea. British cartoons included A Good Story by Sidney Strube of the Daily Express, featuring the Kaiser and Admiral Tirpitz relaxing over tankards of beer beneath a poster which reads: ‘Lusitania Torpedoed! Great Harvest of Women and Babies’. F C Gould in the Westminster Gazette produced His Latest Battue with the Kaiser and Tirpitz dressed in hunting attire and examining their ‘bag’ of bodies under a sheet marked ‘Lusitania’. Bernard Partridge of Punch, meanwhile, drew a famous recruiting poster, Take up the Sword of Justice, which showed Lusitania sinking in the background. French cartoons included Victory Forecast by Lucien Métivet for Le Rire, which has the Kaiser writing up his report of the attack on a cliff top while Lusitania sinks and a giant Uncle Sam shakes his fist. Also in Le Rire was a drawing by Jules-Felix Grandjouan showing Uncle Sam writing on the side of a British liner, ‘You can torpedo this ship – it carries no Americans’. A German cartoon, English Commercial Dreadnought, for Kladderadatsch magazine by the American-born Arthur Johnson shows a huge multi-gunned British battleship with the words on its prow, ‘Take care – don’t torpedo – Americans on board.’ And in The Valuable Cargo, a 1916 cartoon from Simplicissimus, the captain of a German ship says, ‘All right men, the old lady with the blue glasses is an American. Nobody save her by mistake if we’re torpedoed.’ Finally, not only press cartoons featured the Lusitania incident. In 1918, pioneering US animator Winsor McCay also produced a silent animated short film entitled The Sinking of the Lusitania.

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AN OMEN OF 1908 Punch, 19 May 1915 Reproduced from 'Christmas Cards for Celebrities’, Punch's Almanack for 1908, 1907 The caption for this cartoon reads: 'The records achieved by the Lusitania had recently created a jealousy which the Kaiser and his friend, Ballin, of the Hamburg-America Line, have now appeased.'

BRITANNIA TO AMERICA, ON THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA F.H.Townsend, Punch, 12 May 1915

MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS ‘Well, have you nearly done?’ Louis Raemaekers, De Telegraaf, 1915

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K. Grus, Mucha, 1915 In this Polish cartoon one German sailor says: ‘Don’t shoot – I’ll finish her off myself,’ while the other replies: ‘Why? She’ll complete my dozen, and for each dozen the Kaiser promises a 100-mark reward.’

MHM WAR CULTURE

8 MAY 1915, OFF THE COAST OF IRELAND

ENGLISH COMMERCIAL DREADNOUGHT (CHURCHILLTYPE), FOR MUNITIONS AND PASSENGER TRANSPORT Arthur Johnson, Kladderadatsch, 23 May 1915 Winston Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911 until 1915.

[UNTITLED] Jules-Félix Grandjouan, Le Rire, 31 July 1915 The sign on the side of the ship reads: ‘You can torpedo this ship – it carries no Americans’.

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‘LUSITANIA’ AMOK ‘Gott strafe England, or I will do it myself.’ Louis Raemaekers, De Telegraaf, 1915

ONLY THE NAVY CAN STOP THIS W.A.Rogers, US Navy Publicity Bureau poster, 1917 This poster is based on a cartoon originally drawn for the New York Herald.

GO FURTHER

CONTRABAND OF WAR

Mark Bryant is the author of World War I in Cartoons, The World’s Greatest War Cartoonists & Caricaturists, 1792-1945 and other books. For our in-depth analysis of the Sinking of the Lusitania, turn to page 18.

Robert D. Carter, New York Evening Sun, 11 May 1915 In the background of this cartoon, note the Kaiser’s mailed fist behind the submarine holding an apology for the act.

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LUSITANIA

THE SINKING OF THE

Lusitania

Stephen Roberts recalls the most notorious U-boat attack of the First World War.

U

-20 struck without warning. It fired a torpedo and in as little as 18 minutes Lusitania, the queen of the Cunard fleet, had sunk. The transatlantic liner was sunk off southern Ireland on 7 May 1915. Of 1,959 people on board, 1,200 were drowned, many of them women and children, 50 mere infants. There was widespread outrage at this act of aggression, including in the neutral US, as 128 of the ‘missing’ were American citizens, including associates of President Thomas Woodrow Wilson.

THE CHANGING FACE OF NAVAL WARFARE The replacement of wood by iron and steel had made ships safer because they were less susceptible to fire and grounding. But the invention of the torpedo made it easier than ever though to sink a ship – whatever it was made of. Submarines could submerge for hours, and torpedoes went fast and straight. There was still luck and guesswork involved, as U-boat commanders had to allow for the target’s speed in deciding when and in what direction to fire. Near misses were frequent. On the other hand, submarines were fairly immune from attack, as depth-charges and other anti-submarine devices were relatively crude. War at sea entered a sinister new era in which an invisible enemy lurked in the depths awaiting his moment to strike.

THE LUSITANIA

Adherence to international law made effective U-boat warfare impossible. So international law was set aside. www.military-history.org

for speed, luxury, and capacity. Lusitania and her sister-ship Mauretania were equipped with turbine engines that achieved speeds of 25 knots, while lifts, wireless telegraph, electric light, and sumptuous first-class decks set them apart. Both ships were built with money lent by the Government, the vessels designed for conversion to fighting ships in wartime. Annual subsidies followed if Cunard held the ships ready for war, which it did. Lusitania had emplacements for 12 six-inch guns. In August 1914 she was briefly commandeered, but was returned to commercial service, taking passengers, mail, and freight across the Atlantic, when discovered to be a coal-guzzler. These crossed lines would be significant. The fact that Lusitania had been prepared for war meant she appeared in Jane’s Fighting Ships and the British Naval Pocket Book (both 1914). It was clear that Germany might regard her as a legitimate target.

ABOVE President Woodrow Wilson in 1915 (holding a baseball). Wilson was a liberal imperialist who became convinced that America’s growing role as a global power required her participation in the First World War. The sinking of the Lusitania was central to pro-war US propaganda.

A FLEDGLING AMERICAN EMPIRE HUNKERS DOWN Between 1867 and 1904, the US significantly extended its territory, beginning with Alaska in 1867, and later the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba following the SpanishAmerican War of 1898. Construction of the Panama Canal commenced in 1904, giving America a link between the two oceans by 1914. The US was on its way to becoming a world power. OPPOSITE PAGE The ill-fated Lusitania prepares to leave Liverpool on her maiden voyage in 1907. The pride of the Cunard line, she was, briefly, the largest ocean-going passenger ship afloat. MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

Images: WIPL

Lusitania was a British ocean-liner, briefly the world’s largest and past holder of the Blue Riband for fastest transatlantic crossing (1907-1909). She was launched at a time of fierce competition for North Atlantic trade. With German passenger lines dominating, Cunard decided to attempt to outdo them

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LUSITANIA RIGHT An artist’s reconstruction of the sinking of the Lusitania. The ocean-going giant, with 2,000 people on board, went down in less than half an hour.

When war came, however, President Wilson at first counselled neutrality. The main interests of American capitalism lay outside Europe, and the American people had little appetite for involvement in European quarrels. In his 1913 inauguration address, Wilson did not mention international affairs. International arbitration and attempts at peacekeeping were the limit of involvement, and Wilson insisted on his duty to keep America out of Europe’s war. Neutrality was proclaimed as early as 19 August 1914: ‘The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name during these days that are to try men’s souls. We must be impartial in thought as well as in action.’ While European armies fought on the Marne, Wilson pursued domestic matters, passing acts like the Clayton Anti-Trust Act (October 1914), waging war on big corporations. The Entente and America could have been on different planets. Wilson was a social reformer. The European war seemed an irritating distraction.

THE WAR AT SEA, 1914-1915 After the Battle of Heligoland Bight (August 1914), where her navy suffered a bloody nose, Imperial Germany concentrated on mine-laying, submarine work – including one attempted raid on Scapa Flow – and the occasional shelling of England’s east coast. The outcome of the Battle of Dogger Bank (January 1915), when the old battleship Blücher was lost, merely increased the Kaiser’s nervousness about risking his precious capital ships. The immunity of neutral shipping had been an issue from the beginning. The British and French governments issued new, more rigorous interpretations of contraband, adding substantially to the list of goods regarded as contraband. The US Government responded by insisting on the observance of existing rules of international law. On 2 November Britain declared the North Sea a military zone, and on 30 January 1915 ordered British merchant ships to fly neutral ensigns (or none) in the vicinity of the British Isles. This was unlikely to help, because a neutral flag was widely suspected of being a wartime deception.

AMERICAN NEUTRALITY When the war began, the American public was almost unanimous in its determination to keep out of a European conflict. Americans regarded the European nations, pushed into war by hostile alliances and an arms race, as having created a continent with a seemingly endless history of futile wars. 20

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Emotional ties existed, nonetheless, and a ‘special relationship’ of sorts already operated, with half of US exports over 1915-1916 going to Britain. The relationship was strained, however, when the Royal Navy stopped and searched American freighters. Newspapers were quick to demonstrate how much America resented British interference with neutral shipping. But Germany was the bigger threat to US

trade, partly because of the escalating U-boat campaign, and partly because Anglo-American global interests were in closer harmony than German-American. In the war’s early stages, U-boat targets were military and focused either on the North Sea, where British ships blockaded the German coast, or on cross-Channel traffic revictualling the Allies on the Western Front. May 2015

The day Lusitania departed, the first US ship to become a war casualty was sunk without warning.

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So the target became merchant ships: the aim was to cut the supply-line at source. It was a desperate ‘no holds barred’ strategy, but the alternative was slow economic strangulation.

UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE In February 1915, the Germans imposed a U-boat blockade around Britain, declaring

THE VOYAGE The warning signs were there. The day Lusitania departed, the first US ship to MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

Image: WIPL

But eight months of warfare left Germany frustrated as maritime blockade and Western Front stalemate prevented victory and began to presage eventual defeat. From this growing need to break out came ‘unrestricted submarine warfare’. Geography and naval inferiority denied Germany any opportunity to establish an equivalent counter-blockade by surface ships.

all shipping a potential target. It was against international law to sink a merchantman without warning and without trying to save its crew (legal niceties reassuring merchant skippers they were safe). Therein lay a dilemma: to challenge a merchant vessel meant surfacing, which made a sub vulnerable. A sub could manage 12 knots, a surface vessel twice that, giving merchantmen the chance to ram. Clearly, adherence to international law made effective U-boat warfare impossible. So international law was set aside. On 15 February, the US government protested against the German war-zone. For Wilson, this was an affront to the principle of neutrality, and he warned Germany it would be held responsible for loss of American ships or citizens. Neither Britain nor America believed Germany would carry out its threat. They had not bargained on the Germans’ desperation. Warnings would not be given and only neutral and hospital ships would be exempt (assuming they could be identified). Any mistakes made by U-boat commanders would be nonpunishable. As it became clear the threat might be real, Britain prepared mines and anti-submarine nets, neither particularly effective. The first U-boat foray under the new dispensation in February 1915 saw 11 British ships attacked, with seven sunk – good odds by anyone’s standards. A hospital ship, the St Andrew, was attacked, but escaped. So much for exemption. In March, 27 British ships were sunk, one of them, Falaba, an unarmed passenger liner. The Americans became increasingly anxious. By the end of April, 66 merchant vessels had gone down, and warnings appeared in US newspapers placed by the German Embassy in Washington. It was not safe to sail on Entente ships in the war zone, Americans were warned. The Lusitania was sailing on 1 May.

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LUSITANIA become a war casualty – the Gulflight – was sunk without warning. Before Lusitania left New York, she was searched by the ‘neutrality squad’ to certify that she carried no armament. The mighty liner slipped its moorings at noon on 1 May with 1,959 passengers and crew on board, 159 of them Americans. People assumed that she was safe. Surely the Germans would never target a packed liner? The ship was a giant – 240m in length and 44,060 tons in weight, a Clydebank-built, Liverpool-registered, Cunard-line passenger vessel filled with civilians. Lusitania was not BELOW Fred Spears’ famous US propaganda poster depicting a dead mother, presumably American, clutching her baby as she drops through the water.

any sort of military target. In any case, as a former Blue Riband holder she could outrun a U-boat. And she would be under Royal Navy escort. Or so people assumed. The voyage as far as Ireland was uneventful. However, the waters around the Emerald Isle were dangerous. A U-boat had been operating here from the end of April. Between 28 April and 5 May, U-20 attacked or sunk numerous vessels. Commander Walter Schwieger’s diary confirms that he had three torpedoes left and wanted to unleash at least one of them before returning home. On the morning of 7 May, Schwieger spotted a four-funnelled liner around a dozen miles off the Old Head of Kinsale. There is no evidence he knew which vessel it was.

Commander Walter Schwieger’s diary confirms that he had three torpedoes left and wanted to unleash at least one before returning home. THE ATTACK The Lusitania’s captain, William Turner, failed to follow instructions to zig-zag, steam at full speed, and stick to deep water, which made his ship an easier target. Schwieger waited as Lusitania came straight towards him at reduced speed, passing close to a headland where U-20 was sheltering, and into torpedo range. It was just after 2pm when Schwieger let rip at 700m, the torpedo striking the starboard side, behind the bridge. A second explosion followed the first. The ship immediately stopped and heeled to starboard, also going down at the bow. It appeared to Schwieger that the ship was going to capsize imminently and lifeboats, hastily launched, were foundering, adding to the chaos. Now the U-boat’s commander picked out the name Lusitania in golden letters on the bow. U-20 dived, heading for open water. Returning an hour later for a reconnaissance, the liner was gone. She had disappeared at least 30 minutes earlier. A few lifeboats were left drifting in the mist. Estimates of the time it took for her to sink vary from 18 to 30 minutes, but whatever the truth, there was little time to save lives. When she sank, she collapsed on her starboard side, hiding the chasm created by the torpedo and the secondary explosion. One steward described passengers lunching when the sub fired, Captain Turner immediately ordering the boats out, and the liner listing badly from the beginning. The steward’s boat and three others were met by a tug, the Stormcock, shortly after 4pm, which took aboard some 150 survivors, delivering them to Queenstown. Some eye-witnesses thought there were two torpedoes, but there appears to have been only one, the second explosion presumably being munitions detonating.

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The sinking turned American public opinion decisively against Germany. There was a storm of indignation and a marked swing in sympathy towards the Entente, contributing to the eventual US decision to enter the war. Public opinion was now a force to be reckoned with. The Boston Committee of Public Safety published a poster the following month showing a drowning mother cradling her infant, with one word, ‘Enlist’. The poster, by Fred Spear, is effective because of its timing and that single word. The sinking was also used by the British for propaganda purposes. One British poster urged those enlisting to ‘avenge the Lusitania’. A German sympathiser, meanwhile, declared in the New York Times three days afterwards that the dead had themselves to blame, having effectively committed suicide. The German Government squirmed. The sinking brought America and Germany to the verge of war, but also increased tension between the US and the Entente over questions of contraband and blockade. Wilson denounced the sinking almost immediately (9 May), as US sentiment turned against Germany, demanding reparations and an instant cessation of unrestricted submarine warfare.

GERMANY’S DEFENCE A German medallion was struck, commemorating the sinking and claiming the ship carried munitions, which was correct, although successive British governments www.military-history.org

ABOVE A Wilson campaign lorry from the 1916 presidential election. Note the question ‘Who keeps us out of the war?’ Not for long.

denied this. Germany justified its actions in this way, yet the claim was disingenuous, as U-20 was not aware of the ship’s cargo when it attacked. It had not even identified the vessel before the torpedo was fired. Germany also defended itself by pointing out that it had made its intentions plain by advertising in New York newspapers, warning the American public not to sail. This was on top of warnings about the war zone around the British Isles. Another German claim was to the effect that the ship had been carrying Canadian troops (which was untrue). Germany further argued, in spite of its discomfort, that Britain and the US could not complain as its own women and children were starving because of the British blockade. One of the more outrageous claims was that Britain had invited the tragedy as a means of embroiling America in the war. The Fatherland pedalled this line on 30 June 1915. Was it so outrageous, though? Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, wanted America in the war and spoke of the desirability of attracting neutral shipping to our shores in order RIGHT The German Embassy in Washington placed warnings against sea travel in the American press. They did little to mitigate the outrage against ‘unrestricted submarine warfare’.

Images: WIPL

AMERICAN PUBLIC OPINION

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LUSITANIA

‘It is not an army that we must train for war: it is a nation.’ President Woodrow Wilson Germany and its Navy in the worst possible light. The sinking was denounced by the public as a premeditated attack on women and children. Wilson continued in his condemnations and demands for reparations, and an end to the U-boat campaign. But this triggered the resignation of US Secretary of State William J Bryan, who was unwilling to follow an increasingly belligerent presidential policy. Clearly, as yet, there was not unanimity at the top of the US political hierarchy. But Bryan’s replacement, Robert Lansing, confessed that it was the sinking that had convinced him America would ultimately become Britain’s ally in the war. Former US President Theodore Roosevelt took up the baton, declaring the sinking ‘an act of piracy’. For him, it was mass murder. Slowly, the United States eased towards an alliance with Britain. The German ambassador in Washington, Count von Bernstorff, struggled in vain to patch up the differences between his country and America. The sinking of the Lusitania acted as a catalyst for all the forces inside booming early 20th-century industrial America that were pushing towards a global role.

ABOVE A US Liberty Bonds poster. Five million posters were printed for the second Liberty Bonds campaign – one for every 20 people in America.

to expedite this. Some German sources felt the death of Entente non-combatants inconsequential in a war where Germany was fighting for its life and being forced to retaliate in ‘self-defence’ because of the Entente’s ‘methods’ – a perspective advanced by the Frankfurter Zeitung on 8 May 1915.

GERMANY’S CONDEMNATION Many denounced the sinking and German attempts to explain away the tragedy. Even the Pope sent an angry message to the Kaiser, 24

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who duly reprimanded Schwieger, putting the lie to German claims it that it had been a legitimate act of war. This intervention by the country’s leader was never forgiven by German submariners. But Germany lost the propaganda war, especially in the United States, and there was a temporary cessation of the U-boat war as she reeled. The British did not get off scot-free. Perhaps they could have done more to protect Lusitania. And should they have loaded her with munitions? The ship might still have gone down, but the Germans would not have won some of the moral argument afterwards. The British produced a counterfeit of the German medallion, designed to portray

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Image: WIPL

THE CONTINUING U-BOAT WAR It did not end with the Lusitania. In August the liner Arabic was sunk with the loss of two US citizens. The tension between the two nations ratcheted up a further notch, while US protests regarding the Lusitania were still under review in Berlin. The German Ambassador in Washington finally got the message home to his Government that there was a real and present danger of war. The Germans began to fear that they had roused a sleeping giant. They apologised. An assurance followed from Germany in September that no further liners would be sunk without warning and without provision for saving non-combatants (assuming that there was no effort either to offer ‘resistance’ or to escape). These assurances were reasonably well observed throughout the remainder of 1915, bringing the first phase of the submarine crisis to an end. Wilson was satisfied for the time

being and was minded to take up the role of mediator. Neither Britain nor Germany welcomed this, as both were planning ‘knock-out blows’ on the Western Front. As 1915 drew to a close, Wilson maintained his neutrality. ‘We have stood apart, studiously neutral,’ he said. In February 1916 the Gore-McLemore Resolution, warning Americans off travelling on armed merchant ships was defeated. Meanwhile, Wilson showed the first signs of coming round. ‘America cannot be an ostrich with its head in the sand,’ he now declared.

