Cossack
Warlord Period – Foreign Advisors & Mercenaries
1927: a White Russian crewman of the Northern Warlords Army armoured train ‘Shantung’. He is wearing exactly the same uniform as his Chinese comrades, and, unlike White Russians serving in other armies, has no distinguishing insignia of nationality. (This train would later be captured by the NRA, and served in their 4th Armoured Train Battalion before being captured yet again…
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Austro-Hungarian Cavalry WWI
Pack-horse of a cavalry machine gun detachment; members of these and the telegraph detachments were the only cavalry troops to wear the pike-grey field uniform in 1914. The machine gun is the standard Schwarzlose M07/12; the tripod Is attached on the far side of the pack saddle, and note ammunition…
WHITE MOUNTAIN
The Battle of White Mountain (1620), where Spanish-Imperial forces under Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly won a decisive victory. The Habsburg Offensive Ferdinand’s offensive involved six separate armies. Bucquoy left Dampierre to hold Vienna with over 5,000 men against Bethlen, and advanced from Krems with 21,500 to eject Anhalt from…
Ottoman Naval Tactics
During the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the invading Turks faced a major challenge. The Byzantines had erected a giant chain across the Golden Horn, a stretch of water that connected Constantinople to the sea. This chain effectively blocked the Ottoman navy from making their way to the enemy…
Jan Žižka
Jan Žižka leading his troops (illumination from the late 15th century) One-eyed Taborite fanatic and brilliantly innovative general who invented the Hussite tabor. In 1409 he led Tatar, Cossack, Hungarian, and Bohemian mercenaries in the pay of Poland-Lithuania in a campaign against the Teutonic Knights, culminating in the extraordinary fight…
After Bismarck I
Destroyer HMS Maori (F24) underway, coastal waters. HMS Maori Sinking. Legend has it that, after a Bismarck officer was hauled up over the side of HMS Dorsetshire, plucked from a watery grave by the willing hands of his enemies, he told his British rescuers: ‘Us today, you tomorrow.’1 And so…
BATTLE OF THE YALU, [ORYOKKO NO TATAKAI] (1904)
Japanese Army Crossing – The Yalu River The first major land engagement between Russian and Japanese forces during the Russo-Japanese War. It was fought 1-5 May 1904 and resulted in the first serious defeat of the Imperial Russian Army. The setting of the battle was decided following Japanese landing operations…