Trajan’s Grand Strategic Objectives
Parthian Cataphracts (Fully Armoured Parthian Cavalry) Left: East Parthian Cataphract; Middle: Parthian Horse-Archer; Right: Parthian Cataphract from Hatra Osroes I was one of the sons born to Vonones II by a Greek concubine. He invaded Armenia and placed first his nephew Axidares and then his brother Parthamasiris on the Armenian throne. This encroachment on the traditional sphere of influence of…
Could the Germans have won the Battle of the Atlantic?
The longest campaign of history’s most horrendous war was over. Although convoys and Coastal Command patrols continued for several weeks after VE Day, the danger was past. It had been one of the worst dangers Britain had ever faced with Churchill describing the U-boat menace as his greatest fear. He summarized the campaign: The Battle of the Atlantic was the…
Cold War – Soviet Helicopters I
Early Cold War In 1962, WSK-Swidnik in Poland began producing the Mi-2 Hoplite under license, although the plant did not…
India’s Missiles
AGNI. The Hindu word for “fire.” The 14-ton, two-stage Agni missile, with an estimated range of 1,000 to 1,500 miles,…
Battle of the Asiago Plateau and the Piave River, July 1918
Austro-Hungarian Emperor Karl’s promise of a two-pronged offensive flew in the face of warnings that Field Marshal Boroević (his new…
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Poland Early 18th Century – The Reign of Anarchy I
Augustus II of Poland. 17th Centruy Polish Dragoons By the last quarter of the seventeenth century it was becoming obvious to all that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a very different kind of political unit from all the surrounding states, and that it did not lend itself to the conduct of…
Poland Early 18th Century – The Reign of Anarchy II
Polish army throughout the 18th century, by Karol Linder. Sweden had been wiped out as a significant power by the dĂ©bâcle of Poltava. Turkey was decisively defeated (Hetman Feliks Potocki’s victory at Podhajce in 1697 was the last Polish-Tatar battle), and by the Treaty of Karlowitz in January 1699 the…
Dargai, 20 October 1897 Part I
The Gordon Highlanders storming Dargai Heights during the Tirah campaign in 1897. It was here that Piper Findlater won his VC. He was wounded and unable to walk and exposed to enemy fire. Despite this and his exposed position he continued playing, to encourage the Highlanders in their assault on…
Dargai, 20 October 1897 Part II
Storming the Dargai Heights. Darkness put an end to the fighting. In addition to the casualties mentioned above, the Gordons had sustained another man killed and seven wounded. Dead and wounded alike were carried down the rough two-mile track to the road, on reaching which the battalion formed up and…
DEMETRIUS I, KING OFÂ MACEDON
Marble bust of Demetrius I Poliorcetes. Roman copy from 1st century AD of a Greek original from 3rd century BC. The grail was his: Demetrius was king of Macedon. Immediately after the murder of Alexander V, the nobles present—members of Alexander’s court, now surrounded by Demetrius’s forces—agreed to his kingship,…
The Western Front: Lions Led by Donkeys?
Blackadder Goes Forth is the fourth and final series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 28 September to 2 November 1989 on BBC One. The series placed the recurring characters of Blackadder, Baldrick and George in a trench in Flanders during…
The Assault on Levita
The survivors of the enemy convoy sunk on 7 October 1943 were landed on Stampalia, where the LRDG had M2 patrol. A small naval craft (the Hedgehog) dispatched from Leros to bring back ten prisoners of war for interrogation, called with engine trouble at Levita, about twenty miles to the…
Fourteenth Air Force
14th Air Force B-24, China, c. 1944. Newly arrived Fourteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators on the line at Kunming Airport. B-25s in China. The Japanese were unable to defeat Nationalist China before they had commitments to their Pacific War, from December 1941. Now with Allied aid supporting China, even if…
The Shadow of Rome
King Philip V, and Amyntas, Son of Alexandros, 197 BC Battle of Cynoscephalae When the Greek world had first become aware of Rome over a century before, it had been with the awareness of a predator seeing a large and tempting quarry wander into view. At that time Rome had…
Consequences of Königgrätz
Battle of Königgrätz, by Georg Bleibtreu. Oil on canvas, 1869. While there is general consensus about the momentous consequences of Königgrätz, there is no agreement about why the battle went the way it did. Historians continue to debate whether it was Prussian competence or Austrian incompetence that accounted for the…