ATTACK ON THE SUSSEX April 1916 produced an ultimatum from Wilson, a response to the attempted sinking of cross-Channel steamer Sussex by U-29 on 24 March. The whole of the bow section was destroyed and the ship was towed stern-first into Boulogne. Around 50 are believed to have died, half of them American. Lieutenant Pustkuchen, the commander of U-29, claimed erroneously that the Sussex was a British minelayer. He may have mistaken passengers crowding the decks for troops. Tellingly, a fragment of torpedo was found in a lifeboat.

TIMELINE 1904 9 June Construction of Lusitania begins.

1906 7 June Launch of Lusitania.

1907 7 September Maiden voyage of Lusitania.

1912 5 November Woodrow Wilson becomes US President for first time.

1914 August British and French tighten interpretations of ‘contraband’. Lusitania briefly commandeered by the Admiralty. 28 August Battle of Heligoland Bight. 22 September U-9 sinks three old cruisers (Hogue, Cressy, Aboukir). October US Government insists on observance of existing rules of international law.

www.military-history.org

Wilson threatened to break off relations. A German concession in respect of submarine warfare followed on 4 May. The Germans apologised again, and promised to warn merchant ships before torpedoing. In November Wilson won another term as President with a promise to keep America, where anti-war sentiment was still dominant, out of the war. The promise was false. Wilson was shifting to a pro-war stance, and with his re-election achieved, he now moved rapidly to realign public opinion and deliver the United States onto the stage of world history as a great imperial power. He was assisted by the memory of the Lusitania and the continuing anxieties aroused by the U-boat campaign among US businessmen and the US public.

AMERICA GOES TO WAR The U-boat war was, in fact, escalating through 1916 to a peak in April 1917. Jutland demonstrated that the German High Seas Fleet had no chance of breaking the British blockade. The only effective way of waging maritime warfare against Britain was by using U-boats. But April 1917, the month when the Germans came closest to winning the First ‘Battle of the Atlantic’, was also the month

18 October Attempted submarine raid on Scapa Flow. 2 November Britain declares North Sea a military zone. 3 November Raid on Great Yarmouth. 8 December Battle of the Falkland Islands. 16 December Raid on Scarborough and Hartlepool.

1915 25 January Battle of Dogger Bank. 30 January Britain orders merchant ships to fly neutral ensign. February First U-boat sortie sees seven British ships sunk. Suspected sabotage by German agents at Vanceboro Bridge, between Maine and Canada. 4 February German submarine blockade announced. 5 February US protests against German war-zone. 18 February German submarine blockade starts.

THE LUSITANIA TODAY The Lusitania rests in shallow water, protected by an Irish Underwater Heritage Order, safeguarding her from unauthorised diving. It was an imminent salvage operation in 1982 and the risks posed to those involved which led the British Government to come clean about Lusitania’s cargo, confirming that the ship had indeed contained a large consignment of ammunition. It is estimated that there could be around three million rounds of .303 ammunition in her hold. It had taken 67 years to secure this admission!

when Woodrow Wilson finally took America into the war. Almost two million American servicemen would eventually cross the Atlantic, bound for the battlefields of France, tipping the balance on the Western Front in favour of the Entente. Wilson’s rhetoric now summed up his volteface and the hopeless task facing Germany: ‘It is not an army that we must train for war: it is a nation.’

11 March British Government orders seizure of all goods presumed destined for the enemy. 18 March British Government declares cotton contraband. 28 March First passenger ship sunk by German U-boat (SS Falaba). April German embassy in US begins publishing ‘friendly’ warnings in newspapers. 1 May First US ship (Gulflight) sunk without warning. Lusitania sails. 7 May Sinking of the Lusitania. 9 May Wilson denounces sinking. 13 May First official US protest against sinking. 8 June William J Bryan resigns as US Secretary of State, succeeded by Robert Lansing. 9 June Second US protest, but no response from Germany. 21 July Third US protest. 19 August Sinking of the Arabic, with loss of two US lives.

.

1 September German Government gives assurance that no further liners will be sunk without warning.

1916 February Gore-McLemore Resolution defeated. 24 March Attempted sinking of the Sussex. April US ultimatum follows. 4 May German concession. 31 May/1 June Battle of Jutland. 7 October U-53 enters Newport Harbour and just outside US territorial waters sinks five ships in full view of US destroyers. 7 November Wilson returned as President. 18 December US demands belligerents state war aims.

1917 February Unrestricted submarine warfare resumes. 6 April US declares war on Germany.

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Waterloo THE ASSAULT OF THE IMPERIAL GUARD

Introduction

W

hat happened between 6pm and 8pm on 18 June 1815 on the battlefield of Waterloo? Despite the fact that Waterloo produced an unprecedented torrent of primary source material – the dispatches, reports, letters, diaries, and memoirs of participants – and the fact that its grandeur and significance have given rise to an ever-increasing stream of books about the battle, some of the events of that day remain the subject of fierce debate. Wellington claimed Waterloo as his greatest victory. Generally, the Englishlanguage sources, both primary and secondary, have supported this claim. Most of us, to some degree, share this perspective, perhaps simply because it is so prevalent. This issue we look at two controversial views that challenge what we might call ‘the Wellingtonian consensus’. Both views concern the closing stages of the battle and, specifically, the final assault of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard on Wellington’s line on the Mont St Jean ridge. Nigel Sale argues that, at the climax of the assault, a wide gap, several hundred yards wide, opened in the Anglo-Dutch-Belgian line, and that the Imperial Guard was on the brink of penetrating this gap and breaking through the centre of Wellington’s army. What prevented this, he maintains, was the independent action of the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Light Infantry, which moved onto the flank of the Guard and broke it with fire and the bayonet. Equally challenging is Paul Dawson’s view that our dependence on English testimony has all but blotted out what was happening on most of the eastern half of the battlefield. The struggle for the village of Plancenoit, he argues, was decisive, consuming half of Napoleon’s elite in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to prevent the incoming Prussian tide from penetrating the French centre and cutting in behind the French line of retreat. Our two main articles focus on the Imperial Guard and the closing stages of the battle on both the left and the right wings. David Porter therefore completes our special feature with an assessment of the reformed Imperial Guard of 1815 as a fighting force.

WARRIORS AND WEAPONS

The Imperial Guard David Porter analyses the organisation, equipment, and capacity of Napoleon’s military elite. ORGANISATION The Guard had its origin in the Consular Guard (Garde des Consuls), formed on 28 November 1799, by the union of the Guard of the Directory (Garde du Directoire Exécutif) and the Grenadiers of the Legislature (Grenadiers près de la Représentation Nationale). These units (totalling barely 1,000 men) had been raised to guard the ruling elite of the new French Republic in the turbulent period following the Revolution. On 18 May 1804, Napoleon was formally awarded the title ‘Emperor’ by the Senate, and the Consular Guard became the Imperial Guard. Initially, it was still a small formation (with just over 2,000 men) comprising: r
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OLD, MIDDLE, AND YOUNG GUARD The Old Guard included some of the finest soldiers in Europe, men who had served Napoleon since his earliest campaigns. The Middle Guard was composed of veterans of the campaigns of 1805 to 1809. The Young Guard consisted of the best of the annual intake of conscripts and volunteers, and was never considered to be of quite the same calibre as the more senior Guards, although its units were still superior to ordinary line regiments. This structure provided very effective military training – after two years’ service the best conscripts and volunteers of the Young Guard could transfer to the Middle Guard. In turn, the Old Guard drew its replacements from the ranks of the Middle Guard. Over 30,000 men of the Guard took part in the invasion of Russia in 1812, but after the

disastrous retreat from Moscow barely 2,000 survivors remained fit for combat. Napoleon made great efforts to rebuild the Old Guard in 1813 – each of the 200 or so French infantry battalions serving in Spain was ordered to send six veterans each with at least eight years’ service to reinforce the 2nd Grenadiers and 2nd Châsseurs. The pick of these veterans (those with no less than ten years’ service) were eligible for transfer to the 1st Grenadiers and 1st Châsseurs. BELOW A horse artilleryman of the Imperial Guard.

Napoleon called for volunteers for this new force from the Old Guard and was swamped by a flood of applicants. 28

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WARRIORS AND WEAPONS

LEFT An officer and an NCO of the Imperial Guard Châsseurs.

ARTILLERY The Guard’s artillery was also greatly expanded and came to comprise: r
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Images: WIPL

A DEGRADED FORCE It proved impossible to bring the strength of the Guard up to any more than 85,000 men in 1813, and it then suffered heavy casualties in the campaign of 1814. Despite several brilliant victories against overwhelming odds, Napoleon was finally defeated and forced to abdicate on 4 April under the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau. The victorious Allies sent the Emperor into exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba, but allowed him to keep a small bodyguard – totalling 500 infantry, 120 cavalry, and 120 artillerymen. www.military-history.org

On 7 April Napoleon called for volunteers for this new force from the Old Guard and was swamped by a flood of applicants, including many officers who asked to serve in the ranks. Those who were finally selected formed the ‘Guard of Elba’, which accompanied Napoleon on his escape from the island in February 1815. As the newly restored Emperor began rebuilding his army in the Spring of 1815, he used the units of the Guard of Elba as cadres for the reformed Imperial Guard. By the opening of the Waterloo campaign it may have had a total strength of 28,000, although only 23,000 were with front-line units. (Roughly 21,000 of the Guard fought at Waterloo, while 2,000 were sent to reinforce line units that were fighting Royalist guerrillas in the Vendée.)

longer existed. Recruitment for the Young Guard was particularly difficult, with many units well below full strength, despite a readiness to accept civilian volunteers and even recaptured deserters. Hasty mobilisation and shortages of equipment meant that although the Old Guard was properly uniformed, the Young Guard and the 3rd and 4th Grenadiers and Châsseurs wore a strange mixture of uniforms and headgear. It was said that in these latter units it was impossible to find 20 men in any given company in the same uniform. (This had at least one unforeseen result – at the Battle of Ligny, the Prussian 6th Uhlans charged a ragged French unit which they took to be raw conscripts, only to be smashed by a volley at point-blank range from the 4th Grenadiers.) BELOW A dragoon of the Empress Dragoons.

THE GUARD AT WATERLOO There was a dire shortage of cavalry and artillery horses, although the Guard cavalry promptly seized the magnificent horses abandoned by Louis XVIII’s Garde du Corps, which had fled the country with the King on Napoleon’s return from Elba. The newly reformed Guard cavalry and artillery arguably retained more of their elite character than their infantry counterparts, with their smaller units being able to recruit a higher proportion of veterans. The infantry’s 1st Grenadiers and 1st Châsseurs remained a true elite, filled with veterans with 12 years’ service and members of the Guard of Elba. Men with eight years’ service could join the 2nd Grenadiers and 2nd Châsseurs, while the new 3rd and 4th Grenadiers and Châsseurs accepted those with only four years’ service. The bureaucrats in the Ministry of War ruled that the 3rd and 4th Grenadiers and Châsseurs were part of the Old Guard, but the whole army called them Middle Guard – though officially the Middle Guard no MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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MORALE

Most of the rank and file retained an almost mystical faith in the Emperor. Had Napoleon been victorious at Waterloo, morale would have soared. 30

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The so-called ‘Marshals’ Revolt’ led by Ney which had forced Napoleon’s abdication in April 1814 had undermined the Guard’s confidence in many senior officers. This distrust was strengthened by the readiness of other marshals, such as Soult, to serve Louis XVIII following the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. Most of the rank and file retained an almost mystical faith in the Emperor himself. Had Napoleon been victorious at Waterloo, morale would no doubt have soared and the Imperial Guard again become what it had been at the height of his power. As it was, in Spring 1815, morale was as yet brittle.

FIREPOWER The Guard’s weapons were little different from those of the rest of Napoleon’s forces – the primary infantry weapon was the Charleville Musket Model 1777, a smoothbore flintlock similar to those used by other European armies. However, those issued to the Guard were distinguished by brass trim in contrast to the iron used for the muskets of line infantry battalions. The Charleville had a comparable performance to that of other contemporary muskets – the Guard’s infantry were expected to be able to fire at least three volleys a minute and hit a man-sized target at a range of 80 yards. The equipment of the artillery of the Guard was identical to that of the line – initially

ABOVE A depiction of the battle by William Sadler II.

it used guns and howitzers of the 1765 Gribeauval System, but was given priority for re-equipment with the improved System of the Year XI (1803). Despite this, it seems that it may well have retained some Gribeauval weapons until about 1813. The 12-pounders of the Old Guard’s foot artillery provided Napoleon with a source of devastating concentrated firepower, and he fondly referred to them as ‘his beautiful daughters’. They could fire solid roundshot to an effective range of up to 1,000m, heavy canister to 700m, and light canister to 500m. Solid shot could plough through several ranks of troops, and on firm ground it would ricochet repeatedly, killing and wounding with each bounce over anything up to several hundred metres. Even a slowly rolling, almost spent shot was dangerous and quite capable of smashing the feet of anyone who failed to get out of the way. Both types of canister were essentially tin cans containing small shot – the heavy canister round contained 41 balls, the light canister 112 smaller and lighter balls. On firing, the can burst open, creating the effect of a giant shotgun, which was devastating against the close-order battlefield formations of the period. (In dire emergencies, guns could be ‘doubleshotted’, firing either two rounds of canister or canister loaded on top of roundshot.)

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May 2015

WARRIORS AND WEAPONS

THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN – IMPERIAL GUARD ORDER OF BATT

ACTING COMMANDER: Général de Division Comte Antoine Drouot

UNIT

COMMANDER

STRENGTH

LOSSES (killed, wounded, missing)

Grenadier Division

Comte Louis Friant Deputy: Général Roguet

4,055 (138 officers, 3,917 men)

1,396 (61 officers, 1,335 men)

1st and 2nd Battalions 1st Grenadiers (Old Guard)

Général de Brigade Jean-Martin Petit

1,280 (41 officers, 1,239 men)

157 (12 officers, 145 men)

1st and 2nd Battalions 2nd Grenadiers (Old Guard)

Général de Brigade Baron Christiani

1,091 (36 officers, 1,055 men)

346 (16 officers, 330 men)

1st and 2nd Battalions 3rd Grenadiers (Middle Guard)

Général de Brigade Baron Poret de Morvan

1,164 (34 officers, 1,130 men)

673 (16 officers, 657 men)

1st Battalion 4th Grenadiers (Middle Guard)

Général de Brigade Harlet

520 (27 officers, 493 men)

N/K

Châsseur Division

Général de Division Morand Deputy: Général Michel

4,603 (132 officers, 4,471 men)

1,775 (58 officers, 1,717 men)

1st and 2nd Battalions 1st Châsseurs (Old Guard)

Général de Brigade Comte Cambronne

1,307 (36 officers, 1,271 men)

330 (7 officers, 323 men)

1st and 2nd Battalions 2nd Châsseurs (Old Guard)

Général de Brigade Baron Pelet-Clozeau

1,163 (32 officers, 1,131 men)

282 (11 officers, 271 men)

1st and 2nd Battalions 3rd Châsseurs (Middle Guard)

Colonel Mallet

1,062 (34 officers, 1,028 men)

25 officers, 1,123 men (3rd and 4th combined)

1st and 2nd Battalions 4th Châsseurs (Middle Guard)

Général de Brigade Henrion

1,071 (30 officers, 1,041 men)

25 officers, 1,123 men (3rd and 4th combined)

Young Guard

Général de Division Duhesme Deputy: Général Barrois

4,283 (117 officers, 4,166 men)

1,576 (33 officers 1,543 men)

1st and 2nd Battalions 1st Tirailleurs

Colonel Trappier de Malcolm

1,109 (26 officers, 1,083 men)

666 (6 officers, 660 men)

1st and 2nd Battalions 1st Voltigeurs

Colonel Secrétan

1,219 (31 officers, 1,188 men)

210 (10 officers, 200 men)

2nd Brigade 1st and 2nd Battalions 3rd Tirailleurs

Maréchal de Camp Guye Colonel Pailhès

988 (28 officers, 960 men)

298 (8 officers, 290 men)

1st and 2nd Battalions 3rd Voltigeurs

Colonel Hurel

967 (32 officers, 935 men)

(9 officers, 393 men)

Guard Heavy Cavalry Division

Général de Division Comte Guyot

1,718

N/K

Horse Grenadiers

Général de Brigade Jamin, Marquis de Bermuy

796

N/K

Empress Dragoons

Général de Brigade Baron Letort (killed at Ligny), then Major Hoffmayer.

816

N/K

Elite Gendarmes

Capitaine Dyonnet

106

N/K

Guard Light Cavalry Division

Général de Division Lefebyre-Desnouettes

2,557

N/K

Horse Châsseurs (French and Mameluke)

François Antoine 'Charles' Lallemand

1,223 (including 26 Mamelukes)

N/K

1st Light Horse Lancers (French and Polish)

Colonels Schmitt and Jezmanowski

754

N/K

2nd Light Horse Lancers (Dutch, French, and Polish)

Colonel de Colbert

580

N/K

Guard Artillery

Général de Division Baron Desvaux de Saint-Maurice

2,867 men, 96 guns

N/K

Foot Artillery

Général de Division Henri Lallemand

429 men, 9 batteries, 72 guns

N/K

Horse Artillery

Colonel Duchand de Sancey

399 men, 4 batteries, 24 guns

N/K

www.military-history.org

The lie at the heart of

T

BATTLE

THE BATTLE

WATERLOO Nigel Sale, author of a new study of the closing stages of the battle, uncovers the true story of the ‘Crisis’ of Waterloo.

‘UP, GUARDS, AND AT ‘EM’ The original version of the Crisis, as reported by General Miguel de Alava, had the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Foot Guards repulsing the Grenadiers of the Garde Impériale on Wellington’s command – the apocryphal ‘Up, Guards, and at ’em.’ This triggered the collapse of the Garde, whereupon the Duke ordered a general advance, which duly drove the French off the field. This sequence has been repeated, with variations, in just about every account of the battle ever written. One version gives the main credit to the Allied artillery. Another identifies a Châsseur battalion, not the Grenadiers, as the first to break. Some latter-day accounts include the 52nd of Foot – aka the Oxfordshire Light Infantry – which either fires from its position in the line, or is taken out of the line by its colonel to attack the Garde in the flank. Usually the British Guards are depicted as LEFT Wellington orders the whole line to advance in the early evening of Waterloo. He is widely credited with having completed the victory by first ordering the British Foot Guards to launch the bayonet charge which broke the Imperial Guard and then ordering the general advance. But was he the prime mover he later claimed to have been? www.military-history.org

volleying from the line while the 52nd attacks from the flank. In one version, both Guards and the 52nd charge simultaneously, but, needless to say, there is no record of the inevitable collision. A few historians are honest enough to admit they just do not know what actually happened. The current versions of the Crisis include the following elements: one or two Garde battalions routed the Brunswickers and Nassauers to the west of the Brussels road; one or two battalions attacked Halkett’s Brigade; one or two battalions of Châsseurs then struck the 1st Guards Brigade and were repulsed; finally, the 4th Châsseurs were seen off by 3/1st Guards assisted by the 52nd firing on its flank. The

‘Depend upon it, Waterloo has a long story of secret politics attached to it, which will not be made known in our days, if ever.’ General Sir William Napier three Old Guard battalions in reserve took no part in the attack but retired to screen La Belle Alliance. The only ‘fact’ common to all versions is that the Guards were instrumental in breaking the Garde attack.

