Jaime I’s Crusades to Peñíscola and Mallorca
Jaime I While the other Christian rulers were crusading against the collapsing Almohad empire, a ten-year truce with the Almohads concluded in 1214 enabled Jaime I of Aragón to survive a troubled minority. Acknowledging that the Muslims might attack the young king, Pope Honorius III in 1222 offered full remission of sins to those who came to his aid. Still…
Balkan Wars (1912–1913) II
By January 30 fighting had resumed on the Çatalca line. On February 21 the Greek army captured Janina, and on March 13 the Bulgarian troops broke the Turkish defenses at Adrianople and occupied the city. On April 10, 1913, Montenegrin and Serb forces entered Scutari, but they had to withdraw eventually under the threat of war from Austria-Hungary. At this…
Task Force 77: Korea II
Throughout the winter of 1951/52, the war in Korea reached stalemate on the ground. In the air, the navy and…
THE SPACE DOMAIN
Russia’s 14Ts033 Nudol ASAT capable In 2019, a series of announcements highlighted the growing importance of space for national security…
Russian Preparation for a New Offensive on the Karelian Isthmus 1940 Part I
Reorganization of Forces and a New Strategy. After suffering stunning defeats on the Karelian Isthmus during December, the Red Army…
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Mongol Archery
Originally the basis of the Mongols’ military power and later almost driven to extinction by the advent of firearms, archery has been revived in Mongolia as a purely recreational sport. Mongolian archery in the Middle Ages had great military significance. The earliest surviving piece of Mongolian writing is a stone…
The Cycle of Battle
The Battle of Blenheim, 1704 – Original Painting by Graham Turner Ref: GT133 Battles usually start when both sides agree to fight. Sometimes there can be a ritual to them. The Battle of the Spurs (1513) resembled the fights of the New Guinea Stone Age tribesmen, where many insults are…
Finnish Forces in Barbarossa I
The OKW was given the responsibility under the Barbarossa Directive to make the necessary arrangements to put Romanian and Finnish contingents under German command. There is no evidence that this was seriously tried with respect to Finland. Command and command relationships were discussed during the Finnish delegation’s visit to Germany…
Finnish Forces in Barbarossa II
The development of a staff study by Group XXI (Army of Norway) for operations in Finland based on Directive 21. The study was expanded by Marshal von Brauchitsch on January 16 to include examining the feasibility of a German–Finnish southeast drive in the area of Lake Ladoga, Lake Onega, and…
Major military engagements of the Taiping Rebellion
The Xiang Army recapturing Jinling, a suburb of the Taiping capital, July 19, 1864. The Taiping Rebellion devastated the landscape of southern China, causing widespread bloodshed and famine. Detail from The suppression of the Taiping Rebellion. Imperial troops during the Taiping Rebellion, China the wounded musketman is a Taiping rebel.…
THE TAIPING REBELLION
The Xiang Army recapturing Jinling, a suburb of the Taiping capital, July 19, 1864 Taiping soldiers, male and female, outside Shanghai The Taiping “Rebellion” (1851–64), or “Revolution,” was a religious-based domestic uprising with ethnic—Han versus Manchu—overtones. Fought mainly with traditional Chinese weapons and tactics, it corresponded and overlapped with the…
‘The Profit That God Shall Give’
A typical 12th century Genoese trader, at this time merchant ships relied on sails rather than oars. Such vessels displaced between 10-30 tons and were crewed by 40-60 men. The principal route followed by the First Crusade bypassed the Mediterranean and took the army overland through the Balkans and Anatolia;…
Focke Wulf Fw 190D-9 Dora
Arguably, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 evolved into wartime Germany’s most effective fighter, offering the Luftwaffe the benefit of manoeuvrability combined with stability as a formidable gun platform and the flexibility to perform as an air superiority fighter, a heavily armed and armoured interceptor and as an ordnance-carrying ground attack aircraft.…
SOVIET FIGHTER ACES IN KOREA
Russian MiG-15 Aces in Korea, from left to right: Aleksandr P. Smorchkov (8 kills), Nikolai Ivanovich Ivanov (6), Semen Alexeievich Fedorets (8), Yevgeni G. Pepelyayev (19) and Sergei Makarovich Kramarenko (13). On Sunday, June 25, 1950, the North Korean Peoples Army suddenly launched its invasion of South Korea by crossing…
Holy Lance
The ultimate fate of the lance found at Antioch is unclear. Raymond of Aguilers writes that it was carried into battle when the crusaders marched against the Fāțimid-held city of Ascalon (mod. Tel Ashqelon, Israel) in August 1099, while Fulcher of Chartres comments that Raymond of Saint-Gilles kept the relic…