British
British 150th Brigade at Gazala
Panzer Mk III and Rommel’s command vehicle in the western desert at the time of the Gazala battles. During the early hours of 30 June 1942, the Afrika Korps continued its westwards withdrawal defended by able rearguards to keep the British at bay. At around 0200hrs it met an acute problem. Near Sidi Muftah it bumped into the British troops…
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Chieftain Mark 11Â MBT
Chieftain Mk.11: Mark 10 upgrade, searchlight replaced with the Thermal Observation and Gunnery System (TOGS), manufactured by Barr and Stroud. Like its European competitors, Chieftain found a large export market in the Middle East, but unlike Centurion, it was not adopted by any other NATO or Commonwealth countries. Chieftain proved…
Pre-1965 Rhodesian Armed Forces
Although Rhodesian forces fought alongside British and Imperial units against the white Afrikaners during the Boer War, the settlers remained mesmerized by the spectre of an African rebellion. The defence system of the first decade of the twentieth century was geared solely towards securing the settlers against the vastly more…
Spitfire in Rhodesia
The re-established South Rhodesian Air Force received a complement of 22 Spitfire Mk 22 fighters. These were delivered from the UK between March and December 1951, and two new Squadrons (No.1 & No. 2) were formed to operate these aircraft. The Spitfire served in first-line duties for only three years,…
Naval Warfare in the Age of Steam and Steel
Ironclad Ram Affondatore (1866) The fog of gunsmoke and the confusion of battle are better rendered in this canvas by Alex Kircher. Kaiser takes center stage in this panorama of the battle, apparently just after breaking the Italian line, with the Portogallo behind her and Austrian ironclads at left including…
Wallis and Whittle
Grand Slam combat operations Barnes Wallis and Frank Whittle, probably the best-known British inventors of the twentieth century, worked in the air-industrial complex. Both were supported very strongly by it because they came up with new ideas which were felt to be worth trying; their revolutionary inventions were supported because…
Agricola’s governorship
Non-contemporary statue of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, leader of the first major Roman expedition in Hibernia. In AD 74 Cerealis was recalled and replaced by Julius Frontinus, who is better known in Roman history for being appointed curator aquarum in Rome by Nerva in AD 96 and for writing a two-volume…