EVIDENCE, CORROBORATION, PROBABILITY Yet the evidence does not agree. Waterloo was the first battle widely recorded by its participants, not only British but also French, Prussian, Dutch, and German (not only from the King’s German Legion, which was part of the British Army, but also from many of the German states). All the evidence, however, is suspect and must be interpreted in the light of many

factors: winners’ triumphalism, losers’ exculpation, senior officers’ self-glorification, genuine confusion, the possibility of hidden hearsay, regimental loyalty, and collusion. Not least among the necessary questions about validity is whether the raconteur had been in a position to have witnessed the event he described. Wherever possible, disinterested or unintentional corroboration must be sought. When no suitable evidence is available, resort must be made to the Theory of Inherent Military Probability (first promulgated in the 1930s), whereby the most probable answer to a problem may be found by considering how a trained and experienced soldier would have acted. Needless to say, the French evidence is the most difficult to elucidate by virtue of its being not only about a mobile, attacking force, but also one that was thrown into confusion, defeated, and then totally routed.

THE FORMATION OF THE GARDE This is what actually transpired. Napoleon sent two battalions of the Old Guard to eject the Prussians from Plancenoit, left one at La Caillou to guard the treasury, and kept two senior battalions with him as a last resort at La Belle Alliance. He also posted one battalion of the Middle Guard west of his headquarters. He then had five Middle Guard battalions as the main attacking force with three Old Guard battalions as a reserve in support of the attack. The attacking force formed up with two battalions of Grenadiers (1/3rd Grenadiers and 4th Grenadiers) and three battalions of Châsseurs (1/3rd Châsseurs, 2/3rd Châsseurs, and 4th Châsseurs) on the left. The reserve consisted of 2/2nd Grenadiers , 2/2nd Châsseurs and 2/1st Châsseurs (the latter commanded by General Cambronne, of whom more will be said). It is very important to note that each battalion was accompanied on its right flank by a section of two cannons of Garde horse artillery, which, in the event, proved much more effective than the infantry. There is a running argument as to whether the Garde battalions formed in square or column. That they were in square, not column as claimed by most witnesses on the Allied side, is confirmed by an ADC to Marshal Ney. He recorded Drouot, the general commanding the Garde, giving the order ‘Formez le carré!’ MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

Image: WIPL

I

s it not strange, nearly 200 years after the battle, that what happened at its ‘Crisis’ – the term coined shortly after the battle for the moment when potential defeat was turned into sudden and unequivocal victory – has still not been explained? There has been heated public debate about it in learned journals ever since. Often, the attempts to award the honour and glory of having broken Napoleon’s army are dismissed as impossible to resolve and pointless. But is this really acceptable for the momentous action that brought 40 years of peace to Europe? Surely such a moment needs and deserves clarification, if only so that truth can prevail and credit be given to the men who earned it? Such confusion for such a long period suggests the possibility of lies. General Sir William Napier, historian of the Peninsular War, appears to have been hinting at this when he wrote: ‘Depend upon it, Waterloo has a long story of secret politics attached to it, which will not be made known in our days, if ever.’

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Additionally, another Garde general, Jean-Martin Petit, who was in command of the two Old Guard battalions retained at La Belle Alliance and well placed to be a reliable witness, noted not only that the attacking force was formed in square, but that the squares were in echelon (as would have been expected of squares), a fact which helps explain how the attack developed.

THE ADVANCE OF THE GARDE Napoleon himself led the leading battalion, 1/3rd Grenadiers, along the Brussels road (heading northwards), and the remaining battalions conformed, drawn back to the left in echelon.

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MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

HALKETT’S BRIGADE The effect of Ney’s deviation was to place the lead battalion, 1/3rd Grenadiers, in front of Colin Halkett’s Brigade. The latter had only two battalions and no reserve. Both were amalgamations of two battalions, of the four that had been very severely handled at Quatre Bras, two days before.

BELOW Napoleon led the initial advance of the Garde, but turned back, either by choice or persuasion (shown here).

Image: WIPL

The officers of the 4th Grenadiers were seen beating the survivors back into formation, intending to renew their attack.

The farmstead, La Haie Sainte, had finally been captured half an hour before, despite a spirited defence. Just south of La Haie Sainte, Napoleon handed over to Ney. Almost immediately Ney changed direction by about 60 degrees to the left. He had found, apparently unexpectedly, a battery of French horse artillery on the west side of the farmstead, barring his way. The horse guns were firing so effectively – probably using canister – that the Brunswickers and Nassauers in the Allied front line had been forced to shelter at the rear of the ridge, opening a huge gap in Wellington’s defences. Ney was in a quandary. He could not march into the fire cone. Should he stop the gunners and go straight ahead, or leave this effective barrage in place and change direction? With no time for deliberation, he chose to change direction – with unfortunate consequences. The likely effect of changing the axis of advance of formed bodies in the field is that the spacing between them will shrink at first, but then, as the second body of men registers the need to change direction and attempts to conform, the spacing will widen beyond the original.

On Halkett’s left were the 30th and 73rd Regiments of Foot; on his right were the 33rd and the 69th (the latter having lost their colours at Quatre Bras, the only battalion to do so under Wellington’s command). Morale was low in this part of the British line, yet after a single volley the French Grenadiers retired – to the amazement of the 30th/73rd, whose young officers suspected some ruse. French General Petit records this as an ‘excited movement’, but adds that the Grenadiers soon ‘regained their vigour’ and advanced to the attack a second time. Meanwhile, the artillery section attached to 1/3rd Grenadiers had been pounding 30th/73rd mercilessly, to such an extent that both of Halkett’s battalions were ordered to retire. The two composite battalions had received no artillery support from the batteries in this sector, perhaps because their fire had been suppressed by the shower of canister shot from La Haie Sainte: the Allied cannon in this part of the line were silent, not blasting away, as the ‘glorious’ accounts describe.

CHASSÉ’S DUTCHMEN AND MAITLAND’S GUARDS General Chassé, erstwhile officer of Napoleon’s but now commanding the Netherlanders in the Allied army, realising that the lack of gunfire from the Allied line

May 2015

Image: author

THE BATTLE

spelled imminent disaster, sent forward a battery commanded by Captain Krahmer. He arrived just in time, along with the 30th/73rd, which, having been retired precipitately, now returned to its place in the line. The result was that the second attack by the 1/3rd Grenadiers was repulsed. Chassé also claimed to have sent – but, in fact, Wellington had ordered this – a Dutch brigade under Colonel Detmers from the reserve to assist in repelling the attack. This brigade did not actually clash with the Garde, but halted just forward of the Allied line above La Haie Sainte. Meanwhile 4th Grenadiers, the second Garde battalion of the attacking force, having diverged very considerably from 1/3rd Grenadiers, had come face-to-face with 3/1st Foot Guards. Wellington took command of the Foot Guards when the 1st Brigade’s commander failed to react to his ‘Now, Maitland, now’s your time.’ After a brief firefight, 3/1st Foot Guards, following standard British practice, charged and drove the 500 or so Frenchmen some 150 yards down the slope. The inexperienced men of the Guards then retired in a rush back to the ridge, confused either by a misunderstood command or frightened by the sight of the oncoming mass of six more French battalions. The officers of the 4th Grenadiers were seen, by a British officer, beating the survivors back into formation, intending to renew their attack.

A GAP IN THE LINE The Foot Guards’ repulse of 4th Grenadiers had been assisted by Colin Halkett swinging his 33rd/69th composite battalion 90 degrees to their right in order to fire into the flank of the French battalion. However, 4th www.military-history.org

ABOVE LEFT Map showing the deviation in the Garde’s line of approach to Wellington’s line. Only units involved in the action have been shown. Note especially the French battery (possibly two) west of La Haie Sainte, and sections with the Garde battalions. The reserve battalions maintained position behind the rearward Middle Garde battalion, the 4th Châsseurs. ABOVE RIGHT Detail from a map published by J Booth, London, 1816. Note the topographical feature – the tongue of high ground – that induced the Middle Garde battalions and the reserve to swing to their left and adopt a column-ofbattalions formation, which may have seemed to their officers to be more effective than the original echelon. The tongue was later dug away to form the Lion Mound, as a memorial to the Prince of Orange’s shoulder wound.

Grenadiers’ artillery section had positioned itself on the summit of the tongue of land, which, at the time, projected southwards from Wellington’s ridge. One of these cannon fired canister on the men of 33rd/69th, while the other fired at the Foot Guards. Halkett’s men could not take the punishment for long – hence their precipitate rush to the rear with the 30th/73rd ‘like a mere mob’ in one young officer’s words. The effect was to extend the existing 400-yard gap in Wellington’s front line to about 700 yards. Fortunately there were no French troops nearby to grasp this opportunity. But the repulse of the 4th Grenadiers had not caused the confusion that Wellington claimed had routed the French army and supposedly triggered the general advance. There is no credible evidence that either the 1/3rd or the 4th Grenadiers were accom-

panied by supporting battalions. Moreover, the Brunswickers and Nassauers had been suppressed by gunfire alone, so no infantry – other than 1/3rd and 4th Grenadiers of the Garde – had so far been involved. It follows that the British Foot Guards were assailed by Grenadiers, not Châsseurs as so often stated, and that there were still three battalions of the Middle Guard to come, together with three of the Old Guard in reserve. Where were they?

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHÂSSEURS? Ney’s change of direction had had another major consequence, which, arguably, set up the remaining six battalions of the Garde

The effect was to open a gap in Wellington’s line about 700 yards long. The main mass of the Garde column of attack was heading for this gap. MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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Image: author

BELOW The charge of the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Light Infantry under Sir John Colborne at 8pm. Painting by William Barnes Wollen (1857-1936).

LEFT Map showing the decisive manoeuvre in the defeat of the Garde. Krahmer’s battery has come forward and finally repulsed 1/3rd Grenadiers, while Detmers’ Brigade has halted in front of the line. 2/95th has pivoted out of the line just as cannon of Rogers’ Battery are fired blind, hitting the 52nd as well as the Garde’s column of battalions. The 52nd charges the Garde before its right wing has completed the left-form manoeuvre. The remaining units of the Light Brigade, the 71st and two companies of 3/95th, have moved but have a considerable distance to catch up.

o be broken by one battalion of British nfantry. The three Châsseur battalions had been pushed sideways by the abrupt change of direction of 4th Grenadiers and were faced with a steep climb up the tongue before crossing a wide plateau, which, while they waited near La Belle Alliance for the o advance, they would have been able to identify as something of a killing-field. To avoid the plateau the leading Châsseur battalion changed direction and the rest followed. Maitland, commander of the 1st British Guards Brigade, even recorded the separation of Châsseurs from Grenadiers: ‘As the attacking force moved forward, it separated,’ he later wrote, ‘[and] the Châsseurs inclined to their left. The Grenadiers ascended the acclivity towards the 1st Brigade.’ The Châsseur battalions morphed from a line of squares into a column of battalions in square, in order to go round the base of the tongue, protecting them from artillery fire, and enabling them to approach the enemy line in the form of a battering-ram via the reentrant on the tongue’s west side.

The question arises: did the reserve join in the attack? Many accounts say the three Old Guard battalions did not join the Middle Guard, choosing instead to retire back to a screening position north of La Belle Alliance. But this seems most unlikely. These men were Napoleon’s cream of the cream. They would have understood that this was the supreme moment, the final chance to snatch victory, and it seems inconceivable that they would have shirked their duty. An estimation of the comparative lengths of the Garde’s column of battalion squares and that of the 52nd in its four ranks – that is, in the double line ordered by Wellington before the attack developed – is convincing evidence that all six of the French battalions were in the final column. The 52nd’s line in parade-ground spacing, ignoring the likely extension caused by the state of the ground and the grisly obstacles 36

MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

May 2015

Image: Royal Green Jackets Museum, Winchester.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OLD GUARD RESERVE?

THE BATTLE

under foot, both human and equine, would have been at least 188 yards long. The Garde column’s length would have been at least 225 yards without the 2/1st Châsseurs and 270 with them. One eyewitness states most positively that the Garde overlapped the 52nd. If only three battalions had been present – the Middle Guard, but not the Old Guard – the column would have been shorter than the line of the 52nd. So six elite French battalions, with an estimated combined strength of at least 3,000, amounting to three-quarters of the attacking force, seem to have been involved in the final clash. Close-packed, with a gap of only about 20 yards between the Middle and Old Guard elements, they tramped stoically up the slope in the face of cannon fire from the batteries of Ramsay, Mercer, and Rogers. The divisional, brigade, and battalion commanders of the 3/1st Foot Guards all state clearly that this ‘column’ (by which they meant the column of battalions) advanced upon them, but that the Guards Brigade had run out of ammunition and were unable to fire upon the final attack.

COLONEL COLBORNE AND THE 52ND LIGHT INFANTRY Fortunately, Colonel Sir John Colborne, acting on his own initiative, led out his near 1,000-strong battalion of Peninsulaexperienced light infantrymen, carried out a left-form through 90 degrees, and charged the Garde column’s left flank. The Garde loosed off a ragged volley, but the 52nd took more casualties from Rogers’ Battery, firing blind. The three Middle Guard battalions were completely dispersed by the charge. The three Old Guard battalions behind them were less affected, because Colborne, recognising the value of surprise, had ordered the charge before his right-wing companies had completed the left-form. The three Old Guard battalions retired, complete but demoralised, into screening positions just north of La Belle Alliance. When the 52nd marched out, Wellington, seeing what Colborne was about, sent the six companies of the 2/95th on the 52nd’s left www.military-history.org

the Garde’s attack in the west was broken by the 52nd. Since the Light Brigade and Zeiten’s men had the same distance to cover to reach La Belle Alliance, it is fair to assume there was a simultaneous breakthrough against both French wings. As far as laurels for victory are concerned, they go to Wellington and Blücher equally. But Wellington was not prepared to accept that conclusion. Symptomatic of his refusal to cede equality was his rejection of Blücher’s suggestion that the battle should be named La Belle Alliance. With the assistance of members of his staff and the collusion of senior officers, he established the myth of his having given the commands to 3rd Battalion of the 1st Foot Guards that won the battle, and this regiment was unfairly awarded the unique title of ‘Grenadier Guards’. He then had to spend the rest of his life suppressing the truth about Colborne’s suberb handling of the 52nd, and hiding the guilty secret of his lie. Nigel Sale’s The Lie at the Heart of Waterloo has been published by The History Press.

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BELOW William Heath’s 1829 cartoon of the Duke of Wellington. That he was a great general no-one doubted. But did he lie about the final moments of the battle that cemented his reputation forever?

Image: WIPL

The Emperor took shelter with the two senior Old Guard battalions and left the field.

to join them. As they wheeled, the riflemen swept away the unfortunate remnant of the 4th Grenadiers. Breaking the column of battalions was the pre-requisite to the action which actually routed Napoleon’s army. Colborne later complained that far too little attention had been given to his subsequent dramatic drive at the double across the battlefield towards La Haie Sainte, at which point the 71st and two companies of the 3/95th caught up with the rest of the Light Brigade. Pausing here to reform and turn to face south, Colborne and the Light Brigade swept forward again, still at the double, and drove at the three French screening squares, some guns, and a few cavalry opposing them. As the Light Brigade moved forward, a cannon shot struck Wellington’s cavalry commander, Lord Uxbridge, in the knee. One of the squares was formed by the 2/3rd Grenadiers of the Guard, posted by Napoleon within gunshot range of La Belle Alliance, perhaps with just such an emergency in mind. The others were two of the three Old Guard battalions of the attacking force’s reserve. The third, 2/1st Châsseurs, commanded by General Cambronne, had been pursued by Colonel Hugh Halkett (brother to Colin) with one battalion of his brigade, from where the Garde had been broken. This battalion was finally dispersed and Cambronne captured by Halkett himself near La Belle Alliance.

WELLINGTON, UXBRIDGE, AND BLÜCHER The three squares retired and dispersed, leaving the Light Brigade free to drive directly at Napoleon at La Belle Alliance. Wellington left the Light Brigade and rode west with one staff officer to check the battlefield was clear of the French, all of whom were hurriedly departing in the chaos of total rout. Finding it clear of enemy he galloped back to his line to set off the general advance. No significant further resistance was encountered: the British simply took possession of the battlefield. The Emperor took shelter with the two senior Old Guard battalions commanded by General Petit and left the field. Near La Belle Alliance, the 52nd had met Prussian skirmishers. Lieutenant Kevan Leslie of the 79th, a Highland regiment posted to the east of the Brussels road, recorded that the troops of Zeiten’s Corps had finally broken through the French defensive line on the eastern side of the battlefield at the same time as MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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BATTLE MAP

RIGHT 1 The first Prussians arrive on the eastern

edge of the battlefield in the early afternoon.

2 Marshal Ney mounts a series of cavalry

charges against the centre of Wellington’s line during the late afternoon. Unsupported by infantry, all are defeated by defending infantry formed in squares.

3 At the same time, the French right

retracts under the mounting weight of the Prussian attack. The flank is angled back and has to be steadily reinforced.

4 By early evening, the main weight of the

Prussian attack is falling on the village of Plancenoit, which remains the centre of ferocious fighting during the final two hours of the battle. About half the Imperial Guard becomes embroiled in this struggle.

5 The other half of the Imperial Guard

mounts a grand assault on the centre of Wellington’s line in the late evening. The fighting reaches its climax at about 7.30pm.

6 The 52nd (Oxfordshire) Light Infantry

flanks the Guard and attacks with musketry and the bayonet. The collapse of the Guard begins.

7 Wellington orders a general advance

of the entire Anglo-Dutch-Belgian line at about 8pm.

8 The French army disintegrates into

rout. The pursuit continues into the darkness. Napoleon flees in his carriage and heads back to Paris. Wellington and Blücher meet at the appropriately named village of La Belle Alliance.

6

5 2

4

Credit: Map and lead image courtesy of Cambridge University Library

BATTLE MAP

7

1

8 3

PLAnCENOIT

the key to victory at Waterloo We should not rely on the English accounts of Waterloo, says Paul Dawson. The French and Prussian sources tell a different story.

L

a Haie Sainte, many authors argue, was the key to the Battle of Waterloo. But this is only true if we ignore the Prussians. The holding or taking of La Haie Sainte was a minor matter for the French holding the line between Papalotte and Plancenoit. Hougoumont and La Haie Sainte were side-shows compared with the

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French and Prussian combats at Plancenoit and Papalotte. Hougoumont is seen as a matter of plucky British soldiers holding out against all the odds against an entire French army corps. Not so. It is well remembered because most of the defenders were British. La Haie Sainte, held by British Hanoverian troops, is presented in a similar way. The fighting on Wellington’s right flank

RIGHT Blücher and his army on the march towards the battlefield of Waterloo. His 50,000 Prussians, arriving during the afternoon of 18 June, determined the outcome.

BELOW Marshal Blücher leads the Prussian attack on the French right in the early evening of Waterloo.

is seen as decisive due to three influences: Wellington’s own account; William Siborne’s model; and the fact that the defenders of the line were British. Siborne’s depiction emphasised the role of the British Army at the expense of that of Britain’s allies. He not only underplayed the role of the Dutch-Belgians; he totally ignored the Prussians.

