Category Campaigns & Operations
The first Battle of the Marne was fought from 5-12 September, 1914. It was the turning point of the opening campaign in what would be known as the Western Front during World War I. First Marne represented the death of… Continue Reading →
[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author and/or publisher. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I… Continue Reading →
[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author and/or publisher. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] There have been hundreds of books written about the battle… Continue Reading →
The Allied invasion of Gallipoli and its subsequent failure represented perhaps the greatest lost opportunity of the First World War. There is every reason to expect that if the invasion of Turkey had been successful then much the same results… Continue Reading →
The new 2014 US Army Chief of Staff Professional Reading List (PRL) was released in the Summer of 2014 and I was relieved in the extreme to see that there was only one novel on the list, Once an Eagle by Anton… Continue Reading →
There is an interesting piece on Medium.com recently about basic training and encouraging new soldiers to read. I read, and read a lot, and have always tried to encourage others to read, not only my fellow soldiers when I was… Continue Reading →
[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] Given that 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World… Continue Reading →
If you have 6 minutes to kill this is an excellent slideshow of some of the mos profound pictures from WWI. There is n context given just a running slideshow of images from soldiers standing around doing what they do… Continue Reading →
The October, 1813 Battle of the Nations in Leipzig was arguably as important as the 1814 Battle of Waterloo. In English language historiography of the Napoleonic Wars it is often downplayed or only briefly mentioned however. This is mainly because… Continue Reading →
House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power is one of those books that when you are done reading it you cannot quite decide if it was worth reading or not. If you want to know what… Continue Reading →
Medieval politics make modern politics look like child’s play. If any act from medieval times highlights this it is the Hattin Campaign of 1187 in which the entire military might of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem was destroyed because the… Continue Reading →
In Flanders Fields By John McRae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
Some backstory on the Poem and Remembrance Poppies can be found on the In Flanders Fields page of GreatWar.co.uk
Given that 100 years ago men were fighting and dying in the opening months of what they would come to call the Great War and we call WWI, I decided to post one of the most famous and memorable poems… Continue Reading →
First Manassas or First Bull Run as it was called in the North was the first major battle between land forces of the Civil War. The outcome of the battle also set the general pattern for battles in the first… Continue Reading →
From the opening months of the World War I, Flanders was the decisive sector for the British Army. It was in an around the medieval Belgian town of Ypres that the original BEF had decimated themselves fending off German attacks… Continue Reading →
[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air War Over Europe 1940-1945 is one… Continue Reading →