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PLANCENOIT

A BATTLE OF TWO HALVES Waterloo was a battle of two halves. The first half was fought between the French and the British and allied troops under Wellington’s command, the second between the French and Blucher’s Prussians. The Prussians first appeared on the battlefield around 2.30pm. Since the early morning of 18 June, Napoleon knew that at least one of three Prussian columns had evaded Grouchy’s pursuit. These Prussians, some 50,000 men, were destined to overwhelm the French. In response to the arrival of the Prussians, the cavalry of Generals Domon and Soubervie were detached to defend Paris Wood. But the Prussian advance, screened by cavalry, was too rapid and fighting was soon under way in and around Frichermont Wood. An officer in the Prussian 18th Infantry Regiment writes about the opening stages of the attack at Frichermont and the pushing back of the French cavalry: www.military-history.org

When we reached Frichermont and found the farm buildings to the left of the village were occupied, we threw out sharpshooters under Captain von Pogwish and attacked the enemy positions. Their front line was taken by the first bayonet charge, which was very determined. Captain von Pogwish’s charge was a great contribution. Supported by the brigade artillery and the 2nd

Siborne not only underplayed the role of the DutchBelgians; he totally ignored the Prussians. Silesian Hussar Regiment under Oberst von Eicke, he forced the enemy to abandon their positions. The hussars drove back the enemy skirmish screen which was posted to the left of Frichermont and forced a châsseur regiment to retire. However, a second enemy cavalry regiment attacked them in the flank, throwing them back. The 3rd Silesian Landwehr

Cavalry under Rittmeister von Altenstein and a horse artillery battery soon restored the situation.

REINFORCING THE RIGHT At first only elements of Napoleon’s 1st Corps were redeployed to defend his threatened right, but as the fighting escalated they were joined by elements of the 6th Corps, who came into line behind Ranson Wood. Sergeant-Major Francois Marq of the 107th Regiment of the Line later recalled the ferocity of a struggle which saw his own unit ‘eviscerated’ by the Prussians. Rather than continue a costly frontal assault, the Prussians fed troops to the south towards Plancenoite. In fear of being encircled, the French were forced to fall back to the village. Towards 6pm, the Prussian left wing, comprising 16th Brigade and parts of 14th Brigade, launched an attack on the village. Six batteries opened fire on Plancenoit, where the French had constructed a line of defences through the cemetery and outlying buildings. Formed up into three columns, the Prussians attacked and took the cemetery, capturing three guns. In the first attack, the French had just about clung onto the village itself. Had the village fallen, the French Army would have found itself out-flanked and its line of retreat cut off. To prevent this happening, the Young Guard was ordered to support 6th Corps. MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

Images: WIPL

The assault of the Imperial Guard is seen as the vital tipping-point because it was the British Foot Guards who played the key role in defeating their opposite numbers. But this perception depends upon a wholly Anglo-centric view of the battle. It involves, quite simply, ignoring half of the battle itself and three-quarters of all the military actions between 15 June and 3 July 1815.

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THE YOUNG GUARD COUNTERATTACKS The Young Guard attacked and cleared Plancenoit, but was then forced back into the village by a new Prussian assault wave. It now redeployed in the gardens, streets, and houses of the village. Those villagers who remained cowered with fear in basements; many had, of course, fled at the onset of battle. At the centre of the village was St Catherine’s Church. This local monument was now to become famous for the tremendous slaughter that would take place around it. The high wall around the village cemetery became an impromptu bastion. The wall provided a readymade firing position, with the French ducking down behind the wall to reload in safety, popping up to take aim and fire, then ducking down again. The wall ran on four sides, and the terrain on the eastern side enhanced its defensive capability as the ground sloped quickly away from the wall. In order to capture this bastion, the Prussians had to outflank it on the south, where the wall was on level ground. But the effort would result in bloody, close-quarters fighting, house to house, with close-range musket volleys at less than 15 paces.

THE OLD GUARD ENTERS THE BATTLE With the Young Guard faltering after having withstood two more Prussian onslaughts, three battalions of the Old Guard, some 1,500 men, 42

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were dispatched, commanded by the brave General Morand. The Young Guard had taken heavy losses. The 1st Tirailleurs suffered 33% casualties, 3rd Tirailleurs 48%, 1st Voltigeurs 60%, and 3rd Voltigeurs 58%. Now it was the turn of the Old Guard. During the fighting that followed, the 1st Battalion, 2nd Châsseurs lost six dead,

St Catherine’s Church was to become famous for the tremendous slaughter that would take place around it. 19 wounded, 17 deserting, and 144 taken prisoner, and the 1st Battalion, 2nd Grenadiers five dead, 44 wounded, 26 deserting, and 132 taken prisoner. The losses of the Old Guard in Plancenoit were notably higher than those sustained by the Old Guard involved in the Imperial Guard

ABOVE Napoleon’s Old Guard clash head-on with Prussian infantry. The print depicts the Battle of Ligny, but it might equally well be the close-quarters fighting in Plancenoit in the early evening of Waterloo.

attack on the Allies under Wellington. The fighting in Plancenoit was, by implication, more ferocious. It also became a stalemate, with neither side gaining the upper hand. The streets were soon filled with dead and wounded. The French were firing down on the Prussians from upper-floor windows. The cemetery was still in French hands, and the church was on fire. The Prussians, extending their front so as to envelope a considerable portion of the cemetery, and taking advantage of the houses and walled gardens on the eastern side, maintained a terrific fire upon their opponents. But the defenders remained determined, and the losses were prodigious on both sides. The soldiers of the Imperial Guard fought desperately. General Pelet, commanding 1st Battalion, 2nd Châsseurs, reports as follows: I hung on like a demon. I could no longer keep my men together, but they had all found themselves some cover and poured a deadly fire on the enemy, which held them off. They would have stopped them completely but for their overwhelming numbers. With General Pelet clinging grimly to the wreckage of the burning village, and the May 2015

PLANCENOIT Prussians unable to dislodge them, other Prussian units began to outflank the position.

THE FRENCH CENTRE PUNCTURED BY PRUSSIAN HORSE Von Zieten’s men emerged at Papalotte and overwhelmed the rump of 1st Corps, which now fell back in disorder. What remained of 6th Corps retreated in panic. Prussian cavalry advanced on the French centre. Soon, Prussian cavalry was attacking the squares of the Old Guard near La Belle Alliance. Some squares of the Guard had been formed to the right of the Brussels road to stop the Prussians cutting off the retreat of the French army. We are not certain of the timing of this event or which battalions were involved. Lieutenant Barral of the 1st Grenadiers implies that four battalions stood as a bulwark against the Prussians. Presumably these were the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 1st Grenadiers, and the 2nd Battalions of the 1st and 2nd Châsseurs. Eventually, the Prussians outflanked the troops holding Plancenoit cemetery, driving right around the south of the village to attack French positions at La Maison du Roi. Plancenoit had become untenable. The

THE COST OF PLANCENOIT The action at Plancenoit had seen Napoleon commit half of 1st Corps, all of 6th Corps,

Prussian cavalry was soon attacking the squares of the Old Guard near La Belle Alliance. all the Young Guard, three battalions of Old Guard, two cavalry divisions, and all the French reserve artillery: something like 20,000 of the 70,000 men he had at Waterloo, or 30% of his army. This represented a huge drain on the forces available for assaulting Wellington’s line, but the numbers were far too few to stop the advance of some 50,000 Prussians. The fall of Plancenoit and the collapse of the French right allowed the Prussians to

penetrate the centre and reach the rear of Napoleon’s army. This occurred at around the same time as what remained of Wellington’s cavalry surged forwards and his infantry began their final ‘whole line’ advance. The almost exclusive focus in English accounts on Wellington’s line is to magnify one side of the battlefield and thereby distort our view of the whole. The Anglo-Belgian-Dutch line on the ridge was bleeding to death by early evening. Had the Imperial Guard been able to launch a single massed assault, it would almost certainly have broken through. As it was, it lacked the weight to carry the position, and this was so because half the Guard had been consumed in the struggle for Plancenoit. Not only that: Plancenoit was a hopeless struggle for the French, for the defence of the village could not prevent the Prussians breaking through north and south of it, like the tide around a breakwater, so as to prevent any orderly French withdrawal. Blücher’s 50,000 men not only prevented British defeat. They also ensured that the victory was total: they ensured that Napoleon’s only army was destroyed on the battlefield of Waterloo. Paul Dawson is an independent archaeological and heritage consultant who has written extensively on the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. His aim is to give French soldiers their voice in a conflict dominated by Anglophone histories.

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Images: WIPL

BELOW The famous meeting of Blücher and Wellington at La Belle Alliance at the end of the Battle of Waterloo.

French had to retreat or be cut off. The struggle was over. Both wings of the French army had been defeated.

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GALLIPOLI

Gallipoli: the Anzac experience

The fighting on the first day was close-run. The Anzacs almost broke clean through the Gallipoli Peninsula. Their failure – largely due to an enterprising Ottoman officer called Mustapha Kemal – left them holding a narrow ridge just above the landing-beach. And there they stayed for eight months. MHM describes those first critical hours.

25 APRIL 1915 THE FIRST DAY

F

Image: WIPL

urthest forward were 60 men of Captain E W Tulloch’s company of 11th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac). Tulloch was a Melbourne brewer in private life, and his men, like all of 11th Battalion, were from Western Australia. Now they were scrambling up steep, scrub-covered slopes above a small cove on a remote Mediterranean shoreline. They were the forward elements of an ambitious plan to strike at the very heart of the Ottoman Empire and knock it out of the war. The objective was Constantinople itself. An earlier attempt to force the Dardanelles Straits by naval power alone had been defeated by coastal guns and minefields. Tulloch’s company was part of the first wave of an 80,000-strong army that was going to seize the Gallipoli Peninsula on the western side of the Straits and facilitate the passage of the fleet. The main objective was the Khilid Bahr plateau, the high ground overlooking the

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LEFT An Anzac soldier stands ready in the trenches on Gallipoli. Note the gramophone.

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May 2015

RIGHT Ottoman machine-gun teams equipped with M8 08s.

narrowest extent of the Straits. But the Anzacs had missed their intended landing-place, and instead of moving rapidly inland over relatively low-lying ground, they found themselves climbing a series of precipitous ridges, with the commanding height of Chunuk Bair above them. The Aussies had piled off their boats at 4.30am, just before dawn, and immediately headed up the slopes, heavily laden, each with rifle, 200 rounds, entrenching tool, and two days’ extra rations of bully beef, biscuits, and tea. Shortly after 9am, having crossed a succession of rises and dips, they had advanced just over a mile, climbed more than 500m, and could see the looming mass of Chunuk Bair ahead. Deployed in a widely extended line, carefully conserving their water, they were pushing forwards in a succession of rushes, displaying the discipline and field-craft of veterans (which they were not). The heavily outnumbered enemy was falling back ahead of them. A decisive victory appeared imminent.

MUSTAPHA KEMAL Tulloch caught sight of a Turkish officer standing by a lone tree. Messengers came and went. The Australian captain fired at him, but he did not move. It seems likely – though far from certain – that the officer in question was Lieutenant-Colonel Mustapha Kemal Bey, commander of the Ottoman 19th Division, which had been stationed in reserve on the eastern side of the peninsula. Kemal, alerted by the sound of gunfire, had set out for Chunuk Bair at the head of his 57th (Turkish) Regiment, which had been parading that morning, leaving orders for the rest of the division, the 72nd and 77th (Arab) Regiments, to follow as soon as possible. The panoramic view from the heights confirmed that a fullwww.military-history.org

scale invasion was under way. The Anzacs were landing some 12,000 men that morning, and the Ottoman defenders were outnumbered about ten to one. ‘Why are you running away?’ Kemal demanded of a group of soldiers fleeing towards Chunuk Bair. It turned out that they had run out of ammunition and a line of enemy skirmishers was moving fast on their position. Kemal ordered them to fix bayonets and lie down. The bluff worked: the advancing Aussies, suspecting they were about to come under fire, followed suit and went to ground. Vital time was gained, and the first elements of 57th Regiment, along with a mountain artillery battery, arrived to reinforce Kemal’s improvised line. By 10am the 57th Regiment was strong enough to take the offensive. Tulloch’s men were among the first to feel the pressure as Ottoman resistance hardened. Brought to a halt by enemy strongly posted in the Chunuk Bair foothills, they soon found themselves being flanked, first on the right, then on the left, their whole position under increasingly heavy fire. With a third of his men down and in imminent danger of envelopment, Tulloch staged a fighting withdrawal, his four sections alternately firing and retiring.

‘NO ORDINARY ATTACK’ Around 11.30am the battle reached its crisis. The Anzacs in forward positions were strung out in widely dispersed company-size packets. Kemal’s 57th Regiment, on the other hand, had become a concentrated force of three battalions on the Anzacs’ left flank, while the neighbouring 27th Regiment was maintaining pressure in the centre. ‘But this was no ordinary attack,’ Kemal later recalled. ‘The deciding factor in our favour was our troops’ determination to kill or be killed. My order to the commanders was: “I

don’t order you to attack. I order you to die. When we die, other troops and commanders can take our places.”’ In the fighting that followed, on this and subsequent days, the 57th Regiment was virtually destroyed. Outnumbered never less than three to one, its counterattack threw the Anzacs back down the slopes and secured the high ground. So grim, in fact, had the tactical situation become at the end of the first day that the Anzac commander proposed immediate evacuation. But this was refused, so his men dug in. The resulting Anzac beachhead comprised a triangle of ground about two miles long and barely half a mile deep. The trenches were cut along the western edge of a narrow ridge. The Ottomans held the eastern edge. In many places the opposing lines were less than 50 yards apart. What followed was eight months of attritional trench warfare and ‘mission creep’ as each side poured in more men and matériel. The same was true of the fighting at Cape Helles, where the British and French had landed on the same day as the Anzacs, and later at Suvla Bay, where a further landing was made in August: all three Gallipoli fronts went into lockdown. By the end there were a third of a million men contesting control of a tongue of land barely 20 miles long by five miles wide.

‘I don’t order you to attack. I order you to die.’ Lieutenant-Colonel Mustapha Kemal MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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GALLIPOLI BELOW A contemporary map of the Gallipoli Peninsula and the Dardanelles Straits showing the situation in August 1915. Note the small, rugged, claustrophobic battlefield at Anzac Cove. The intention had been to storm across the peninsula and cut off the Turks at Cape Helles on the first day. In fact, the ANZACs were trapped for eight months on a narrow ridge just above their landing beach.

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T

he baptism of fire of the Australian Light Horse was rough and bloody. Horsemen from ranches measured in tens of thousands of acres found themselves shipped as infantry to the narrow, jagged Gallipoli Peninsula, where they lived and died in the cramped ridge-top trenches of a tiny battlefield barely two miles long by half a mile wide. The nadir came on 7 August 1915. The dismounted Light Horse were required to launch a series of frontal attacks uphill, over bare ground, in broad daylight, against welldefended Ottoman trenches. The 1st Light Horse Regiment reached the enemy trenches on Pope’s Hill, but had to be withdrawn after losing 150 of its 200 men. The 2nd Light Horse lost 50 of its 55 men within seconds of leaving its trenches at Quinn’s Post. The fate of the 8th and 10th Regiments at The Nek was yet more soul-destroying. The attack was made in four lines because the ground was so narrow at The Nek that only 150 men could charge at a time. Watches 48

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The futility of the fighting at The Nek on 7 August 1915 formed the climax of Peter Weir’s film Gallipoli. What actually happened? were not synchronised and the artillery bombardment ended at 4.23am, seven minutes before zero, giving the Turkish infantry time to man their parapet and reposition their machine-guns. As the first line went over, it was met by sheets of fire from the enemy trenches and simply sank into the earth as virtually every man went down without advancing ten yards. The second line went over three minutes later and was mown down in the same way. The 8th Light Horse had been annihilated. The regimental officers of the 10th appealed for further attacks to be called off, but senior commanders remained implacable. At 4.45am the first wave of 10th Light Horse went over, the roar of rifles and machine-guns rose again to a crescendo, and another 150 men went down. Half an hour later, the final wave was scythed in the same way. Of the 400 Australians who charged at The Nek that morning, 362 were killed or wounded, almost all of them within yards of their own trench. ‘During the long hours of that day,’ recorded the Australian war-correspondent and

ABOVE An Anzac charge on Gallipoli in December 1915.

official historian Charles Bean, ‘the summit of The Nek could be seen crowded with their bodies. At first, here and there, a man raised his arm to the sky, or tried to drink from his water-bottle. But as the sun that burning day climbed higher, such movement ceased. Over the whole summit, the figures lay still in the quivering heat.’ Most of a brigade had been destroyed in less than an hour.

‘Over the whole summit, the figures lay still in the quivering heat.’ Charles Bean, Australian war-correspondent May 2015

Image: WIPL

7 AUGUST 1915 THE NEK

SEPTEMBER 1915 IN THE TRENCHES AT LONE PINE From the diary of Trooper Ion Idriess, 5th Light Horse (fighting dismounted in the Anzac trenches on Gallipoli).

‘S

Image: WIPL

eptember – at Lone Pine – after a tedious walk along narrow saps, then through a tunnel timbered with beams. We stumbled in the darkness, instinctively ducking our heads, only to thud into the wall of the tunnel where it twisted and turned. The floor was uneven with puddle-holes of putrid water. Of course, no-one dared strike a light: we were going to the most dangerous spot of the whole Gallipoli line. ‘The route smelt like a cavern dug in a graveyard, where the people are not even in their coffins. We are right in Lone Pine now and the stench is just awful;

‘We were going to the most dangerous spot of the whole Gallipoli line.’ Trooper Idriess, 5th Australian Light Horse

BELOW Troops and supplies at Anzac Cove. This photo gives a vivid impression of the landscape.

the dead men, Turks and Australians, are lying buried and half-buried in the trench bottom, in the sides of the trench, and built up into the parapet. They have made the sandbags all greasy. The flies hum in a bee-like cloud. I understand now whey men can only live in this portion of the trenches for 48 hours at a stretch… ‘The first Turkish sap is only 15 feet away; by peering from behind our parapet we can just see into the inner edge of its broken bags, pierced with

GALLIPOLI

BOMBING ‘Our trench is treacherously narrow, twisty, and deep – rugged witness to the haste and depth our men had to dig in seeking shelter from the bombs. The trench was once roofed with beams and sandbags, but all available timber has long since been blown to fragments by the bombs. ‘The front wall of our trench is dug into at a distance of every few feet into firing-possies, in which two men can just stand. The trench proper, which runs behind the posies, is two feet deeper. So that if a bomb falls in your possy, you kick it back down into the trench and throw a sandbag over it, then crouch back in the possy, all in one automatic motion, as it were, praying that the deepening of the trench behind will shield you from the flying fragments. ‘Narrow walls of earth are left standing between each firing-possy. These walls protect the men in the 50

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next possy when a bomb falls in yours. ‘Men are killed here every hour, but if some precautions were not taken, no-one could live here at all…

‘Of all the bastard places, this is the greatest bastard in the world.’ Trooper Idriess, 5th Australian Light Horse MAGGOTS AND FLIES ‘Maggots are falling into the trench now. They are not the squashy yellow ones; they are big brown hairy ones. They tumble out of the sun-dried cracks in the possy walls. The sun warms them, I suppose. It is beastly … ‘We have just had ‘dinner’. My new mate was sick and couldn’t eat. I tried to, and would have but for the flies. I had biscuits and a tin of jam. But immediately I opened the tin, the flies rushed the jam. ‘They buzzed like swarming bees. They swarmed that jam, all fighting amongst themselves. I wrapped

ABOVE An artist’s reconstruction of an Anzac attack at Lone Pine. The event is over-dramatised, but the picture does give an impression of the narrowness of the battleground.

my overcoat over the tin and gouged out the flies, then spread the biscuit, held my hand over it, and drew the biscuit out of the coat. But a lot of the flies flew into my mouth and beat about inside. ‘Finally I threw the tin over the parapet. I nearly howled with rage. I feel so sulky I could chew everything to pieces. Of all the bastard places, this is the greatest bastard in the world. ‘And a dead man’s boot in the firing-possy has been dripping grease on my overcoat and the coat will stink forever… ‘With the last rays of the sun, I was staring through the periscope for any sign of the living among the bodies. There are little khaki heaps of bodies, then twos and threes here and there lying among the Turks. Some are only rotting khaki without either shape or form. The boots last the longest. ‘Within a few yards of my periscope lay a tale telling how furiously both sides died. The Australian’s bayonet is sticking, rusty and black, six inches through the Turk’s back. One hand is gripping the Turk’s throat, while even now you can see the Turk’s teeth fastened through what was the boy’s wrist. The Turk’s bayonet is jammed through the boy’s stomach, and one hand is clenched, claw-like, across the Australian’s face. I wonder, will they fight if there is an after-world?

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May 2015

Image: WIPL

bomb-splintered shafts of timber, and rags of dead men’s uniforms. The Turks cannot hold that sap, nor can we, for both sides can rain bombs into it and make it certain death in a matter of seconds. ‘But the Turks (game men) sneak up it during the night, throw a shower of bombs across into our trench, then scurry wildly back ere vengeance overtake them. Behind that ‘No-Man’s-Sap’ are lines and lines of trenches stretching one behind the other, most of them heavily timbered and roofed. Dead men, sun-dried, lie all between the trenches. A dreary outlook, it seems the end of the world. Bullets hum ceaselessly.

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ABOVE Artist’s impression of the battle between the Eburonean king Ambiorix and the Roman army in 54 BC.

Image: Roymans/Dijkman 2010.

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THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CAESAR’S GALLIC WAR

What did Roman conquest mean for the defeated? Nico Roymans and Manuel Fernández-Götz have been uncovering the evidence in north-west Europe. MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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n the years 58-51 BC, Gaul was conquered and added to the Roman Empire through the military campaigns of Julius Caesar and his legions. For the first time in history, tribal groups in north-western Europe were confronted with the violent expansionism of an imperial system. Although Caesar’s war narrative is coloured by personal propaganda and imperial ideology, there is no doubt that the conquest had dramatic consequences for Gallic societies. The Roman writer Appian claimed that Caesar killed one million Gauls and enslaved another million out of a total population of four million. Until recently, Caesar’s conquests in the northern periphery of Gaul were known only from his historical account. In the Netherlands, Belgium, and the German Lower Rhine area, the Caesarian conquest was almost totally invisible archaeologically. Direct evidence in the form of Roman army camps or battlefield locations was absent. This in contrast to the more central and southern areas of Gaul, where we have major sites like Alesia (besieged in 52 BC). One reason for the lack of evidence in the north is the absence of heavily defended oppida – large Late Iron Age fortifications from the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. These were both military targets and the sites of winter camps for the legions. They survive today as very obvious archaeological monuments. May 2015

LANDSCAPES OF WAR AND TERROR

‘Caesar pillaged shrines and temples of the gods filled with offerings, and oftener sacked oppida for the sake of plunder than for any fault.’ Suetonius, Life of Caesar logical data. This situation has, however, changed substantially in the past two decades. Thanks to new archaeological, palaeobotanical, and numismatic evidence, it is now possible to build a picture of the conquest and its impact on indigenous societies. BELOW Ethnic map of northern Gaul at the time of Caesar.

Image: Fernández Götz 2014.

The shortage of archaeological evidence for the conquest does not mean, however, that the northern periphery was any less affected by the war. On the contrary, there is probably no region of Gaul where the impact was as dramatic as in the north-east. In the Germanic frontier zone, the conquest had sharp negative effects: the emphasis was on destruction, mass enslavement, deportation, and even genocide. Here, Roman imperialism revealed itself in its most aggressive form. Caesar is very clear about his war aims against, for example, the Eburones tribe: his campaigns were meant to annihilate this people and their name – to carry out, that is, a deliberate genocide. The strategy repeatedly described was to move through the homeland of enemy tribes with the aim of burning down as many settlements as possible, destroying the crops in the fields, and murdering the inhabitants. This must have had a dramatic impact on the physical appearance of these homelands. It must have created what we call ‘landscapes of war and terror’. This more negative aspect of the Roman conquest has rarely been the subject of serious research. Until recently, it was hardly possible because of the lack of independent archaeo-

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Caesar killed one million and enslaved another million in a total population of four million. DEFEATED AND ENSLAVED: THUIN AND THE ADUATUCI One of the most spectacular discoveries of Roman provincial archaeology of the past few years is the identification of a Late Iron Age fortification at Thuin as the oppidum of the Aduatuci. For the first time in northern Gaul, archaeology can identify one of the major ‘crime scenes’ described by the Roman proconsul. This site was conquered by Caesar in 57 BC as part of his campaigns against the tribes of the Nervii and the Aduatuci. The fortification of Thuin (Belgium) occupies a plateau of more than 13ha and can be reached on the eastern side via a narrow, 60m-wide finger of land. Several arguments indicate this to have been the oppidum of the Aduatuci. The historical account has it that, after the site’s capture, the entire population of 53,000 individuals were sold as slaves and deported to Italy: On the morrow the gates [of the oppidum] were broken open, for there was no more defence, and our troops were sent in. Then Caesar sold as one lot the booty of the oppidum. The purchasers furnished a return to him of 53,000 persons. The main arguments for the identification of Thuin are as follows: it was an important Late Iron Age fortification situated in the territory of the Aduatuci that did not survive into the Roman period; there is a close match with the topography described by Caesar; several gold hoards of the early 50s BC have been found and these seem to reflect a single event; finally, and most importantly, concentrations

Images: Roymans et al 2012.

TOP Caesar’s military campaigns of 57 BC and the approximate locations of major battlefields: 1) along the River Aisne, 2) along the River Sabis/Sambre, and 3) at the oppidum of the Aduatuci. LEFT Topography of the Late Iron Age fortification at Thuin and the location of gold finds and Roman lead sling-bullets: a) gold hoard; b) isolated gold coin(s); c) concentration of sling-bullets; d) iron tools; and e) bronze ornaments and appliqués.

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RIGHT One of the hoards of gold coins from the mid 1st century BC found at Thuin.

of Roman lead sling-bullets imply a Roman siege of the site. The sling-bullets appeared in two separate concentrations: on the wall near the main entrance of the fortification, and on the far side of the Biesmelle River. Their concentration at the main rampart strongly suggests that they were used by the attackers.

PLUNDER In his biography of Caesar, Suetonius accuses Caesar of the large-scale plunder of oppida and sanctuaries in Gaul and of enriching himself enormously with the wealth stored there, most notably in the form of gold: In Gaul he pillaged shrines and temples of the gods filled with offerings, and oftener sacked oppida for the sake of plunder than for any fault. In consequence he had more gold than he knew what to do with, and offered it for sale throughout Italy and the provinces at the rate of 3,000 sesterces a pound.

GENOCIDE IN THE NORTH: CAESAR AND THE EBURONES The Caesarian conquest produced a major change in the ethnic map of the Lower Rhine. This is particularly clear in the case of the Eburones and the Aduatuci, which did not survive the conquest period as tribal groups. There are, however, differing opinions among historians about the interpretation of Caesar’s narrative. Some scholars take his account of the destruction of these tribes literally, while others see it as a flourish of political propaganda. Information about the genocide of the Eburones goes back to Caesar himself, who says in his account that the territory of this civitas was razed to the ground and left to be pillaged as punishment for the rebellion of their king Ambiorix in 54 BC: www.military-history.org

He [Caesar] sent messengers around to the neigh bouring tribes and invited them all, in the hope of booty, to join him in pillaging the Eburones, … and at the same time, by surrounding it with a large host, destroy the race and name of the tribe. After that, the Eburones disappeared from the political map forever. Does this mean that all the members of this ethnic group were massacred? If we look at the archaeological and environmental data, a substantial population decrease, caused by partial genocide, seems likely. In fact, pollen diagrams suggest a serious reduction in human activity and an increase in woodland pollen in the Cologne hinterland around the mid 1st century BC. This conclusion seems to correlate fairly closely with the events described in the texts and suggests that population declined significantly in the region – though it never became completely uninhabited. A substantial population decrease in the 1st century BC also seems to occur in the Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region (southern Netherlands/northern Belgium), a region which has produced high-quality settlement evidence. Most Roman settlements in this area appear to be new foundations of the late 1st century BC or the early 1st century AD. So archaeology is able to show that there was a serious break in occupation of the MeuseDemer-Scheldt region – a break likely to have been caused by the Caesarian conquest. At the same time, recent research allows the image offered by the written sources to be refined. There is some evidence of continuity. The territory of the Eburones was never, it

ABOVE Roman lead sling-bullets from Thuin, indicating the attack by the Caesarian army.

‘Caesar surrounded the Eburones with a large host to destroy the race and name of the tribe.’ Caesar, Gallic War

Images: Roymans et al 2012.

Since the usual price of gold was 4,000 sestertii a pound, we can conclude that Caesar greatly inflated the Italian gold market. The coin hoards found archaeologically probably represent deposits that were placed at a cult site in a time of crisis – for both religious and security reasons. Following the capture of the oppidum, not only will the entire population have been sold as slaves, but the Roman army will have systematically plundered the fortification. Caesar will have been chiefly interested in the portable wealth hidden there in the form of coins, jewellery, and other precious objects. Perhaps only the three recently discovered gold hoards from Thuin escaped the Roman sack. They probably represent only a tiny fraction of the gold stored at the site.

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58 BC Migration of Helvetii blocked. Helvetii defeated in eastern-central Gaul. Ariovistus and German tribes defeated in eastern Gaul.

57 BC Belgae of northeastern Gaul defeated and conquered.

56 BC Veneti defeated in sea

Brittany coast. Morini and Menapii of north-eastern Gaul defeated.

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55 BC

Pan-Gallic revolt led by Vercingetorix. Sieges of Avaricum, Gergovia, and Alesia. Defeat and capture of Vercingetorix.

Caesar builds bridge, crosses Rhine, and defeats German tribes. Caesar invades Britain for first time.

54 BC Caesar invades Britain for second time. Uprisings in Gaul

Image: Roymans/Dijkman 2010.

CAESAR’S GALLIC WAR TIMELINE Revolt of Belgae suppressed.

52 BC

51 BC Last Gallic resistance suppressed.

ABOVE Statue of the Eburonean king Ambiorix, leader of the anti-Roman revolt of 54 BC, in Tongeren. LEFT Reconstruction of the Gallo-Roman temple complex at Empel. It has its origins as a cult site in the early 1st century BC.

, p y p p The evidence for continuity includes certain house types and recurring use of cult sites. In fact, the pre-Roman sites of Kessel, Empel, and Elst continued developing until they became monumental Gallo-Roman sanctuaries. So the absence of the Eburones from the political map after the conquest was not the result of wholesale slaughter, but of a more limited, localised genocide.

Image: Roymans 2004.

MASS VIOLENCE AND ROMAN IMPERIALISM In numerous traditional accounts there has been a tendency to see the Romanisation of the Western provinces as ‘the light of civilisation’ reaching passive and previously barbarous indigenous societies. The emphasis has been on the supposedly positive aspects

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, mosaics, and the erection of large-scale public works such as aqueducts or amphitheatres. In fact, the subjugation of Gaul was an act of imperialist violence that brought about the death and enslavement of hundreds of thousands of people. Partial genocides like that of the Eburones, the tens of thousands who fell in battle, the massive sales of slaves through the southern markets, and the looting of numerous sanctuaries, were acknowledged by the conquerors in their own accounts. Archaeological evidence now supports their testimony. There was another side. There were collaborators and there were processes of integration and hybridisation. But a holistic history should include victors and vanquished, winners and losers, as well as all those who cannot easily be assigned to one of these two

poles – those who simply tried to survive by adapting as best they could to the changing world they lived in. Professor Nico Roymans teaches at the Vrije University of Amsterdam, and Dr Manuel Fernández-Götz at the University of Edinburgh.

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FURTHER INFORMATION Identity and Power: the transformation of Iron Age societies in north-east Gaul, Fernández-Götz Amsterdam University Press. Caesar in Gaul and Rome: war in words, Riggsby, University of Texas Press.

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MAY Each month, the Debrief brings you the very best in film and book reviews, along with suggested historical events and must-see museums. Whether you plan to be at home or out in the field, our team of expert reviewers deliver the best recommendations to keep military-history enthusiasts entertained.

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The Tears of the Rajas by Ferdinand Mount, The Great War, Memory and Ritual by Mark Connelly, and Waterloo Voices 1815 by Martyn Beardsley. Our RECOMMENDED book of the Month is The Deluge by The Deluge by Adam Adam Tooze Tooze, and Taylor Downing reviews Downfall.

WAR ON FILM BOOKS

The Royal Museum of the MUSEUM Armed Forces and Military History in Brussels with David Flintham. We also recommend the RAF’s Domino HIGHLIGHT Theory night Peter Kennard: of Cold Warunofficial war themed artist entertainment.

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This month we have three copies of War’s Nomads: A Mobile Radar Unit in Pursuit of Rommel during the Western Desert Campaign, 1942-3 to be won.

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O TAYLOR DOWNING REVIEWS A CLASSIC WAR MOVIE including Alec Guinness in Hitler: The Last Ten Days and Anthony Hopkins in The Bunker, but there is always a tendency to caricature the Nazi leader. No one has presented Hitler as convincingly and as compellingly as Bruno Ganz in Downfall. The film is told from the perspective of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler’s secretaries. At the opening and end of the film are brief clips of an interview with her in which she says she is ashamed she did not ask more about the evil that was going on in the Third Reich. The film then begins with a short prologue in November 1942 at the Wolf’s Lair when Hitler selects Junge as his secretary. She was aged 22 but Alexandra Maria Lara makes her look like an innocent 18-year-old. Framing the film from the perspective of Traudl Junge gives Hitler a human quality. He was good and caring to his secretaries and concerned with their welfare. Interestingly this was in contrast to Winston Churchill, who could be a demanding bully to his secretaries, as Elizabeth Layton and others later revealed.

BIRTHDAY IN THE BUNKER

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DOWNFALL Newmarket Capital Group £6.99

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eventy years ago the Second World War in Europe came to an end with the Battle of Berlin, the death of Adolf Hitler, and the unconditional surrender of German forces. From the moment the war ended, the story of Hitler’s final days, isolated from the real world in the deep Führerbunker in the centre of Berlin, proved a fascinating tale of the collapse of the Thousand Year Reich. The story has been told many times

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but never as well as in the German film Der Untergang, (Downfall), (2004) directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and dominated by a superb portrait from Bruno Ganz of the hysterical and manic tyrant in the last days of his life. Ganz spent four months studying recordings of Hitler to perfect not only his physical mannerisms but also the cadences of his speech and the nuances of his Austrian accent. Several actors have portrayed Hitler on film,

Downfall then cuts to Hitler’s birthday in the Führerbunker in Berlin, 20 April 1945, which comes under Russian artillery fire. Beleaguered and shaking badly, Hitler is told at the daily conference with his generals that this is not long-range artillery fire as he imagines, because the Russians are only 12km away. Hitler erupts into a furious rage and orders the implementation of Operation Clausewitz in which all the army and civil ministries are to evacuate, documents are to be destroyed, and Berlin is to be turned into a front-line city. At his birthday reception, senior SS commanders including Heinrich Himmler (Ulrich Noethen) and his adjutant Hermann Fegelein (Thomas Kretschmann) beg Hitler to leave the city. But he refuses, saying, ‘I will defeat them in Berlin or face my downfall.’

Himmler believes he can do a deal with Eisenhower and leaves Berlin, never to return. Hitler meanwhile drools over the vast model of the Berlin he wanted to build as a permanent mark of the greatness of the Nazi Reich, with his architect and War Minister Albert Speer (Heino Ferch). Throughout the film, the stuffy and claustrophobic world of the bunker is intercut with scenes of the increasingly bitter battle for the streets of Berlin. These scenes are presented on a realistically epic scale as the Russians are forced to fight for the city street by street and then building by building. Thousands of civilians are caught in the crossfire fleeing from one burning tenement block to another.

THE FÜHRERBUNKER Hitler’s bunker was situated a few yards from the Chancellery in the centre of Berlin. It was protected by a concrete ceiling 9ft thick and by outer walls that were 6.5ft thick. SS guards manned a series of check points in long corridors that led to the underground headquarters. The bunker was on two levels. On the upper level were the offices, kitchens, staff living quarters, and rooms for Goebbels and his family. They had plentiful supplies of food and drink. There were 50 steps that went down to the lower level that consisted of Hitler and Eva Braun’s living quarters, the main communications centre, and Hitler’s conference room. Hitler moved into the bunker in late January 1945 and was based there for the rest of the war. From this underground centre the Nazi leader and his entourage were separated from what was happening above ground. Hitler’s grasp on reality became increasingly tenuous as he conjured up imaginary armies to fight battles that were already lost.

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Many of the defenders are oungsters from the Hitler Youth and he League of German Girls. A group re operating an 88mm anti-aircraft un as an anti-tank weapon, (which n fact worked immensely effectively). eter, a young Aryan boy of about ten, Donevan Gunia) is one of the gunners. His father appears, a veteran, who tells hem the battle is hopeless, the war s lost, and they should all desert. A eenage girl insists, ‘We will fight to he last man.’ Peter runs off calling his ather a coward. An SS doctor, Ernst-Günther Schenck Christian Berkel), is ordered to evacute the city but pleads to stay on to rovide medical help. He gathers what medicine and supplies he can from an bandoned hospital where all the staff ave been killed. En route, Schenck nds a group of soldiers executing two ld men who have been defending the ty and are accused of abandoning heir posts. This is another theme in the film. As he defence of Berlin becomes hopess the hard-line Nazis become even more fanatical, carrying out executions f anyone who hesitates. In reality, everal thousand civilians were killed s the Red Army noose tightened on he city. Back in the bunker, Hitler shrieks t his generals, telling them that the th Army must not retreat and will uccessfully defend Berlin. General Mohnke (Andre Hennicke) tells Hitler hat the soldiers will stay and defend he city but asks about the civilians. Hitler says they do not matter. In his ast days of madness, Hitler came to elieve that the people of Germany ad let him down and deserved to die or failing the Reich. Hitler tells Speer that everything ust be left as a wasteland. Speer eplies that this will take Germany ack to the Middle Ages. Hitler tells im, ‘If the war is lost, the people don’t atter. They have proved themselves oo weak.’ Hitler goes outside briefly o give medals to young boys, Peter inuded, who have been defending the ty. This is a famous scene recorded y the newsreel cameras, the last film f Hitler. As in the original archive film, itler’s left hand behind his back is een to be shaking uncontrollably. Eva Braun, movingly played by a ubmissive Julian Köhler, decides to ave a party in the bunker. Champagne ows, she dances to an American wing record, but everything is

interrupted by shellfire and the partygoers stagger away covered in dust. At another conference, Hitler is told the 9th Army has been annihilated. Rapidly retreating from reality, Hitler calls up new armies. This time he says General Steiner’s SS troops will counterattack from the north. His generals listen, appalled at Hitler’s tirades. When he is later told that Steiner’s force has disintegrated, he flies into another rage.

DELUSIONS OF BETRAYAL Hitler dismisses everyone from the room except Generals Keitel, Krebs, Jodl, and Burgdorf. He screams at them that they have deceived him, they are the scum of the earth and that this is a monstrous betrayal. Looking on is Joseph Goebbels, played with a truly sinister and gaunt power by Ulrich Matthes. His loyalty to the Führer is unwavering. Outside, Traudl Junge, Eva Braun, and the staff overhear Hitler’s ranting and raving. In their hearts they all know it is over but none of them can admit this to themselves or the others. In the real world of the city outside, Schenck arrives to help at an underground medical hospital. The suffering is ghastly. Huge numbers of the old, sick and wounded await attention. Amputations take place without anaesthetics. Blood flows everywhere. The Volkssturm, an untrained force of the old and the young, put together by Goebbels as a propaganda measure, try to defend the city but get in the way of the soldiers still fighting on. Magda Goebbels, (Corinna Harfouch) arrives in the bunker with their six children. In a scene akin to the emperor fiddling while Rome burns, Magda and Eva write letters to their families. Eva obsesses about what will happen to her jewellery and tells her sister she wants her to have it. As the Russians close in on the Führerbunker, life below ground continues in its surreal way. Traudl Junge and two other young women – another secretary Gerda Christian, and Hitler’s cook and dietician Constanze Manziarly – look on as the madness builds to a crescendo. People come and go. Some visitors express absurd levels of support: ‘Lead, my Führer, and we will follow’. General Weidling arrives, having been told he will be shot for moving his command post westwards, but instead is put in command of the defence of the city. The SS guards resort to drink. Hitler and Eva get married in a curious MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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THE BATTLE OF BERLIN At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Big Three decided on the carving up of Germany at the end of the war. There would be four zones of military occupation: the American, French, British, and Soviet. Berlin lay well inside the Soviet zone of occupation. So when US troops in April 1945 reached the Elbe river, General Eisenhower ordered them to halt. He decided to leave it to the Red Army to capture Hitler’s capital. On 16 April the Soviet assault on the city began with a massive artillery bombardment and infantry attack along the Zeelow heights. By 20 April Soviet troops had entered the suburbs. Their principal weapon, the T-34 tank, was an excellent machine operating in the open countryside in huge numbers but had real difficulties in urban warfare and was particularly vulnerable to the Panzerfaust, a small, hand-held weapon often used by young boys and old men who rallied to the defence of their city. Marshal Zhukov’s forces approached from the north and Marshal Koniev’s from the south. Stalin had set them up as competitors, whose prize would be Berlin. On 28 April, Zhukov’s troops entered the central area and two days later, on the day Hitler committed suicide, the Red Flag was flown over the remains of the Reichstag. The Nazi die-hards had made this one of the bloodiest confrontations of all and approximately 300,000 Red Army soldiers were killed or wounded in this final battle. midnight ceremony. But the news from the real world gets worse and worse. On 23 April, Hitler is told that Goering wants to take command of the Reich and this prompts another fit. General von Greim is put in charge of the Luftwaffe. When a few days later Hitler is told Himmler has been negotiating with the Allies, it is the last straw. In an almost unspeakable rage Hitler announces this is the worst betrayal of all and Himmler must be punished. Fegelein, Himmler’s adjutant and Eva Braun’s brother-in-law, is ordered to be shot. Hitler ignores Eva’s pleas for his mercy, as her sister is pregnant with Fegelein’s child. ‘There is no compassion for traitors,’ declares Hitler. As imaginary new armies are ordered to destroy the Soviet forces in a giant pincer movement, Hitler’s doctor advises on the best way to commit suicide. Hitler says he will shoot himself but Eva Braun wants to look good after her death and says she prefers poison. Cyanide capsules are distributed and Hitler gives one to Traudl Junge saying, ‘I’m sorry I have nothing better to give you.’ Albert Speer paid one last visit to Hitler. In his book Inside the Third Reich (1970), Speer described this scene and the atmosphere in the bunker. He found Hitler ‘empty, burnt out, lifeless’. Downfall faithfully depicts Speer’s visit. Speer had been Hitler’s favourite and as a brilliant administrator had been promoted to Minister of Armaments and War Production. Hitler had ordered him to carry out a 62

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vast scorched-earth policy, destroying much of Germany as the Allies advanced from west and east. But Speer had not carried out this order and now admitted this to Hitler. It was an act of rare bravery that could have led Hitler to order his immediate execution. But Hitler failed to react. There was no anger left in him. At that moment General Krebs, the chief of staff, arrived with a situation report. Speer was dismissed. When he left the bunker, Speer took one last look at the remains of the giant Chancellery building that he had built years before. Then as Russian shells crashed in he took his leave of Berlin. Later Speer was the only senior Nazi who pleaded guilty at the Nuremburg war trials and was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. He was released in 1966 and became something of a celebrity. By the end of April 1945, fanatical Nazis across Berlin realised the end was approaching. In Downfall many senior and junior figures commit suicide. One general blows up his family over dinner with two grenades. In a particularly gruesome scene, Magda Goebbels methodically poisons each of her six young children. She says she does not want them to grow up in a future without National Socialism. They, of course, are given no choice, like thousands of other innocents who are murdered on the altar of Nazism in these final desperate hours. Everywhere bodies are strung up on lampposts with cards around their

necks denouncing them as cowards. When Peter returns to his home he finds his father (who had advised the 88mm gun crew to flee) has been hung and his mother shot dead.

BERLIN COLLAPSES The cool efficiency of the Füherbunker is captured with chilling effect. Despite the madness going on in its midst and while Berlin collapses around them, those who keep the heart of the Nazi state running do so with Germanic rigour. The army commanders largely stay loyal to their oaths to the Führer and agree they cannot surrender, like in 1918. It is the Nazi party chiefs who betray Hitler and try to protect their own futures. Hitler dictates his final political testament to Junge. He declares that war was forced on him in 1939 and he blames International Jewry for everything. There is a Last Supper with Hitler and the small group of women. With Soviet troops only 200m away, on 30 April he announces, ‘The time has come. It is over now.’ He kills Blondi, his Alsatian. Eva Braun bites on the cyanide capsule. A gun shot echoes through the bunker. Dutifully, his SS adjutant Otto Gunsche (Gotz Otto) burns the bodies outside the bunker as shells land nearby. Then the Goebbels commit suicide. In the mayhem of the Soviet victory, German soldiers everywhere surrender. Traudl Junge leaves with an SS party and escapes incognito through a mass of celebrating Soviet troops. In an entirely invented scene, Peter appears, takes her by the hand and they walk away together. They have both lost their families and security, and are last seen cycling off to an unknown future. In the past 20 years, many of those in Hitler’s entourage have told their stories for television documentaries, or in print. Downfall has benefited from many of these detailed accounts of what it was like to be in the Führerbunker in Hitler’s final days. Traudl Junge was the first to ‘come out’ when she agreed to be interviewed by Thames Television for The World at War series in 1974. In 2002, she wrote a memoir, Until the Final Hour. In the 1990s several of the SS

guards, Hitler’s chauffeur, and others close to him told their story. Joachim Fest’s book Inside Hitler’s Bunker provided the core history for the film. In addition to this historical detail there is Bruno Ganz’s manic Hitler and the superb portrayals of many of the leading Nazis, who look sufficiently close to the characters they play to make it abundantly clear who they are meant to be. Downfall was criticised in both Germany and America for making Hitler too human. By showing his caring side, especially of the young women who worked for him, critics claimed, ‘We should not be seeing the monster as a human being.’ It is a bizarre criticism. Firstly, he was a man who in his early days had immense charisma, particularly with women, who formed the majority of those who voted for him in the 1932 and 1933 elections. To ignore this is to avoid facing up to how he came to power and tricked the German nation into following him. Secondly, the portrayal of the mad, despotic tyrant in Downfall who loses touch with all reality as his closest followers desert him and who rants and raves at the loyal army commanders, is hardly sympathetic. It is perfectly accurate to see Hitler as someone who could be caring to his secretary one minute and utterly ruthless, bringing death and destruction on thousands, the next. Downfall accurately illustrates the extraordinary destruction in Berlin by the end of April 1945. After 18 months of heavy bombing by the RAF and USAAF, and weeks of intense street fighting with the Red Army, the city was reduced to little more than a pile of rubble. The ‘economic miracle’ of Germany began as this rubble was cleared by bands of Berliners, often women, almost from the day after the final surrender on 7 May. Today Berlin is one of the most vibrant and lively cities of Europe that now engages fully with its past in museums and monuments like the Jewish Museum, the Holocaust Memorial, and the Topography of Terror. Downfall is another excellent example of how Germany today engages with the horrors and madness of its history.

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DOWNFALL (2004) Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel. Producer: Bernd Eichinger. Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes & Juliane Köhler. Constantin Film. A Momentum DVD.

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Adam Tooze Allen Lane, £30 ISBN 978-1846140341

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ccording to Roman statesman Cicero, endless money forms the sinews of war. The connection between economic trends and events on the battlefield has absorbed scholars of the 20th century over the past decade, with a number of fundamental works tracing the economic and political backdrop to military conflicts. Adam Tooze, Professor of History and Director of International Security Studies at Yale University, previously published a well-received incisive study of the economic realities of the Third Reich’s war machine. His latest book focuses on the First World War and its aftermath in terms of the new geopolitical realities which arose as a result of the conflict. Tooze has produced a commanding global synthesis of economics, politics, and military history from 1916 until 1931. Readers searching for a conventional history of the First World War will not find it here, but will instead be rewarded with a bold reinterpretation of the consequences of the conflict. While bookshop shelves currently groan with studies of the First World War,

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this book should not be overlooked for its originality and scholarship. During this Centenary period, our focus is frequently drawn to the horror and butchery of the Western Front, and justifiably so as the toll of the trenches in stolen and shattered lives defies easy comprehension. Yet arguably the consequences of the First World War have been too often overlooked or misunderstood, with the inter-war years being viewed as a mere hiatus between two prolonged periods of conflict. Tooze draws his title from a speech made by David Lloyd George while serving as Minister of Munitions in 1915. Addressing Glaswegian trade unionists, Lloyd George recognised that the ongoing conflict was of greater significance than territorial gains or political wins. It was a war which promised to re-orientate the global world order for generations to come. In this he was not mistaken. Indeed, German politicians recognised the same implications. By the end of the First World War, the political map of Europe would be drastically redrawn. Old empires lay smashed to pieces,

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THE DELUGE: THE GREAT WAR AND THE REMAKING OF THE GLOBAL ORDER

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new geographic entities emerged, and the relationships between great powers shifted across the globe. The mud of the Western Front was the gruesome foundation for a radically new world order. In essence, the violence of the First World War prompted a fundamental restructuring of relationships between the great powers. This restructure embraced military, political, and economic realities and drove geopolitical developments over the next two decades. The United States of America emerged the clear winner in this reorganisation. The signs of rising American preeminence had been visible during

the conflict itself. From the summer of 1916, supplies sent across the Atlantic had maintained the Allied war effort and thwarted German breakthroughs. In the same year, the combined economic outputs of the British Empire were finally overtaken by the United States. This economic dominance set the stage for American supremacy at the conclusion of the conflict. Yet the United States did not seek to replicate or replace the British Empire. On the contrary, America was relatively unique among the great powers for eschewing the accumulation of colonial territories, beyond the retention of military May 2015

BELOW David Lloyd George, whose 1915 speech provided the inspiration for the book's title.

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through military conquests and expansion alone. Though such parallels should not be drawn too convincingly, it is possible to identify the precursor of later US strategic thinking from the Cold War during this early period. Woodrow Wilson is a key character in Tooze’s narrative as both a thinker and politician whose agenda for US dominance shaped the global political landscape. Tooze argues convincingly that Wilson’s involvement in the First World War was motivated by a desire to ensure there would be peace without victory, or an end to conflict without a clear strong winner. This absence of victory would

The failure of the great powers to stabilise the geopolitical landscape ultimately led to the Second World War. foster a vacuum, assisted by the exhaustion and economic problems of winning and losing sides alike, and allow the United States to emerge as a ‘super state’, ably positioned to cajole and dominate the remaining European powers.

MHM REVIEWS

bases whose strategic locations made it essential for the projection of military power on the global stage. For this reason, the decline of the British and other colonial empires was not matched by annexation by American forces. The new major actor in the global world order sought to assert dominance through economic and political supremacy. This was supported not in the least by the huge billion-dollar debts owed to it by the major European powers from 1918. The transformative nature of the First World War heralded the rise of a new type of global political player which did not rely upon the acquisition of new territories and resources

The rise of American power offered the possibility of a Pax Americana bringing peace and security to former warring states, strengthened by a sound economic programme. It also aroused hostility and suspicion among its opponents, many of whom would be intrinsically linked to the rise of totalitarian ideologies in the 1920s and 1930s. Tooze labels these ‘insurgents’. It is noteworthy that Benito ussolini founded his Italian Fascist Party in 1919 with the expressed intention of opposing the new world order being shepherded in by the United States. Hitler would view the rise of American power as a key threat to his fascist world view. The failure of the great powers, including the United States, to stabilise the geopolitical landscape in the early half of the 20th century ultimately led to the outbreak of the Second World War. The Great Depression and rise of totalitarian ideologies in Europe and Asia during the 1930s ended hopes that the United States alone could, through the Pax Americana, prevent the return of unrest and conflict. Tooze argues that this failure can be traced to the inability of the United States to engage effectively with Britain, France, Germany, and Japan to strengthen nd secure the world economy. This book presents a sweeping narrative of the political shifts and economic trends of the great powers on the world stage in the aftermath of the First World War. While Tooze’s eye is inevitably drawn to the major events in geopolitics, he is also dept at identifying the minor details which provide a startling insight into contemporary thinking. It is an example of economic history written on the broadest canvas, and it will shape our understanding of the complex political dynamics between the great players of the early 20th century for years to come. æ MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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OO S THE BEST NEW MILITARY HISTORY TITLES THIS MONTH

THE TEARS OF THE RAJAS Ferdinand Mount Simon & Schuster, £25.00 ISBN 978-1-4711-2945-2

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erdinand Mount takes us on a tour de force through the glory days of Britain’s Indian Empire, using as his point of reference the experiences of the Lows, the author’s (and David Cameron’s) Scottish ancestors, who for many decades served the Raj. The Lows were protagonists of most of the great events of the hundred-year period, from 1805 to 1905, which is covered in the book. This was the era of the conquest and consolidation of the Raj, followed by a period of British power under threat, and then the final days of a restored, albeit relatively short-lived, sense of confident well-being. We are taken through the adventures of Major-General Robert Low, Keeper of the Crown Jewels and a key figure in the relief of Chitral, who led his troops through tribal territory to save the besieged garrison. He also participated in the signal events of Lucknow and Delhi during the Great Mutiny. There is a good deal more to this book than a series of family reminiscences. Nearly one hundred pages of bibliography and notes, a good deal from primary archive sources, make this a solid historical narrative of the great events of British India’s heyday.

A case in point is the story of the recapture of Lucknow, the decisive event that was to show the sepoys who was master. After the British evacuation, an estimated 96,000 rebel troops held the city, and it required the mustering of ‘the most powerful British army ever concentrated in one place in India’ (20,000 cavalry and infantry, 137 guns and mortars, and 22 siege guns) to retake the garrison. Robert Low rode in the vanguard across the pontoon bridges to lead the attack on the rebels, and Mount provides a detailed and compelling description of the battle that returned Lucknow to British hands. General Sir John Low was another forceful character who embodied the Raj’s unquestioned belief in its right to rule, through direct action when deemed necessary. During a period of turbulence in Oudh, Low quietened the late king’s troops by having the gates of the palace blown open and the rightful heir placed on the throne, for which he was made a CB. He also took an active part in deposing three kings, each of them rulers over a territory and population the magnitude of a middle-sized European state. Mount gives us a keen insight into the relations of his family, both

The history of British India comes alive in these pages through the Lows and others who lived and made it. www.military-history.org

among themselves as well as with the land in which they lived and struggled with an alien culture. The letters and diaries between John Low and his wife Augusta, for instance, reveal a loneliness and desperation shared by many servants of the Raj. The history of British India comes alive in these pages (all 770 of them) through the experience of the Lows and others who lived and made it, and through the three Anglo-Afghan wars, the massacre at Vellore, where the first rebellion against British rule erupted in 1806, and the devastation of the Sepoy Mutiny. ‘I set out with glib intentions,’ says the author, 'but we cannot leave out the horrors, not even when they are so close to home, especially not then.’ Mount says his objective was to attempt to recreate the biographies of his forebears by means of letters, eyewitness accounts, public documents and histories, and images, for,

as he rightfully states, ‘you would be mad to venture into India with your eyes shut’. Twenty-four pages are well beyond the limit most publishers usually assign to a plate section, and in this case we can be grateful for their generosity. What we are given is a brilliant collection of family portraits, stately homes and residences, regal receptions, and battle scenes which in themselves attest to the extraordinary self-confidence the British displayed over their Indian dominions. The author offers an enlightening account of post-Mutiny India and the growing pressure for independence. It was, ironically, India’s support for Britain, by providing more than one million volunteer troops in the First World War, that earned the country the right to govern itself. As Mount concludes, ‘There would be no going back.’ JULES STEWART MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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ON THE HORIZON Onslaught on Hitler’s Rhine: Operations Plunder and Varsity, March 1945 Patrick Delaforce onthill Media, £20

THE GREAT WAR, MEMORY AND RITUAL: COMMEMORATION IN THE CITY AND EAST LONDON Mark Connelly Royal Historical Society, £17.99 ISBN 978-0861933273

SBN 978-1781554418

Analysing two ruthless ut little-known WWII operations commanded by Field Marshal Montgomery. Napoleon on War Bruno Colson Oxford University ress, £27.99 SBN 978-0199685561

Colson has systematically put Napoleon's thinking on war and strategy into a single authoritative volume after years of research. War Nomads: a mobile radar unit in pursuit of Rommel during the Western Desert Campaign Frederick Grice Casemate, £19.99 ISBN 978-1612002880

An evocative account of one man's experience of life in a mobile radar unit after El Alamein.

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emorials to the fallen of the Great War are a familiar feature of villages, towns, and cities throughout the country, and services of Remembrance take place up and down the land each and every November. But how and why did these memorials and rituals come into existence? What factors lay behind their development? The centenary of the Great War makes The Great War, Memory and Ritual a timely and important study. While the book focuses on East London, it was an area so religiously, economically, and socially diverse that the findings also have relevance elsewhere. Looking first at the war memorial, which author Mark Connelly says ‘became the altar around which the annual rites of the war dead were enacted’, he uncovers the concept of the shrine that commemorated the fallen as the war was still in progress, something which was the subject of some religious controversy. These shrines were the foundations of the post-war memorials, planning for which actually started as early as 1916. The real need for war memorials lay with the fact that the bereaved had no graves to grieve over. Although Remembrance has very definite religious roots, ultimately evolving into the Christian ‘Armisticetide’, Connolly also considers how its secular aspects evolved. In so doing, he encounters extremes exemplified by the ‘cult’ of Jack Cornwell VC at one end of the spectrum, and the difficulties one district experienced establishing its own memorial at the other. At the same time, he highlights the issue of celebration versus commemoration, particularly among ex-servicemen who looked upon the Armistice both as a time to remember but also for reunion. Looking at the Armistice itself, he traces how it originated in 1919-1921, and grew during the 1920s with the first Remembrance Sunday in 1923, and the birth of the Poppy Appeal. He then surveys how it evolved in the 1930s, marked by a new generation with no direct connection to the war itself, and in a climate of pacifism, before considering how it changed with the advent of the Second World War. This is an excellent piece of original research, and an engaging study of how the fallen of the Great War were remembered through observance and memorial. DAVID FLINTHAM

Kohima Arthur Swinson ead of Zeus, £25

WATERLOO VOICES 1815: THE BATTLE AT FIRST HAND

SBN 978-1784081782

Swinson presents a fascinating account of a battle that ranks with El Alamein and Midway as one of the most important strategically of WWII. Admiral Collingwood: Nelson’s own hero Max Adams ead of Zeus, £25 SBN 978-1784081942

An intimate portrait of a forgotten British naval hero. The Silent Day: a landmark oral history of D-Day on the Home Front Max Arthur odder and Stoughton, £20 SBN 978-1444787542

An original and evocative portrait of a key event in world history, and a poignant reminder of the human cost of D-Day. 68

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Martyn Beardsley Amberley Publishing, £20 ISBN: 978-1445619828

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s the author of this book acknowledges, there have been countless works on the Battle of Waterloo and more to come in this year of commemoration. So what does Martyn Beardsley add to the party? ‘I wanted to offer something a little bit different. It struck me that a reasonably original approach would be a book consisting almost solely of the words of those who were there at the time.’ Drawing on letters, archives, and journals, the author begins his narrative with the words of 14-year-old John Smart, who is startled to learn from a West Country fishmonger that Napoleon had escaped from Elba. Indeed, as Sergeant John Douglas, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Scots tells us two months before the battle, the mail coach passing through had a large placard fastened to the boot which read, 'Bonaparte escape from Elba’. ‘On reading this,’ says Douglas, ‘off I started for the barracks. Come on my boys, you may be getting your knapsacks in order.’ We hear from the battlefield grandees, who were themselves exposed to the perils of enemy fire. Spain’s General Miguel Alava reports that, ‘Of those who were by the Duke of Wellington, only he and myself remained untouched in our persons and horses. The Duke was unable to refrain from tears on witnessing the death of so many brave and honourable men, and the loss of so many friends and faithful companions.’ General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher writes to his wife, ‘In conjunction with my friend Wellington, I put an end at once to Bonaparte’s dancing. I had two horses killed under me. It will soon be all over with Bonaparte.’ We hear from Wellington himself, who reports to Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for War, ‘It gives me the greatest satisfaction to assure your Lordship, that the army never, upon any occasion, conducted itself better. The division of Guards, under Lieutenant-General Cooke, who is severely wounded, Major General Maitland and Major Byng, set an example which was followed by all. There is no officer, nor description of troops, that did not behave well.’ These narratives are a treat, for rarely has there been so extensive an outpouring of accounts by survivors of one of the great battles of history. JULES STEWART May 2015

W W AT E R L O O

WATERLOO VOICES 1815: THE BATTLE AT FIRST HAND BY MARTYN BEARDSLEY

WATERLOO BATTLEFIELD TOURS

The tale of the battle that ended the Napoleonic Wars has been told many times, but in this new book the accounts come from letters, diaries, and published accounts, sometimes recounted many years later, and are the eyewitness testimonies of officers and ordinary soldiers, friend and foe. These were people who were actually there at the time. Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, Waterloo Voices is a gripping collection of first-hand experiences that lets us feel the deafening roar of cannon, hear the anguished cries of the wounded, and marvel at the heroism on both sides, at the very heart of a battle that was to prove one of the major turning points in European history. PUBLISHER: Amberley Publishing PRICE: £20.00

WHERE TO BUY: www.amberleybooks.com

Alan Lindsey, who has lived close to the battlefield and studied it for 20 years, takes small groups or individuals over the three battlefields of Waterloo Quatre Bras and Ligny. The march of events, the dominant personalities, the manoeuvres of each army, and the actions of individual soldiers, coloured by the weather conditions and the influence of the terrain, are all revealed with humour and insight. Visits include the Wellington Museum, Le Caillou, Hougoumont, the Lion Mound, Plancenoit, etc. Each tour is organised according to your requirements and special interests. Transport for up to four passengers is included. We recommend our clients stay in Waterloo, which is a sophisticated place these days with many first-class hotels and restaurants. TEL: +32 10 41 08 40 MOB: +32 (0)475 616 646 WEB: www.waterloobattlefieldtours.com

EMAIL: [email protected] SELECTED TOURS: See website.

WATERLOO BY ALAN FORREST

BIRD BATTLEFIELD TOURS – WATERLOO 1815: A DAY OF HARD POUNDING The bloody battle of Waterloo is unique. It saw the defeat of not just a French army, but that of a commander-in-chief, an emperor and a system of government. It was ‘a near-run thing’, and but for tactical blunders by Marshal Ney the French might have smashed through the Allied squares before Blücher’s timely arrival. Historians Tony and Nicky Bird of Bird Battlefield Tours specialise in taking smallish groups on tailor-made convivial tours of European battlefields. Let them know your preferred dates (three days) and the size of your group and they will quote for an exclusive tour, making all arrangements. Via Eurostar, London – Brussels.

For all its ferocity, Waterloo was a battle that would be remembered very differently across Europe. In Britain it would be seen as an iconic battle whose memory would be enmeshed in British national identity across the following century. It failed to achieve this iconic status elsewhere. In Prussia it was overshadowed by the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, while in Holland it was a simple appendage to the prestige of the House of Orange. And in France it was the epitome of a heroic defeat that served to sustain the romantic legend of the Napoleonic Wars and contributed to the growing cult of Napoleon himself. Whereas most works on the battle of Waterloo are only military in nature, Alan Forrest’s outstanding work describes every aspect of how the battle was fought but deals equally with the aftermath: how it has been commemorated, and its legacy.

WEB: www.birdbattlefieldtours.com EMAIL: [email protected]

PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press PRICE: £18.99

SELECTED TOURS: Three days of your choice in late 2015 and 2016

RIFLEMAN TOURS - WATERLOO ANNIVERSARY TOUR Rifleman Tours specialises in small group battlefield tours totalling up to 20 passengers. This gives a more intimate and personal touch to its tours, more time at each site and a closer relationship with your guide. Every tour is based at a central three-star hotel. Museum entrance fees and tour-day lunches are included, along with complimentary drinks and snacks served on board your executive transport. The Waterloo tour covers the entire campaign

with all major sites visited. It will bring to life the battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny and the major engagement in the shallow valley south of the small town of Waterloo, which lends its name to the battle. Rifleman Tours also specialises in the First and Second World Wars, with visits where possible. WEB: www.riflemantours.co.uk EMAIL: [email protected] SELECTED TOURS: 11-14 September

WHERE TO BUY: www.oup.com

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REVIEWING THE BEST MILITARY HISTORY EXHIBITIONS WITH DAVID FLINTHAM

Image: Brussel Legermuseum R04 by Marc Ryckaert (MJJR)

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VISIT

MUSÉE ROYAL DE L’ARMÉE ET D’HISTOIRE MILITAIRE Jubelpark 3, 1000 Brussels (Belgium) 00-32-(0)2 737 78 33 (Reception) 00-32-(0)2 737 78 11 (Operator) www.klm-mra.be open daily

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n 18 June 1815, just 15km south of Brussels, Napoleon was finally defeated and Belgium again became part of the Netherlands. But 15 years of misrule and religious discrimination by the Dutch led to an uprising in Brussels, and in 1830 the Dutch were driven out. Belgium independence was confirmed in 1831 by the Treaty of London, an event which would have world-changing consequences 83 years later. For the first few decades following independence, the Belgium Army was essentially a defensive force in fortifications facing the Dutch, German, and French borders. But outside Belgium, Belgians also served in the Papal Army’s Tirailleurs Franco-Belges which became the Pontifical Zouaves in 1861 and fought as an allied force with the French in 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War.

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FREE ENTRY

In 1864 a Belgian Expeditionary Corps (Corps Expeditionnaire Belge) was raised for service in Mexico, and returned to Belgium for disbandment in March 1867. As Belgium established its colony in the Congo, it installed its military garrison and police force, the Force Publique. Initially a mercenary force, it was officered by Belgian regulars. And from December 1904 a small detachment of Belgian troops was permanently based in China as the ‘Guard of the Belgian Legation in Peking’.

BELGIUM IN THE GREAT WAR In 1914, Belgian military planning was based on the illusion of neutrality. Although there had been reforms in the Belgium military, it was a small, ill-equipped, 117,000-strong army which, for several days, successfully resisted the Imperial German Army of

some 600,000 men in front of Liège in 1914. With help from the Entente forces, the Belgian Army guarded the important sector of the Allied left wing between Nieuwpoort on the coast and Ypres. Although they did not participate in any of the major Allied offensives, Belgians did fight on the Russian IJzer Front and in Africa. By May 1918, the Belgium Army had increased to 166,000 men – this in a country mostly occupied by Germany. In 1939 Belgium again placed its security in fortresses, the most famous being Fort Eben-Emael, which was part of the Fortified Position of Liège. In September 1939, 600,000 Belgians were mobilised. Yet Belgium was invaded, defeated, and occupied in an 18-day campaign after 10 May 1940, following which, significant numbers of Belgian soldiers and civilians escaped to Britain to join the Belgian forces in exile. They formed the 1st Belgian Infantry Brigade, or Brigade Piron, after its commanding officer Jean-

Baptiste Piron and fought in Normandy, elsewhere in France, and in the Netherlands. More famously, Belgians also served in British special forces, forming a troop of No.10 Commando fighting in Italy and in Walcheren, and the 5th Special Air Service (SAS). Two RAF Squadrons, 349th and 350th, were Belgian, while two corvettes and a group of minesweepers were also operated by the Belgians during the Battle of the Atlantic.

LESSONS LEARNED The lessons of the two World Wars made collective security a priority for post-war Belgian foreign policy, and in 1948 she signed the Treaty of Brussels, and then joined NATO the following year. Belgium troops saw service in Korea and in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Parc et Palais du Cinquantenaire was built to mark the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Belgian independence in 1880, and was the finest of King Leopold II’s grand project for his May 2015

MHM VISITS

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BRUS SEL S BEL GIUM PICTURED ON BOTH PAGES: 1. Museum entrance 2. Air and Space gallery. 3. SAS jeep. 4. WWII aircraft, including DeHavilland Mosquito NF30

ured car. nk. 24-pounder.

capital. The palace comprises two large exhibition halls linked by a triumphal arch. The northern of the two halls, b by Gideon Bordiau and finished by Charles Girault, houses The Musée Royal de l’Armée et d’Histoire Militaire (Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History), which tells the story of the Belgium Army. It also explores the country’s navy and air force since independence, and further back to the Napoleonic Wars in Belgium and beyond. The collection dates back to the end of the First World War when Louis Leconte brought together some 900 pieces, many of which were items of equipment abandoned by the Germans in 1918. The collection was subsequently enriched by legacies, gifts, and exchanges, and in 1923 the museum opened. The museum is set out chronologically, although the first displays in the entrance foyer are of its latest acquisitions. These include a number of items that were recovered from the www.military-history.org

07 oved outside g to go on The first main gallery focuses on the story of the Belgium Army from 1830 to 1914. This gallery is a ‘proper’ old-fashioned military museum with display case after display case exhibiting uniforms and headgear. The walls are adorned with paintings and weapons, while taking centre stage are cannon and limber. If you like your museums to be heavy on exhibits and light on technology, it is a gallery to savour. Occupying two large rooms is the First World War collection. The first contains a wide range of artillery and three tanks, including a Renault FT, the first ‘modern’ tank. The second room contains a large display of uniforms representing all the belligerent nations.

AVIATION AT ITS BEST The aviation hall takes pride of place, having been housed in the main

and civilian, representing a century of Belgium aviation from early WWI types to a modern F-16 Fighting Falcon. It is one of the largest collections in the world. Among a number of highlights is the world’s only DeHavilland Mosquito NF 30, a Douglas A 26 Invader, a Blèriot SPAD XIII C1, and a Fairchild C 119 Flying Boxcar. The main exhibition hall also holds the museum’s collection of artefacts associated with Belgium special forces, including the 5th Special Air Service. Of particular interest is one of the armoured jeeps that the unit was equipped with at the time of the Ardennes offensive in 1944. In addition, there is the marine section which was opened in 1996 and tells the story of the Belgium navy, and there are a number of scale models of ships on display. The museum’s main armour collection was once stored in the main

permanent display. The museum hosts various special exhibitions. There are plans for a new permanent exhibition about the Second World War, including the occupation of Belgium, the end of the war in Europe, the world of the concentration camps and the war in the Pacific. But as a result, not everything is always on display – for instance, this time I was unable to view the museum’s preNapoleonic War collection. There is an excellent shop (which closes for lunch), in which you will find a wide selection of books in French, Dutch, and English. There is a small café situated in the aviation hall, although the larger restaurant in the neighbouring motorcar museum is better. My only criticism is the lack of a guidebook in any language to the museum’s collections. But this does nothing to deter from what is a very fine museum. Well worth a visit. æ MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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EXHIBITION

THE BEST MILITARY HISTORY EVENTS, LECTURES, AND EXHIBITIONS

FREE ENTRY

OUTBREAK 1914: WALES GOES TO £12 ENTRY WAR Until 4 May 2015 Firing Line, Cardiff Castle Museum of the Welsh Soldier Cardiff Castle Cardiff, CF10 3RB www.cardiffcastlemuseum. org.uk 020 7730 0717

EXHIBITION

PETER KENNARD: UNOFFICIAL WAR ARTIST 14-16 May 2015 IWM London, Lambeth Road, London, SE1 6HZ

www.iwm.org.uk

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020 7416 5000

n the first major retrospective of his work, Peter Kennard: Unofficial War Artist examines the art and practice of arguably Britain’s most important political artist. Visitors will learn of the artist’s motivations and methods, in particular his consistent reworking and reinterpretation of key images. Among other displays, the exhibition will feature Kennard’s iconic photomontages from the 1980s, centred on the anti-nuclear campaigns of CND and the international arms trade, and a brand-new art installation in which Kennard makes his own innovative and personal appraisal of his career.

To commemorate the centenary of the First World War the National Army Museum has partnered with Firing Line, Cardiff Castle Museum of the Welsh Soldier to co-curate a temporary exhibition exploring the early months of the war. This exhibition will bring to life stories exploring the experiences of Welsh soldiers and their roles within the British Army during WWI.

EVENT

DOMINO THEORY 16 May 2015 RAF Museum London Grahame Park Way London, NW9 5LL www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london 020 8205 2266

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Enjoy a night of Cold War-themed games and activities at the RAF Museum, with music provided by DJ Yoda. Receive a code word after securing a ticket, then use that code word on the website to be assigned as a UK, US or Soviet spy, your uniform, and special instructions for the night.

£28

ENTRY

May 2015

LECTURE

6 MAY

BLETCHLEY PARK PRESENTS: JERRY WHITE 17 May 2015 The Mansion Bletchley Park Milton Keynes, MK3 6EB www.bletchleypark.org.uk 01908 640404

£25 ENTRY

Author Jerry White will talk about his new book London’s First Air War, 19151918. White gives an overview of the Zeppelin raids, and the shortcomings in London’s defences they exposed. Tickets include entry to Bletchley Park.

EXHIBITION

RE-ENACTMENT

Chester Life in the Months leading up to August 1914

MHM VISITS

DATES TO REMEMBER

Chester History and Heritage St Michael’s Church Chester, CH1 1NW www.cheshirewestandchester. gov.uk

A guided walk by Gerry Tighe, showing what life was like for people in Chester in early 1914 – where they shopped and worked, what they did at school, and how they entertained themselves. £5 – booking essential.

9 MAY

The Post Office Went to War BPMA Museum Store 3 Imprimo Park Essex, IG10 3UF www.postalheritage.org.uk

WITHDRAW Throughout May 2015 IWM North The Quays, Trafford Wharf Road, Manchester, M17 1TZ www.iwm.org.uk 0161 836 4000

FREE ENTRY

Leading reportage illustrator George Butler has captured the impact on everyday life in Afghanistan of the draw back of western troops, who have been present in the country since 2001. His artworks, drawn live as events happened, offer a compelling insight into life away from foreign television cameras, in between the stories that make news headlines.

FORTRESS NEWARK UNDER SIEGE

£7 ENTRY

3-4 May 2015 National Civil War Centre Appleton Gate, Nottinghamshire, NG24 1JY www.nationalcivilwarcentre.com 01636 655777

This major English Civil War event marks the opening of Britain’s new National Civil War Centre. The event will take place at several locations within Newark, including the castle, Queen’s Sconce, market place, and the National Civil War Centre itself. The event features the Sealed Knot English Civil War Society and will include living history, parades, skirmishes, and more.

FAMILY EVENT

MAGNA CARTA: SEALING AN AGREEMENT

FREE ENTRY

28 May 2015 The National Archives Kew, Richmond Surrey, TW9 4DU

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk 020 8876 3444

How did people make agreements in the past? This is a chance for you to come to see the beautiful seals in our collection, explore a famous sealed document, before creating your own seal. This free, hands-on workshop takes place in the Keeper’s Gallery on the ground floor. Please note that children must be accompanied by an adult at all times during the workshop.

www.military-history.org

In March 1915, following months of training, the Post Office Rifles arrived in France and were almost immediately thrown into the battle of Festubert. Documenting his experiences of that time was postal worker and Post Office Rifleman Thomas May. Find out more about life at the Front and at home for the thousands of Post Office employees who, like May, dedicated themselves to the war effort.

13 MAY

Myths and Mysteries of the First World War Camberley Library Knoll Road Surrey, GU15 3SY www.surreycc.gov.uk

Using the latest evidence from declassified documents, Leonard James examines enigmatic stories such as the Angel of Mons, the Lusitania’s sealed cargo, secret evidence from the trial of Nurse Edith Cavell, and the haunted U-boat.

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THE ARMY & NAVY CLUB COMMEMORATES THE BICENTENARY OF THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO A series of lectures and a Regency ball will be taking place until June 2015. Carole Divall, an author, researcher, and historian, will be discussing the inner workings of the 30th Regiment of Foot. Dr Michael Rowe will unravel the individual ‘players at the table’ at The Congress of Vienna and Dr Russ Foster will present a talk based on his latest publication, Wellington and Waterloo: monumental oversights 1815-2015.

Musician and research fellow at Kings College London, Oskar Cox-Jensen, will be exploring the Waterloo experience through the medium of music. The last lecture will see Professor Sir Hew Strachan giving a talk on the strategy and tactics used by Wellington and Blücher. A Regency Ball will be held to commemorate the ball held by the Duchess of Richmond in 1815, and will feature the Green Ginger Band and the Duke of Wellington’s Dancers. Dance Workshop, Afternoon Tea/ Regency Ball - 13 June 1pm/7pm Prof. Sir Hew Strachan - 17 June – 6pm EMAIL: [email protected] WHERE: Army & Navy Club, 36 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JN PHONE: 020 7930 9721

WEB: www.ArmyNavyClub.co.uk DATES: Until 17 June 2015 Carole Divall - 9 April - 12.30pm Michael Rowe - 6 May - 6pm Dr Russ Foster - 21 May - 6pm Oskar Cox-Jensen - 3 June - 6pm

THE HOUSEHOLD DIVISION BEATING RETREAT

BONAPARTE AND THE BRITISH: PRINTS AND PROPAGANDA IN THE AGE OF NAPOLEON ‘Bonaparte and the British: prints and propaganda in the age of Napoleon’ is a free exhibition celebrating the 200th anniversary of Waterloo, the battle which marked the final undoing of the brilliant French general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (17691821). The exhibition will focus on the printed propaganda that either reviled or glorified Napoleon on both sides of the English Channel. It explores how his formidable career coincided with the peak of political satire as an art form. Founded in 1753, the British Museum’s remarkable collection spans over two million years of human history. World-famous objects such as the Rosetta Stone, Parthenon sculptures, and Egyptian mummies are visited by up to six million visitors per year. In addition to the vast permanent collection, the museum’s special exhibitions, displays, and events are all designed to advance understanding of the collection and cultures they represent. Image: James Gillray (1756–1815) The plumb-pudding in danger or-state epicures taking un petit souper. Hand-coloured etching, 1805

WEB: www.britishmuseum.org DATES: Until 16 August 2015, 10am– 5:30pm, open late on Fridays until 8:30pm EMAIL: [email protected]

HOW MUCH: Lectures - £10 per person Waterloo Regency Ball - £70 per person Waterloo Regency Ball + Dance Workshop + Afternoon Tea - £90 per person Contact Emily Moss – 020 7827 8079 / [email protected]

WHERE: The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG PHONE: 020 7323 8299 HOW MUCH: Free.

Set on the historic Horse Guards Parade, against the magnificent backdrop of St James’s Park, The Household Division Beating Retreat this year will mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. The Musikkorps der Bundeswehr (The Concert Band of the German Army) and the Royal Choral Society will join our world class military bands for a special concert. Napoleonic re-enactors, cavalry, cannon, lights, fireworks, and a dramatic programme of music will guarantee a night to delight and remember. Also featuring: The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, The Band of the Honourable Artillery Company, the Pipes and Drums of the Scots Guards, The Band of the Royal Yeomanry, and more. This event promises the best of British music and ceremonial pageantry. Beating Retreat this year is on 10-11 June 2015. Pre-show begins at 8pm. Tickets from £15. For information on this and other events, please go to www.householddivision.org.uk WEB: www.householddivision.org.uk DATES: 10 June and 11 June - 8pm EMAIL: [email protected]

WHERE: Horse Guards Parade, London HOW MUCH: Tickets from £15

THE YEAR OF THE ANNIVERSARIES This is a residential weekend of lectures held in Lincoln’s County Assembly Rooms and run in conjunction with History Today magazine, whose editor, Paul Lay, chairs the talks. Six outstanding scholars give between them 12 talks on this year’s anniversary topics (Magna Carta, Parliament, Agincourt, Waterloo, Potsdam). The lecturers are Dr Juliet Barker, Professor Jeremy Black, Keith Lowe, Dr Marc Morris,

Professor Nigel Saul, and Professor Gary Sheffield. There are discussion sessions and opportunities for informal interchange during refreshment breaks and lunches. Accommodation is offered in a range of four hotels to cater for different budgets. Also included is a private drinks reception in the Chapter House of Lincoln Cathedral.  Book now at martinrandall.com.

WEB: www.martinrandall.com DATES: 6–8 November 2015

EMAIL: [email protected] WHERE: Lincoln

PHONE: +44 (0)20 8742 3355

AN MHM SELECTION OF SOME OF THE BEST EVENTS COMING UP OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS

ROYAL ARMOURIES - WATERLOO 1815 THE ART OF BATTLE EXHIBITION 2015 marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, one of the most significant battles in British and European history. Royal Armouries Leeds will be marking the anniversary with a special exhibition bringing together works of art and arms and armour. Highlights of the exhibition will be the rarely exhibited monumental ‘cartoon’ by Daniel Maclise, on loan from the Royal Academy of Arts, and the magnificent painting ‘Scotland Forever!’ by Lady Elizabeth

Butler from Leeds City Art Gallery. These stunning works of art will be displayed for the first time alongside unique objects, on loan and from our own collections, to tell the story of the events of 18 June 1815. As part of our commemorations we will also be hosting a Study Day on Saturday 13 June 2015 to explore the significance of the battle both today and at the time, and examine the arms and armour used at the battle.

WEB: www.royalarmouries.org/home DATES: Exhibition – Friday 22 May – Sunday 23 August, Study Day – Saturday 13 June

WHERE: Royal Armouries Museum, Armouries Drive, Leeds LS10 1LT

EMAIL: [email protected] to book onto Study Day

INTERDISCIPLINARY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE LEGACY OF WWI The Great War changed our world forever. However, is its legacy waning and gradually becoming a thing of the past? Or is it still topical today? This two-day conference is not a commemoration, but forward-looking. The five different key themes addressed are: r
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8BS 500-800 academics embracing a wide array of professionals – historians, scientists, politicians, ethicists, sociologists, medics, psychologists, and artists – will discuss the legacy of the Great War. The synergy of shared insights and knowledge will lead to innovative questions and challenges within the five different fields of study. You are cordially invited to share your perspectives! WEB: www.legacyww1.org DATES: 24 - 25 June 2015 plus site visits on 26 June EMAIL: [email protected] WHERE: World Forum, The Hague, The Netherlands

PHONE: +31 6 234 12 464 HOW MUCH: Registration through the conference website at www.legacyww1.org Normal rate is € 550, but exclusively for readers of Military History Monthly we offer a discounted rate of € 450 per person

PHONE: 0113 220 1888 to book onto Study Day HOW MUCH: Exhibition – Free Admission Study Day - £30, or £25 for concessions

WIDENING OF THE WAR: PROBLEMS WITHOUT ANSWERS 2015 WWI CONFERENCE 2014 may have marked 100 years since the First World War, but commemorations continue into the New Year around the country and all over the world. At Weetwood Hall in Leeds this August, the focus is again on this most significant milestone in world history, offering new perspectives on a large number of fascinating WWI issues. What is on the agenda for 2015? If you are considering attending this year’s conference, you can expect a packed schedule of presentations from 18 renowned speakers. Big names include: Dr John Bourne from the University of Wolverhampton presenting on ‘The Widening War: Britain and the Ottoman Empire’, Professor Gary Sheffield, also from the University of Wolverhampton, presenting on the topic of ‘The War within the war: Politicians and Generals’, and Sir Ian Kershaw from the University of Sheffield speaking about ‘The lasting impact of the Great War on Adolf Hitler’. WEB: www.weetwood.co.uk/ww1conference DATES: Monday 2 AugustFriday 7 August 2015 EMAIL: [email protected]

WHERE: Weetwood Hall, Otley Road, Leeds, LS16 5PS, UK PHONE: 0113 230 6000 HOW MUCH: Daily prices start from £115

BATTLE PROMS This is the year to celebrate with the Battle Proms! The UK’s most popular picnic concert series celebrates a number of important historical milestones in 2015. As the Battle Proms takes much of its inspiration from the Napoleonic wars, which came to a conclusion 200 years ago at the Battle of Waterloo, there will be a special battle re-enactment by the Napoleonic Association at Blenheim Palace. Also scheduled is the Battle of Britain Evening Gun Salute, honouring this pivotal air campaign and end of the war itself, as gunners herald the arrival WEB: www.battleproms.com EMAIL: [email protected] WHERE: See DATES PHONE: 01432 355 416 / 0790 449 4099

of the Grace Spitfire with a volley of shots from a vintage 13-pdr field gun. Widely regarded as the most exciting summer proms concert in the country, this is an event that fans return to year after year to enjoy a memorable night out with friends or for a significant celebration. The Battle Proms is proud to support Combat Stress: the Veterans’ Mental Health Charity. Tickets can be purchased securely online at XXXCBUUMFQSPNTDPN

DATES: Burghley House, Lincolnshire - Saturday 4 July; Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire - Saturday 11 July; Hatfield House, Hertfordshire - Saturday 18 July; Highclere Castle, Berkshire - Saturday 1 August; Ragley Hall, Warwickshire – Saturday 15 August

HOW MUCH: Adults: £33 if booked before 30 April 2015, £36 if booked from 1 May 2015 until the day before the concert, £40 on the day of concert (subject to availability). Children aged 5 to 15: £17 (children aged 4 and under go for free). Groups: Advance group bookings of 10 or more qualify for a £2 reduction per ticket

C CHARITIES

CHARITYPROMOTION

MHM ’S HOMAGE TO BRITAIN’S WAR CHARITIES AND THE PEOPLE THEY SUPPORT.

THE GALLIPOLI ASSOCIATION

T

he Gallipoli and Dardanelles campaign of 1915-1916 was a British-led campaign for which the UK provided men from virtually every county in the land, including Ireland. Britain was supported by France and other countries of the then British Empire, such as Australia, New Zealand, India, and Newfoundland. Numerous veterans’ associations were formed in the years following the First World War but surprisingly no national association existed to commemorate Gallipoli until 1969. A number of veterans established an informal group, meeting from time to time to exchange shared memories and if possible to recall not only their own experiences but also those of the units in which they served. Very soon they had started their own association with a journal, The Gallipolian, which is still published three times a year and includes articles of historical, academic, and literary merit. It is regarded as exemplary in its class. Inevitably, time took its toll of the original membership, but their descendants and many professional and enthusiastic amateur military historians began to swell the association’s

membership, contributing to The Gallipolian a wealth of new aspects of that fascinating, inspirational, but ultimately tragic campaign. In 1995, when it was clear that the remaining veterans deserved a fitting gesture in their lifetime, and that national tribute to those who had gone before them was long overdue, the association raised funds for a lasting memorial in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral. This was unveiled by their Patron HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in the presence of a great and distinguished congregation including what would be the last muster of the actual Gallipoli veterans. Today the association works hard to achieve its charitable objectives: to advance ed for the public benefit by raising public awareness of the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915, and by encouraging and facilitating the study in the legacy and lessons of that campaign, keeping alive the memory of the campaign and ensu that all who fought or served in it, and who gave their lives, are not forgotten. Membership of the Association cont to grow and is worldwide. Strong links have been established with official and other interest groups concerned with the campaign, notably in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, and Turkey; countries that participated significantly in the naval and land operations. They also lead regular visits to the old battlefields where one can learn fr the experts; each traveller experiencin personal, informative, and quality tour In 2013 the Association formed their Gallipoli100 centenary group and a Gallipoli Centenary Education Project was created, jointly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and Association and individual benefactors. This education legacy is primarily aimed at the nation’s schoolchildren in line with outcomes sought by the Government. There are several UK and International strands including support to teachers. But the most visible will be the work taken forward with several schools with strong local links to the campaign. Wider local communities will be helped in their efforts through the provision

of a network of expert advice and support as they prepare their remembrance.  Each year there are local services all across the country and it is important to build from this base with local partners such as the Royal British Legion to recognise the sacrifices made by particular towns and villages, many of which sent men to fight at Gallipoli. The Gallipoli Association has been working with the government to ensure that there will be a fitting UK-led National Commemoration at the Cenotaph in London on 25 April 2015. Details of the Gallipoli Association and all their work can be found on their website www.gallipoli-association.org or by writing to allipoli Association (Box 630), Wey House, 15 Church Street, Weybridge, Surrey, KT13 8NA r The Association is a Registered Charity No.1155609.

IN THE NEXT ISSUE ON SALE 14 MAY

DARK AGE BYZANTIUM

ALSO NEXT ISSUE:

The barbarian hordes twice brought the Byzantine Empire to the brink of collapse when they besieged the imperial capital in AD 626 and 813. We look at the city, the sieges, and the armies of Byzantines, Avars, and Bulgars in the dark centuries after the fall of Rome.

æ The Battle of Chapultepec, 1847 æ Shot at dawn, 1914-1918 æ Poison gas in World War II

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Win Waterloo What really happened in the final two

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G GENEALOGY

Findmypast

FAMILYSEARCH INTERNATIONAL

Findmypast is currently working with Waterloo 200 on several exciting projects in the run-up to the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. These include a schools campaign to raise awareness among young people, plus the chance to discover your Waterloo ancestor in the findmypast records – and potentially attend the commemorative service at St Paul’s if you do! To help encourage people to start exploring their Waterloo ancestry, we’ll also be offering a one-month Britain subscription for just £1. www.findmypast.co.uk

FamilySearch International is a nonprofit family history organisation dedicated to connecting families across generations. It has spent more than 100 years actively seeking out and preserving records of historical and genealogical importance, including military records. FamilySearch offers free access to a large and growing collection of British military records, including, among others:

CENTRE FOR ARCHIVE AND INFORMATION STUDIES – UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE Would you like to find out more about your family and local history? Enrol for one of our online courses and open up the past. Our short courses will take you beyond the internet and open the world of UK archives to you. You will discover how to use archi and records to find your missing ancestors, learn about the wor they lived in, and acquire the skills to read and use the records will help you. If you are interested in a specific subject, single-course study is available, giving you the chance to focus on areas such as military records and history, house history, and heraldry. If you are experienced or contemplating a career as a profession researcher, why not consider a Postgraduate Certificate or Masters Degree in Family and Local History? Our online courses are written and taught by expert archivists, genealogists, and local historians. Our Virtual Learning Environment creates an interactive, supported experience, and the exchange of ideas between student and tutor is central to our approach to online learning. www.dundee.ac.uk/cais

r
Army soldiers’ documents (before 1882) r
World War I service files r
Officers’ records of service r
Army Lists 1740 to the present r
Regimental histories r
Continuous service engagement books In addition to online access to military records, familysearch.org offers tools and resources to preserve and share family memories about ancestors who served in the military. Through photos, stories, and documents, users can create memorial pages to share with close and distant relatives to preserve in the FamilySearch archive. www.familysearch.org

TITIO S PUT YOUR MILITARY HISTORY KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST WITH THE MHM QUIZ, CROSSWORD, AND CAPTION COMPETITION

MHM QUIZ Military history distributor Casemate UK has launched its own publishing imprint focusing on British and European military history. The new Casemate UK (CUK) books will complement the hundreds of military history titles already distributed by the company, from publishers including Stackpole, Helion and Company, Histoire et Collections, Fighting High

This month we have a copy of War's Nomads by Frederick Grice to be won! Publishing, Amber, and the Casemate Group’s own US publishing output. In celebration of the first CUK published title, we are delighted to offer three readers a copy of War’s Nomads: A Mobile Radar Unit in Pursuit of Rommel during the Western Desert Campaign, 1942-3. This book is an evocative and intimate account of one man’s

experience in a mobile radar unit after the battle of El Alamein, as Rommel’s AfrikaKorps was relentlessly pursued across the desert through Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia by the Eighth Army. Based on diary entries and the only known detailed account in existence, it sheds light on a key but little-known aspect of the Eighth

Army’s Western Desert Campaign, the first in British military history in which the RAF and the army collaborated so closely.

MHM

CROSSWORD NO 56

ACROSS 5 Country at war with Romania from November 1918 to March 1920 (7) 9 US state in which the Civil War battles of Athens and Spanish Fort took place (7) 10 Mediterranean pirate (7) 11 River crossed by Julius Caesar's army in 49 BC (7) 12 ___ Ellsworth, the first Union officer to be killed in the American Civil War (5) 13 First World War battle fought in the Pas-de-Calais, France, in April 1917 (4,5) 15 American War of Independence battle fought on Boxing Day 1776 (7) 17 ___ League, confederation of towns in ancient Greece (7) 19 De Havilland biplane used as a trainer by the RAF and many other forces (5,4) 21 Steamship of the Union Navy active in blockading off the coast of Virginia and in the James River (5) 22 Huge siege engine that was built for Edward I (7) 24 Egyptian pharaoh who fought the

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MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

May 2015

Answer online at...

CAPTION COMPETITION

MHM OFF DUTY

MHM

www. military-history.

org To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the following question: ? What was Erwin Rommel's nickname?

We continue our caption competition with an image from this month’s Lusitania article. Pit your wits against other readers at www.military-history.org/competitions

LAST MONTH’S WINNER ANSWERS

APRIL ISSUE | MHM 55 ACROSS: 4 Emsdorf, 7 Chalons, 9 growler, 10 Pizarro, 12 Bavarian, 13 Taiwan, 14 Agrippa, 19 Vienna, 20 Cherokee, 21 Stewart, 22 Swagger, 23 Revenge, 24 Lepanto. DOWN: 1 Creeping barrage, 2 Christopher Wren, 3 Albania, 5 Morgan, 6 Dawnay, 8 Norman, 11 Antioch, 15 Little, 16 Knowles, 17 Borgia, 18 Desert.

Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC (7) 25 Surname of actor who played Air Chief Marshal Dowding in the film, Battle of Britain (7) 26 Country in which the Battle of Kasserine Pass was fought in February 1943 (7)

DOWN 1 Battle that was fought near Vienna in July 1809 (6) 2 Castle in Northumberland captured by the Earl of Warwick in 1464 (8) 3 Corps of the British Army whose motto is In Arduis Fidelis (4) 4 Battle of the Second Punic War (6) 5 Sir John ___, British general, author of The Profession of Arms and The Third World War (7) 6 City besieged by Wallenstein's forces in 1632 during the Thirty Years War (9) 7 John ___, US general, who was commander of Kentucky troops at the

www.military-history.org

Battle of New Orleans (5) 8 City captured by Russian forces in 1827 (7) 14 The ___, film (1977), based on a Joseph Conrad story about the rivalry of two French hussar officers (9) 16 Ukrainian city taken by German forces in July 1941 (8) 17 William ___, US Marine Corps brigadier general and last commander of the North China Marine Detachment (7) 18 City in Cyprus which fell to the Ottomans in September 1570 (7) 19 Battle fought in Yorkshire in March 1461 (6) 20 Airspeed ___, twin-engined training aircraft first flown in 1937 (6) 21 Phineas ___, American general who commanded colonial troops during the British capture of Havana in 1762 (5) 23 ___ in the Face, Sioux chief who fought at the Battle of the Little Big Horn (4)

WINNER: You fool! I ordered you to send to the Colonel my thanks, not my tanks! Stephen R Johnson

RUNNERS-UP Is that the Vickers machine gun? Well he’s just been on the field radio and he wants it back by evensong. Terry Harrison Fetch the paint remover. FURIOUS has no ‘Y’! Les Quilter

Think you can do better? Go head-to-head with other MHM readers for the chance to see your caption printed in the next issue. Enter now at www.military-history.org/competitions MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

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MHM LOOKS AT THE INNOVATIVE DESIGNS IN MILITARY SIDECARS SINCE 1914

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ZUNDAPP KS750

The Wehrmacht employed a million motorcycles during WWII, including 40,000 sidecars. Armed with light machine guns, sidecars could support Blitzkrieg tactics by seizing key objectives (road junctions, bridges, etc). Although the BMW R75 had the best sidecar, the Zundapp KS750 proved superior in the field and the Nuremberg factory produced 18,695 KS750 outfits for the German Army from 1940-1945. These had a driven sidecar wheel (copied from Belgium’s FN M12) and a reverse gear, making them highly manoeuvrable on muddy or sandy terrain.

Scott MoBile Machine Gun

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More than 1,000 of these 992cc combinations were delivered to the Belgian Army between 1937 and 1940. Described as ‘the best military outfit of all time’, the M12 boasted a top speed of 62mph, with a driven sidecar wheel for extra traction and a highlevel exhaust system that allowed

TO Y HIS RY MO shallow rivers AR to be crossed without stalling the engine. It TA N RY was even posHISTO RY MO sible to remove the sidecar and use the motorcycle in solo form. Many of its features were incorporated into the Zundapp KS750. MIL IT

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TO Alfred Scott of Y HIS RY MO AR Bradford, West Yorkshire, designed an armoured machine-gun, TA N RY HISTO RY MO motorcycle, and sidecar combination in 1914. Following an inspection by Winston Churchill, 300 were ordered, to be used in groups of three: one carrying a Vickers machine gun, another carrying ammunition, and a third in reserve. By 1915 Scott had supplied 1,400 combinations to the British forces, but these were soon superseded by better designs from other manufacturers, such as Clyno and Royal Enfield. It was Scott’s innovation, however, that set the bar.

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In 1940 the Soviet Government acquired five BMW R-71 sidecar outfits via a Swedish go-between. They reverseengineered an exact copy and started production in Moscow in 1941, quickly moving to Irbit in the Ural Mountains to keep the factory safe from German bombing raids. The first M-72 outfits

entered service with reconnaissance detachments and mobile troops in October 1942, and 9,799 of these rugged rigs were delivered to the front by the end of hostilities. The plant was privatised TO Y HIS RY MO AR in 1992 and still produces a sidecar outfit visually similar TA N to the original M72. RY MO H MIL IT

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May 2015